Upgrading Academic Standards and Employability in Punjab / North West India – Role of Society and Stakeholders – The Broad Perspective
Written purely in my personal capacity, this does not reflect the views of my employer in any manner. Dinesh K Kapila
Upgrading Academic Standards and Employability in Punjab / North West India – Role of Society and Stakeholders – The Broad Perspective<.
Interactions with industry officials and academicians plus my own professional thought processes have led to a perspective on employability and academic standards. The thought process that academic standards in North West India need to upgrade urgently and to be reoriented for employability as also entrepreneurship has now evolved as a reasoned belief. The recent and repeated incidents of violence at the academic campuses (even in the private sector) in this region also masks a deeper malaise, if considered in conjunction with the above. We can safely assume that the attempts to address falling academic standards and violence by an administrative fiat or a law and order approach will not work. The academicians, parents and society as such have to collaborate explicitly to raise academic and employability standards in this region. We firstly need to acknowledge our shortcomings before this region joins the likes of various academic institutions in central & eastern India with a tarnished reputation, with a consequential adverse impact on credibility and employability in the employment market.
Our academic institutions have already lost ground and even flagship courses do not attract talent or employers with the same enthusiasm as earlier. The issues however go deeper, these are primarily societal in origin and are germane to Punjab and the north west region as such. Since the process of liberalisation began, we have witnessed tremendous changes in certain regions of India. Entrepreneurship has sprung primarily from the middle class after being rooted in quality higher education. Infosys, Mphasis etc spring to mind as do cities such as Chennai, Bengaluru, Vadodara, Pune, Surat, Rajkot, Tirupur etc. Even Jaipur is now being touted as a major centre for employment. But beyond Delhi in north west India, we find an absence of entrepreneurship and success due to excellence in education of the middle class, specially in the technology sector. The rare stories that do exist in our region are of individuals who were well connected as such already to power centres and then built up the scale to generate corporate success.
The pertinent issue is that respect for intellectualism coupled with a need for quality education has been markedly absent from Punjab or for that matter north west India for quite some time. A leading business magazine while ranking Chandigarh quite highly in quality of life also went on to state that being a landlord and dealing in real estate and to some extent retail seemed to be the primary employment opportunities or occupation in Punjab. Entrepreneurship seems to have failed to mature, particularly in high end technology as also services. For this the current crop of elders or leaders, from varied professions, have a lot to answer for.
While the south and west of India have articles in papers devoted to need for technology as a tool for varied developmental issues, business as also exports, our papers or media are full of debates on politico religious issues, language and khap panchayats etc. Its not that the other regions are heavens of opportunity but it is high time we in Punjab or north west India punctured our own misplaced sense of well being and superiority and analysed our shortcomings. We cannot measure the well being of a society from the number of upper segment luxury cars sold in a city or pure physical infrastructure indicators. Soft skills are equally important for the progress of any society and need to be addressed on priority by the leaders and the society they represent.
The real developmental and economic action in India is now south of the Vindhyas except the NCR belt and it cannot be passed off as central largesse as its primarily driven by private sector players and private equity. Just as an aside, a leading private equity player told me informally that very few entrepreneurs in this region could make a quality presentation on need for funds or a business plan as compared to the entrepreneurs in south or west India. Some bankers also substantiate this viewpoint.
Now students or youngsters brandishing guns or connections and thinking they are the last word in virility and leadership are absolutely wrong but so is the society which refuses to condemn their actions unequivocally or the police force. If unchecked, the slide downwards can be too fast while the already rapidly developing regions of India move on. Virility and a misplaced sense of being masculine and superior by violence or muscle power has been ingrained in us as a society since long but now needs to be controlled.
This issue can be approached from another viewpoint, the number of professional institutes ranked highly from this region or valued for quality by HR officials from well known corporates in the Management, Information Technology, Engineering or even Fashion Technology sectors. The institutes are just a handful, primarily as the intellectual capital itself from such institutes which imparts knowledge is not rated highly. Students with merit flock to professional educators in Pune, Bangalore, Vellore, Manipal etc.The techie from south of the vindhyas is a bit of a joke as also awe in the north but unless we initiate the respect for knowledge and intellect again, we cannot match the progress and employment opportunities being generated in the west or south India. Our present societal mores in the north west seem to place a high value on connections, clout, money or physical prowess and a quick return on capital with a minimal concern for human capital. It should rather be on support and respect for knowledge, technology, ethics and a genuine concern for the human resources.
The amount of regard for NRIs in our region certainly seems unwarranted as such considering their minimal contribution to boosting intellectual content and knowledge. Their inclination seems more for gaining importance, both political and economic here rather than in their adopted homelands. Likewise, the corporate leaders from this region seem to exhibit normally an unseemly haste to migrate to the NCR once their operations scale up. This deprives us in the north west of valuable corporate intellectual capital at the senior level. The factors to shift head offices and operations seem to be many but a primary factor seems to be the reluctance of senior valuable potential employees to work from cities in the north west. This is but natural when the value system of the youth or even elders seem to place more importance on the thanedar or even patwari rather than the corporate intellect !. I am not decrying certain professions but suggest a change in social mores to respect a wider range of professions. Another pertinent point, how many major well respected corporate houses across are now owned or started by Punjabis or residents of north west India.
The states of this region do state that the expansion, modernisation and reorientation of Technical Education and Industrial Training systems to match with the needs of modern corporate organizations is a priority but this is yet to be apparent on the ground. 361 Colleges, 7 architecture colleges, 4 biotech colleges, 48 engineering colleges, 40 management colleges, 38 law colleges, 6 mass communication colleges, 4 universities etc in Punjab are just the physical aspect or numbers. The quality of education imparted and value placed on the pass outs from professional institutions is the real test of the quality of education. Just as an aside, we need to quantify the number of papers contributed by educationists from this region in leading journals of their professions or we can attempt to quantify the number of modern day respected management experts who have emerged from this region. Again pertinently, the few professional experts of repute that do emerge rarely get the respect from our society and stakeholders in governance that they actually deserve. This indirectly impacts adversely the respect for the drive in excellence or professionalism amongst the youth.
As already explained, we need to rebalance our value systems and mores, with leaders in varied fields stressing the need to change and to evolve as a society with a focus on respect for soft skills, quality professional education and employability. The academicians need to be the initiators with leaders from industry in this regard.
==================================================
Upgrading Academic Standards and Employability in Punjab / North West India – Role of Society and Stakeholders – The Broad Perspective<.
Interactions with industry officials and academicians plus my own professional thought processes have led to a perspective on employability and academic standards. The thought process that academic standards in North West India need to upgrade urgently and to be reoriented for employability as also entrepreneurship has now evolved as a reasoned belief. The recent and repeated incidents of violence at the academic campuses (even in the private sector) in this region also masks a deeper malaise, if considered in conjunction with the above. We can safely assume that the attempts to address falling academic standards and violence by an administrative fiat or a law and order approach will not work. The academicians, parents and society as such have to collaborate explicitly to raise academic and employability standards in this region. We firstly need to acknowledge our shortcomings before this region joins the likes of various academic institutions in central & eastern India with a tarnished reputation, with a consequential adverse impact on credibility and employability in the employment market.
Our academic institutions have already lost ground and even flagship courses do not attract talent or employers with the same enthusiasm as earlier. The issues however go deeper, these are primarily societal in origin and are germane to Punjab and the north west region as such. Since the process of liberalisation began, we have witnessed tremendous changes in certain regions of India. Entrepreneurship has sprung primarily from the middle class after being rooted in quality higher education. Infosys, Mphasis etc spring to mind as do cities such as Chennai, Bengaluru, Vadodara, Pune, Surat, Rajkot, Tirupur etc. Even Jaipur is now being touted as a major centre for employment. But beyond Delhi in north west India, we find an absence of entrepreneurship and success due to excellence in education of the middle class, specially in the technology sector. The rare stories that do exist in our region are of individuals who were well connected as such already to power centres and then built up the scale to generate corporate success.
The pertinent issue is that respect for intellectualism coupled with a need for quality education has been markedly absent from Punjab or for that matter north west India for quite some time. A leading business magazine while ranking Chandigarh quite highly in quality of life also went on to state that being a landlord and dealing in real estate and to some extent retail seemed to be the primary employment opportunities or occupation in Punjab. Entrepreneurship seems to have failed to mature, particularly in high end technology as also services. For this the current crop of elders or leaders, from varied professions, have a lot to answer for.
While the south and west of India have articles in papers devoted to need for technology as a tool for varied developmental issues, business as also exports, our papers or media are full of debates on politico religious issues, language and khap panchayats etc. Its not that the other regions are heavens of opportunity but it is high time we in Punjab or north west India punctured our own misplaced sense of well being and superiority and analysed our shortcomings. We cannot measure the well being of a society from the number of upper segment luxury cars sold in a city or pure physical infrastructure indicators. Soft skills are equally important for the progress of any society and need to be addressed on priority by the leaders and the society they represent.
The real developmental and economic action in India is now south of the Vindhyas except the NCR belt and it cannot be passed off as central largesse as its primarily driven by private sector players and private equity. Just as an aside, a leading private equity player told me informally that very few entrepreneurs in this region could make a quality presentation on need for funds or a business plan as compared to the entrepreneurs in south or west India. Some bankers also substantiate this viewpoint.
Now students or youngsters brandishing guns or connections and thinking they are the last word in virility and leadership are absolutely wrong but so is the society which refuses to condemn their actions unequivocally or the police force. If unchecked, the slide downwards can be too fast while the already rapidly developing regions of India move on. Virility and a misplaced sense of being masculine and superior by violence or muscle power has been ingrained in us as a society since long but now needs to be controlled.
This issue can be approached from another viewpoint, the number of professional institutes ranked highly from this region or valued for quality by HR officials from well known corporates in the Management, Information Technology, Engineering or even Fashion Technology sectors. The institutes are just a handful, primarily as the intellectual capital itself from such institutes which imparts knowledge is not rated highly. Students with merit flock to professional educators in Pune, Bangalore, Vellore, Manipal etc.The techie from south of the vindhyas is a bit of a joke as also awe in the north but unless we initiate the respect for knowledge and intellect again, we cannot match the progress and employment opportunities being generated in the west or south India. Our present societal mores in the north west seem to place a high value on connections, clout, money or physical prowess and a quick return on capital with a minimal concern for human capital. It should rather be on support and respect for knowledge, technology, ethics and a genuine concern for the human resources.
The amount of regard for NRIs in our region certainly seems unwarranted as such considering their minimal contribution to boosting intellectual content and knowledge. Their inclination seems more for gaining importance, both political and economic here rather than in their adopted homelands. Likewise, the corporate leaders from this region seem to exhibit normally an unseemly haste to migrate to the NCR once their operations scale up. This deprives us in the north west of valuable corporate intellectual capital at the senior level. The factors to shift head offices and operations seem to be many but a primary factor seems to be the reluctance of senior valuable potential employees to work from cities in the north west. This is but natural when the value system of the youth or even elders seem to place more importance on the thanedar or even patwari rather than the corporate intellect !. I am not decrying certain professions but suggest a change in social mores to respect a wider range of professions. Another pertinent point, how many major well respected corporate houses across are now owned or started by Punjabis or residents of north west India.
The states of this region do state that the expansion, modernisation and reorientation of Technical Education and Industrial Training systems to match with the needs of modern corporate organizations is a priority but this is yet to be apparent on the ground. 361 Colleges, 7 architecture colleges, 4 biotech colleges, 48 engineering colleges, 40 management colleges, 38 law colleges, 6 mass communication colleges, 4 universities etc in Punjab are just the physical aspect or numbers. The quality of education imparted and value placed on the pass outs from professional institutions is the real test of the quality of education. Just as an aside, we need to quantify the number of papers contributed by educationists from this region in leading journals of their professions or we can attempt to quantify the number of modern day respected management experts who have emerged from this region. Again pertinently, the few professional experts of repute that do emerge rarely get the respect from our society and stakeholders in governance that they actually deserve. This indirectly impacts adversely the respect for the drive in excellence or professionalism amongst the youth.
As already explained, we need to rebalance our value systems and mores, with leaders in varied fields stressing the need to change and to evolve as a society with a focus on respect for soft skills, quality professional education and employability. The academicians need to be the initiators with leaders from industry in this regard.
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the mindset is still seeped in a time warp. agriculture, land and associated spin-offs from land are the virtues, so the investments also come in plots and sale of plots, the feudal notion would not change unless the trigger for change comes with changing the attitude towards woman. the examples of cities quoted bear ample evidence. it is catharsis, and invasive operations would not do. change has to be begin with us.
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