Rajen-da,
I was expecting to meet you at Assam 2007. Hope you are doing well. More in a
private email - thank you for your timely help in my problems. God Bless You.
Gautom Barua's name I heard from ADC of the Chief Minister who was smoking
outside the hotel and reacted to my comments about Jugal-da's presentation -
about Infosys's comments about engineering grdautaes in Assam (only 750 - and
only 3 engineering colleges -- compared to 250 in Andhra Pradesh -mostly
privately run). The ADC perhaps wanted to show that he is on top of things .
Umesh
Rajen & Ajanta Barua <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Umesh-ji:
Thanks for the update. I am glad to see that there were meaningful
discussions with the CM on relevent issues. Thanks to Jugal and Partha for
taking the initiative. I am glad to see involvement of Gautom Barua (Director
IIT, Guwahati) on the issue of additional engineering colleges in Assam. Was
he personally present in the Assam-2007? I have already written to Jugal that
they have done a great job because this is the first time ever that we
Assamese have prepared an indepth scientific report on what we have and what
we need and why, at least for the engineering education. If we follow this
approach, instead of GOI Mai-Bap to bless Assam, we will win. Let us keep up
with the issues and follow up agrresively.
Thanks
Rajenda
----- Original Message -----
From: umesh sharma
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 11:30 PM
Subject: [Assam] Day2: Assam 2007: Pt2; engg colleges, NRAs & CM
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/
---------------------------------
New Yahoo! Mail is the ultimate force in competitive emailing. Find out more
at the Yahoo! Mail Championships. Plus: play games and win prizes.
---------------------------------
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
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/
---------------------------------
Hate storage limits? Get Yahoo! Mail with unlimited storage._______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
