Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
Education
Plans afoot to bring more foreign students to India
The govt’s aim is to boost the number to 200,000 from the current 48,000 students, writes Prashant K. Nanda in livemint.com. Excerpts from the article:
The Indian Union education ministry along with the IITs and top academicians are exploring ways to attract foreign students to institutions of higher education in India. These include asking foreign faculties to develop short-duration courses; devising ways to showcase the return on investments; coordinating with Indian embassies; and joint branding and marketing of India’s higher education sector.
Increasing reach through online education
During an internal deliberation at IIT Kharagpur, higher education secretary Amit Khare called for increasing the reach to foreign students through online education and also suggested that foreign faculties’ expertise can be used to create short-term courses of one to two semesters. For that, India can leverage foreign faculties’ network under the education ministry’s Global Initiative of Academic Network (GIAN) and Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) initiative. Under GIAN, the ministry allows top varsities to invite renowned foreign academicians to come and teach at Indian institutions for short durations, while SPARC promotes joint research. Khare’s idea was supported by IIM Bangalore director Rishikesh T. Krishnan, who observed that foreign students often opt for short-term courses instead of long commitments due to the uncertainty of cost of education.
Looking at reforms suggested in NEP
Top officials of the education ministry, university vice chancellors, directors at IITs and academicians of global repute deliberated on India’s way forward on foreign students and how to sync this with the new education policy (NEP), to be rolled out next year. The government believes that a concerted effort and reforms suggested in the NEP will help change the situation. IIT Kharagpur director V.K. Tewari said that the NEP 2020 had brought the opportunity to “promote internationalisation both inbound and outbound, through semester away, credit transfer”.
India is currently home to nearly 48,000 international students, which it aims to grow to 200,000 over a period of time. Nepal contributed the most foreign students at 26.9%, followed by Afghanistan (9.8%), Bangladesh (4.4%), Sudan (4.0%), Bhutan (3.8%,), Nigeria (3.4%) and the US (3.2%). Institutions like IIT Kharagpur, BITS Pilani and IIT Gandhinagar pointed to the need to market and promote India’s positives, including funding for foreign students.
Career
8 steps to make your new business idea a reality
Excerpts from an article by Martin Zwilling, Founder & CEO, STARTUP PROFESSIONALS, published in the inc.com.
As a business adviser, I listen to many of you entrepreneurs talking about achieving your dreams. Too few of you have structured that dream and can express it in a set of specific goals, with a timeline for getting there. I believe part of the problem is a fear of failure or hesitancy to commit, perhaps due to a lack of self-confidence or a habit of waiting for someone else to tell you what to do. I can’t help you get into the right mindset, but I can offer some proven specific steps for translating a business dream into reality:
1. Narrow your focus to identify your major business goal
As Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Without a measurable objective, you will be constantly frustrated by not seeing progress and you will never feel success satisfaction. Avoid fuzzy goals, like making big money or being a market leader.
2. Develop an “elevator pitch” as an initial path to your goal
An elevator pitch is a problem-solution summary that anyone can understand in a 60-second ride up to their office in an elevator. It has to embody enough passion and reality to convince yourself, as well as a rational business person, that you have moved beyond the dream stage.
3. Create a timeline to success with quantifiable steps
You can break any reasonable business dream into at least 10 smaller milestones, to be completed in one to two years. It’s fair to be optimistic and aggressive, but don’t be afraid to get help from advisers and domain experts to make sure your assumptions are realistic in today’s business world.
4. Populate each step with actions required for success
You probably already know the key challenges to completing each step, but it helps to write them down, review them with peers, and have a written list to update as you learn more. If necessary, break big steps into smaller ones, since most can only accomplish a big goal as a series of small steps.
5. Prioritise the activities and execution within each step
Remember the old 80-20 rule, that 80 percent of the value typically comes from 20 percent of the actions. Do the most important things first and celebrate each small success. By the way, you now have a viable business plan, which puts you well on your way from a dream to business success.
6. Stop talking and writing, start executing the plan!
Completing that first step is now a well-defined action, rather than a nebulous step into the unknown. The market changes quickly these days, so the slower you move, the more likely that changes will be required in your plan – and that competitors will pass you by. Celebrate your successes.
7. Network to find inspiring and needed team members
Building a business is not a solo operation. You must surround yourself with team members and partners with complimentary skills and dreams that mesh with yours. Don’t be too busy to attend industry conferences, mingle with experts, and negotiate partner relationships to fill gaps.
8. Register what you learn each day and update the plan
No business plan can win by remaining static, so take advantage of what you learn each day to improve your plan. The result is that tasks become easier and more satisfying. New momentum will be energising and inspiring, rather than stressful and discouraging. Keep track of every progress step.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the above mentioned articles are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)
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