Hi,
In the Day 2 of the meeting (on Sunday July 1st, 2007) we arrived just in time
to have the lunch (got value for money - the $110 we had paid each for the
Assam 2007) - I was able to identify the dish with the shrimp (and avoided a
painful alergy outbreak ) .
At the same time meeting of Assam Society was going on - I could make out the
sentences in English which were focused on non-profit work and fund-raising (of
about $2,500 only) and projects been sponsored and monitored in Assam.
Later Partha-da Gogoi presented a passionate presentation for the self-help
groups and business initiative and mentoring for engineering students etc
http://www.nepif.weblet.in/ North East Professional Institutes Forum
under the leadership of Assam Institute of Management
http://www.aimguwahati.com/ -- which was later shown in front of the Chief
Minister --
alongwith a presentation slideshow of http://www.pearllifeline.com/ funded and
spearheaded by an NRI/NRA http://www.assamtribune.com/may0507/Photo4.html who
advised US President George Bush on medical stuff.
http://www.posoowa.org/2007/06/30/a-need-for-expanding-engineering-education-facilities-in-assam-for-economic-growth-and-human-development/
After that was the persuasive presentation for promoting engineering college by
Jugal-da Kalita based on research by Jugal-da (IIT , Phd UPenn - Ivy League
Univ, Prof Computer Science, Colorado) , Umesh-da Tabildar (IIT , NASA, USA ),
Jukti-da Kalita (IIT, IIM, PhD Columbia) , Mantu-da Bhaishya ( BITS, Pilani ) ,
Ganesh-a Bora (PhD Kansas - Agriculture engineering) , Durba-da Bhattacharya
(Prof Computer science - Tejpur Univ, Assam)
--- with comments on it by Gautom Barua (Director IIT- Guwahati Computer
Science) and other IIT profs and Dipankar-da Medhi (Prof Computer Science at
Kansas and AssamNet Co-founder)
The Chief Minster was in a state of bliss --- especially after the negative
reception he received at Boston conference where he was only questioned about
the annual flooding of Guwahati (he later spoke of Global Warming which might
lead initail floods by melting of glaciers followed by drought - when no more
glaciers). He said that he is so pleased with these presentation which have a
positive note and aim to improve the situation of Assam.
Main Points of the engineering college presentation -- Orissa has 13,000
employed by Infosys for computer work -- even though has much worse travel
connection than Assam. Gautam Barua (IIT - G director) was told by Infosys
Chief (Nilekani is IIT batchmate of Gautam-da ) that Assam only produces 750
engg grads compared to 13,000 by Orissa - and Infosys wants 80% of its
employees to be local -atleast.
Second, Assam has 2.5% of India's population but only 0.2% of its engineering
colleges and only 0.17% of its engineering graduates. I agreed with Jugal-da
that engineering education might act as a "pull" in improving basic education
(at school level) .
Later during lunch Jugal-da, Partha-da and others were having lively
discussion with the CM. The CM had declared that his govt had declared already
that the year 2007 was the Year of Education and passed a Bill (confirmed by
his ADC later to me) to open privately run engineering colleges etc. Jugal-da
however, told me that he was not able to lay hands on any such Bill being
passed by Assam govt - but may have been introduced.
I was within one feet of the CM and even made eye contact but I conceded to
the stalwarts waiting to talk to him - who could have more immediate impact or
synergy.
Partha-da in his very professional approach showed that it was possible to
have business outreach delegations to US -- since backward states like
Jharkhand and Uttranchal have been making waves in US. Utpal-da Brahma (IIT,
IIM and National Defense Academy selected ) was of the opinion that first
local Indian companies need to be invited to Assam and based on their
performance MNCs would get attracted to invest (FDI) in Assam.
There are more than one way to skin a cat , however!!!!
Jugal-da and Partha-da rightly noted that NRAs have yet to get involved with
entrepreneurial ventures and thus, professional education is the key to
economic development of Assam -- a fact whole heartedly agreed to by Assam
Chief Minister.
He did say the Assam's economy was growing at 3% before his tenure and now is
at 6% and want it to go up to 8-9% to catch up with rest of India - and
negated my question (anonymous) that corruption was on the rise otherwise how
could current growth be possible.
(My comment - Indian embassy in DC has now opened doors for anyone seeking
corroption of any other info - under RTI - Right To Info Act)
Any comments?
Umesh
Umesh Sharma
Washington D.C.
1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used )
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
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