mahendra-verma

I have been visiting our ancestral village Mandhar (in Chattishgarh, near Raipur) on Diwali for the last two years after an interval of  around 30 years.  The present village is very different from what it was before.  Industry has come in the village, which has provided jobs to some youths of this village and the neighbouring villages.  It has brought pollution (plenty of carbon ash) and cash in the village.  More cash is bringing in more liquor and gambling.  More money does not necessarily mean good life. There is no desire of learning, no interest in politics or culture.  Not even desire for better schools for children, hence better life for them.  I was surprised to see that the villagers are not even interested in local politics.  People do not read newspaper.  There are too many issues like road, water, better education, health care, sewage system, etc. to fight for, but there is no talk about it. Urban population does not quite understand this.  In metros, people have wider

A university is a place of learning.  Best universities attract students and thinkers from all over the world.  These best minds bring in wisdom from all over the world and enrich these universities.   It is not surprising that the best American and European universities have an international composition.  In the past, Takshila  and Nalanda universities of India had faculty from many countries.  However, the present Indian university and research institutes have almost no international faculty and students.  We need an urgent change in our institutional system if we wish to make our institutions  one of the best in the world.  Some of the salient points in favor of this argument are Most of the Indian research institutions, specially teaching institutions like IITs and universities, woefully short of faculty.   On the other hand, many bright young scientists in the west (both foreigners and non-resident Indians) are not being absorbed due to lack of positions there.  It is an opport

Recently I read two fictional biographies of Jhansi Ki Rani (queen), Laxmi Bai.  They are by Vrindavan lal Verma and Mahasweta Devi respectively.   The story is amazing and inspiring.  She was just 22 when she died fighting. A web-based biographical account can be seen in the website http://www.copsey-family.org/~ allenc/lakshmibai/index.html Briefly, she was married to Gangadhar Rao, a king of Jhansi.   Gangadhar Rao died in 1853, when Rani was 18.  The kingdom was annexed by the British (Governer General Dulhausi).  Coincidently, in 1857, the revolt broke out, and the mutineers killed the British  soldiers and civilians.  Rani took civilian control of Jhansi after writing to the British officials.   Ironically, soon Jhansi was attacked by neighbouring kingdom Orchha. The attack was repulsed by the newly formed voluntary army of Jhansi.  This speaks greatly of the organizational skills of young Rani.  Her army included soldiers from all castes and religion, with a sizable secti

A symposium on HPC Applications was held in IIT Kanpur on 12-14 March 2012.  It had around 100 participants with speakers from various disciplines.   We had a panel discussion on future of HPC in India. Minutes of the Panel discussion of the Symposium on HPC Applications are given below: Panelists: Rajat Moona (CDAC, Moderator), P. B. Sunil Kumar (IITM), Amalendu Chandra (IITK), Sanjay Mittal (IITK), K. G. Ayappa (IISc), M. K. Verma (IITK) Many important points arose during the meeting by the panelists and participants.  Main points are listed below: 1. Manpower:  We do not have enough number of trained manpower for maintaining systems, writing programs, and HPC research.  The students are not sufficiently exposed to advances in computational tools.   Only formal course in this field in India is M. Tech. in "Computational Science"  offered by  IISc.  More institutes in the country should run such programs. IIT Madras is offering a course on HPC with guest lectures

There is a move by the government and several committees to abolish multiple exams, and replace it by a centralized examination.  A proposal is that the admissions to IIT would be based on this exam + some weightage from the board.  There is quite a bit of hue and cry from the supporters as well as opponents of Joint Entrance Examination.  I have not thought deeply about this issue, but it is true that we as a civilization are too exam centric.  Here are my some general thoughts: 1. Since no exam is perfect, it is not a good idea to base admissions solely on one exam.  Most of the reputed institutions (e.g., top US and UK universities) do not do it.  If the number of applicants are less, one exam may be OK. But it is not likely to work when the number of applicants go beyond 5 lacs,  which is the case for the present JEE. 2. JEE has plusses, but the negatives are too serious to ignore.   (a) At present, there must be more than 500 students having identical aggregate mark in