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Only 10% of Students Have Access to Higher Education in Country

CIEC Author

Source: Times of India via Newswatch India | January 5, 2014

NEW DELHI: Access to education beyond higher secondary schooling is a mere 10% among the university-age population in India. This is the finding of a report “Intergenerational and Regional Differentials in Higher Education in India” authored by development economist, Abusaleh Shariff of the Delhi-based Centre for Research and Debates in Development Policy and Amit Sharma, research analyst of the National Council of Applied Economic Research.  
 
The report says that a huge disparity exists — as far as access to higher education is concerned — across gender, socio-economic religious groups and geographical regions. The skew is most marked across regions. Thus, a dalit or Muslim in south India, though from the most disadvantaged among communities, would have better access to higher education than even upper caste Hindus in many other regions. Interestingly, people living in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal — designated as the north central region — and those in northeast India have the worst access to higher education. Those in southern India and in the northern region — consisting of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Haryana and Delhi — are relatively better placed in this regard.  
 
In the age group 22-35 years, over 15% in the northern region and 13% in the southern region have access to higher education. In the north-central region, the number is just 10% for men and 6% for women whereas in the northeast, only 8% men and 4% women have access to higher education.  
 
The report, brought out by the US-India Policy Institute in Washington, is based on data from the 64th round of NSSO survey 2007-08. It throws up quite a few other interesting facts. For instance, among communities, tribals and dalits fare worst with just 1.8% of them having any higher education. Muslims are almost as badly off, with just 2.1% able to go for further learning. Similarly, just 2% of the rural population is educated beyond higher secondary level, compared to 12% of the urban population and just 3% of women got a college education compared to 6% of men.  
 
South India offers the best opportunities for socially inclusive access to higher education including technical education and education in English medium. For instance, the share of Hindu SC/ST in technical education in south India is about 22%, and the share of Muslims 25%. These were the lowest shares among all communities in south India. But this was higher than the share of most communities including Hindu OBCs and upper caste Hindus in most other regions. South India also has the highest proportion of higher education in the private sector at about 42%, followed by western India where it is 22%. The northeast has the least privatized higher education sector and is almost entirely dependent on government-run or aided institutions.  
 
Not surprisingly, government institutions are the cheapest places to study at, with annual expenditures ranging from less than Rs 1,000 to around Rs 1,500, except in north and south India, where the average is above Rs 2,000. Both private and private-aided institutions are quite costly, making them difficult to access for the poor. With little regulation of the quality of education and cost differentials, the poor and deprived are often trapped in low quality education, the report points out. It adds that although free education is provided at school level, it is almost non-existent at higher levels.  
 
The report also compares India’s low 10% access to higher education with China’s 22% enrolment and the 28% enrolment in the US. Since the early 1990s, China’s post-secondary enrolments grew from 5 million to 27 million, while India’s expanded from 5 million to just 13 million, says the report, while emphasizing that higher education has the potential to enhance productivity and economic value both at the individual and national levels.  
 
“The government has to urgently address the geographical skew in the availability of higher education facilities in the two regions of north-east and north-central,” says Shariff. “The central region, comprising Chhattisgarh, MP, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha, too needs attention. There is so much talk about a Harvard in India. I say, give two hoots to Harvard. What we need are thousands of community colleges that can offer professional courses so that youngsters can improve their skills and become employable.”

TCS Insights: In regards to the ability to access a higher education, disparities are apparent across a various groups in India. Due to a lack of regulation, in terms of the quality of education provided, not being able to afford a private institution can lead to individuals earning a poorer education because of where they are from, in addition to factors such as religious beliefs and gender. It is thought that increased enrolment in higher education has been linked to both individual and national improvements.

India Confronting Multiple Challenges, Crises in Higher Education: Ansari

CIEC Author

Source: News Track India | January, 9, 2014

Lucknow, (ANI): Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari on Thursday said that India as a nation is facing multiple challenges and crises in terms of delivery in the higher education sector, and warned that if comprehensive correctives are not initiated, the demographic dividend would be severely compromised on the employability front in the years to come. 

He said that it was lamentable to note that in spite of the higher education system turning out nearly seven lakh science and engineering graduates every year,industry surveys have shown that only 25 percent of these are employable without further training. 

He said comprehensive correctives had to be applied on quality covering students, faculty and teaching, research and assessment standards while delivering an annual convocation address at the University of Lucknow. 

He said that any assessment of what ails “our institutions of higher education must begin with the quality of the school leavers that seek admission in them.” 

“The challenge here is to modulate the very considerable quality difference between the elite higher secondary schools in the public and private sectors on the one hand and the average or below average ones on the other, a difference that is often camouflaged by the variations in marking standards by different Boards,” he said. 

Ansari said that in the 21st century, the world is increasingly moving towards a knowledge economy, where industrial trade relations are being replaced by a complex system of information exchange. 

“This has shifted the focus to a nation’s abilities and resources to produce and generate new knowledge that can place it on top of the global power hierarchy. Countries are now required to match the global demand for skills with appropriate supply of human resources in order to remain competitive in the global market place,” he said. 

He expressed that a disturbing phenomenon is the lack of focus on research with only one per cent of the enrolled students pursuing research in various areas. 

According to data for 2009, India stood eleventh in terms of number of papers published, seventeenth in terms of the number of citations, and thirty fourth in terms of number of citations per paper. 

“Our research output as global share of scientific publications was a mere 3.5 per cent compared to 21 per cent of China. The total number of patent applications filed by Indians in 2010 comprised only 0.3 per cent of the total applications filed globally. The picture is no better in social sciences and humanities. In social sciences, India is 12th in ranking with 1.18 percent of global publication share compared to China’s 3rd rank and 5.14 percent share,” Ansari said. 

The vice president said that given the structure of the higher education system, the attainments of these objectives would need to be a collective effort of the central and state governments.

TCS Insights: It is said that various sectors of the Indian education system is in need of corrective actions. Ansari claims that further investments in research, similar to those seen in Canada, can make India increasingly competitive in the global knowledge economy.

Canada Announces $43 Million in NSERC Grants

CIEC Author

Source: Canada News Release, Courtesy of Academica | January 9, 2014

Canadian Minister of State (Science and Technology) Greg Rickford today announced that the most recent round of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) funding will provide $43 million to 77 research teams at universities across the country. The funding will go towards 2 grants: the Strategic Network Grants and the Strategic Project Grants. The funds will help researchers work with companies and other organizations on long-term projects to address industrial and societal challenges.

TCS Insights: The Canadian government aims to use these grants to increase research and training in areas that influence the Canadian economy and environment over the next decade. Additionally, this funding will go towards research that involves interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers and institutions such as solar power and cloud-based computing projects.

How long-term unemployment is affecting the job search

Canada India Education Council (CIEC)

Source: The Globe And Mail

What is the only thing worse than unemployment? Long-term unemployment, apparently. If you lose your job, there are a bunch of hardships you are inevitably going to endure until you find a new one. If you do not find a new one in a hurry, you may face the additional hardship of not finding one for an increasingly long period of time. Employers, it seems, view people who have not held a job with an eye that increases in wariness in proportion to their joblessness.

The insights come from an upcoming paper by Swedish economists Stefan Eriksson and Dan-Olof Rooth, which is to be published in the American Economic Review and was quoted in a blog in this week’s Wall Street Journal. The economists used Swedish data on calls returned to job applicants, sorting job seekers by duration of unemployment. What they found was that being unemployed for a short period of time made no difference at all to job seekers’ prospects, but that being unemployed for longer did.

Actually, it made a difference for workers who were applying for jobs that did not require a college degree, who saw their returned calls decline by 20 per cent. Workers who were applying for jobs that did need more education did not see the same decline in response, although it is difficult to know why. The old rule of thumb is that for every $10,000 you earn, it takes a month to find a new job so perhaps those seeking more educated, higher-wage employees realize they are interviewing people in a more selective, slower job market. Perhaps, too, there is a realization that higher wage workers may have left their last positions with a hefty goodbye package and hence may not be in as much of a hurry as those with more modest skills.

At any rate, the study says little about who actually got hired, just who got in the door. As well, although the Swedish economists believe their research has implications for the U.S. as well as Sweden, it is not hard to believe that the latter is a kinder gentler place than the former, which has gone through a brutal recession. Even in (relatively) kinder and gentler Canada, it seems likely that those with a long period of unemployment on their resume are going to get a harder look than those who are fresh from previous employment, whatever their level of education.

The good news, if there is any good news in the context of unemployment, is that over this business cycle, long-term unemployment has been a considerably less severe problem in Canada than it is in the United States. According to Statistics Canada, as of June, 2013 (the last month for which Canadian data is available), the average duration of unemployment in Canada was 18.3 weeks. In contrast, the average duration of unemployment in the U.S. was 35.6 weeks. In the Canadian case, the figure has not changed too much from before the recession. In June, 2008, the average duration of unemployment in Canada was 13.9 weeks, suggesting a lengthening of about 50 per cent. In the U.S., the length of unemployment has effectively doubled. As of June, approximately 19.9 per cent of the unemployed in Canada were without work for 27 weeks or more, while in the U.S., the figure was 36.7 per cent.

The duration of unemployment is a key indicator to watch. There has been much ado about the improvement in the U.S. labour market, and it is certainly true that the unemployment rate has dipped sharply. As of July, the U.S. unemployment rate was 7.4 per cent, compared to 10 per cent at its peak in October, 2009. Still, over that same period, the duration of unemployment has increased by about 9 weeks, and is coming down very slowly (by about 4 weeks over the past two years). Until this indicator shows an improvement, it will be hard to say that the malaise in the U.S. labour market has lifted, and with it much of the concerns about the global economy that are keeping everybody’s interest rates, including Canada’s, on hold.

Virgin Atlantic eyes growth in India, US

Canada India Education Council (CIEC)

Source: Business Standard

CEO rules out investment in India, feels UK travel bond will not jeopardize travel.

After concluding a joint venture deal with Delta Airlines, Virgin Atlantic Airways was eyeing a bigger pie of the lucrative India-US market, Virgin Atlantic’s chief executive Craig Kreeger said on Monday. He ruled out investment in an Indian carrier, saying Virgin Atlantic was in talks with global airlines for code sharing on its routes within the UK.

Known for its flamboyant and trendy image, Virgin Atlantic is a minnow among airlines due to a small fleet and limited network. Though it flies to Delhi and Mumbai daily, as well as to nine cities in the US, it has a smaller network compared to British Airways, which flies to five cities in India and twenty destinations in the US. Along with its code-sharing partner American Airlines, British Airways could offer 200 additional destinations.

“We are seeing growth in the India-US market. The combination of our excellent timing and our products and services is working well for us,” Kreeger told Business Standard. The tie-up with Delta, which acquired Singapore Airline’s 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic earlier this year, offers the airline an opportunity to expand the US network.

The two airlines have already announced code-shares, reciprocal frequent flyer programmes and lounge access and are awaiting the US government’s approval to cooperate on creating joint schedules, fares, etc. Kreeger said the joint venture was likely to be kick-started in January 2014. The deal allows Virgin Atlantic to sell on Delta’s flights beyond London to points in the US, as well as on Delta’s domestic routes in the US, increasing its revenue possibilities.

Virgin Atlantic also plans to scale up its corporate business in India. “Last year, we entered the Mumbai market with a different approach. We took a valuable asset, a peak time landing slot in London. We felt this market needed connectivity to the US, Manchester and Scotland. From both directions, we are able to offer greater connections. We are actively involved in expanding corporate sales,” Kreeger said.

He refused to specify on expanding code-share with Jet Airways. The airline was in talks with various carriers that didn’t partner British Airways, he said, adding Virgin Atlantic was keen to connect on domestic routes in the UK. The airline was evaluating plans to join Air France-KLM-Delta-led SkyTeam, a global grouping of airlines, he said.

“Security of borders and immigration is in the purview of the government but I have expressed concern to the British High Commission in India over the proposed bond for Indian travellers,” he said, adding any possible restriction would only have a modest impact on travel to the UK. According to information made available by the High Commission, if applicable on Indians, the move would impact less than one per cent of UK visa applicants, Kreeger said. “The visa acceptance rate is 90 per cent. So, this will not impact any of the 90 per cent who are currently getting a visa. More impediments in the way of transportation are not good, but I am optimistic its impact would be modest,” he said.

India on the brink of its own financial crisis

Canada India Education Council (CIEC)

Source: The Guardian

In a reprise of the 1997-98 Asian crisis, India’s stock market is plunging, bond yields are nudging 10% and capital is flooding out of the country.

India’s financial woes are rapidly approaching the critical stage. The rupee has depreciated by 44% in the past two years and hit a record low against the US dollar on Monday. The stock market is plunging, bond yields are nudging 10% and capital is flooding out of the country.

In a sense, this is a classic case of deja vu, a revisiting of the Asian crisis of 1997-98 that acted as an unheeded warning sign of what was in store for the global economy a decade later. An emerging economy exhibiting strong growth attracts the attention of foreign investors. Inward investment comes in together with hot money flows that circumvent capital controls. Capital inflows push up the exchange rate, making imports cheaper and exports dearer. The trade deficit balloons, growth slows, deep-seated structural flaws become more prominent and the hot money leaves.

The trigger for the run on the rupee has been the news from Washington that the Federal Reserve is considering scaling back – “tapering” – its bond-buying stimulus programme from next month. This has consequences for all emerging market economies: firstly, there is the fear that a reduced stimulus will mean weaker growth in the US, with a knock-on impact on exports from the developing world. Secondly, high-yielding currencies such as the rupee have benefited from a search for yield on the part of global investors. If policy is going to be tightened in the US, then the dollar becomes more attractive and the rupee less so.

But while the Indonesian rupee and the South African rand are also feeling the heat, it is India – with its large trade and budget deficits – that looks like the accident most likely to happen. On past form, emerging market crises go through three stages: in stage one, policymakers do nothing in the hope that the problem goes away. In stage two, they cobble together some panic measures, normally involving half-baked capital controls and selling of dollars in an attempt to underpin their currencies. In stage three, they either come up with a workable plan themselves or call in the IMF. India is on the cusp of stage three.

India Inc presses panic button on sagging rupee, economy

Canada India Education Council (CIEC)

Source: Business Standard

Indian companies gearing up for new ‘normal’ for rupee.

With rupee ending at an all-time low of 63.13 a dollar, chief executive officers (CEOs) of top Indian companies are redrawing their currency risk strategies as a “new normal” for the rupee is fast emerging.

Some of the top companies such as Reliance Industries, Birlas, Essar, Adani group, and the Tatas have huge exposure in foreign currency and any change in the rupee’s value increases their costs of operations in a big way.

“I am disappointed, not surprised, with the way the rupee is falling,” says Rahul Bajaj, chairman of Bajaj Auto and one of corporate India’s vocal voices. “We are paying for the last four years of inaction and absence of reforms. The government has spent a lot of money in loan waivers, NREGA (employment guarantee scheme) and Food Security Bill and all these populist measures have now added to the deficit. We are not opposing pro-poor moves. We are against populist measures. We should be treating the disease and not the symptom. Now is the time to change policies.”

Mahindra & Mahindra chairman Anand Mahindra recently said the rupee is falling without a parachute and capital controls announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is just taking India back to the 1980s. The mood in the corporate camp is sombre. This is in spite of leading CEOs’ many suggestions to the Prime Minister during their meeting on July 29 on how to ring-fence the rupee. However, since then, the rupee has been continuing its downward journey.

Other CEOs say the economic slowdown and lack of initiatives by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is unprecedented which is taking the country on the road to a complete shutdown. “There are no takers for infrastructure projects, and no growth in order book due to land acquisition problems, environmental clearance and corruption. This is perhaps one of the worst times for Indian companies to do business in India,” said the CEO of an infrastructure company asking not to be named.

RBI has already acted aggressively, tightening liquidity and raising interest rates, banning companies and individuals from spending money abroad in an attempt to stem the ongoing rupee weakening. RBI’s surprise tightening has been stark, but similar to that in early-1998, soon after the Asian crisis. This time, however, CEOs say that none of these measures is helping the rupee stop its slide against the dollar.

Bajaj says the government should change its policies instead of trying to manage the Indian currency. CEOs such as S Gopalakrishnan, executive vice-chairman of Infosys, say it would have been more appropriate to initiate policies that prevent an influx of non-essential imports such as coal and iron ore, and augment forex inflows by encouraging foreign direct investments. For this, a conducive and stable policy regime is needed, they add. Foreign institutional investments should also be liberalised by removing short-term capital gains tax.

According to the CEOs, another worrying factor is that oil prices are going up while the rupee is falling. With Brent crude at around $110 a barrel, its impact on inflation and Indian economy is still not being taking into account.

Under the World Trade Organisation rules, India can always impose a higher import duty on expensive, foreign-made cars and this is the right time to take action. “This was something the Prime Minister was made aware of on June 29. Importing coal into India when Coal India is sitting on massive reserves is a shame, they say. The government should immediately take action to part privatise Coal India so that all those power plants, which have shut down due to lack of coal can be revived,” said a CEO.

For many companies including the Adanis, Lanco and Reliance Power, the falling currency has been a double whammy. Many companies had taken massive loans from abroad without taking a forward cover.

They are also importing raw materials from overseas. With the surprise fall in the rupee, many companies are staring at the prospect of a default. “This is like the replay of the 2008-09 crisis. The only difference is that this time the government is groping in the dark and has no clue how to stop the slide,” said the CEO quoted above.

Analysts say sectors such as chemicals, paper, auto ancillaries, power and steel are the most affected from rupee depreciation. Among these sectors, mid-sized companies with exposure to forex risk but limited expertise or intention to hedge might be the most adversely affected.

CEOs say in the coming days, the government could look at the option of increasing import duty on select commodities, such as electronic goods, to reduce the import bill. The electronic goods import bill was $31.5 billion in FY13 (ended March 2013).

A similar 150 per cent import duty on expensive cars may also be considered. A sharper hike in diesel prices, although politically difficult, would also curb the oil import bill, which stood at $169 billion in FY13.