Idiots in the Knowledge Economy

Idiots in the Knowledge Economy!


Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time- Two Hundred  NINETY ONE

Palash Biswas

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/


  
http://www.mulnivasinayak.com/

I met an IIT student in CST Express on my way to Nagpur on 12th February. It was a very interesting Interaction in between two of us. Generally, I like young energetic students as I myself consider me still a Student dying for knowledge and the Quest for Truth seems no End! The boy, I would not Name Him as he is afraid that his activities are scrutinised to evaluate his studies. He may not dare to stake his career as an IIT student as NO body in the system likes any criticism and all doors and widows of interactions are closed in so called elite Institutions of Higher Studies.He is student of Mathematics and KNOWS not his destination as Research and development do not fetch Foreign Currency or Highest pay Package. He has to depend on the Faculty as it is the only authority to evaluate his achievement and Qualities most essential for Campus recruiting. I was stunned to know that IITs do not like innovation as I expected. The Truth emerging out of the discussion is Horrifying as commercially unattractive but important disciplines may not sustain its strength as talented students of quite different genres as Economics, Mathematics, Engineering, Mining and so on , just OPT for IT as it is most rewarding. The Knowledge economy opens the Brain Drain for better Opportunity and Research and Development is Never on the priority list as it is Never so Rewarding as Information Technology offering highest possible pay package! Degree is sought for better employment and social status. Knowledge stands no where!

We were students in different times and my teachers Pitambar Pant, Suresh chandra Sharma, Tara Chandra Tripathi, Mahesh Lal Verma, Prem prakash Budhlakoti,Shekhar Pathak, Mrs Anil Bisht, Mrs Madhulika bisht were rather interested to harvest the flocks of IDIOTS who sought Enlightenment, Empowerment and Knowledge and almost hated Career and Success. perhaps we were wrong.

Returning from Maharashtra, I stumbled on a local cable channel showing Raj Kumar Hirani Amir Khan film THREE Idiots! I was amused to be NOSTALGIC as it reflected the ideas of my old teachers who used to interact with me!

Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said that India will be the happening place not only for the economy but also for education.

Buzz up!

He was speaking at the Global Summit on Higher Education organized by CII on Tuesday, Feb 16.

Sibal said, "A better economic model would establish global campuses in India and train people right here rather then taking them out of India."

"For this to happen, India needs to gear up, become ready and accommodate all the foreign attention and give them their due return for the investment in our country," he said.

The HRD Minister further said, "Education in India will fuel the global economy in the next 20-30 years."

He also projected India becoming the knowledge destination, the world's research hub and the education capital of the world.

IIT Kharagpur

Set up in 1951, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur is the oldest of the seven IITs in India. The IITs were created with a vision for excellence in Science and Engineering. The IITs are located at Kharagpur, Chennai (Madras), Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi, Kanpur, Guwahati, and Roorkee. Of them, IIT Kharagpur offers the maximum number of engineering disciplines to choose from. Kharagpur is located about 120 kilometers from Calcutta in Eastern India. It is a quiet, isolated setting (unlike five of the other IITs which are set in cities). IIT Kharagpur also has the largest campus among all IITs (1800 acres) and offers a beautiful setting for undergraduate and postgraduate school life. This unofficial web site is maintained by The IIT Foundation. IIT Kharagpur official web site is located at http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/

Sibal proposes, Delhi 'scrutinises', wants more schools Indian Express - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ A day after Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal proposed to increase the minimum age for nursery admissions from the present three ... Common college entry test for all streams by 2013: Sibal Business Standard - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said a 'task force' on how to go about this will be named in a month. ... Pre-school not before four: Sibal The Hindu - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ The Hindu Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal, during National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) annual meeting in New Delhi on ... At DU college, Sibal plays won't-meddle card Indian Express - ‎Feb 15, 2010‎ Kapil Sibal, minister of human resource development, on Monday refused to be made a party to the controversy surrounding the semester system for ... Nursery from age 4, says Sibal Indian Express - ‎Feb 15, 2010‎ Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday supported increasing the minimum age for admission in nursery classes from three to ... Sibal stresses on increasing students' enrollment in Open Schools Oneindia - ‎Feb 15, 2010‎ New Delhi, Feb 15 (ANI): Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday in a step aimed at enhancing the acceptability of open ... Kapil Sibal for distance learning in schools Daily News & Analysis - Vineeta Pandey - ‎Feb 15, 2010‎ Sibal believes this will increase the market value of distance education and make it more acceptable. According to the minister, the major problem in ... More 'Idiots' wanted: Kapil Sibal Daily News & Analysis - ‎Feb 14, 2010‎ Kapil Sibal, union minister for human resources development gave the message of freeing education from the 'inspector raj' and preparing an environment for ... Still an exam Indian Express - ‎Feb 17, 2010‎ Eight months after he announced a 100-day plan for his HRD ministry, Kapil Sibal has lost none of that revolutionary fervour. This week he said state boards ... Cut The Stress Times of India - ‎Feb 17, 2010‎ If HRD minister Kapil Sibal has been pushing for some time to reduce the enormous stress placed on India's school-leaving students, the proposal to hold a ... Uniform Plus-2 Science and Math, one exam for college entrance Indian Express - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal today said all state boards for higher secondary education have agreed to switch to a uniform "core ... Common maths, science course for all schools from 2011 Times of India - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ ... students a level playing field and help them in competitive examinations, human resource development minister Kapil Sibal announced here on Tuesday. ... Govt. plans single national level entrance test for undergraduate courses by 2013 Sify - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ Union Home Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal on Tuesday said that efforts were in progress to conduct single national level entrance ... Govt mulls one entrance test for medical, engg courses Hindu Business Line - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ The single entrance tests could become a reality from 2013, according to the Minister of Human Resource Development, Mr Kapil Sibal. ... 10+2 science & maths syllabus to be made uniform from 2011 session Economic Times - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ Hence forth, the core curriculum will be taught in the science stream in all schools," HRD minister Kapil Sibal said. The COBSE meeting on Tuesday was ... Golu can stay home for one more year! Economic Times - ‎Feb 15, 2010‎ NEW DELHI: In a move that would bring the education minister great acclaim from parents, Mr Kapil Sibal on Monday said that the minimum age for admission in ... Common curriculum in science, maths at senior secondary level from 2011-12 The Hindu - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ The new curriculum will come into effect from the 2011-12 academic year, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal said here after a daylong ... Sibal mulls separate campus area for nursery children IndiaEduNews.net - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ New Delhi: During a meeting with the Human Resource Development Minister (HRD) Kapil Sibal, along with principals of almost all major schools of Delhi and ... Common maths, science course for all schools from 2011 Times of India - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ While HRD minister Kapil Sibal said there was unanimity on the core curriculum, representatives from UP, West Bengal and Kerala were among the notable ... Innovation and research to steer India's knowledge economy Times of India - Surbhi Bhatia - ‎Feb 14, 2010‎ However, Kapil Sibal, union human resource development minister, pointed out that at the outset it is important to have a precise understanding of the ... Invest in education to help it grow: SibInvest in education to help it grow ... Indian Express - ‎Feb 14, 2010‎ Human Resource and Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal has urged the country's business fraternity to contribute towards the growth and development of ... Sibal suggests higher age limit for nursery admission All India Radio - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ Principals and parents of Delhi schools have welcomed the suggestion of Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Mr. Kapil Sibal of increasing minimum ... Sibal moots age-four cap in nursery admission India Today - ‎Feb 15, 2010‎ Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal on Monday said only four-year-olds should be allowed in nursery classes, instead of the current ... Soon, same Maths, Science syllabi across all boards Hindustan Times - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ ... forthcoming academic session, irrespective of the board the school is affiliated to, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said on Tuesday. ... Parents, Principals back nursery from age 4 move Oneindia - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ On Monday, Feb 15, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal proposed the plan of increasing the maximum age for admission in nursery classes from three to four years in the ... Nursery classes to get separate campus Hindustan Times - ‎Feb 15, 2010‎ These were among the proposals agreed upon at a meeting between Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal and principals of a large number of Delhi ... Nursery age advice from Sibal Calcutta Telegraph - ‎Feb 15, 2010‎ ... primary classes after six, human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said today, treading on a subject principally regulated by state governments. ... Common syllabus for all boards from 2011 Daily News & Analysis - Vineeta Pandey - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ This will smoothen the admission process into engineering and medical courses," said Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal. More than 127000 senior secondary ... Govt raises nursery admission age to 4 yrs IBNLive.com - ‎Feb 15, 2010‎ New Delhi: Nursery admissions in the capital may be delayed for toddlers by a year as the HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has recommended the Delhi Govt to ...

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"I will talk to every state government on issues regarding implementation of the RTE Act from April 1. I will be meeting Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Diskhit Monday regarding the same" Feb 20, 2010 IBNLive.com (25 occurrences) more by Kapil Sibal The Hindu JD-U blames Sibal for collaborating with education mafia in the name of RTE Oneindia - ‎Feb 21, 2010‎ New Delhi, Feb 21 (ANI): Janata Dal-United (JD-U) Delhi unit has blamed Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal for joining hands with ... Sibal for easing norms to let small schools stay Times of India Sibal to hold talks with states on fee structure, teachers' salary Economic Times Sheila Dikshit to meet Sibal, discuss private school fee issue The Hindu IBNLive.com - Daily News & Analysis all 113 news articles » हिंदी में Email this story IBNLive.com Songs are part of the script, not separate from the film: Aamir Khan Times of India - Bharti Dubey - ‎Feb 21, 2010‎ But when Kapil Sibal called and told me that I was needed on the committee — and that the other members had written to him, putting full faith in my ... Grey areas in India's Copyright Act! Economic Times Withdraw resignation, Sibal urges Aamir The Hindu Sibal asks Aamir to reconsider decision Indian Express IndiaGlitz - Oneindia all 218 news articles » Email this story Indian Express Pre-school not before four: Sibal The Hindu - ‎Feb 16, 2010‎ The Hindu Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal, during National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) annual meeting in New Delhi on ... Common college entry test for all streams by 2013: Sibal Business Standard Kapil Sibal for distance learning in schools Daily News & Analysis Nursery age advice from Sibal Calcutta Telegraph Times of India - Oneindia all 206 news articles » Email this story New legislation to bring foreign education to India: President Economic Times - ‎7 hours ago‎ ... in our higher education sector, and for bringing in foreign education providers for vocational training and skill development," Patil said in her ... Schools can't be allowed to fix exorbitant fees Times of India - Dhananjay Mahapatra - ‎17 hours ago‎ HRD minister Kapil Sibal has made an astonishingly uncompassionate statement that fees of private schools could not be regulated. This comes in the midst of ... Govt not to set up Madrasa Board: Sibal MyNews.in - Amit Verma - ‎Feb 20, 2010‎ New Delhi: Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal today gave a categorical assurance to the Muslim community that the UPA Government will not ... 'Modern education only way to bring change to Muslims' Times of India Imams want educational schemes, especially for Muslim girls Zee News all 5 news articles » Email this story Sibal again gets it wrong Daily Pioneer - Sidharth Mishra - ‎20 hours ago‎ Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal needs to temper aggression with caution. His attempts at introducing rapid fire reforms in the ... Inter board scoffs at Sibal's Express Buzz - ‎Feb 17, 2010‎ HYDERABAD: Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal's announcement that efforts were on to conduct an all India common entrance test for ... Students, teachers give thumbs up to common science syllabi Indian Express COMMON ERROR Calcutta Telegraph Caution about common syllabus Express Buzz Express Buzz all 6 news articles » Email this story The Hindu Profiteering in education by private sector will not be allowed: Sibal The Hindu - ‎Feb 10, 2010‎ PTI The Hindu A file picture of Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal. Photo: Rajeev Bhatt Asserting that education would remain a not-for ... Govt will back universities if they seek to implement semester system: Sibal Oneindia Making V-school headmasters out of B-school graduates Deccan Herald HRD ministry's plan for tribunals draws fire Livemint Daily Pioneer - mydigitalfc.com all 22 news articles » Email this story The Hindu Sibal to IITs: No fee hike for now Times of India - ‎Feb 4, 2010‎ NEW DELHI: An attempt by the director of IIT Kanpur to raise the issue of a fee hike did not meet the approval of HRD minister Kapil Sibal during a retreat ... IIT fee hike put on hold: Sibal The Hindu No IIT fee hike till HEFC is set up Economic Times HRD ministry plans flexible system for IITs Daily News & Analysis Hindustan Times - IndiaEduNews.net all 34 news articles » Email this story Stay up to date on these results: Create an email alert for Kapil Sibal Add a news gadget for Kapil Sibal to your Google homepage

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3 Idiots

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3 Idiots
Directed by		Rajkumar Hirani
Produced by		Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Written by		Screenplay: Abhijat Joshi Rajkumar Hirani Novel: Chetan Bhagat
Starring		Aamir Khan R. Madhavan Sharman Joshi Kareena Kapoor Boman Irani Omi Vaidya Parikshit Sahni Javed Jaffrey
Music by		Shantanu Moitra
Cinematography		Muraleetharana
Editing by		Rajkumar Hirani
Distributed by		Vinod Chopra Productions
Release date(s)		25 December 2009 (India) 23 December 2009
Running time		164 minutes
Language		Hindi
Budget		Rs 45 crore[citation needed]
Gross revenue		Rs 382 crore (US$ 82.3 million) [1]

3 Idiots (Hindi: थ्री इडीयट्स) is a 2009 Bollywood comedy film directed by Rajkumar Hirani, with a screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It was adapted from the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. 3 Idiots stars Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, Omi Vaidya, Parikshit Sahni and Boman Irani.

3 Idiots has become the "highest grossing Bollywood movie of all time."^[2] The film set a box office record for the Indian film industry, grossing Rs 315 crore (US$ 70 million) worldwide within 18 days of release^[3] and Rs 375 crore (US$ 81 million) within just 4 weeks.^[4] It is expected to be the first Indian film to be officially released on YouTube, within 12 weeks of releasing in theatres.^[5]

The film also uses real inventions by little known people in India's backyards. The brains behind the innovations were Remya Jose, a student from Kerala, who created the exercise-bicycle-cum-washing-machine, Mohammad Idris, a barber from Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh, who invented a bicycle-powered horse clipper, and Jahangir Painter, a painter from Maharashtra, who made the scooter-powered flour mill.^[6]

Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Filming 4 Release 4.1 Box office 4.2 Critical reception 5 Awards 6 Soundtrack 6.1 Tracklist 7 Controversy: Adaptation from book 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

Plot

This article's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (January 2010)

Farhan Qureshi (R. Madhavan), Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi), and Rancchoddas "Rancho" Shyamaldas Chanchad (Aamir Khan) are three engineering students who share a room in a hostel at the Imperial College of Engineering, one of the best colleges in India. While Farhan and Raju are average students from modest backgrounds. Farhan wants to become a wildlife photographer, but has joined engineering college to fulfil his father's wish. Raju on the other hand wants to uplift his family fortunes. Rancho is a wealthy genius who studies for the sheer joy of it. However, Rancho's passion is for knowledge and taking apart and building machines rather than the conventional obsession of the other students with exam ranks. With his different approach Rancho incurs the wrath of dean of college, Professor Viru Sahastrabudhhe (ViruS) (Boman Irani). Rancho irritates his lecturers by giving creative and unorthodox answers, and confronts ViruS after fellow student Joy Lobo hangs himself in his dormitory room. Joy had requested an extension on his major project on compassionate grounds—his father had suffered a stroke—but ViruS refused, saying that he himself was completely unmoved by his own son's accidental death after being hit by a train. Rancho denounces the rat race, dog-eat-dog, mindless rote learning mentality of the institution, blaming it for Lobo's death.

Threatened by Rancho's talent and free spirit, ViruS labels him an "idiot" and attempts on a number of occasions to destroy his friendship with Farhan and Raju, warning them and their parents to steer clear of Rancho. In contrast, ViruS' model student is Chatur Ramalingam or "Silencer", (Omi Vaidya) who sees a high rank at the prestigious college as his ticket to higher social status, corporate power, and therefore wealth. Chatur conforms to the expectations of the system. Rancho humiliates Chatur, who is awarded the honour of making a speech at an award ceremony, by substituting obscenities into the text, which has been written by the librarian. As expected, Chatur mindlessly memorises the speech, without noticing that anything is amiss, partly aided by his lack of knowledge on Hindi. His speech becomes the laughing stock of the audience, infuriating the authorities in the process.

Meanwhile, Rancho also falls in love with ViruS' medical student daughter Pia (Kareena Kapoor) when he, Raju and Farhan crash her sister's wedding banquet in order to get a free meal, in the process further infuriating ViruS.

Meanwhile, the three students continue to anger ViruS, although Rancho continues to come first in every exam, while Chatur is always second, and Farhan and Raju are inevitably in the last two positions. The tensions come to a head when the three friends, who are already drunk, break into ViruS's house at night to allow Rancho to propose to Pia, and then urinate on a door inside the compound before running away when ViruS senses intruders. The next day, ViruS threatens to expel Raju lest he talks on the other two. Unable to choose between betraying his friend or letting down his family, Raju jumps out of the 3rd floor window and lands on a courtyard, but after extensive care from Pia and his roommates, awakes from a coma.

The experience has changed Farhan and Raju, and they adopt Rancho's outlook. Farhan decides to pursue his love of photography, while Raju takes an unexpected approach for an interview for a corporate job. He attends in plaster and a wheelchair and gives a series of non-conformal and frank answers. However, ViruS is unsympathetic and vows to make the final exam as hard as possible so that Raju is unable to graduate. Pia hears him and angrily confronts him, and when ViruS gives the same ruthless reply he gives to his students, she denounces him in the same way that Rancho did over the suicide of Lobo. Pia reveals that Viru's son and her brother was not killed in an accident but committed suicide in front of a train and left a letter because ViruS had forced him to pursue a career in engineering over his love for literature; ViruS always mentioned that he unsympathetically failed his son on the ICE entrance exams over and over to every new intake of ICE students. After this, Pia walks out on the family home, and takes ViruS's spare keys with her. She tells Rancho of the exam, and he and Farhan break into ViruS's office and steals the exam and give it to Raju, who with his new-found attitude, is unconcerned with the prospect of failing, and refuses to cheat and throws the paper away. However, ViruS catches the trio and expels them on the spot. However, they earn a reprieve when Viru's pregnant elder daughter Mona (Mona Singh) goes into labour at the same time. A heavy storm cuts all power and traffic, and Pia is still in self-imposed exile, so she instructs Rancho to deliver the baby in the college common room via VOIP , after Rancho restores power using car batteries and a power inverter that Rancho had dreamed up and ViruS had mocked. Rancho then delivers the baby with the help of a cobbled-together Vacuum extractor.

After the baby is apparently stillborn, Rancho resuscitates it. ViruS reconciles with Rancho and his friends and allows them to take their final exams and they graduate. Rancho comes first and is awarded ViruS's pen, which the professor had been keeping for decades before finding a brilliant enough student to gift it to.

Their story is framed as intermittent flashbacks from the present day, ten years after Chatur vowed revenge on Rancho for embarrassing him at the speech night and promised to become more successful than Rancho a decade later. Having lost contact with Rancho, who disappeared during the graduation party and went into seclusion, Raju and Farhan begin a journey to find him. They are joined by Chatur, now a wealthy and successful businessman, who joins them, brazenly confident that he has surpassed Rancho. Chatur is also looking to seal a deal with a famous scientist and prospective business associate named Phunsukh Wangdu. Chatur sees Wangdu, who has hundreds of patents, as his ticket to further social prestige. When they find Rancho's house, they walk into his father's funeral, and find a completely different Rancho Jaaved Jaffrey. After accusing the new man of stealing their friend's identity and profiting from his intellect, the host pulls a gun on them, but Farhan and Raju turn the tables by seizing the father's ashes and threatening to flush them down the toilet. The householder capitulates and says that their friend was a destitute servant boy who loved learning, while he, the real Rancho, was a lazy wealthy child who disliked study, so the family agreed to let the servant boy study in Rancho's place instead of labouring. In return, the real Rancho would pocket the qualifications and the benefits thereof, while the impersonator would sever all contact with the world and start a new life. The real Rancho reveals that his impersonator is now a schoolteacher in Ladakh.

Raju and Farhan then find Pia, and take her from her wedding day to Suhas by performing the same tricks with his material possessions, and having Raju turn up to the ceremony disguised as the groom and eloping with Pia in public. When they arrive in Ladakh, they see a group of enthusiastic ethnic Tibetan children who are motivated by love of knowledge. Pia and the fake Rancho rekindle their love, while Chatur mocks and abuses Rancho the schoolteacher before walking away. When his friends ask what his real name is, he reveals that it Phunsukh Wangdu and phones Chatur, who has turned his back, to turn around and meet his prospective business partner. Chatur is horrified and falls to his knees, accepts his defeat and continues to plead his case with Phunsukh to establish the business relationship he was after.

Cast

Actor	Role
Aamir Khan	Ranchoddas Shamaldas Chanchad / Rancho / Phunsukh Wangdu
Kareena Kapoor	Pia Sahastrebuddhe
R. Madhavan	Farhan Qureshi
Sharman Joshi	Raju Rastogi
Boman Irani	Viru Sahastrebuddhe (ViruS)
Omi Vaidya	Chatur Ramalingam (Silencer)
Parikshit Sahni	Mr. Qureshi
Javed Jaffrey	Ranchoddas Shamaldas Chanchad
Mona Singh	Mona Sahastrebuddhe (Pia's sister)
Sanjay Lafont	Suhas
Rahul Kumar	Millimeter
Amardeep Jha	Mrs. Rastogi
Farida Dadi	Mrs. Qureshi
Jayant Kripalani	Interviewer
Arun Bali	Shamaldas Chanchad

Production

Filming

The shoot of the film with the supporting characters began on 28 July 2008. Hirani and his team left in late August for the shoot with the principal cast. The film was shot in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Ladakh, Chail and Shimla. Aamir and rest of the cast began shooting in early September. Hirani planned to wrap up the film by December.^[7] The first scene was shot in an aircraft with Madhavan. From Mumbai, the crew and cast comprising Aamir and Kareena went to Ladakh for a 20-day schedule.^[8] The shooting also took place at the Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore for 33 days as a part of the second schedule of production.^[9]

According to Rajkumar Hirani, the biggest joke while filming was that he was called the most idiotic director, as he had asked the heroine of the film to gain weight and the heroes to lose weight.^[10]

Release

Box office

The film has grossed Rs 382 crore ($82.3 million) ^[1] setting a record for the industry.^[3][11] It is "the highest grossing Indian film ever to release in the US, Middle East, Australia, South Africa, Pakistan, UK, Kenya and Fiji", making it the all-time highest grossing Indian film in overseas markets.^[12] In the United States, it has earned $6.1m million since its opening.^[2][13] It is also the all-time highest grossing film in India itself, where it has earned net Rs. 199.22 crore to date, surpassing the previous record set by the 1975 film Sholay.

Critical reception

3 Idiots received generally positive reviews. Subhash K. Jha (film critic and author of The Essential Guide to Bollywood) states: "It's not that 3 Idiots is a flawless work of art. But it is a vital, inspiring and life-revising work of contemporary art with some heart imbued into every part. In a country where students are driven to suicide by their impossible curriculum, 3 Idiots provides hope. Maybe cinema can't save lives. But cinema, sure as hell, can make you feel life is worth living. 3 Idiots does just that, and much more. The director takes the definition of entertainment into directions of social comment without assuming that he knows best."^[14] Nikhat Kazmi of the Times of India gave it four and a half stars and suggests that, "The film is a laugh riot, despite being high on fundas [...] Hirani carries forward his simplistic `humanism alone works' philosophy of the Lage Raho Munna Bhai series in 3 Idiots too, making it a warm and vivacious signature tune to 2009. The second half of the film does falter in parts, specially the child birth sequence, but it doesn't take long for the film to jump back on track." ^[15] Mayank Shekhar of the Hindustan Times gave the film three and a half out of four stars and comments that this "this is the sort of movie you'll take home with a smile and a song on your lips." ^[16] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave 3 Idiots four and a half out of five stars and states: "On the whole, 3 Idiots easily ranks amongst Aamir, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra's finest films. Do yourself and your family a favour: Watch 3 Idiots. It's emotional, it's entertaining, it's enlightening. The film has tremendous youth appeal and feel-good factor to work in a big way." ^[17] Kaveree Bamzai of India Today gave 3 Idiots five stars and argues that "it's a lovely story, of a man from nowhere who wanted to learn, told like a fairy tale, with the secret heart carrying its coded message of setting all of us free." ^[18]

Other critics gave the film a mixed review. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave the film three out of five stars and states: "Going home after watching 3 Idiots I felt like I'd just been to my favorite restaurant only to be a tad under-whelmed by their signature dish. It was a satisfying meal, don't get me wrong, but not the best meal I'd been expecting." ^[19] Raja Sen of Rediff gave the film two out of five stars and states: "Rajkumar Hirani's one of the directors of the decade, a man with immense talent and a knack for storytelling. On his debut, he hit a hundred. With his second, he hit a triple century. This time, he fishes outside the offstump, tries to play shots borrowed from other batters, and hits and misses to provide a patchy, 32*-type innings. It's okay, boss, *chalta hai*. Even Sachin has an off day, and we still have great hope." ^[20] This film is going to be remade in both Telugu and Tamil. ^[21]

Awards

2010 Star Screen Awards

• Won: Star Screen Award for Best Film - Rajkumar Hirani
• Won: Star Screen Award for Best Director - Rajkumar Hirani
• Won: Best Actor in a popular category (Female) - Kareena Kapoor
• Won: Star Screen Award for Best Villain - Boman Irani
• Won: Star Screen Award for Best Comedian - Omi Vaidya
• Won: Star Screen Award for Best Screenplay - Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra
• Won:Star Screen Award for Best Dialogue - Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani
• Won: Star Screen Award for Best Editing - Rajkumar Hirani
• Won:Best Choreography Bosco- Caesar - Zoobi Doobi
• Won:Star Screen Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male- Omi Vaidya
• Nominated: Actor - Aamir Khan
• Nominated: Supporting Actor - R. Madhavan
• Nominated: Supporting Actor - Sharman Joshi
• Nominated: Background Music - Shantanu Moitra, Atul Raninga, Sanjay Wandrekar
• Nominated: Playback Singer (female) - Shreya Ghoshal - Zoobi Doobi
• Nominated: Story - Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani
• Nominated: Sound - Bishwadeep Chatterjee, Nihar Ranjan Samel
• Nominated: Art Direction - Acropolis, Rajnish Hedaa, Sumit, Snigdha Basu
• Nominated: Cinematography - C.K. Muraleedharan
• Nominated: Choreography - Avit Dias - Aal Izz Well
• Nominated: Best Child Artist - Rahul Kumar ^[22][23]

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack is composed by Shantanu Moitra with lyrics penned by Swanand Kirkire.

3 Idiots
Soundtrack by Shantanu Moitra
Genre		Feature film soundtrack
Label		T-Series
Producer		Shantanu Moitra
Professional reviews
Bollywood Hungama link

Tracklist

Track #		Song		Singer(s)		Duration
1		"Behti Hawa Sa Tha Woh"		Shaan, Shantanu Moitra		5:01
2		"Give Me Some Sunshine"		Suraj Jaggan, Sharman Joshi		4:07
3		"Aal Izz Well"		Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Swanand Kirkire		4:36
4		"Jaane Nahin Denge Tujhe"		Sonu Nigam		3:32
5		"Zoobi Doobi"		Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal		4:08
6		"Aal Izz Well [Remix]"		Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Swanand Kirkire		4:41
7		"Zoobi Doobi [Remix]"		Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal		3:29

Controversy: Adaptation from book

Prior to the release of the film director Rajkumar Hirani commented on the relationship between Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat and 3 Idiots stating:

Chetan gave me this book to read and I wanted to make a film on it. But I knew right from the start that I could not make a film completely on the book, as it was very anecdotal and a film needs a plot. So I had decided to rewrite it in a screenplay format. You'll see that the film is very different from the book. After I wrote the script, I called Chetan and narrated it to him. I told him that if he did not like the script, I would stop the project. But he was okay with it.^[24]

The day after the film opened, Chetan also noted:

Initially I did sit down with Raju and Abhijat while they were deciding to make a film based on '5 Point Someone'. I even went to IIT with Abhijat a couple of times. But it was just not possible for me to be involved at every stage of the screenplay writing process since I was in Hong Kong at that time, working full time and busy writing other books. Moreover, Abhijat is based in USA, Raju was in the US for quite a while working on the screenplay but it was not practical for me to do that [...] The film retains the soul of the book. 3 Idiots is different from the book but at the same time it does borrow many things from the book. The core theme and message of the film is coming from the book itself. And that's why the makers have officially credited the film as 'Based on a novel by Chetan Bhagat.'^[25]

A controversy developed a few days after the release, however, over the fact that Chetan's credit, "Based on the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat" appeared in the closing credits rather than in the opening ones.^[26] At that time, Bhagat stated that he "was expecting an opening credit and I was quite surprised on not seeing it. They had bought the rights, made the payment and committed to a credit in the contract. It's there, but it's not about it being there, it's about the placement and the prominence."^[27] In a 31 December 2009 blog post on his personal website, Bhagat stated that he was told the movie was only 2-5% based on the book, but when he saw it, he felt that it was 70% of the book. He also argued that he was misled by the makers of the film, though he noted, that "this has nothing to do with Mr. Aamir Khan [...] I am a big fan of Aamir and he has made my story reach people. However, he was told by the makers not to read the book, and he hasn't. Thus, he cannot comment on the issue in a meaningful manner." ^[28]

A few people responded to Chetan's statements. According to the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), during a press conference with reporters producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra "clarified that in the agreement between the producer and Bhagat, it was clearly mentioned that the author's name would be put in the closing credits." IANS also reported that Chopra "lost his cool" and "asked a reporter to shut up after being questioned whether his hit 3 Idiots was lifted from author Chetan Bhagat's book Five Point Someone."^[29] Chopra later apologized, stating: "I really think I'm silly. I was provoked, but I shouldn't have done this. I saw myself on TV and saw how I was shouting 'shut up, shut up' like an animal. I told myself — 'what nonsensical behaviour'."^[30] Aamir Khan also responded to these claims.^[26][31]Rajkumar Hirani stated that "We have officially bought the rights for the film. We drew a contract with him and it clearly mentions about the position of his credit. With open eyes he had seen the contract, consulted his lawyer and signed the agreement [...] In the contract, we have said that the title would be given in the rolling credits. We haven't changed the font size. We haven't increased the speed of the title. It's exactly there where it was agreed to be." ^[32] Chetan Bhagat later apologized stating, "I definitely do not have anything against team 3 Idiots. I may have some issues on the mistake they may have made but nothing about their personality or the kind of people they are. I apologise to their families if there was any distress caused to them. I also want to thank all my fans, who stood by me but I don't want them to turn against anyone especially Aamir."^[33]

See also

• List of highest-grossing Bollywood films

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "'3 Idiots' helped multiplexes out of strike slump". IndiaTimes Movies. 9 February 2010. http://movies.indiatimes.com/News/3-Idiots-helped-multiplexes-out-of-strike-slump/articleshow/5550810.cms. Retrieved 14 February 2010. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Aamir Khan's '3 Idiots' becomes Bollywood's biggest grosser
3. ^ ^{a b} Samar Halarnkar (January 12, 2010). "Rs 315 cr in 18 days: 3 Idiots is India's biggest hit". Hindustan Times. http://www.hindustantimes.com/3-idiots-grosses-over-315-crores-in-19-days/h1-article1-496693.aspx. Retrieved 2010-01-19. 
4. ^ http://www.hindustantimes.com/cinemascope/Bollywood-earns-big-bucks/500901/H1-Article1-500517.aspx
5. ^ "Three Idiots on YouTube". DearCinema.com. http://dearcinema.com/news/3-idiots-release-youtube-3-months. 
6. ^ http://www.mid-day.com/news/2009/dec/281209-3-idiots-scooter-flour-mill-Inventions-Pune.htm
7. ^ "Rajkumar Hirani's 3 Idiots goes on floors". indiafm.com. http://www.indiafm.com/news/2008/07/28/11730/index.html. 
8. ^ "Shooting for 3 Idiots underway". rediff.com. http://ia.rediff.com/movies/2008/aug/28look1.htm. 
9. ^ "Shooting 'Three Idiots' is like holidaying". thaindian.com. http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/shooting-three-idiots-is-like-holidaying-for-aamir-khan_100143291.html. 
10. ^ "Rajkumar Hirani talks about 3 Idiots and working with Aamir Khan". http://www.gomolo.in/features/Article.aspx?ArticleID=246. 
11. ^ "'Sholay' or '3 Idiots'? Jury out on which one's the all-time top grosser". Times of India. 17 January 2010. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sholay-or-3-Idiots-Jury-out-on-which-ones-the-all-time-top-grosser/articleshow/5453911.cms. Retrieved 2010-01-19. 
12. ^ "'3 Idiots' grosses Rs 315 cr in 19 days". The Economic Times. 12 January 2010. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Entertainment/3-Idiots-grosses-Rs-315-cr-in-19-days/articleshow/5437995.cms. Retrieved 2010-01-12. 
13. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=3idiots.htm
14. ^ Subhash K Jha speaks about 3 Idiots
15. ^ 3 Idiots review: Times of India
16. ^ 3 Idiots review: Hindustan Times
17. ^ 3 Idiots review: Bollywood Hungama
18. ^ 3 Idiots: Laugh. Cry. Fly. Go watch it.
19. ^ 3 Idiots review: CNN-IBN
20. ^ Rediff review
21. ^ 3 Idiots going to be remade in Telugu and Tamil
22. ^ Nominations for Nokia 16th Annual Star Screen Awards 2009
23. ^ Winnters for Nokia 16th Annual Star Screen Awards 2009
24. ^ "Aamir's dedication is mistaken as interference", rediff.com, 23 December 2009.
25. ^ "3 Idiots retains the soul of Five Point Someone", Chetan Bhagat interview, One India.
26. ^ ^{a b} Interview:Aamir Khan
27. ^ Sharma, Neha."Chetan Bhagat feeling cheated?", Hindustan Times, 27 December 2009.
28. ^ A book, a film and the truth"
29. ^ Vidhu Vinod Chopra loses cool over '3 Idiots' credit row (Lead)
30. ^ Vidhu apologises, Hirani flaunts pact with Chetan
31. ^ Upset Aamir Khan hits out at novelist Chetan Bhagat
32. ^ 3 Idiots may sue Chetan Bhagat
33. ^ Fans, forgive Aamir: Chetan Bhagat

External links

• Official website
• Official trailers
• 3 Idiots at the Internet Movie Database
• 3 Idiots at Rotten Tomatoes
• 3 Idiots at Box Office Mojo

[show] v • d • e Vidhu Vinod Chopra films Directed Murder at Monkey Hill  (1976) • An Encounter with Faces  (1978) • Sazaye Maut  (1981) • Khamosh  (1985) • Parinda  (1989) • 1942: A Love Story  (1994) • Kareeb  (1998) • Mission Kashmir  (2000) • Eklavya: The Royal Guard  (2007)  Produced Khamosh  (1985) • Parinda  (1989) • 1942: A Love Story  (1994) • Kareeb  (1998) • Mission Kashmir  (2000) • Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.  (2003) • Parineeta  (2005) • Lage Raho Munna Bhai  (2006) • 3 Idiots  (2009)

[show] v • d • e Vinod Chopra Productions Sazaye Maut (1981) • Khamosh (1985) • Parinda (1989) • 1942: A Love Story (1994) • Kareeb (1998) • Mission Kashmir (2000) • Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003) • Parineeta (2005) • Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) • Eklavya: The Royal Guard (2007) • 3 Idiots (2009)

[show] v • d • e Chetan Bhagat Novels Five Point Someone (2004)  · One Night @ the Call Center (2005)  · The Three Mistakes of My Life (2008)  · 2 States (2009) Film adaptations Hello (One Night @ the Call Center)  · Three Idiots (Five Point Someone) · 3M (Three Mistakes of My Life)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Idiots"

Categories: 2009 films | Indian comedy films | Hindi-language films | Films based on novels

India and the Knowledge Economy: Leveraging Strengths and Opportunities

A World Bank report, India and the Knowledge Economy: Leveraging Strengths and Opportunities, was launched in Washington DC on June 28, 2005.   Buy the Book Online | Download the Overview | Brief Summary of Recommendations   New World Bank Report Says India Can Make Even Greater Strides in Growing its Economy and Reducing Poverty.   See all K4D resources on India and the Knowledge Economy   One of the world's largest economies, India has made enormous strides in its economic and social development in the past two decades. But according to a new World Bank report, India can do much more to leverage its strengths in today's knowledge-based global economy.   India and the Knowledge Economy: Leveraging Strengths and Opportunities argues that, when supported by the right kind of government policy incentives, the country can increase its economic productivity and the well-being of its population by making more effective use of knowledge.   "This report serves as an important Bank input into the domestic consultation and reform process which will move India further into the global knowledge economy of the twenty-first century," says Michael Carter, World Bank Country Director for India. "The World Bank recognizes that making effective use of knowledge in any country requires developing appropriate policies and institutions to promote entrepreneurship and efficient use of knowledge."   Grooming World Class Knowledge Workers   India already has many highly educated and vocationally qualified people who are making their mark, domestically and globally, in science, engineering, information technology (IT), and research and development (R&D). But they represent only a small fraction of the total population.    "To create a sustained cadre of 'knowledge workers,' India needs to make its education system more demand driven to meet the emerging needs of the economy and to keep its highly qualified people in the country," suggests Anuja Utz, co-author of the report. "This means raising the quality of all higher education institutions, not just a few world-class ones, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology."   Some ways of making the system more demand driven are to allow the private sector to fill the burgeoning demand for higher education by relaxing bureaucratic hurdles, and through better accreditation systems for private providers of education and training.  Increased university-industry partnerships to translate research into applications can yield economic value. Lifelong learning programs can be used to meet the learning needs of all, both within and outside the school system, including using distance learning technologies to expand access to and the quality of formal education and lifelong training programs.   Promoting Innovation   India is becoming a major global source of R&D; about 100 multinational corporations have already set up R&D centers in the country, leading to the deepening of technological and innovative capabilities among Indian firms. But even so, "India is still a relatively closed economy compared with other Asian economies," notes Carl Dahlman, co-author of the report. "India should increasingly tap into the rapidly growing stock of global knowledge through channels such as foreign direct investment, technology licensing, and so on, so that it can catch up to countries like China, where reforms have moved ahead much more rapidly."   An important part of India 's innovation system is the diffusion of modern and more efficient technologies in all sectors of the economy.  According  to Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Director General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India,  "India is already gaining international repute for its innovations in areas ranging from pharmaceuticals to software. IT will achieve even more as it improves the efficiency of public R&D, increase private R&D, and encourages greater university-industry linkages.  It is leveraging traditional knowledge with modern science and exploiting public-private partnerships to support grassroots innovations which can improve the quality of life for the poor. An example is the Computer-Based Functional Literacy program, initiated by Tata Group to overcome illiteracy through innovative use of IT."   Creating a for Center of Excellence Information and Communication Technology   In the telecommunications sector, fierce price competition has resulted in Indian mobile telephony becoming one of the cheapest in the world; more than 47 million people had mobile phones at the end of 2004!  India has achieved remarkable global success in the IT sector which accounted for about 3.82 percent of India 's GDP in 2003-04, and provided employment for almost a million people.    But the report notes that the explosive growth of ICTs has been concentrated in urban areas. The government should promote the application and use of ICTs throughout the economy to raise productivity and growth. This requires increasing access to ICTs, such as widespread availability of telephones, including mobile phones, computers, and connectivity to the Internet; enhancing ICT literacy and skills among the population; and developing ICT applications that can provide much-needed social, economic, and government services to citizens.   Moving to Action   This report recognized India 's achievements but sees enormous potential yet to be unleashed. It recommends an India-led process to coordinate and integrate reforms, combining those in the economic and institutional regime with the many initiatives in education, innovation and ICTs.   "This report comes at a very opportune time. It provides a very useful input for discussion by all stakeholders. What is needed is a national vision and the leadership and governance mechanisms to put this into action," notes Arun Maira, Chairman, Boston Consulting Group, India.   Sam Pitroda, Chairman of India's National Knowledge Commission supports this view: "We will take into consideration the analysis and recommendations of the report as we design our own strategy. We look forward to cooperating with the World Bank and other multilateral agencies as well as with think tanks and universities in India and abroad as the Commission works to harness knowledge for India 's development and realize its potential to become a major knowledge power."

PERSPECTIVE India as a knowledge economy: Aspirations versus reality The Indian vision of a knowledge-based economy will be realised only when it is based on the foundation of a robust industrial economy. To be truly beneficial, the rain of IT must fall at the right place, in the right quantity, at the right time and for the right purpose. PRABHUDEV KONANA SRIDHAR BALASUBRAMANIAN THE Indian software industry has compiled an impressive track record over the past decade. Entrepreneurs, bureaucrats and politicians are now advancing views about how India can transform itself into a knowledge-based economy by riding the information technology (IT) bandwagon. Isolated instances of villagers using e-mail are cited as examples of such transformation. Likewise, e-governance is being projected as the way of the future. At a computer training centre in Kozhikode, Kerala. India's real progress into a knowledge economy will not come without a substantial development of its human potential. There is no dearth of fascinating stories about IT-enabled changes. But, there is little discussion about whether such changes are sustainable and effective when other areas of the economy continue to lag. For example, 79 per cent of India's population lives in villages with limited basic infrastructure. Over 60 per cent of the population is considered literate, but with literacy being defined as the ability to read and write simple words in any language, acquired with or without formal schooling. This criterion is so basic, that it is almost irrelevant in the context of a knowledge economy. Yet, Central and State governments have projected IT as a vehicle for social and economic transformation. Are we putting the cart before the horse here? Even if the focus on IT is justifiable, how must IT policy be designed so that the nation is benefited in a balanced way? In this commentary, we discuss the implications of India's intensive focus on the IT sector. We argue that India should aggressively pursue manufacturing- and agriculture-based industries to build a robust industrial economy that can be made more efficient with IT. IT projects can certainly be pursued within the private sector. However, government policy should not be heavily skewed in favour of the IT industry when its benefits to society are unclear and when its role within the broader framework of national development has not been adequately articulated. Further, policy-makers should moderate their obsession with IT as a panacea for India's socio-economic problems. We aim to encourage a debate on the role of IT, rather than to arrive at a consensus. With the recent collapse of the IT bubble, it is particularly important that this debate be held. Booms and busts have long existed in various markets. For example, during the tulip bubble in 1637, the irrational exuberance of buyers drove up the value of each tulip to several thousand dollars. A single Semper Augustus tulip was then three times as valuable as the most expensive estate in Amsterdam. However, apart from such frivolous booms and busts, even serious researchers (including Stephen Roach, the Chief Economist at Morgan Stanley) have struggled to demonstrate convincingly the benefits of IT. This reflects the widely recognised IT "productivity paradox". Equally important, proponents of the "new growth theory", including noted Stanford University economist Paul Romer, have convincingly argued that human capital, which is a function of education levels and workforce skills, is a crucial input for economic growth. Human capital generates the ideas and knowledge that, in turn, decide how efficiently and effectively the traditional inputs of capital (such as plant and equipment) and labour are translated into output. The message is that an enormous pool of labour, in itself, is of limited value. Real progress into a knowledge economy will not come without a substantial development of India's human potential. Against this backdrop, Indian policy planners and politicians must ponder the following issues. India as a knowledge economy THE value of IT depends greatly on the existing level of economic development. IT can make existing assets and processes more effective and efficient, but cannot compensate for the lack of a basic infrastructure. What is appropriate for a developed economy is not necessarily appropriate for India, where basic elements of infrastructure including quality education, healthcare, electricity and drinking water remain in short supply. The impact of IT is best understood when the differences between industrial and knowledge-intensive ventures are recognised. Industrial growth derives from investments in large-scale infrastructure (such as railways, roadways, power grids and dams). Such infrastructure supports the growth of physical-asset intensive industries (such as the steel and transportation industries) that create and move physical entities (such as goods, water and people). These ventures employ numerous workers with limited education and skills, and can uplift large sections of society. In contrast, ventures in the knowledge economy usually involve the production of knowledge-intensive goods (like software), and the large-scale capture, movement and utilisation of information using sophisticated network infrastructure (such as computers, cable, fibre and routers). Beyond the physical labour required for initial construction, building and maintaining such infrastructure requires specialised knowledge. RASHEEDA BHAGAT In Bangladesh, with a mobile phone. A society that is deeply divided by social and economic fissures must think carefully about how it achieves economic and technological advance. Despite the hype of the "new economy", the fact is that economic development is cumulative. The industrial economy made agriculture more productive. The productivity of agricultural labour skyrocketed with the use of industrial and biological innovations including tractors, irrigation systems, fertilizers, pesticides and genetically engineered seeds. Historically, industrial innovation in developed economies has created great wealth and improved living standards across societal divides. This progress has set them up in an ideal position to create and exploit knowledge as they transform into knowledge-based economies. Crucially, the greatest source of productivity and growth attributed to the knowledge economy derives not from the knowledge economy itself, but from its effects on the industrial economy. For example, IT can enable supply chains and factories to work more efficiently. The "leapfrogging" argument, whereby India skips heavy infrastructure building and transforms directly into a knowledge economy, is therefore suspect. Proponents of leapfrogging describe how isolated villages without conventional telephones have directly adopted cellular phones. The example provides excellent symbolism. However, the underlying principle is not scalable to the level of the national economy where many complex sub-systems work together. Consider the transportation sub-system. The laws of physics do not allow IT to substitute the physical movement of goods by a "virtual" movement. A lightning-fast information network will not in itself help achieve faster and cheaper transport. Better roadways and railways will. IT, job growth and government policy INDIAN IT firms have focussed on developing and delivering IT services to advanced economies. Even if India became the world's software factory and the most optimistic projections of IT-related jobs (including jobs in call centres and design centres) were upheld, this industry will employ at most a few million people. In a nation with over a billion people, this constitutes but a dent in the employment statistics. Further, a social planner should be concerned not just with the creation of wealth, but also with its distribution across social divides. The IT industry holds limited potential for wealth to trickle down to the poorer sections of society. Unlike a steel plant, IT engenders few opportunities for the uneducated. Any transfer of wealth from the IT sector (for example, by taxing the IT sector to fund social spending) would be achieved through the heavy hand of government. This represents, at best, a dubious economic proposition. In fact, the rapid growth of IT will likely lead to a digital divide in the short term, where the rich and educated are empowered and enriched by IT and the poor are oblivious to its impact. Before embracing IT, Indian policy planners must carefully evaluate whether investments in other areas would yield higher, and more equitable, returns. For example, consider the jute industry. This industry sustains over five million Indian households. In the late 1980s, while working for an industrial development bank, one of us was puzzled by the government's blanket ban on the use of plastic (for example, high density poly ethylene) to package cement, fertilizers, foodgrains and other commodities - only jute was to be used. Considering that jute bags were more prone to spillage and rat-induced destruction, this regulation appeared to have no rational economic basis. (Jute packaging has improved much since then.) However, this policy had some important redeeming features when viewed from a social perspective. But, can India employ technology in the jute industry to achieve both economic and social objectives? Imagine using the power of technology (including IT) to derive new and innovative uses for jute; to expand the domestic and export market base for jute products; to position jute as a natural, inexpensive and biodegradable substitute for plastics; and to improve the efficiency of local jute markets so that jute growers can get better prices. Now imagine how these initiatives could benefit millions of Indian households. This does not call for every jute cultivator to access the Internet. A public or private agency with the right incentives and with access to domestic and international marketplaces can orchestrate these initiatives. Governmental incentives for research and development (R&D) related to improving jute products and finding new uses for jute would deliver more benefits to jute farmers, than would e-mail access. PAUL NORONHA In a school in Dharmapuri village in Maharashtra. In the current Indian environment a rush into e-learning will only lead to squandered resources. As illustrated in the case of the jute industry, Indian policy planners frequently overlook two important points. First, the creative application of IT in a range of manufacturing and agricultural industries can yield much greater returns at a societal level, compared with software production and export. Second, not all technology is information technology - traditional R&D related to design and manufacturing remains extremely important. Such R&D can be enhanced by IT (for example, via virtual collaboration and computer aided design), but not substituted by it. The country needs to be particularly careful not to give short shrift to the manufacturing sector. China is not known for its strengths in IT, although it now has some presence in the area. But, what China has accomplished in terms of its core industrial base is striking. Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China was of the order of $40 billion in 2000 despite all the noise about alleged labour and human rights abuses. Chinese exports exceeded $200 billion in 2000, with the United States alone accounting for $100 billion of these exports. In fact, the value of "footwear" exported annually by China to the U.S. (worth about $9.2 billion) itself compares with or even exceeds the total value of India's annual IT exports. Why are these numbers relevant? Exporting footwear creates millions of jobs for citizens who lack sophisticated skills. According to some reports, a total of 34 million export-related jobs have been created in China, with exports to the U.S. alone accounting for over 20 million jobs in the last decade. These jobs have improved living standards for a substantial fraction of Chinese society. There is much we need to learn from China about how the manufacturing sector can deliver robust and equitable economic growth. Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korea have also flourished using similar approaches. In contrast with manufacturing, the direct benefits to IT (such as employment in IT jobs) are likely to flow to the few who already have the benefits of education. The trickle-down effects of IT (such as cleaning and maintenance staff for IT firms) are likely to be modest or non-existent outside the large cities. The benefits of IT implementation across other industrial sectors (such as employing IT to make transportation and supply chains more efficient) will likely be substantial, but Indian industrial policy does not point in this direction at the moment. It is also time to discard the notion that the manufacturing sector is inherently less appealing because it may involve some physical labour. In the more advanced economies, a skilled factory floor worker is frequently paid more than a call-centre employee. Empowered with technology, the factory worker can add value at a remarkable rate. In India, the reverse often holds. Mundane call-centre jobs, often outsourced from more developed economies, absorb well-educated, English-speaking workers whose abilities could be employed much more productively elsewhere. The emphasis on IT would be less objectionable if it did not contrast sharply with the treatment meted out to other industrial sectors. Consider the Vijayanagar steel plant. The plant had the potential to transform the poverty-stricken Bellary district in Karnataka. The feasibility study for the plant was completed in 1967 and its foundation was laid in 1972. Finally, in 1995, more than a quarter century later, the government divested its interests in the (yet incomplete) project. A scaled-down, modified version of the project is now up and running under the auspices of the private sector. Meanwhile, the market for steel has evolved to an extent that the assumptions that anchored the initial feasibility study are worthless. The actions of governments in India tend to be biased in favour of the IT sector. For instance, software taxes levied in Karnataka were removed within a week in response to pressure from IT companies. Many workplace inspection procedures have been suspended for IT companies, while other sectors are subjected to myriad regulations, many of which have not been re-evaluated for relevance and effectiveness for decades. The government needs a more balanced policy, one that ensures that the core industrial sector is not ignored in the rush toward IT. IT and education IT is fashionable to say that India's population constitutes its greatest asset. This viewpoint is misleading. People are assets only when they participate meaningfully in the cycle of value creation and consumption by exercising buying power, or creating products and services of value, or by creating and harnessing knowledge. A large fraction of India's population does not meet, or even come close to, this asset standard. To transform such a situation, a renewed focus is required on the two pillars that have supported the growth of every successful economy - a strong infrastructure core and widespread access to education. Now to discuss the IT-education interface. SHAJU JOHN Selling parts of used computers on a Chennai street. Distance learning and e-learning are already being flaunted in some quarters as solutions to India's education challenges. The argument proffered is that IT can enable the cheap and widespread delivery of education. This reasoning ignores the key challenge - how can the children of the poor and the uneducated be provided with the incentives to come to school, stay in school, and progress to higher institutions of learning? The answer lies in understanding physiology, psychology and economics, rather than in implementing technology. For all its drawbacks and implementation problems, the mid-day meal programme launched by the late Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran in Tamil Nadu addressed this challenge head on. The programme recognised a simple, but fundamental, fact - the brain cannot feed when the stomach itself is unfed. It provided parents with the incentive to send their children to schools, rather than to the fields. For the children to whom the benefits of education seemed like a distant, hazy mirage, it provided an immediate, tangible reason to stay in school. There is little reason to believe that IT-based learning will advance meaningfully the cause of Indian education. Problems that are enmeshed in the social and economic fabric of Indian society need to be addressed primarily with solutions that are of a social and economic nature. Throwing technology at these problems will not make them go away. In addition, creating the infrastructure and content to support effective e-learning is very expensive. Many universities in the U.S. are still struggling to achieve effectively learning objectives in the virtual setting. This problem will be compounded in the Indian environment owing to the diversity of languages and the lack of infrastructure. A rush into e-learning at this stage will only lead to squandered resources. Presenting technology as the solution to India's educational challenges is troublesome in two ways. First, it diverts attention from issues that should really be on the front-burner. Once this happens, building back momentum in the correct direction is difficult. Second, by building castles in the air that will soon be blown away by the winds of reality, it does a serious disservice to the more limited, but yet substantial and real benefits of technology. IT and culture A KNOWLEDGE economy is characterised by a culture of innovation. For such a culture to take root, innovation must be rewarded and intellectual property must be protected. A culture that truly enhances innovation supports the view that to try hard and fail is perfectly fine. Yet, the Indian psyche has historically been averse to blessing the risky venture. In fact, education has been viewed as a way to avoid risky options, rather than as an enabler of intelligent risk-taking and entrepreneurship. Such a cultural mindset hinders innovation because meaningful innovation is almost never without significant risk. This attitude transcends into the corporate arena. Consider how static the Indian automobile industry was for three decades before the refreshing winds of competition brought about rapid change. Competition breeds innovation. Not surprisingly, even as markets have become increasingly competitive, R&D spending by U.S. firms has increased sharply, at an annual rate of over 6 per cent during the period 1995-2000. While one side of the cultural coin pertains to the incentives for innovation, the flip side pertains to its protection. Ideas, unlike property, cannot be protected by building a fence around them. Intellectual property protection is not a purely economic issue; it also has important cultural dimensions. The economic angle can be addressed with stronger patent laws and punitive procedures. However, the cultural angle will decide whether such protection can be enforced meaningfully. Addressing the cultural angle is a challenge. It requires that even without the threat of punishment, one should learn to draw a clear, disciplined boundary in everyday life between what is one's to take and keep, and what is not. Making such a cultural shift requires that India stop treating intellectual property rights in a casual manner. For example, a frequent argument heard in support of piracy goes along these lines - "If we could afford it, we would pay for it. We pirate because we cannot pay for it." But then, how does an inability to pay for something ever translate into a justification to obtain it for free? One would be highly challenged to apply this logic to hotel stays, vacations, or even a television set. Piracy exists in every economy, but rampant piracy dilutes the incentive to innovate. In the context of intellectual property, economic measures and cultural shifts should proceed hand-in-hand before the spirit of Indian entrepreneurship can take full flight. The road to technology A SOCIETY that is deeply divided by social and economic fissures must think carefully about how it achieves economic and technological advance. The path, in some ways, is more important than the outcome itself. The economic travails of modern-day Russia provide a striking example of the results of chaotic advance. In the Indian context, particular attention needs to be paid to when, where, and in what form IT and other technological advances are encouraged. There are, indeed, many low-hanging fruits to be harvested. For example, a recent article in The New York Times described how a fisherman working off the coasts of Kerala used a cellphone on the seas to obtain information about spot market prices for fish at Kochi and Kollam. The fisherman netted the equivalent of an additional $1,000 in annual income merely by deciding to deliver his catch to the more remunerative market each time his boat came in. This striking example of how simple information flows can enhance market efficiency can be replicated in many ways, and in many markets. However, the stakes are quite different when it comes to the formulation of a national IT policy. Any national policy requires some trade-offs between the benefits to industrial sectors, regions and classes of people. In formulating a national IT policy, the quest for superior technology must be moderated by an understanding of its implications at the social level - what might be good for a private company or an entrepreneur may not always be good for society and vice-versa. For example, a municipal corporation that purchases automated road-laying equipment may find that it either does not use the equipment at all, or that it uses the equipment and allows numerous labourers on its payroll to idle. In this case, technology policy and labour policy are inextricably linked within the overall social context. It is shortsighted to advance doggedly on one front while turning a blind eye to the other. Successful technology adoption will move in measured steps, at a pace and in a direction that are in harmony with changes in the socio-economic fabric. The role of the government in ensuring such harmony should not be underestimated. This is especially true in India where the government remains responsible for a significant fraction of the economic output, and where it is actively reshaping rules and regulations as the country integrates into the global economy. From the triumph of the capitalist systems across the globe, there is now ample empirical support for the view that governments must ultimately govern with a light touch. At the same time, several economies that have attempted rapid, unstructured transitions into the capitalist mode have declined. There is a strong argument to be made that the Indian government must not simply get out of the way in the spirit of laissez faire, but must instead play a key role in pacing and shaping this transition. INFORMATION technology can change the way a society communicates, collaborates, lives, works and plays. The growth of the IT sector in India symbolises the potential of Indian industry to perform at world-class standards. This success demonstrates much of what can go right when the spirit of human enterprise is given free rein. However, the success of IT at the corporate level in India cannot solve its myriad economic and social challenges. Just as copious rainfall can lead to dramatic floods, an obsession with IT and the knowledge economy is not useful. To be truly beneficial, the rain of IT must fall at the right place in the right quantity, at the right time and for the right purpose. Economic policies of a developing country cannot be based on "herd" behaviour and on what is hot in the international market for that year or decade. Neither does the aggressive pursuit of IT represent the sole, or even an obvious, pathway to a first class economy despite the glowing success of high-profile IT companies. Noted economist Paul Krugman, in arguing that someone who has made a personal fortune would not necessarily know how to make an entire nation more prosperous, phrased it best. "A country," he wrote in an article in the Harvard Business Review, "is not a company!" Dr. Prabhudev Konana (pkonana@mail.utexas.edu) is Associate Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at the McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Sridhar Balasubramanian (balasubs@bschool.unc.edu) is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Kenan-Flagler Business School, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also associated with The University of Texas at Austin. Both authors have significant research and professional interests related to technology-intensive markets and strategy.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1902/19020650.htm

Indian Institutes of Technology

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The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are a group of fifteen autonomous premier engineering and technology-oriented institutes of higher education established and declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Parliament of India. The IITs were created to train scientists and engineers, with the aim of developing a skilled workforce to support the economic and social development of India after independence in 1947.

In order of establishment, they are located in Kharagpur (1950; as IIT 1951^[1]), Mumbai (1958), Chennai (1959), Kanpur (1959), Delhi (1961; as IIT 1963), Guwahati (1994), Roorkee (1847; as IIT 2001), Bhubaneswar (2008), Gandhinagar (2008), Hyderabad (2008), Patna (2008), Punjab (2008), Rajasthan (2008), Indore (2009) and Mandi (2009). Some IITs were established with financial assistance and technical expertise from UNESCO, Germany, the United States,Japan and Soviet Union. Each IIT is an autonomous university, linked to the others through a common IIT Council, which oversees their administration. They have a common admission process for undergraduate admissions, using the Joint Entrance Examination (popularly known as IIT-JEE) to select around 8,000 undergraduate candidates a year. Postgraduate admissions are done on the basis of the GATE, JMET, JAM and CEED. About 15,500 undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students study in the IITs, in addition to research scholars.

IIT alumni have achieved success in a variety of professions.^[2] Most of the IITs were created in early 1950s and 1960s as the Institutes of National Importance through special acts of Indian Parliament. The success of the IITs led to the creation of the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT) in the late 1990s and in the 2000s.

Contents [hide] 1 Institutes 2 History 3 Organisational structure 4 Admission 4.1 Entrance examinations 4.2 Reservation policy 5 Education 5.1 Undergraduate education 5.2 Postgraduate and doctoral education 6 Culture and student life 6.1 Technical and cultural festivals 7 Recognition 7.1 Educational rankings 8 Criticism 8.1 Brain drain 8.2 Entrance competition 9 Alumni 10 See Also 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links

[edit] Institutes

Main Building of IIT Kharagpur

The fifteen IITs are located in

• Kharagpur (West Bengal)
• Mumbai (Maharashtra)
• Chennai (Tamil Nadu)
• Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh)
• Delhi
• Guwahati (Assam)
• Roorkee (Uttrakhand)
• Bhubaneshwar (Orissa)
• Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh)
• Gandhinagar (Gujarat)
• Patna (Bihar)
• Jodhpur,Rajasthan
• Rupnagar
• Indore (Madhya Pradesh)
• Mandi (Himachal Pradesh)

All IITs are autonomous universities that draft their own curricula, and they are members of LAOTSE, an international network of universities in Europe and Asia. LAOTSE membership allows the IITs to exchange students and senior scholars with universities in other countries.^[3]

The first IIT was established in 1951, in Kharagpur (near Kolkata) in the state of West Bengal. It has 29 academic departments, centers and schools, spread over a 8.5 square kilometres (2,100 acres) campus that is a self-contained township of over 15,000 inhabitants. It has about 450 faculty; 2,200 employees; 3,000 undergraduates; 2,500 postgraduates and 950 research scholars. The students live in 17 hostels (called Halls of Residence). IIT Kharagpur also has a medical technology school (School of Medical Science and Technology), a management school (Vinod Gupta School of Management, a law school (Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law) and an infrastructure designing school (Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Designing and Management) within its premises.

Main Building of IIT Bombay

The second IIT to be established, IIT Bombay, was founded in 1958 in Powai, Mumbai (Bombay). It was set up with assistance from UNESCO and the Soviet Union, which provided technical expertise. The Indian government underwrote all other expenses, including the construction costs.^[4] With an area of 2.23 square kilometres (550 acres) and a total of 24 departments, centres and schools, it is the largest university in the state of Maharashtra. In addition, IIT Bombay has 13 student hostels with about 2,200 undergraduate and 2,000 postgraduate students. IIT Bombay also has schools in management (Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management) and information technology (Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology) on its premises. Despite a change in the name of the city, the IIT retains the original name.

IIT Madras is located in the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. It was established in 1959 with technical assistance from the Government of West Germany^[5] and has nearly 360 faculties and approximately 2,500 undergraduate and 2,000 postgraduate students. The campus is spread over an area of about 2.5 square kilometres (620 acres), and has 16 academic departments, nearly 100 laboratories, and 17 hostels. As with IIT Bombay, it retains its original name despite a change in the name of its city.

Mathematics department in IIT Delhi with Main Building in background

IIT Kanpur was established in 1959 in the city of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. During its first 10 years, IIT Kanpur benefited from the Kanpur–Indo-American Programme, where a consortium of nine US universities helped to set up the research laboratories and academic programmes.^[6] It covers an area of 4.85 square kilometres (1,200 acres). It has approximately 500 faculty members, and about 2,000 undergraduate and an equal number of postgraduate students live in 10 hostels.

Established as the College of Engineering in 1961, IIT Delhi was given the current name and declared an Institution of National Importance under the "Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 1963".^[7] It is located in Hauz Khas (New Delhi) and has an area of 1.3 square kilometres (320 acres). It has 11 hostels and 26 departments, centres and schools. It has 426 faculty members and approximately 2,200 undergraduate and 1,600 postgraduate students.

Academic Complex,IIT Guwahati

IIT Guwahati was established in 1994 near the city of Guwahati (Assam) on the northern banks of the Brahmaputra River. The sprawling 2.85 square kilometres (700 acres) campus attracts many visitors because of its scenic beauty.^[8] There are approximately 1,300 undergraduate and 500 postgraduate students in 14 departments, which have a total of 152 faculty members.^[9]

Main (Administrative) Building, IIT Roorkee

IIT Roorkee was established in 1847 as the first engineering college of the British Empire.^[10] Located in Uttarakhand, this college was named The Thomson College of Civil Engineering in 1854. It became first technical university of India in 1949 and was renamed "University of Roorkee". The University of Roorkee was included in the IIT system in 2001 as IIT Roorkee. It runs eleven Under Graduate, five Integrated Dual Degree, three Integrated M.Tech., three Integrated M.Sc., 61 Post Graduate and several Doctoral Programmes.^[11] The campus also includes the Department of Management Studies (DOMS), offering MBA courses. It has an academic staff strength of 342 as per the session of 2007-2008.^[12] The Institute has two campuses. The main campus is at Roorkee in Uttarakhand and the other one is 50 km away at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The campus at Roorkee is spread over 356 acres (1.44 km²) of landscaped lush greenery and has twelve students hostels. A 10-acre (40,000 m²) campus is being developed as an extension centre at Greater Noida.^[13]

[edit] History

Main article: History of Indian Institutes of Technology

The office of the Hijli Detention Camp (photographed September 1951) served as the first academic building of IIT Kharagpur.

The history of the IIT system dates back to 1946 when Sir Jogendra Singh of the Viceroy's Executive Council set up a committee whose task was to consider the creation of Higher Technical Institutions for post-war industrial development in India. The 22-member committee, headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, recommended the establishment of these institutions in various parts of India, with affiliated secondary institutions.

The first Indian Institute of Technology was founded in May 1950 at the site of the Hijli Detention Camp in Kharagpur. On September 15, 1956, the Parliament of India passed the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act, declaring it as an Institute of National Importance. Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India, in the first convocation address of IIT Kharagpur in 1956 said:^[14]

"

Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands the fine monument of India, representing India's urges, India's future in the making. This picture seems to me symbolical of the changes that are coming to India.

"

On the recommendations of the Sarkar Committee, four campuses were established at Mumbai (1958), Chennai (1959), Kanpur (1959), and Delhi (1961). The location of these campuses was chosen to be scattered throughout India to prevent regional imbalance.^[15] The Indian Institutes of Technology Act was amended to reflect the addition of new IITs.^[16] Student agitations in the state of Assam made Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi promise the creation of a new IIT in Assam. This led to a sixth campus at Guwahati under the Assam Accord in 1994. The University of Roorkee, India's oldest engineering college, was conferred IIT status in 2001.

IITG estd. 1994

Over the past few years, there have been a number of developments toward establishing new IITs. On October 1, 2003, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced plans to create more IITs "by upgrading existing academic institutions that have the necessary promise and potential".^[17] Subsequent developments led to the formation of the S K Joshi Committee in November 2003 to guide the selection of the five institutions which would become the five new IITs. Based on the initial recommendations of the Sarkar Committee, it was decided that further IITs should be spread throughout the country. When the government expressed its willingness to correct this regional imbalance, 16 states demanded IITs. Since the S K Joshi Committee prescribed strict guidelines for institutions aspiring to be IITs,^[18] only seven colleges were selected for final consideration.^[19] Plans are also reported to open IITs outside India, though not enough progress has been made in this regard.^[20] Eventually in the 11th Five year plan, eight states were identified for establishment of new IITs, and IT-BHU was recommended to be converted in to IIT. ^[21].

[edit] Organisational structure

Organisational Structure of IITs

The President of India is the most powerful person in the organisational structure of IITs, being the ex officio Visitor,^[22] and having residual powers. Directly under the President is the IIT Council, which comprises the minister-in-charge of technical education in the Union Government, the Chairmen of all IITs, the Directors of all IITs, the Chairman of the University Grants Commission, the Director General of CSIR, the Chairman of IISc, the Director of IISc, three members of Parliament, the Joint Council Secretary of Ministry of Human Resource and Development, and three appointees each of the Union Government, AICTE, and the Visitor.^[23]

Under the IIT Council is the Board of Governors of each IIT. Under the Board of Governors is the Director, who is the chief academic and executive officer of the IIT.^[24] Under the Director, in the organisational structure, comes the Deputy Director. Under the Director and the Deputy Director, come the Deans, Heads of Departments, Registrar, President of the Students' Council, and Chairman of the Hall Management Committee. The Registrar is the chief administrative officer of the IIT and overviews the day-to-day operations.^[24] Below the Heads of Department (HOD) are the faculty members (Professors, Associate Professors, and Assistant Professors). The Wardens come under the Chairman of the Hall Management Committee.^[25]

[edit] Admission

Admission to undergraduate B. Tech and integrated M. Tech programs are through IIT-JEE (the Joint Entrance Examination) in which around 400,000 students appear annually out of which only 7,500 get selected. Admission to most postgraduate courses in IITs is granted through various written entrance examinations: GATE (for M.Tech.), JAM (for M.Sc.) and CEED (for M.Des.). The admission for Ph.D. program is based primarily on a personal interview, though candidates may also have to appear for written tests.

[edit] Entrance examinations

Main article: Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination

Entrance of IIT Madras

Admission to undergraduate programs in all IITs is tied to the Joint Entrance Examination, popularly known as IIT-JEE. Candidates opting for the B.Arch. (Bachelor of Architecture) program in IIT Kharagpur, and the B.Des. (Bachelor of Design) program in IIT Guwahati, have to clear an aptitude test as well. Candidates who qualify admission via IIT-JEE can apply for admission in B.Tech. (Bachelor of Technology), Dual Degree (Integrated Bachelor of Technology and Master of Technology) and Integrated M.Sc. (Master of Sciences) courses in IITs, IT-BHU and ISM Dhanbad. IIT-JEE is a science-oriented entrance exam, testing candidate's knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry. It is conducted by an IIT chosen by a policy of rotation. Admission is very competitive since the entrance exam is generally considered tough and also because of the very high number of test takers; the undergraduate acceptance rate through JEE has a low ratio (around 1 in 60) with about 300,000^[26] annual test takers for about 5,500 seats.^[27] Only about 4,000 of these seats are offered by IITs, the rest belonging to other institutes that use IIT-JEE. Only students who have completed their 12th and secured at least 60% in their exam (higher secondary studies from a recognised educational board) are allowed to appear for IIT-JEE. The IIT-JEE is well known for frequently changing the types of questions asked in order to discourage study by rote. In recent years, though the level of questions have become easier, the competition for a seat in an IIT has grown exponentially. Since IIT-JEE 2006, the format of the question paper was changed to a single objective test-based paper, replacing the earlier system that employed two tests. The candidates belonging to the general category must secure a minimum aggregate of 60% marks in the qualifying examination of the XII^th standard organised by various educational boards of India. Candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Physically Disabled (PD) categories must secure a minimum aggregate of 55% in the qualifying examination.^[28] The upper age limit for appearing for the [IIT-JEE] is 25 years. The age limit is relaxed to 30 years for candidates classified in the SC, ST and PD categories. Starting with IIT-JEE 2007, a candidate can take IIT-JEE a maximum of two times, and students who are selected for an IIT cannot attempt the examination again.^[28] Students select their institute and department of study based on what is available at the time of their counselling and interview that follows the IIT-JEE result. The interviews are usually spread over five days.

The admissions into the postgraduate programmes are made through various exams, primarily the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) for Ph.D., M.Tech., and some MS courses. This exam tests the conceptual clarity in technical subjects and is one of the most difficult in the country. Other prominent entrance exams include JAM (Joint Admission to M.Sc.) for M.Sc., and JMET (Joint Management Entrance Test) for Management Studies.

[edit] Reservation policy

Main article: Reservation policy in IITs

IIT has an affirmative action policy on caste-based reserved quotas. As per the provisions in the Indian constitution, the IITs have been reserving seats for Scheduled Castes of society since 1973. The IITs follow a reservation policy that is notably different from the quota policy elsewhere in India^{[citation needed]}. As per the rules of admission to IITs, 15% of the admitted students must be of the Scheduled Castes, and 7.5% of seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes.^[29] The Other Backward classes have been provided with 27% reservation in effect from 2008 with the consent of the Supreme Court of India. As per the rules, all the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates must take the IIT-JEE with the rest of the students. Based on the results of IIT-JEE.^[29] Another group of candidates who do not meet this relaxed admission criteria are offered a "Preparatory Course" comprising of English, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics at the IIT concerned. After one year of study, those candidates who are able to secure a grade higher than the prescribed cut-off mark during end-of-semester exams are allowed to continue regular studies. There is no relaxation on the criteria for passing the exams or graduating a course. The candidates admitted through the reservation policy are also subjected to the same criteria as the general candidates for graduation.

In 1989, Prime Minister V. P. Singh accepted and implemented the proposals of the Mandal Commission that recommended provisions of reservations for OBCs in private unaided institutions as well as high-end government jobs for minority communities. No changes took place in the IITs because of the legislation, but in 2005, based on the recommendations of a political panel, the UPA government proposed to implement the reserved-quota system for the OBCs in IITs and IIMs. It received critical objections by many scholars and critics, who described the proposal as "dangerous and divisive" and based solely on political (vote-bank) purposes. Many argued that the OBCs are not a backward community and enjoy good economic and social status and thus a reservation for OBCs becomes a mere strategy to gain votes. Though, the issue has simmered down as of now, it still remains a very hotly argued one.^[30] When the government planned to implement the quota system, anti-reservation protests were organised throughout India against the proposal. Student agitations also took place in the IITs and many students who opposed caste-based reservations resorted to hunger strikes. They labelled the quota system as a government tactic to earn cheap votes, and that the system would lead to increased casteism and a severe compromise on merit and talent.^[31]

The additional procedures for admission into the IITs (the preparatory course and the qualifying end-of-semester exams that follow) have also been criticised as unnecessary and counter-productive. One of the arguments opposing the modified policy of reservation and favouring direct admission is that a large number of seats remain vacant under the present scheme.^[32]

[edit] Education

PK Kelkar Library, IIT Kanpur

The IITs receive disproportionately high grants compared to other engineering colleges in India.^[33] While the total government funding to most other engineering colleges is around Rs. 100–200 million (USD 2-4 million) per year, the amount varies between Rs. 900–1,300 million (USD 18-26 million) per year for each IIT.^[19] Other sources of funds include student fees and research funding from industry and contributions from the alumni. The faculty-to-student ratio in the IITs is between 1:6 and 1:8.^[34] The Standing Committee of IIT Council (SCIC) prescribes the lower limit for faculty-to-student ratio as 1:9, applied department wise. The IITs subsidise undergraduate student fees by approximately 80% and provide scholarships to all Master of Technology students and Research Scholars in order to encourage students for higher studies, per the recommendations of the Thacker Committee (1959–1961).^[35] The cost borne by undergraduate students including boarding and mess expenses is around Rs. 75,000 per annum. It has increased significantly over past ten years. For instance, the cost was about Rs.12,000 per annum for the students graduating in 1998.

The various IITs function autonomously, and their special status as Institutes of National Importance facilitates the smooth running of IITs, virtually free from both regional as well as student politics. Such autonomy means that IITs can create their own curricula and adapt rapidly to the changes in educational requirements, free from bureaucratic hurdles. The government has no direct control over internal policy decisions of IITs (like faculty recruitment and curricula) but has representation on the IIT Council. The medium of instruction in all IITs is English.^[36] The classes are usually held between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., though there are some variations within each IIT. All the IITs have public libraries for the use of their students. In addition to a collection of prescribed books, the libraries have sections for fiction and other literary genres^{[citation needed]}. The electronic libraries allow students to access on-line journals and periodicals.

The academic policies of each IIT are decided by its Senate. This comprises all professors of the IIT and student representatives. Unlike many western universities that have an elected senate, the IITs have an academic senate. It controls and approves the curriculum, courses, examinations and results, and appoints committees to look into specific academic matters. The teaching, training and research activities of the institute are periodically reviewed by the senate to maintain educational standards.^[37] The Director of an IIT is the ex-officio Chairman of the Senate.

Central Library, IIT Roorkee

All the IITs follow the credits system of performance evaluation, with proportional weighting of courses based on their importance. The total marks (usually out of 100) form the basis of grades, with a grade value (out of 10) assigned to a range of marks. Sometimes, relative grading is done considering the overall performance of the whole class. For each semester, the students are graded on a scale of 0 to 10 based on their performance, by taking a weighted average of the grade points from all the courses, with their respective credit points. Each semester evaluation is done independently and then the weighted average over all semesters is used to calculate the cumulative grade point average (known as CGPA or CPI—Cumulative Performance Index).

[edit] Undergraduate education

IIT Madras Library

The B.Tech. degree is the most common undergraduate degree in the IITs in terms of student enrollment, although Dual Degrees, Integrated (five-year) Master of Technology, Master of Science and Master of Arts degrees are also offered. The B. Tech course is based on a 4-year program with eight semesters,^[38] while the Dual Degree course is a 5-year program with ten semesters. In all IITs, the first year of B.Tech. and Dual Degree courses are marked by a common course structure for all the students,^[39] though in some IITs, a single department introduction related course is also included.^[40] The common courses include the basics from most of the departments like Electronics, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Physics. At the end of first year (the end of first semester at IIT Madras), an option to change departments is given to meritorious students on the basis of their performance in the first two semesters.^[41] Few such changes ultimately take place as the criteria for them are usually strict,^[41] limited to the most meritorious students.

From the second year onwards, the students study subjects exclusively from their respective departments.^[42] In addition to these, the students have to take compulsory advanced courses from other departments in order to broaden their education. Separate compulsory courses from humanities and social sciences department, and sometimes management courses are also enforced.^[43] At the end of third year, the undergraduate students have to undertake a summer project at an industry or reputed academic institute as part of the curriculum. In the last year of their studies, most of the students are placed into industries and organisations via the placement process of the respective IIT, though some students opt out of this either when going for higher studies or when they take up jobs by applying to the companies directly.^[44]

[edit] Postgraduate and doctoral education

The IITs offer a number of postgraduate programs including Master of Technology (M.Tech.), Master of Business Administration (MBA) (only for engineers and post graduates in science), and Master of Science (M.Sc.). Some IITs offer specialised graduate programmes such as the Post Graduate Diploma in Information Technology (PGDIT), Master in Medical Science and Technology (MMST), Master of City Planning (MCP), Master of Arts (MA), Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law (PGDIPL), Master of Design (M.Des), and the Postgraduate Diploma in Maritime Operation & Management (PGDMOM). The IITs also offer the Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) as part of their doctoral education programme. In it, the candidates are given a topic of academic interest by the professor or have to work on a consultancy project given by the industries. The duration of the program is usually unspecified and depends on the specific discipline. Ph.D. candidates have to submit a dissertation as well as provide an oral defence for their thesis. Teaching Assistantships (TA) and Research Assistantships (RA) are often provided. Some of the IITs offer an M.S. (by research) program; the M.Tech. and M.S. are similar to the US universities' non-thesis (course based) and thesis (research based) masters programs respectively. The IITs, along with NITs and IISc, account for nearly 80% of all PhDs in engineering.^[45]

The IITs also offer an unconventional B.Tech. and M.Tech. integrated educational program called "Dual Degree". It integrates undergraduate and postgraduate studies in selected areas of specialisation. It is completed in five years^[46] as against six years in conventional B.Tech. (four years) followed by an M.Tech. (two years).^[47] This programme was started to allow IITians to complete postgraduate studies from IIT rather than having to go to another institute. All IITs (except IIT Guwahati) have schools of management offering degrees in management or business administration.

See also: Education in India and IIT Schools of Management

[edit] Culture and student life

Main article: Student life and culture in IITs

Open-air theatre in IIT Madras. It is used to host technical and cultural events.

All the IITs provide on-campus residential facilities to the students, research scholars and faculty. The students live in hostels (sometimes referred to as halls) throughout their stay in the IIT. Students in all IITs must choose between National Cadet Corps (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS) and National Sports Organisation (NSO) in their first years.^[48] All the IITs have sports grounds for cricket, football (soccer), hockey, volleyball, lawn tennis, badminton, and athletics; and swimming pools for aquatic events. Usually the hostels also have their own sports grounds.

[edit] Technical and cultural festivals

All IITs organise annual technical festivals, typically lasting three or four days. The technical festivals are Techfest (IIT Bombay),Cognizance (IIT Roorkee), Shaastra (IIT Madras), Techkriti (IIT Kanpur), Kshitij (IIT Kharagpur), Tryst (IIT Delhi), and Techniche (IIT Guwahati). Most of them are organised in the months of January or March. While Techfest is most popular in terms of participants and prize money involved and also conducted at a totally different scale, Shaastra holds the distinction of being the first student-managed event in the world to implement a formal Quality Management System, earning the ISO 9001:2000 certification.^[49]

Annual cultural festivals are also organised by the IITs and last three to four days. These include Spring Fest (IIT Kharagpur) (also known as SF), Rendezvous (IIT Delhi), Thomso & Tarang (previously Rave) (IIT Roorkee), Mood Indigo (IIT Bombay) (also known as Mood-I), Saarang (IIT Madras) (previously Mardi Gras), Antaragni (IIT Kanpur), Alcheringa (IIT Guwahati).

Illumination festival in IIT Kharagpur. The outlines are made by earthen lamps.

In addition to these cultural festivals, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bombay celebrate unique festivals. IIT Kharagpur celebrates the Illumination festival on the eve of Diwali. Large bamboo structures (called chatais) as high as 6 metres (20 ft) are made and earthen lamps (diyas) are placed on them to form outlines of people, monuments, or an event.^[50] The competition is held between hostels, it does not receive entries by outside visitors. Coupled with the Illumination festival is the Rangoli festival. In Rangoli, large panels showing an event or a concept, are made on the ground by fine powder, and sometimes even by crushed bangles or other innovative materials.

Unique to IIT Bombay is the Performing Arts Festival (popularly known as PAF). Technically a drama, each PAF includes drama, literature, music, fine arts, debating, and dance. All PAFs are held in the Open Air Theater (OAT), on the main campus of IIT Bombay. Typically two or three hostels (of 14) group together by random draw for each PAF. All of the dialogues are delivered as voice overs and not by the actors, mainly due to the structure and the huge size of the OAT. Recently, IIT Guwahati has also started this Performing Arts Festival (PAF).

[edit] Recognition

IIT's have a special status as Institutes of National Importance under the Indian Institute of Technology Act, due to which the degrees provided by IITs need not be recognized by the AICTE^[51]. The IIT-JEE is another important factor behind the success of IITs, as it enables the IITs to accept only a select group of meritorious students. This combination of success factors has led to the concept of the IIT Brand.^[52] Other factors that have contributed to the success of IITs are stringent faculty recruitment procedures and industry collaboration. The procedure for selection of faculty in IITs is stricter as compared to other colleges offering similar degrees.^[53] The Ph.D. degree is a pre-requisite for all regular faculty appointments.

Former IIT students get greater respect from their peers, academia and industry in general.^[54] The IIT brand was reaffirmed when the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring Indian Americans and especially graduates of IIT for their contributions to the American society.^[2] Similarly, China also recognised the value of IITs and planned to replicate the model.^[55]

[edit] Educational rankings

See also: College and university rankings

Most IITs are consistently ranked above any other engineering colleges in India in engineering education surveys,^[56] with regard to quality of faculty, teaching standards, research facilities and campus placements. In international surveys however, the IITs fail to achieve the highest rankings, though they figure in most lists of top engineering institutions^{[citation needed]}. IIT Bombay was ranked 30th in the world in The Times Higher Education Supplement- QS World University Rankings 2009 - Engineering/Technology.^[57]The Times Higher Education Supplement (2008) ranked IIT-Delhi and IIT-Bombay 157^th and 174 ^th best overall universities respectively in their World University Rankings.^[58] The THES also ranked 5 IITs in the top 100 globally for technology with IIT-Bombay ranking the highest at 36^th. For Natural Sciences, IIT-Bombay ranked 77^th and was the only IIT to feature in the 2008 rankings. In the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities, only one IIT (IIT Kharagpur) was listed among the top 500 universities worldwide.^[59] The IITs fall short in many parameters that are considered for educational rankings. The criteria for ranking^[60] prominently include internationally recognised research output, in which the IITs do not achieve notable success.^[61] Another criterion being the Social Science Citation Index, the rank of IITs suffers as they do not have large departments of liberal arts and social sciences. Since the IITs have only a few international faculty and students (except those by exchange programs), the rankings of IITs in many international surveys have suffered. Since the IITs have scored better under most educational ranking criteria than other Indian colleges and universities, they continue to achieve top positions in nationwide surveys.^[62]

[edit] Criticism

The IITs have faced criticism from within and outside academia. Major concerns include allegations that they encourage a brain drain and that their stringent entrance examinations encourage coaching colleges and skew the socio-economic profile of the student body.

[edit] Brain drain

Among the criticisms of the IIT system by the media and academia, a common notion is that it encourages brain drain. Until liberalisation started in early 1990s, India experienced large scale emigration of IITians to western countries, especially to the United States. Since 1953, nearly twenty-five thousand IITians have settled in the USA.^[63] Since the USA benefited from subsidised education in IITs at the cost of Indian taxpayers' money, critics say that subsidising education in IITs is useless. Others support the emigration of graduates, arguing that the capital sent home by the IITians has been a major source of the expansion of foreign exchange reserves for India, which, until the 1990s, had a substantial trade deficit.

The extent of intellectual loss has receded substantially over the past decade, with the percentage of students going abroad dropping from as high as 70% to around 30% today.^[64] This is largely attributed to the liberalisation of the Indian economy and the opening of previously closed markets. Government initiatives are encouraging IIT students into entrepreneurship programs and are increasing foreign investment. Emerging scientific and manufacturing industries, and outsourcing of technical jobs from North America and Western Europe have created opportunities for aspiring graduates in India. Many undergraduates go abroad to pursue further studies, such as MS, MBA and PhD.

[edit] Entrance competition

The highly competitive examination in the form of IIT-JEE has led to establishment of a large number of coaching institutes throughout the country that provide intensive, and specific preparation for the IIT-JEE for substantial fees. It is argued that this favours students from specific regions and richer backgrounds. Some coaching institutes say that they have individually coached nearly 800 successful candidates year after year.^[65] According to some estimates, nearly 95% of all students who clear the IIT-JEE had joined coaching classes.^[66] Indeed, this was the case regarding preparation for IIT entrance exams even decades ago. In a January 2010 lecture at the Indian Institute of Science, the 2009 Nobel laureate in Chemistry, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan revealed that he failed to get a seat at any of the colleges of the Indian Institutes of Technology, as well as at an Indian medical college.^[67] He also said that his parents, being old-fashioned, did not believe in coaching classes to prepare for the IIT entrance exam and considered them to be "nonsense". ^[68]

Not all children are of a similar aptitude level and may be skilled in different paradigms and fields. This has led to criticism of the way the examinations are conducted and the way a student is forced in the Indian community. The IIT-JEE format was restructured in 2006 following these complaints.^[69]

After the change to the objective pattern of questioning, even the students who initially considered themselves not fit for subjective pattern of IIT-JEE decided to take the examination. Though the restructuring was meant to reduce the dependence of students on coaching classes, it led to an increase in students registering for coaching classes.^[26] Some people (mostly IITians) have criticised the changed pattern of the IIT-JEE. Their reasoning is that while IIT-JEE traditionally used to test students understanding of fundamentals and ability to apply them to solve tough unseen problems, the current pattern does not stress much on the application part and might lead to a reduced quality of students.^[70]

[edit] Alumni

Main article: List of Indian Institutes of Technology alumni

Vinod Gupta School of Management in IIT Kharagpur

As of 2008^[update], the alumni of IIT number more than 170,000.^[71] The IITians are known for their loyalty to their alma mater and many IIT Alumni Associations are active in India and abroad. The IIT alumni either help their alma mater in the form of donations, or by preferential job opportunities extended to students from the IITs. The Vinod Gupta School of Management at IIT Kharagpur and Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management at IIT Bombay are management schools within IITs that have been established largely by alumni donations; these schools were named after their benefactors.

Many IIT alumni have become entrepreneurs, including N.R. Narayana Murthy (co-founder and chairman of Infosys), Rajendra S. Pawar (Co-founder and Chairman of NIIT), Vinod Khosla (co-founder, Sun Microsystems), Anurag Dikshit (co-founder of PartyGaming) and Suhas S. Patil (founder and Chairman Emeritus Cirrus Logic Inc.). Other alumni have achieved leading positions in corporations, such as Rajat Gupta (former Managing Director, McKinsey), Arun Sarin (former CEO, Vodafone), Vijay K. Thadani (Co-founder and CEO of NIIT), Victor Menezes (Senior Vice Chairman, Citigroup), and Kanwal Rekhi (CTO, Novell) . IIT alumni have also pursued careers in politics; for example, Manohar Parrikar became the Chief Minister of Goa. Many alumni have gained national and international recognition: Sushantha Kumar Bhattacharyya was awarded the CBE, a knighthood, and Padma Bhushan; and V. C. Kulandaiswamy was awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. Narendra Karmarkar is also world-renowned for his work in applied mathematics. Many IITians have contributed a great deal to innovations in science and technology, such as Mani Lal Bhaumik who co-invented the LASIK eye surgery process. They have authored many books and hold many patents.

[edit] See Also

• Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology
• International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad

[edit] References

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[edit] Further reading

• Rajguru, Suvarna; Pant, Ranjan (2003). IIT India's Intellectual Treasures. India: Indus Media. ISBN 0-9747393-0-8. 
• INDIA'S WHIZ KIDS — Inside the Indian Institutes of Technology's star factory. Asian Edition: BusinessWeek. 1998. 
• Kirpal, Viney; Gupta, Meenakshi (1999). Equality Through Reservations. India: Vedams. ISBN 81-7033-526-4. 
• Deb, Sandipan (2004). The IITians. India: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-04986-7. 
• Murali, Kanta (2003-02-01). "The IIT Story: Issues and Concerns". Frontline Magazine – Volume 20 – Issue 03 (Frontline). http://www.flonnet.com/fl2003/stories/20030214007506500.htm. Retrieved 2006-05-14. 
• Rajguru, Suvarna (2005-12-30). "What makes the IITs so chic". LittleINDIA. http://www.littleindia.com/january2003/Dream%20Team.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-27. 
• Gates, Bill (2003-01-17). "Bill Gates Speech Transcript – Indian Institute of Technology 50th Anniversary Celebration Keynote". Microsoft corporation. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/speeches/2003/01-17iit.aspx. Retrieved 2008-04-29. 
• Bhagat, Chetan (2004). Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT. India: Rupa & Co.. ISBN 8129104598. 
• Subbarao, E.C. (2008). An Eye for Excellence – 50 innovative years of IIT Kanpur. India: Harper Collins India. ISBN 978-81-7223-769-1. 

[edit] External links

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v • d • e

Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT)

Knowledge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Knowledge (disambiguation).

Personification of knowledge (Greek Επιστημη, Episteme) in Celsus Library in Ephesus, Turkey.

Knowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as (i) expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject; (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information; or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. Philosophical debates in general start with Plato's formulation of knowledge as "justified true belief." There is however no single agreed definition of knowledge presently, nor any prospect of one, and there remain numerous competing theories.

Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning, communication, association and reasoning. The term knowledge is also used to mean the confident understanding of a subject with the ability to use it for a specific purpose if appropriate. See knowledge management for additional details on that discipline.

Contents [hide] 1 Defining knowledge (philosophy) 2 Communicating knowledge 3 Situated knowledge 4 Partial knowledge 5 Scientific knowledge 6 Religious meaning of knowledge 7 See also 8 Notes 9 External links

[edit] Defining knowledge (philosophy)

Robert Reid, Knowledge (1896). Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.

See also: epistemology

"	We suppose ourselves to possess unqualified scientific knowledge of a thing, as opposed to knowing it in the accidental way in which the sophist knows, when we think that we know the cause on which the fact depends, as the cause of that fact and of no other, and, further, that the fact could not be other than it is. Now that scientific knowing is something of this sort is evident — witness both those who falsely claim it and those who actually possess it, since the former merely imagine themselves to be, while the latter are also actually, in the condition described. Consequently the proper object of unqualified scientific knowledge is something which cannot be other than it is.	"
	— Aristotle, Posterior Analytics (Book 1 Part 2)

The definition of knowledge is a matter of on-going debate among philosophers in the field of epistemology. The classical definition, described but not ultimately endorsed by Plato ^[1], specifies that a statement must meet three criteria in order to be considered knowledge: it must be justified, true, and believed. Some claim that these conditions are not sufficient, as Gettier case examples allegedly demonstrate. There are a number of alternatives proposed, including Robert Nozick's arguments for a requirement that knowledge 'tracks the truth' and Simon Blackburn's additional requirement that we do not want to say that those who meet any of these conditions 'through a defect, flaw, or failure' have knowledge. Richard Kirkham suggests that our definition of knowledge requires that the belief is self-evident to the believer.^[2]

In contrast to this approach, Wittgenstein observed, following Moore's paradox, that one can say "He believes it, but it isn't so", but not "He knows it, but it isn't so". ^[3] He goes on to argue that these do not correspond to distinct mental states, but rather to distinct ways of talking about conviction. What is different here is not the mental state of the speaker, but the activity in which they are engaged. For example, on this account, to know that the kettle is boiling is not to be in a particular state of mind, but to perform a particular task with the statement that the kettle is boiling. Wittgenstein sought to bypass the difficulty of definition by looking to the way "knowledge" is used in natural languages. He saw knowledge as a case of a family resemblance. Following this idea, "knowledge" has been reconstructed as a cluster concept that points out relevant features but that is not adequately captured by any definition.^[4]

[edit] Communicating knowledge

Symbolic representations can be used to indicate meaning and can be thought of as a dynamic process. Hence the transfer of the symbolic representation can be viewed as one ascription process whereby knowledge can be transferred. Other forms of communication include imitation, narrative exchange along with a range of other methods. There is no complete theory of knowledge transfer or communication.^{[citation needed]}

While many would agree that one of the most universal and significant tools for the transfer of knowledge is writing (of many kinds), argument over the usefulness of the written word exists however, with some scholars skeptical of its impact on societies. In his collection of essays Technopoly Neil Postman demonstrates the argument against the use of writing through an excerpt from Plato's work Phaedrus (Postman, Neil (1992) Technopoly, Vintage, New York, pp 73). In this excerpt the scholar Socrates recounts the story of Thamus, the Egyptian king and Theuth the inventor of the written word. In this story, Theuth presents his new invention "writing" to King Thamus, telling Thamus that his new invention "will improve both the wisdom and memory of the Egyptians" (Postman, Neil (1992) Technopoly, Vintage, New York, pp 74). King Thamus is skeptical of this new invention and rejects it as a tool of recollection rather than retained knowledge. He argues that the written word will infect the Egyptian people with fake knowledge as they will be able to attain facts and stories from an external source and will no longer be forced to mentally retain large quantities of knowledge themselves (Postman, Neil (1992) Technopoly, Vintage, New York ,pp 74).

Andrew Robinson also highlights, in his work The Origins of Writing, the possibility for writing to be used to spread false information and there for the ability of the written word to decrease social knowledge (Robinson, Andrew (2003) The Origins of Writing in Crowley and Heyer (eds) Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society, Boston pp 34). People are often internalizing new information which they perceive to be knowledge but are in reality fill their minds with false knowledge.

[edit] Situated knowledge

Situated knowledge is knowledge specific to a particular situation.^{[citation needed]}

Some methods of generating knowledge, such as trial and error, or learning from experience, tend to create highly situational knowledge. One of the main benefits of the scientific method is that the theories it generates are much less situational than knowledge gained by other methods.^{[citation needed]} Situational knowledge is often embedded in language, culture, or traditions.^{[citation needed]}

Knowledge generated through experience is called knowledge "a posteriori", meaning afterwards. The pure existence of a term like "a posteriori" means this also has a counterpart. In this case that is knowledge "a priori", meaning before. The knowledge prior to any experience means that there are certain "assumptions" that one takes for granted. For example if you are being told about a chair it is clear to you that the chair is in space, that it is 3D. This knowledge is not knowledge that one can "forget", even someone suffering from amnesia experiences the world in 3D. See also: a priori and a posteriori.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Partial knowledge

One discipline of epistemology focuses on partial knowledge. In most realistic cases, it is not possible to have an exhaustive understanding of an information domain, so then we have to live with the fact that our knowledge is always not complete, that is, partial. Most real problems have to be solved by taking advantage of a partial understanding of the problem context and problem data. That is very different from the typical simple maths problems one might solve at school, where all data is given and one has a perfect understanding of formulas necessary to solve them.^{[citation needed]}

This idea is also present in the concept of bounded rationality which assumes that in real life situations people often have a limited amount of information and make decisions accordingly.

[edit] Scientific knowledge

The development of the scientific method has made a significant contribution to our understanding of knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.^[5] The scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.^[6]. Science, and the nature of scientific knowledge have also become the subject of Philosophy. As science itself has developed, knowledge has developed a broader usage which has been developing within biology/psychology—discussed elsewhere as meta-epistemology, or genetic epistemology, and to some extent related to "theory of cognitive development".    

Sir Francis Bacon, "Knowledge is Power"

Note that "epistemology" is the study of knowledge and how it is acquired. Science is "the process used everyday to logically complete thoughts through inference of facts determined by calculated experiments. Sir Francis Bacon, critical in the historical development of the scientific method, his works established and popularized an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry. His famous aphorism, "knowledge is power", is found in the Meditations Sacrae (1597).^[7].

Until recent times, at least in the Western tradition, it was simply taken for granted that knowledge was something possessed only by humans (and/or God) — and probably adult humans at that. Sometimes the notion might stretch to (ii) Society-as-such, as in (e.g.) "the knowledge possessed by the Coptic culture" (as opposed to its individual members), but that was not assured either. Nor was it usual to consider unconscious knowledge in any systematic way until this approach was popularized by Freud. ^[8]

Other biological domains where "knowledge" might be said to reside, include: (iii) the immune system, and (iv) in the DNA of the genetic code. See the list of four "epistemological domains":   Popper, (1975)^[9]; and Traill (2008 [1]: Table S, page 31)—also references by both to Niels Jerne.

Such considerations seem to call for a separate definition of "knowledge" to cover the biological systems. For biologists, knowledge must be usefully available to the system, though that system need not be conscious. Thus the criteria seem to be:

• The system should apparently be dynamic and self-organizing (unlike a mere book on its own).
• The knowledge must constitute some sort of representation of "the outside world"^[10], or ways of dealing with it (directly or indirectly).
• There must be some way for the system to access this information quickly enough for it to be useful.

[edit] Religious meaning of knowledge

In many expressions of Christianity, such as Catholicism and Anglicanism, knowledge is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.^[11]

In Islam, knowledge (Arabic: علم, ʿilm) is given great significance. "The All-Knowing" (al-ʿAlīm) is one of the 99 names reflecting distinct attributes of God. The Qur'an asserts that knowledge comes from God (2:239) and various hadith encourage the acquisition of knowledge. Muhammad is reported to have said "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave" and "Verily the men of knowledge are the inheritors of the prophets". Islamic scholars, theologians and jurists are often given the title alim, meaning "knowledgable".^{[citation needed]}

Hindu Scriptures present two kinds of knowledge, Paroksha Gnyana and Aporoksha Gnyana. Paroksha Gnyana (also spelled Paroksha-Jnana) is secondhand knowledge: knowledge obtained from books, hearsay, etc. Aporoksha Gnyana (also spelled Aparoksha-Jnana) is the knowledge borne of direct experience, i.e., knowledge that one discovers for oneself.^[12]

The Old Testament's tree of the knowledge of good and evil contained the knowledge that separated Man from God: "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil…" (Genesis 3:22)

In Gnosticism divine knowledge or gnosis is hoped to be attained and escape from the demiurge's physical world. And in Thelema knowledge and conversation with one's Holy Guardian Angel is the purpose of life, which is similar to Gnosis or enlightenment in other mystery religions.

[edit] See also

This section may contain lists of external links, quotations or related pages discouraged by Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Please help integrate this content into the body of the article using in-text citations.

Epistemology portal

	Book:Epistemology
Books are collections of articles which can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Analytic-synthetic distinction Descriptive knowledge Epistemic logic Epistemology (theory of knowledge) Explicit knowledge Figurative system of human knowledge Intelligence Intuition as an unconscious form of knowledge. Knowledge discovery Knowledge engineering Knowledge management

Knowledge relativity Knowledge communication Knowledge retrieval Learning Metaknowledge Philosophical skepticism Procedural knowledge Propædia (outline of human knowledge) Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Scientia potentia est/ (knowledge is power) Tacit knowledge Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities Wisdom

[edit] Notes

1. ^ In Plato's Theaetetus, Socrates and Theaetetus discuss three definitions of knowledge: knowledge as nothing but perception, knowledge as true judgment, and, finally, knowledge as a true judgment with an account. Each of these definitions is shown to be unsatisfactory.
2. ^ http://www.centenary.edu/attachments/philosophy/aizawa/courses/epistemologyf2008/kirkham1984.pdf
3. ^ Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty, remark 42
4. ^ Gottschalk-Mazouz, N. (2008): „Internet and the flow of knowledge", in: Hrachovec, H.; Pichler, A. (Hg.): Philosophy of the Information Society. Proceedings of the 30. International Ludwig Wittgenstein Symposium Kirchberg am Wechsel, Austria 2007. Volume 2, Frankfurt, Paris, Lancaster, New Brunswik: Ontos, S. 215-232. http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/philo/fileadmin/doc/pdf/gottschalk/ngm-internetflow-2008.pdf
5. ^ "[4] Rules for the study of natural philosophy", Newton 1999, pp. 794-6, from the General Scholium, which follows Book 3, The System of the World.
6. ^ scientific method, Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
7. ^ "Sir Francis Bacon - Quotationspage.com". http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/2060.html. Retrieved 2009-07-08. 
8. ^ There is quite a good case for this exclusive specialization used by philosophers, in that it allows for in-depth study of logic-procedures and other abstractions which are not found elsewhere. However this may lead to problems whenever the topic spills over into those excluded domains—e.g. when Kant (following Newton) dismissed Space and Time as axiomatically "transcendental" and "a priori" — a claim later disproved by Piaget's clinical studies. It also seems likely that the vexed problem of "infinite regress" can be largely (but not completely) solved by proper attention to how unconscious concepts are actually developed, both during infantile learning and as inherited "pseudo-transcendentals" inherited from the trial-and-error of previous generations. See also "Tacit knowledge".
• Piaget, J., and B.Inhelder (1927 / 1969). The child's conception of time. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London.
• Piaget, J., and B.Inhelder (1948 / 1956). The child's conception of space. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London.
9. ^ Popper, K.R. (1975). "The rationality of scientific revolutions"; in Rom Harré (ed.), Problems of Scientific Revolution: Scientific Progress and Obstacles to Progress in the Sciences. Clarendon Press: Oxford.
10. ^ This "outside world" could include other subsystems within the same organism—e.g. different "mental levels" corresponding to different Piagetian stages. See Theory of cognitive development.
11. ^ "Part Three, No. 1831". Catechism of the Catholic Church. http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s1c1a7.htm#1831. Retrieved 2007-04-20. 
12. ^ Swami Krishnananda. "Chapter 7". The Philosophy of the Panchadasi. The Divine Life Society. http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/panch/panch_07.html. Retrieved 2008-07-05. 

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Categories: Knowledge | Concepts in epistemology

Knowledge economy

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The knowledge economy is a term that refers either to an economy of knowledge focused on the production and management of knowledge in the frame of economic constraints, or to a knowledge-based economy. In the second meaning, more frequently used, it refers to the use of knowledge technologies (such as knowledge engineering and knowledge management) to produce economic benefits as well as job creation. The phrase was popularized if not invented by Peter Drucker as the title of Chapter 12 in his book The Age of Discontinuity^[1].

The essential difference is that in a knowledge economy, knowledge is a product, in knowledge-based economy, knowledge is a tool. This difference is not yet well distinguished in the subject matter literature. They both are strongly interdisciplinary, involving economists, computer scientists, software engineers, mathematicians, chemists, physicists, as well as cognitivists, psychologists and sociologists.

Various observers describe today's global economy as one in transition to a "knowledge economy", as an extension of an "information society". The transition requires that the rules and practices that determined success in the industrial economy need rewriting in an interconnected, globalized economy where knowledge resources such as know-how and expertise are as critical as other economic resources. According to analysts of the "knowledge economy", these rules need to be rewritten at the levels of firms and industries in terms of knowledge management and at the level of public policy as knowledge policy or knowledge-related policy.^{[citation needed]}

Contents [hide] 1 Concepts 2 Driving forces 3 Characteristics 4 See also 5 External links 5.1 Wikibooks 6 References 7 Bibliography

[edit] Concepts

A key concept of the knowledge economy is that knowledge and education (often referred to as "human capital") can be treated as one of the following two:

• A business product, as educational and innovative intellectual products and services can be exported for a high value return.
• A productive asset

It can be defined as

" The concept that supports creation of knowledge by organizational employees and helps and encourages them to transfer and better utilize their knowledge that is in line with company/organization goals "

The initial foundation for the Knowledge Economy was first introduced in 1966 in the book The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker. In this book, Drucker described the difference between the manual worker (page 2) and the knowledge worker. The manual worker, according to him, works with his hands and produces goods or services. In contrast, a knowledge worker (page 3) works with his or her head not hands, and produces ideas, knowledge, and information.

The key problem in the formalization and modeling of knowledge economy, is a vague definition of knowledge, which is a rather relative concept. For example, it is not proper to consider information society as interchangeable with knowledge society. Information is usually not equivalent to knowledge. Their use, as well, depends on individual and group preferences (see the cognitive IPK model) – which are "economy-dependent".^[2]

[edit] Driving forces

Commentators suggest there are various interlocking driving forces, which are changing the rules of business and national competitiveness:

• Globalization — markets and products are more global.
• Information technology, which is related to next three:
• Information/Knowledge Intensity — efficient production relies on information and know-how; over 70 per cent of workers- in developed economies are information workers; many factory workers use their heads more than their hands.
• New Media – New media increases the production and distribution of knowledge which in turn, results in collective intelligence. Existing knowledge becomes much easier to access as a result of networked data-bases which promote online interaction between users and producers.
• Computer networking and Connectivity – developments such as the Internet bring the "global village" ever nearer.

As a result, goods and services can be developed, bought, sold, and in many cases even delivered over electronic networks.

As regards the applications of any new technology, this depends on how it meets economic demand. It can remain dormant or make a commercial breakthrough (see diffusion of innovation).

[edit] Characteristics

It can be argued that the knowledge economy differs from the traditional economy in several key respects:

• The economics are not of scarcity, but rather of abundance. Unlike most resources that become depleted when used, information and knowledge can be shared, and actually grow through application.
• The effect of location is either
• diminished, in some economic activities: using appropriate technology and methods, virtual marketplaces and virtual organizations that offer benefits of speed, agility, round the clock operation and global reach can be created.
• or, on the contrary, reinforced in some other economic fields, by the creation of business clusters around centres of knowledge, such as universities and research centres. However, clusters already existed in pre-knowledge economy times.
• Laws, barriers, taxes and ways to measure are difficult to apply solely on a national basis. Knowledge and information "leak" to where demand is highest and the barriers are lowest.
• Knowledge enhanced products or services can command price premiums over comparable products with low embedded knowledge or knowledge intensity.
• Pricing and value depends heavily on context. Thus the same information or knowledge can have vastly different value to different people, or even to the same person at different times.
• Knowledge when locked into systems or processes has higher inherent value than when it can "walk out of the door" in people's heads.
• Human capital — competencies — are a key component of value in a knowledge-based company, yet few companies report competency levels in annual reports. In contrast, downsizing is often seen as a positive "cost cutting" measure.
• Communication is increasingly being seen as fundamental to knowledge flows. Social structures, cultural context and other factors influencing social relations are therefore of fundamental importance to knowledge economies.

These characteristics require new ideas and approaches from policy makers, managers and knowledge workers.

The knowledge economy has manifold forms in which it may appear but there are predictions that the new economy will extend radically, creating a pattern in which even ideas will be recognised and identified as a commodity. This certainly is not the best time to make any hasty judgment on this contention, but considering the very nature of 'knowledge' itself, added to the fact that it is the thrust of this new form of economy, there certainly is a clear way forward for this notion, though the particulars (i.e. the quantum of the revolutionary approach and its applicability and commercial value),remain in the speculative realm, as of now.

[edit] See also

Attention economy Digital economy Information economy Intelligent city International Innovation Index Internet Economy Know-How Trading Knowledge market Knowledge organization Knowledge management

Knowledge policy Knowledge Revolution Knowledge tagging Knowledge value chain Learning economy The Long Tail Network Economy Smart city Social Information Processing

[edit] External links

• Knowledge for Development Program, World Bank
• Colloquium
• IS-Driven Organizational Responsiveness in a Knowledge Economy
• Public Service Modernization Act – Canada
• MTI
• EnterWeb
• BOOK: The Knowledge-Based Economy in Central and East European Countries
• recent book: Knowledge and innovation processes in Central and East European economies
• The Work Foundation Knowledge Economy Programme
• Knowledge Economy in Farsi/Persian

[edit] Wikibooks

• Legal and Regulatory Issues in the Information Economy

[edit] References

1. ^ Peter Drucker, (1969). The Age of Discontinuity; Guidelines to Our Changing Society. Harper and Row, New York. ISBN 0-465-08984-4
2. ^ Terry Flew (2008), New Media: An Introduction

[edit] Bibliography

• Arthur, W. B. (1996). Increasing Returns and the New World of Business. Harvard Business Review(July/August), 100–109.
• Bell, D. (1974). The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. London: Heinemann.
• Drucker, P. (1969). The Age of Discontinuity; Guidelines to Our changing Society. New York: Harper and Row.
• Drucker, P. (1993). Post-Capitalist Society. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
• Machlup, F. (1962). The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Romer, P. M. (1986). Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth. Journal of Political Economy, 94(5), 1002–1037.
• Rooney, D., Hearn, G., Mandeville, T., & Joseph, R. (2003). Public Policy in Knowledge-Based Economies: Foundations and Frameworks. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
• Rooney, D., Hearn, G., & Ninan, A. (2005). Handbook on the Knowledge Economy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

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Idiot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Goya's Bobabilicón.

"numbskull" redirects here. For the comic strip, see The Numskulls. For the American band, see The Numbskulls.

For other uses, see Idiot (disambiguation) and The Idiot.

An idiot, dolt, or dullard is a mentally deficient person, or someone who acts in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way. More humorous synonyms of the term include addlehead, blockhead, bonehead, deadhead, dimwit, dodo, dope, dummy, dunderhead, nincompoop, ninny, nitwit, numbskull, stupidhead, thickhead, and twit, among many others. Archaically the word mome has also been used. The synonymous terms moron, imbecile, and cretin have all gained specialized meanings in modern times. An idiot is said to be idiotic, and to suffer from idiocy. A dunce is an idiot who is specifically incapable of learning. An idiot differs from a fool (who is unwise) and an ignoramus (who is uneducated), neither of which refer to someone with low intelligence.

Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Disability 3 United States law 4 In literature 5 See also 6 Notes 7 Sources 8 External links

History

"Idiot" originally referred to "layman, person lacking professional skill", "person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning". Declining to take part in public life, such as democratic government of the polis (city state), such as the Athenian democracy, was considered dishonorable. "Idiots" were seen as having bad judgment in public and political matters. Over time, the term "idiot" shifted away from its original connotation of selfishness and came to refer to individuals with overall bad judgment–individuals who are "stupid". In modern English usage, the terms "idiot" and "idiocy" describe an extreme folly or stupidity, and its symptoms (foolish or stupid utterance or deed). In psychology, it is a historical term for the state or condition now called profound mental retardation.^[1]

Idiot as a word derived from the Greek ἰδιώτης, idiōtēs ("person lacking professional skill," "a private citizen," "individual"), from ἴδιος, idios ("private," "one's own").^[2] In Latin the word idiota ("ordinary person, layman") preceded the Late Latin meaning "uneducated or ignorant person."^[3] Its modern meaning and form dates back to Middle English around the year 1300, from the Old French idiote ("uneducated or ignorant person"). The related word idiocy dates to 1487 and may have been analogously modeled on the words prophet^[4] and prophecy.^[5][6] The word has cognates in many other languages.

Disability

In 19th and early 20th century medicine and psychology, an "idiot" was a person with a very severe mental retardation. In the early 1900s, Dr. Henry H. Goddard proposed a classification system for mental retardation based on the Binet-Simon concept of mental age. Individuals with the lowest mental age level (less than three years) were identified as idiots; imbiciles (sic) had a mental age of three to 7 years., and morons had a mental age of seven to ten years.^[7] IQ, or intelligence quotient, is determined by dividing a person's mental age, as determined by standardized tests, by chronological age. The term "idiot" is sometimes used to refer to people having an IQ below 30.^[8][9]

In current medical classification, these people are now said to have profound mental retardation, and the word "idiot" is no longer used as a scientific term.^[1]

United States law

Until 2007, the California Penal Code Section 26 stated that "Idiots" were one of six types of people who are not capable of committing crimes. In 2007 the code was amended to read "persons who are mentally incapacitated."^[10] In 2008, Iowa voters passed a measure replacing "idiot, or insane person" in the State's constitution with "person adjudged mentally incompetent."^[11]

In several states, "idiots" do not have the right to vote:

• Arkansas Article III, Section 5^[12]
• Kentucky Section 145^[13]
• Mississippi Article 12, Section 241^[14]
• New Mexico Article VII, section 1^[15]
• Ohio (Article V, Section 6)^[16]

In literature

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2006)

A few authors have used "idiot" characters in novels, plays and poetry. Often these characters are used to highlight or indicate something else (allegory). Examples of such usage are William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and William Wordsworth's The Idiot Boy. Idiot characters in literature are often confused with or subsumed within mad or lunatic characters. The most common imbrication between these two categories of mental impairment occurs in the polemic surrounding Edmund from William Shakespeare's King Lear. In Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot, the idiocy of the main character, Prince Lev Nikolaievich Myshkin, is attributed more to his honesty, trustfulness, kindness, and humility, than to a lack of intellectual ability. Nietzsche claimed, in his The Antichrist, that Jesus was an idiot. This resulted from his description of Jesus as having an aversion toward the material world.^[17]

See also

Look up idiot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Stupidity
• Archaic terms for mental retardation
• Idiocracy
• euphemism treadmill

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "idiocy". Merriam-Webster online. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/idiocy. Retrieved 2007-09-26. 
2. ^ Liddell-Scott-Jones A Greek-English Lexicon, entries for ἰδιώτης and ἴδιος.
3. ^ Words, entry idiota.
4. ^ Etymonline.com, entry prophet
5. ^ Etymonline.com, entry prophecy
6. ^ Etymonline.com, entry idiot
7. ^ Zaretsky, Herbert H.; Richter, Edwin F.; Eisenberg, Myron G. (2005), Medical aspects of disability: a handbook for the rehabilitation professional (third edition, illustrated ed.), Springer Publishing Company, p. 346, ISBN 9780826179739, http://books.google.com/books?id=7TZGYRu-_Y4C .
8. ^ Rapley, Mark (2004), The Social Construction of Intellectual Disability, Cambridge University Press, p. 32, ISBN 9780521005296, http://books.google.com/books?id=KdQS5Z_mGbQC .
9. ^ Cruz, Isagani A.; Quaison, Correct Choice of Words' : English Grammar Series for Filipino Lawyers (2003 Edition ed.), Rex Bookstore, Inc., pp. 444-445, ISBN 9789712336867, http://books.google.com/books?id=I2FnOYgu6IsC .
10. ^ "Penal Code section 25-29". State of California. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=pen&group=00001-01000&file=25-29. Retrieved 2007-09-21. 
11. ^ "Ballot Initiatives: No to Gay Marriage, Anti-Abortion Measures". time.com. 5 November 2008. http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1856820-2,00.html. Retrieved 2009-02-26. 
12. ^ Arkansas Article III, Section 5
13. ^ Kentucky Section 145
14. ^ Mississippi Constitution of the State of Mississippi See Article 12, Section 241
15. ^ New Mexico Constitution, Article VII, section 1
16. ^ Ohio Constitution, Article V, Section 6
17. ^ Nietzsche, Friedrich (1895). The Antichrist. http://www.handprint.com/SC/NIE/antich.html. "To make a hero of Jesus! And even more, what a misunderstanding is the word "genius"! Our whole concept, our cultural concept, of "spirit" has no meaning whatever in the world in which Jesus lives. Spoken with the precision of a physiologist, even an entirely different word would be yet more fitting here—the word idiot." 
    (§ 29, partially quoted here, contains three words that were suppressed by Nietzsche's sister when she published The Antichrist in 1895. The words are: "das Wort Idiot", translated here as "the word idiot". They were not made public until 1931, by Josef Hofmiller. H.L. Mencken's 1920 translation does not contain these words.)

Sources

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. on cretinism
• This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.

External links

• Dictionary.Reference.Com "Middle English, ignorant person, from Old French idiote (modern French idiot), from Latin idiota, from Greek idiotès, private person, layman, from idios, own, private."
• Etymonline "c.1300, "person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning," from Old French idiote "uneducated or ignorant person," from Latin idiota "ordinary person, layman," in Late Latin "uneducated or ignorant person," from Greek idiotes "layman, person lacking professional skill," literally "private person," used patronizingly for "ignorant person," from idios "one's own".

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot"

Categories: Disability | Greek loanwords | Obsolete medical terms | Pejorative terms for people

India Today "Top 10 Colleges of India"

India Today "Top 10 Colleges of India"

Close on the heels of the Dataquest survey comes yet another survey by India Today-AC NIELSEN-ORG-MARG. The June 13th Issue of India Today has "Top 10 Colleges of India" as their cover story. IIT Kharagpur is ranked 6th among the Engineering Colleges. Of all the IITs, only IIT Roorkee is ranked behind IIT Kharagpur. IIT Delhi managed to clinch the top spot. Interestingly, IIT Kharagpur has been ranked number 1 in "Factual Rank", although the article does not really explain what that means.

Here is a small excerpt from the article:

This year also sees IIT Mumbai and IIT Madras, third and fourth runners-up respectively for the past two years, move up by one place behind IIT Delhi. These are two of the most resilient IITs. "IIT Mumbai has the best faculty and attracts the best of students because we are located in the country's industrial captial. Last year, we got 47 of the top 100 JEE students," says Dipan Kumar Ghosh, deputy director, IIT, Mumbai.

We would like to hear from you. What do you think of surveys like this? Do you think they are useful? Please add your Comment, or please join in this Ongoing Discussion.

Note: You will need a paid subscription to view the online article.

Posted by: Joyjit Nath @ Jun 17, 2005, 9:08 am PDT    Filed under: Media    

16 Comments

1. IIT kgp is the best IIT.WE HAVE A WORLDCLASS LIBERARY THERE + BEST FACULTY MEMBERS + BIGGEST CAMPUS

   Comment by pravin raikwar — August 24, 2005 @ 2:28 am PDT

2. even some says that students seem preferring IIT mumbai, actually the fact is that we too have started getting top JEE students from some recent years, bcoz this year the 1st JEE topper took admission at KGP, and the highest salary paid this year was 15 lacs……..foreign reputation of this institute is the best among all IITs…….

   Comment by sandeep tembhekar — August 30, 2005 @ 10:48 am PDT

3. its not that BITS-Pilani is the expensive.being a bitsian i know how much i have to pay and i say that its very cheap.its fee structure is quite nominal and people who know nothing about have called it as expensive.

   Comment by ramanuj roy — January 19, 2006 @ 4:59 am PST

4. IIT Delhi truly deserves this position.Though IIT BOMBAY has been catching up fast.

   Comment by das — May 19, 2006 @ 10:01 am PDT

5. india todays rankings are just crap

   Comment by rahul — May 30, 2006 @ 7:39 am PDT

6. Considering placements mumbai is the best in all iits

   Comment by prashanth — June 2, 2006 @ 7:33 pm PDT

7. From the past two years Mumbai has stood first according the job oppurtunities.

   Comment by ganesh — June 2, 2006 @ 7:36 pm PDT

8. its just bogus how can u rank iitg behind of roorkee……………..
   previous year bits pilani was not even under top 10. just fully faltu.

   Comment by rahul — June 8, 2006 @ 1:40 pm PDT

9. BITS-Pilani the Best of All.Just visit the campus once.

   Comment by AK — June 30, 2006 @ 10:24 am PDT

10. Not just at Undergraduate Level, even at Ph.D level the admission input criteria such as Ph.D qualifying exam and a tough interview is there where as in IITs no such qualifying exam is there except interview. IITs are infected by reservations and NRI quotas where BITS-pilani has no such reservations except merit.Visit the campus that has not just the technological facilities but also the natural beauty with deer and peacocks every where……Indeed a place to study.

    Comment by AK — June 30, 2006 @ 10:31 am PDT

11. IIT KANPUR IS THE BEST DUE TO THEIR EXCELLENT FACULTIES AND STUDIES WHICH MAKES ME AN IITIAN AFTER PASSING ISC FROM JAMSHEDPUR.

    Comment by Anurag Kumar — July 11, 2006 @ 9:48 am PDT

12. i advise india today to stop the surveys plz..
    u ppl dont know nothing…u ppl cant knw anything about bits pilani…
    just go to the campus and do ur work and better be the surveyeor a mindful guy…
    u dont deserve to say anything about bits pilani…
    so plz stop doing….
    thank u

    Comment by madhuri — July 12, 2006 @ 11:27 pm PDT

13. i dont know why all this hue and cry by students of bits pillani for pushing their college name up in the popularity chart.whole world know about iits and there can be any ambuguity about the fact that iit delhi , bombay and kanpur are the best and they will remain so in the coming years.sot pillani boys keep calm,learn to appreciate others acievements.

    Comment by ajay shankar — July 18, 2006 @ 9:37 pm PDT

14. how dare u leave out NITRKL…….. in the top 10. we know dat de iits r de best but we r de best among d rest. you people just sit without doing any actual research and give any ranking according to your own wish.This is just a PUBLICITY GRIMMICK on your part.

    Comment by siddharth — July 20, 2006 @ 3:01 am PDT

15. NITW is the oldest of all NIT's ,it may not look posh but has all facilities that any other college can dream of having.
    NITW very well deserves a place in top 10.

    Comment by varun — July 27, 2006 @ 1:20 am PDT

16. moti lal nehru national institute of technology is the best among the all NITs in placement. here the max. salary goes to 10 lakhs per annum ……which is not far from the 15 lakh of the best iitkgp………so you should also check all N.I.T.s their infrastructure and hostel facility etc
    thank you ……DEVENDRA SINGH(B.TECH ELECTRICAL ENGG. N.I.T. ALLAHABAD)

    Comment by devendra singh — July 31, 2006 @ 11:04 pm PDT

http://www.iitfoundation.org/?p=34