Secret behind Indians’ love affair with engineering study..


Engineer’s Day (September 15) is the birth anniversary of M. Visvesvaraya. Lakhs of engineering graduates are produced in India as another Engineer’s Day arrives, from the thousands of engineering colleges.

Why do so many Indian people want to study engineering?
(I don't ask this question to hurt anyone who is an engineer :p)

In most of cases, It is a combination of: 
Social pressure + Status + Limited opportunities

Let me explain,
As everyone knows India is a developing economy and engineers play an important role in development of a developing economy and so there is a huge demand for engineers. In such an economy where everyone is trying to become an engineer/doctor or someone with significant qualification you just cannot sit around and be satisfied with doing something little or not doing anything at all. We do not have this luxury. There is huge amount of social pressure to prove your smarts or end up in oblivion.

Everyone strives for status and an inordinate amount of respect is given by elders in the family if you say you are an engineer/doctor. This works in both the cases:

   Case 1: You have no engineers in your family. In that case you become a rarity and are respected widely in your tribe.

   Case 2: Your family is swamped with engineers and so becoming one is being on the right path to success.

Not a single child dreams about growing up and sitting in front of a computer trying to solve an obscure bug. They want to be astronauts, scientists, explorers, musicians, sports men etc. But if you belong to an economy where are millions of people competing for each and everything you start looking for security. For every single position on the Nation Cricket team there are more than a lakh cricketers out there struggling and same goes for each and every profession. Also India being a developing country doesn't have a huge research budget and so we don't have that many scientists. The number of institutes focusing on astronomy is low and so is the case for all other professions. Contrast it with engineering where every state has 100's of engineering colleges and the market for engineers is continuously growing with the dawn of technical age it becomes an obvious choice. 

Just to put things into perspective: 
Andhra Pradesh which is one of the many states in India has 900 engineering colleges. 

Due to all these reasons and the simple economics theory of demand and supply at work, so many students end up going for engineering.

India has an increasingly large number of engineers graduating every year from the thousands of institutes without the necessary skill-set/lack of opportunities and so they end up working in jobs that are not necessarily suited to them. The internet is flooded with numerous articles talking about Indian engineers working as railway drivers, rickshaw drivers, sweepers etc. This is shocking but true. These might be one off incidents blown out of proportion but are good enough to scare the parents and kids alike to work hard and become over qualified to avoid such a fate.  

It is often said:
India is a country where people first become engineers and then decide what they want to do. 

Now you know why.

Why is NSG Membership important for India?



For years, India has been trying to gain entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a 48 member grouping that was formed in the after India’s 1974 nuclear test with the aim of ensuring non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear technology. From India’s point of view, it was formed to deny India access to sophisticated technology.

The 48 members of the NSG include the five nuclear weapon states, US, UK, France, China and Russia. The other 43 are signatories to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India is not a member of the NPT which it calls discriminatory.

It was civil nuclear deal with US, concluded in 2008, that created the way for India’s application as a member of NSG. India’s commitment to separate its civilian and military nuclear programmes and its non proliferation record — ensuring that its indigenously developed technology is not shared with other countries—is what works in its favour. Besides, India has also ratified an Additional Protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which means that its civilian reactors are under IAEA safeguards and open for inspections — ensures increased transparency.

Membership of the NSG means:

1. Access to technology for a range of uses from medicine to building nuclear power plants for India from the NSG which is essentially a traders’ cartel. India has its own indigenously developed technology but to get its hands on state of the art technology that countries within the NSG possess, it has to become part of the group.

2. With India committed to reducing dependence on fossil fuels and ensuring that 40% of its energy is sourced from renewable and clean sources, there is a pressing need to scale up nuclear power production. This can only happen if India gains access to the NSG. Even if India today can buy power plants from the global market thanks to the one time NSG waiver in 2008, there are still many types of technologies India can be denied as it is outside the NSG.

3. India could sign the Nuclear non proliferation treaty and gain access to all this know how but that would mean giving up its entire nuclear arsenal. Given that it is situated in an unstable and unpredictable neighbourhood India is unlikely to sign the NPT or accede to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) that puts curbs on any further nuclear tests.

4. With access to latest technology, India can commercialize the production of nuclear power equipment. This, in turn will boost innovation and high tech manufacturing in India and can be leveraged for economic and strategic benefits.

For example, India has signed a civil nuclear energy co-operation pact with Sri Lanka. Currently, this entails training people in peaceful uses of nuclear energy, including use of radioisotopes, nuclear safety, radiation safety, nuclear security, radioactive waste management and nuclear and radiological disaster mitigation. If India get access to advanced nuclear technologies, it can start building updated versions of its own fast breeder reactor and sell it to countries such as Sri Lanka or Bangladesh. Bangladesh is currently looking at buying Russian reactors for power generation.

5. Having the ability to offer its own nuclear power plants to the world means spawning of an entire nuclear industry and related technology development. This could give the Make in India programme a big boost.

6. If India get membership to the NSG, it can block Pakistan from its membership as entry into the grouping is by consensus only. This is one of the reasons why China is pushing to include Pakistan as well as pointing out that India as a non signatory to the NPT cannot be a member. It comes down to a power game — keep India out and deny it access to various technologies. India’s contention is that its nuclear technologies are indigenously developed and it has a clean non proliferation record unlike Pakistan whose non proliferation record was tainted with the revelations that its nuclear scientist A.Q Khan sold nuclear technologies to countries such as North Korea. China’s non proliferation record too is tainted with allegations that it has helped Pakistan on the sly, but given its economic clout the country is unlikely to attract sanctions.

Over hiring : Common Mistake of Startups


One day, employees at the two TinyOwl offices in Pune and Mumbai walked into the office just like they do on a normal Monday morning and were in for a rude shock.

The startup let go almost 100 employees, stating cost cutting as the reason.

“I was called personally by my manager and told that they had made some hiring mistakes that they want to rectify, and my skill set was no longer required. Of course, they told us that it was not that we were not productive or anything, but it was their problem, not mine,” said an employee.

Employees were given a month’s salary as severance and a promise that the company would help them find other jobs.

The employee added, “I don’t know how far it is true that they will help, but I am never going to work for a startup again. I joined TinyOwl four months ago hoping things like this would not happen. It was a growing company, which is why this is so unexpected.”

The ones who were not fired were told not to talk to anyone till the dust settled down. They were also advised to “pull up their socks” and increase work efficiency.
This is not the first time TinyOwl has had to lay off employees, and this is definitely not the first time startups have had to downsize their teams.

According to Ravi Gururaj, NASSCOM product and executive council, startups fire employees under three circumstances: They don’t have money, and want to raise funds; they don’t plan properly and over hire; or they hire the wrong talent.

Someone with knowledge about the happenings at TinyOwl said that almost 15 employees were laid off from the Pune office, while between 130 and 150 employees were laid off at the Mumbai office. The majority of layoffs were from the sales and marketing teams, and the business intelligence and data teams.

“They just want to show more runway to their investors. They had a runway for around six to seven months when they had 400 employees. Now with over a 100 employees gone, they might have stretched it to a year or so,” said a former employee of TinyOwl.

Tanuj Khandelwal, Co-founder of TinyOwl said in a statement,
TinyOwl has grown immensely in the past year and our efforts continue to be focused on strengthening the brand’s position in the market on a national level. The elimination of certain positions in the company have been made on a strategic level, to increase efficiency, productivity, and re-direct our diverse talent to focused departments, providing the best innovative offerings to our customers. We appreciate the contributions of all the employees in making TinyOwl an amazing growth story. We see this development as a positive move towards growth, and will continue to hire informed talent across the country to provide our customers a seamless food ordering experience.
TinyOwl has raised over USD 20 million in three rounds of funding from Nexus Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Matrix Partners. They have tied up with over 4,000 restaurants across Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru.

The startup has two products: TinyOwl for food from nearby restaurants and TinyOwl HomeMade for healthy food from local chefs. They process almost 2,000 orders every day.

Tanuj is right about the whole aspect of restructuring; every growing startup goes through that phase, and needs to make these tough calls.

“This usually happens in high growth startups that absorb people at a very high rate. In such cases, any macro strategy course corrections are followed by layoffs. High growth with lean and efficient teams is much more sustainable and best way to avoid such scenarios,” said Ravish Naresh, Co-founder of Housing.com, and CEO of IREF.

There is an unnecessary stigma around letting people go. Some people perceive it as a sign that the company is not doing well, but according to experts it is actually a good sign.
“It is a healthy thing to do. Sometimes founders make the wrong decisions, and it is unhealthy for them to continue with the wrong hiring decisions they make. The earlier it is done, the better. I don’t know why some founders feel nervous about it,” added Ravi Gururaj.

There are ways founders can avoid such situations, says Ravi.
  • Hire contractors first.
  • Don’t make anyone full time unless you are confident, you might be better off with temporary hands.
  • You have to prioritize with work, so you use your employees efficiently.
  • Bring in partners, rather than employees.

Also, experts say that startups are known to lay people off honorably, rather than just leave a pink slip on their desk.

“I know a lot of startups that don’t even fire the way we know firing. They just tell their employees that they must start looking for another job and can continue with them till they find one. And when they do fire people, they give an honorable exit for them. Where else do you see such respect for employees?” added Anand Lunia.

On hiring, Vijay Anand, CEO and Founder of The Startup Centre, says, “Unfortunately, the minute  most investors put money into a startup, they insist on increasing two spends: one is to go hire like mad; and second is to increase marketing spend. Sadly both are bad kinds of spend, the kind that keeps you craving for more rounds of funding, than focusing on building a sustainable business.”

He adds that startups should focus on making the right investments so that they can automate processes rather than adding manpower.

If the startup has more manpower than required, firing is the only answer, and just as Ravi says, “Do it quickly, efficiently, and fearlessly.”

Dosanomics Theory of RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan





Raghuram Rajan, RBI governor, likes dosas. Or, rather, he likes using the popular South Indian pancake to explain economic theories. :)


In a speech in January, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India set out why high inflation is the “silent killer” of growth. With high inflation and high interest rates, one who invests 1,00,000 rupees could buy the same number of dosas with the interest at the end of the year as he could at the start, Mr. Rajan said. But if inflation came down, even with a lower interest rate, the same person could buy more dosas each year with the return on his investment.
Mr. Rajan calls this dosa economics.


“When inflation is 5.5% but the interest rate you are getting is 8%, you are earning a real rate of 2.5%, which means 2.5% more dosas,” he said.


Then, in a question and answer session last month, an engineering student asked Mr. Rajan more about his “Dosanomics.”

“When the inflation rate goes up the dosa price goes up, but when the inflation rates are lower, the dosa prices are not lowered. What is happening to our beloved dosa sir?” the student asked at the forum organised by Federal Bank.


Mr. Rajan smiled as he responded. “You have hit on another issue in economics, which is called the Balassa-Samuelson effect,” the central bank chief explained.


He was referring to a proposal by economists Paul Samuelson and Bela Baslassa that countries with high growth in productivity also have high wage growth.


“The technology for making Dosas hasn’t actually changed,” Mr. Rajan continued.
“There has been no technological improvement there. However the wages of paying that gentleman especially in a high wage state like Kerala are going up all the time because that worker can be used in much more productive areas,” he added.


Factory workers or bank clerks can now serve more people because of technology. The dosa guy can’t.
So what happens is, in an economy which is growing, the prices for the goods manufactured by sectors that aren’t improving their technology will go up faster than in those where production speeds are going up.
“That’s Balassa Samuelson, you are seeing it in the price of Dosa” Mr. Rajan concluded.

Budget 2016 Highlights


Tax

  • Excise duty raised from 10 to 15 per cent on tobacco products other than beedis
  • 1 per cent service charge on purchase of luxury cars over Rs. 10 lakh and in-cash purchase of goods and services over Rs. 2 lakh.
  • SUVs, Luxury cars to be more expensive. 4% high capacity tax for SUVs.
  • Companies with revenue less than Rs 5 crore to be taxed at 29% plus surcharge
  • Limited tax compliance window from Jun 1 - Sep 30 for declaring undisclosed income at 45% incl. surcharge and penalties
  • Excise 1 per cent imposed on articles of jewellery, excluding silver.
  • 0.5 per cent Krishi Kalyan Cess to be levied on all services.
  • Pollution cess of 1 per cent on small petrol, LPG and CNG cars; 2.5 per cent on diesel cars of certain specifications; 4 per cent on higher-end models.
  • Dividend in excess of Rs. 10 lakh per annum to be taxed at additional 10 per cent.
  • Infrastructure and agriculture cess to be levied.

Personal Finance

  • No changes have been made to existing income tax slabs
  • Rs 1,000 crore allocated for new EPF (Employees' Provident Fund) scheme
  • Govt. will pay EPF contribution of 8.33% for all new employees for first three years
  • Deduction for rent paid will be raised from Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000 to benefit those living in rented houses.
  • Additional exemption of Rs. 50,000 for housing loans up to Rs. 35 lakh, provided cost of house is not above Rs. 50 lakh.
  • Service tax exempted for housing construction of houses less than 60 sq. m
  • 15 per cent surcharge on income above Rs. 1 crore

Social
  • Rs. 38,500 crore for Mahtma Gandhi MGNREGA for 2016-17
  • Swacch Bharat Abhiyan allocated Rs.9,500 crores.
  • Hub to support SC/ST entrpreneurs
  • Government is launching a new initiative to provide cooking gas to BPL families with state support.
  • LPG connections to be provided under the name of women members of family: Rs 2000 crore allocated for 5 years for BPL families.
  • 2.87 lakh crore grants to gram panchayats and municipalities - a quantum jump of 228%.
  • 300 urban clusters to be set up under Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission
  • Four schemes for animal welfare.

Health
  • 2.2 lakh renal patients added every year in India. Basic dialysis equipment gets some relief.
  • A new health protection scheme for health cover upto 1 lakh per family.
  • National Dialysis Service Prog with funds thru PPP mode to provide dialysis at all district hospitals.
  • Senior citizens will get additional healthcare cover of Rs 30,000 under the new scheme
  • PM Jan Aushadhi Yojana to be strengthened, 300 generic drug store to be opened

Education
  • Scheme to get Rs.500 cr for promoting entrepreneurship among SC/ST
  • 10 public and 10 private educational institutions to be made world-class.
  • Digital repository for all school leaving certificates and diplomas. Rs. 1,000 crore for higher education financing.
  • Rs. 1,700 crore for 1500 multi-skill development centres.
  • 62 new navodaya vidyalayas to provide quality education
  • Digital literacy scheme to be launched to cover 6 crore additional rural households
  • Entrepreneurship training to be provided across schools, colleges and massive online courses.
  • Objective to skill 1 crore youth in the next 3 years under the PM Kaushal Vikas Yojna-FM Jaitley
  • National Skill Development Mission has imparted training to 76 lakh youth. 1500 Multi-skill training institutes to be set up.
Energy
  • Rs. 3000 crore earmarked for nuclear power generation
  • Govt drawing comprehensive plan to be implemented in next 15-20 years for exploiting nuclear energy
  • Govt to provide incentive for deepwater gas exploration
  • Deepwater gas new disc to get calibrated market freedom, pre-determined ceiling price based on landed price of alternate fuels.
Investments and infrastructure
  • Rs. 27,000 crore to be spent on roadways
  • 65 eligible habitats to be connected via 2.23 lakh kms of road. Current construction pace is 100 kms/day
  • Shops to be given option to remain open all seven days in a week across markets.
  • Rs. 55,000 crore for roads and highways. Total allocation for road construction, including PMGSY, - Rs 97,000 crore
  • India's highest-ever production of motor vehicles was recorded in 2015
  • Total outlay for infrastructure in Budget 2016 now stands at Rs. 2,21,246 crore
  • New greenfield ports to be developed on east and west coasts
  • Revival of underserved airports. Centre to Partner with States to revive small airports for regional connectivity
  • 100 per cent FDI in marketing of food products produced and marketed in India
  • Dept. of Disinvestment to be renamed as Dept. of Investment and Public Asset Management
  • Govt will amend Motor Vehicle Act in passenger vehicle segment to allow innovation.
  • MAT will be applicable for startups that qualify for 100 per cent tax exemption
  • Direct tax proposals result in revenue loss of Rs.1060 crore, indirect tax proposals result in gain of Rs.20,670 crore
Agriculture
  • Total allocation for agriculture and farmer welfare at Rs 35984 crores
  • 28.5 lakh heactares of land wil be brought under irrigation.
  • 5 lakh acres to be brought under organic farming over a three year period
  • Rs 60,000 crore for recharging of ground water recharging as there is urgent need to focus on drought hit areas cluster development for water conservation.
  • Dedicated irrigation fund in NABARD of Rs.20.000 cr
  • Nominal premium and highest ever compensation in case of crop loss under the PM Fasal Bima Yojna.
Banking
  • Banks get a big boost: Rs 25,000 crore towards recapitalisation of public sector banks. Jaitley says: Banking Board Bureau will be operationalised, we stand solidly behind public sector banks.
  • Target of disbursement under MUDRA increased to 1,80,000 crore
  • Process of transfer of government stake in IDBI Bank below 50% started
  • General Insurance companies will be listed in the stock exchange
  • Govt to increase ATMs, micro-ATMs in post offices in next three years





Li-Fi = 100 x Wi-Fi


Li-Fi, a super-fast alternative to Wi-Fi, is finally moving from research labs to the real world after an Estonian startup implemented the technology within a commercial context.It has begun trialing the technology within offices and industrial environments.

The Li-Fi technology is able to send data at up to 1GBps - more than 100-times faster than current Wi-Fi technologies. At these speeds, a high-definition film could be downloaded in just a few seconds.

While Li-Fi may not completely replace Wi-Fi, the technologies could be used in parallel to create more efficient networks. The success of the pilot projects could see Li-Fi technology rolled out for consumers within the next three to four years, allowing people to access the internet using the light bulbs in their home.

Before mass adoption of Li-Fi can be realised, techniques need to be developed to retrofit current devices with the technology.

The inventor of Li-Fi, Professor Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, has previously claimed that in the future every LED lightbulb could be used as an ultra-fast alternative to Wi-Fi. In a TED talk describing the technology, Haas said that current infrastructure was suitable for the integration of Li-Fi.

"All we need to do is fit a small microchip to every potential illumination device and this would then combine two basic functionalities: illumination and wireless data transmission," Haas said. "In the future we will not only have 14 billion light bulbs, we may have 14 billion Li-Fis deployed worldwide for a cleaner, greener and even brighter future."

What is Li-Fi?

Li-Fi is a wireless technology similar to Wi-Fi that allows data to be sent at high speeds using visible light communication (VLC). Invented by Professor Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, Li-Fi has several advantages over Wi-Fi.

Li-Fi allows for greater security on local networks as light cannot pass through walls, which also means there is less interference between devices. Perhaps the most significant advantage is the speed that the technology offers. Researchers have achieved speeds of 224 gigabits per second in lab conditions.

Source: IBTimes Co., Ltd.