Interesting Facts about Education in India

Interesting Facts about Education in India

There has been always a major drawback of Education system in India. What surprising is that our country has built IIMs, IITs, law schools, and academic institutes, yet the students in our country who score 90 % marks, find it tough to get admission in the college of their preference. Establishing new schools and colleges will not improve the standard of education in our country. Imparting education among the youth is very essential to build a better future of the country.

• One amongst nine children completes schooling and gets enrolled in a college. In comparison to US, India has the least higher education enrolment scenario ratio of 11 % whereas US comprise of 83% higher education scenario.
• To reach high enrolment ratio in 2012, the 11^th year estimated that our country needs to put in Rs 2, 26,410 crores but, unfortunately, only 77,933 crores, which is one- fourth of the total amount, are assigned.
• A survey illustrated that just one amongst ten students, who holds a degree in humanities, and only one amongst four engineering students, is employed in the country.
• The drop out ratio, among the teachers, was also common in the high standard of business schools such as the IITs’ faculty. The drop out ratio was about 20-30 %.
• A survey, conducted by the Accreditation Council and National Assessment, illustrated that 70 % universities and 90% Colleges were graded in low standards of education.
• It was found that almost all the Universities revised their national curriculum at least once in five years.
• Over the control of government authority and increasing agencies, the standards of the education system have lowered in India and lead to corruption.
• In past 50 years, 44 institutions, which were private, were approved as deemed university by the University Grant Commission. Also, in the past five years, the body gave the above status to 49 more colleges.
• A survey demonstrated that there is high increase in suicide cases among students, due to high pressure of performing well in the board exams.
• It was found out that Indians spend $7 billion to study abroad in universities, due to lower standards of education in India. It is surprising when the government still allows universities from abroad, to establish in India.
• The standard of school education is extremely poor in India, especially in the north zone. On an everyday basis, there is not any teaching session in 50 % the primary schools.
• 50% of the nation’s population is lower than 25 years. Mostly, the age group consists in between 18 to 23; it signifies that the youngsters form the main population. Unfortunately, in India, youngsters are not well equipped with skills and knowledge that could contribute in the development of India.

7 interesting facts of India..........?

1. The first country to consume sugar

India was the first country to develop extraction and purifying techniques of sugar. Many visitors from abroad learnt the refining and cultivation of sugar from us.

2.The wettest inhabited place in the world

Mawsynram, a village on the Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, receives the highest recorded average rainfall in the world. Cherrapunji, also a part of Meghalaya, holds the record for the most rainfall in the calendar year of 1861.

3.Water on the moon was discovered by India

In September 2009, India's ISRO Chandrayaan- 1 using its Moon Mineralogy Mapper detected water on the moon for the first time.

4. India is the world's second-largest English speaking country 

India is second only to the USA when it comes to speaking English with around 125 million people speaking the language, which is only 10% of our population. This is expected to grow by quite a margin in the coming years.

5.Largest number of vegetarians in the world

Be it because of religious reasons or personal choices or both, around 20-40% of Indians are vegetarians, making it the largest vegetarian-friendly country in the world. 

6 The world's largest producer of milk

India recently overtook the European Union with production reaching over 132.4m tonnes in 2014. 

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7. Rabindranath Tagore also wrote the national anthem for Bangladesh

Rabindranath Tagore is credited not only for writing the Indian national anthem,  Jana Gana Mana,but the Bangladeshi national anthem,  Amar Sonar Bangla, as well. He was also offered knighthood by the British but refused the honour after the Jalianwala Bagh massacre.

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1 Year of Modi Govt

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If you work 12 hours, I will work 13. Why? Because I am not a Pradhan Mantri, but a Pradhan Sevak!” This was Narendra Modi’s pitch to the nation. He clearly stated in no uncertain terms that he wanted the role of the country’s Prime Minister and he was willing to work for the people.He openly said that he was willing to push himself and work harder than anyone else and promised to bring back the happy days if his government was voted to power.

The people voted for the BJP, led by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the BJP won the Lok Sabha elections, with 282 seats on its own. The alliance of National Democratic Alliance (NDA)—has 336 seats in the lower house of the Parliament. This is the highest number of seats won by any party on its own since the 1984 Lok Sabha elections, when the Congress, led by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi won a landslide victory.

This brings me to one of the first and possibly the most important lesson that HR professionals can learn from Modi, which is to have a clear employee value proposition for their organizations.

1. The Value Proposition:

Modi clearly communicated the value proposition to the people and continued doing so even after coming into the power. He made is clear right upfront that when people voted for BJP they voted for him and he was the person who was going to provide maximum governance and work like the Pradhan sevak for the people of India and bring back the happy days!

HR needs to do the same for their organizations! HR needs to be clear on what is the employee value proposition. Having a clear value proposition aligns the employee or potential employee on what they can expect from the organization above and beyond their contractual terms and pay in return for their performance. The EVP needs to include opportunities for development, employees' experience of the organization’s culture, their relationships with managers and leaders and the work itself and what are the other advantages that they can expect once they join the organization. Once the Employee Value Proposition is clear and communicated it characterizes you as an employer and differentiates you from your competition.

2. India’s first social media Prime Minister!

Modi is India’s first social media Prime minister! He successfully leveraged the power of social media and his social assets are among the best in the world! He is second to Obama in his fan following and is constantly tweeting or posting pictures online keeping social media buzzing with his actions. Given that India is the worlds youngest country with the highest number of Gen Ys who are constantly trolling the internet Modi met his main constituents right where they wanted to meet him i.e. online. He truly embraced social media and transformed his image to that of a tech savvy leader ready to lead the country into the new age. This is the second big learning for HR!

HR professionals do recognize the power of Social media and there is some good work that is now seen where HR teams leverage social media well however the full power of social media is yet a long way off  and lots need to be done. The way Modi leveraged social media is by itself a superb case study and there is a lot to be learnt from it. HR teams need to adopt new media and learn to leverage the many tools that it provides to ensure that they are meeting their potential and existing employees at their own favorite ground.

There is a dire need for HR professionals to create a social media strategy to build their employer brands, to attract potential talent and to engage their existing employees. Fact is that today two out of five employers are already using social media to screen employees and over 35% of the hiring now happens through online sources. It is also a fact that over 92% of the employers use social media for their organizations but only about 70% of them are doing something in the HR space. HR today is not fully leveraging the power of this medium and more so because very few HR professionals are aware of the tools that can be applied to their work areas of talent attraction, engagement and branding. There is a need for HR professionals to learn and apply new media tools and technology.

3. Ensuring diversity and defining clear roles and responsibilities

Narendra Modi formed his cabinet based on the guiding principle of "minimum government and maximum governance". On 26th may 2014 the new cabinet assumed office, it consisted of seven female ministers, of whom 6 hold the rank of Cabinet minister. This is the highest number of female Cabinet ministers in any Indian government in history. The reason behind the choice of ministers and the number was because he wanted diversity and also wanted to expedite the process of decision-making and usher in greater accountability in the system.

According to a Gallup poll, 63% of Indians approved of their country's leadership in 2014, with 23% disapproving as against the figures in 2013, which were 30% approval, and 48% disapproval. Clearly Modi set the tone for the future governments to come.

HR teams need to lead the company’s diversity agenda ensuring that there is no gender discrimination within the organization. HR teams need to focus on creating more women leaders within their companies and leveraging the power of 49! Research clearly indicates that women are better at communications and relationship building; skills that are becoming extremely important in the digital age and climate and HR teams have to ensure focus and help create gender diversity within the company.

Just like in Modi’s cabinet where the roles and responsibilities of every cabinet minister were clarified upfront, HR needs to ensure the same clarity of job roles and responsibilities within the organizations. If employees are clearly communicated and are made aware of what they need to do and what are the expected deliverables then it will go a long way in improving productivity of the employee and quality of the outcomes.

4. Focusing on the basics:

Post forming the government Modi immediately focused on bringing the attention to the basics. Basic sanitation facilities, reigning in black money transactions, creating brand India internationally, sharing a value proposition of the brand with the world, to instilling national pride Modi spent his first year building India inside out. He focused on making the people of the nation believe in themselves and today there is a nation rising.

Modi started with the basics, he quickly kicked off the Swaach Bharat Abhiyan, followed by the Clean Ganga Campaign which was his commitment to his constituency and then launched the “Make in India” initiative, which moved global focus to India. He reached out to the country and the Indian Diaspora to instill a sense of national pride and seek their help to build India which caused a movement of sorts with Indians now believing that it is their time.

Similarly HR professionals have to start with the basics!
Without dealing with the basics any attempt to deliver HR to business will not fructify. It is only when you have your basic processes in place, when you have set out your policy guidelines and have been successful in staffing your business teams and engaging them that you can build further. HR professionals not only have to be able to deal with all sorts of different personalities in an organization, but also have a strong working knowledge of the business side of things. They have to build ground up.

There are some HR professionals who want to work as business partners and spend time on the more perceived glamorous parts of HR like learning and development thinking that they can avoid dealing with the basics, which is a misnomer! You cannot partner a business if you don’t have a sense of reality at the ground level, you cannot advice if you have no clue of the real issues facing the organizations, not the ones that are told to you but the ones you experience when you work alongwith the teams and experience them yourself when building ground up.

5. Communicate, communicate, communicate

The hallmark of Modi’s first year has been the way he has kicked off one initiative after another and has been constantly communicating with the people of the country. Today people have the confidence in his leadership and many believe that this is just the beginning and best is now to follow. Modi has used not just social media but also his radio program and the YouTube channel  to reach out to the masses. The Modi government has certainly raised the bar on government action and has raised people’s hopes and faith in governance. The international community has given a thumbs-up to Narendra Modi and his administration.

HR needs to focus on creating and building initiatives by keeping the employee at the center of all communication and HR efforts. Employees need to know and feel that everything that is being done is for their benefit and the organization really cares for its people! Multiple communication channels have to be set up for employees to provide feedback so that corrective action can be initiated.

HR needs to learn the art of communicating effectively just like Modi. It needs to ensure that people within the organization are constantly updated and informed about all that is happening not just in the organization but also within the industry. Communication should be targeted to create a sense of belonging and pride. No amount of communication is enough in today’s times. There needs to be a clear strategy, which includes different strokes for different folks just like Modi who has been able to manage this well!

While there are many more lessons that can be learnt by HR professionals from Modi I think the above five are the most important ones. If implemented right they have the power to motivate the people in the organization to achieve greater success

Chinese Social Media: How do Weibo and WeChat Compare?

Weibo and WeChat dominate the social media landscape in Chinese society, especially with Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube being blocked from use. Westerners might find the names Weibo and WeChat rather similar, and even get the two muddled, but for marketers working to reach Chinese audiences, it’s important to understand the differences between the two platforms and how they are used. 

Weibo

Weibo is a microblogging network, a bit like Twitter if we must have a Western comparison. In fact, the word ‘weibo’ translates as ‘microblog’. It has around 600 million registered users (although not all of these are active), and 400 million businesses on board, with the bulk of its revenue coming from advertising and marketing.

People use Weibo to connect with friends, find news and information from trustworthy sources, research brands, share experiences and check out reviews.

It is generally considered easier to broadcast messages to a wider audience on Weibo compared to WeChat.

Some features of Weibo include:

• It operates on a ‘one-to-many’ basis where one person or company may have many followers.
• Messages and advertisements are more public on Weibo than on WeChat, and are more likely to go viral.
• It allows thumbnail pictures and media to be used with posts.
• Users are more able to view the activities of people they are not necessarily connected with.
• It has a limit of 140 characters for posts, and makes use of hashtags around topics / subjects.
• It is used as a source of news and information on products, services, places to visit and so on.
• The platform gets used by key opinion leaders (KOLs) – trusted experts on specific topics, often with a large following. This means users may be drawn to a product or service as a result of a recommendation by a KOL.
• It allows for scheduling of posts at different intervals.
• It can be used on desktop or mobile.
• It comes with analytics so marketers can measure the effectiveness of campaigns.

You can register for Weibo online or via the smartphone app.

WeChat

WeChat has around a billion registered accounts, and 600 million users. It has been likened to mobile Facebook, but the closest western equivalent is possibly WhatsApp – the message app for smartphones.

People use WeChat to gather news and information about products, travel destinations and experiences, and to converse with friends.

Some features of WeChat include:

• It is used on mobile phones rather than on desktop.
• It is largely designed for chatting, conversing and relationship building.
• WeChat is more private in nature than Weibo – facilitating one-to-one connections, with one-to-many connections being on a much smaller scale than Weibo.
• It comes with a number of free apps.
• The platform can be used to create brand stores.
• It has limited visibility compared to Weibo, which may make it harder to get a big following. However, it allows for more in-depth content and discussion, targeted marketing, and possibly also a more loyal following. It may also facilitate a more personalised service and higher quality of customer care.
• Marketers may be limited in the number of posts they can publish each day or week, depending on the type of account they have.
• Comes with the ‘Moments’ feature for private conversations between friends, where even comments by non-connections are not visible.

In order to market on WeChat, you need an official account which interested users can subscribe to. Providing high quality relevant content is important to maintain your subscribers.  

The key difference between the two

Essentially, Weibo is more open, fast and visible, while WeChat is more private and relationship-focused, which possibly makes it more suitable for targeted marketing and gaining a long-term loyal following.

Whether you use one or both for marketing depends on what you want to achieve. To find out more about which platform might be right for your marketing efforts, feel free to contact one of the highly experienced team members in our China Online Marketing division.

Social Media Has Spoken: #IStandWithAhmed

Social media lit up yesterday with #IStandWithAhmed. The hashtash is dedicated to Ahmed Mohamed, a fourteen year old student currently residing in Irving, Texas. Ahmed was arrested this Monday for bringing to school a clock that he built in hope of impressing one of his teachers. Unfortunately, that teacher mistook Ahmed's good intention and regarded the clock as an explosive. Ahmed was subsequently arrested by Irving's police department and charged with potentially building a hoax bomb.

Social Media Response

Photos of Ahmed being handcuffed and arrested quickly went viral on Wednesday morning. #IStandWithAhmed emerged and became the most talked about topic on both Facebook and Twitter. Support on social media for Ahmed flooded in as #IStandWithAhmed gained nearly one million tweets by the end of Wednesday night.

#IStandWithAhmed Tweets on September 14-16 (Source: Topsy)

Online supporters quickly rallied around #IStandWithAhmed arguing that school officials and authorities should not be punishing young students for their interest in science and technology. It didn't take long for Silicon Valley to come to Ahmed's defense as the story erupted on social media. Twitter, NASA, and Google along with many other tech companies all publicly supported Ahmed and condemned the Irving Unified School District and Police Department for the wrongful arrest.

NASA's and Twitter's Response to #IStandWithAhmed (Source: Twitter)

As the day progressed, President Obama and Hillary Clinton also spoke out on the issue, both publically condemning Ahmed's arrest. At the end of her tweet, Hillary Clinton encouraged Ahmed to "stay curious and keep building." After complimenting his clock, President Obama extended an invitation for Ahmed to visit the White House.

President Obama's White House Invitation to Ahmed (Source: Twitter)

#IStandWithAhmed Aftermath

On Wednesday morning, the Irving Police Department dropped all charges against Ahmed after their investigation that the hoax bomb was a harmless homemade clock. This happened in light of overwhelming support on social media for Ahmed. After receiving such an overwhelmingly positive response, Ahmed expressed his gratitude towards his social media supporters and his amazement with how strongly everyone stood behind him. Ahmed took his gratitude onto his newly made  Twitter account (@IStandWithAhmed), tweeting out a thank note to all his supporters. Early Wednesday evening, Ahmed gave an interview with PBS News Hour.

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