Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Major Developments and Trends in the Higher Education System

India’s 16-rung leap in the recently released Global Competitiveness ranking by the World Economic Forum points towards its sharp focus on improving competitiveness. Towards this end, institutions of higher education have a great responsibility in empowering students with intellectual skills and ability to research, communicate and solve problems, ready to take up challenges in a changing global world in which most future jobs have not yet been created.

The focal point of higher education is to provide quality of learning and innovation in all programmes and consider new areas of learning with all rigour and relevance.The youth of today are not averse to taking risksand a growing number are inclined to work on their own. On the academic side, students look for flexibilityand choices. The complexity of present day issues do not allow for a linear or ready-made formulae. Multi and inter-disciplinary universities, at par with international standards, are a growing trend, where individuals are not restricted by the boundaries of a particular discipline.


Technology, particularly Information Technology has been a game changer. It calls for a complete re-engineering of educational processes and systems, both in content and style of delivery. The informational role of a teacher is giving way to a broader role of a mentor. ICT is encouraging self-learning and helping students acquireself-upgrading skills. Internationalization of education is one of the major trends in the Indian higher education sector. All measures to supplement faculty resources by reputed foreign faculty has the potential to bring in a fresh approach to pedagogyand research, one of the strongest pillars of any university.

Focus is on practical orientation and outcome based education. Students get an opportunity to come up with practical and realistic solutions.‘Learning by doing’  validates theoretical concepts in the curriculum.The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are the latest trend. They are breaking the barriers of geography and are accessible anytime anywhere.They have easily brought the best universities within the reach of students. MOOCs which were introduced by UGC in 2016 are ready to take off in a big way. 

Institutions of higher education have to change and prepare students for the future by identifying and preparing students for futuristic jobs and opportunities. Trends to watch out for in 2017:
  • More concern with enhancing employability and encouraging entrepreneurship in a big way 
  • Course content aligned to changing industry needs 
  • Introduction of more inter-disciplinary courses, courses at the boundaries of intersecting disciplines
  • Enhanced seamless vertical and horizontal mobility to create intellectual, economic and social value
  • Learning rather than teaching to be the guiding principle for tomorrow in a 24x7 e-learning environment.
  • Institutions of higher learning to offer an immersive learning environment that simulates realistic scenarios
  • Use of Open Educational Resources (OER) that may be freely accessed, reused, modified and shared by users
  • Students to be imparted smart skills such as Machine Learning, Robotics, Business Analytics, Big Data Analytics, Gaming Skills, Critical Analysis skills and more.
  • Attracting the very best minds to the teaching profession by not only offering reasonable economic compensation but respect of society and peer groups to teachers

The sheer scale and diversity of the current Indian higher education scenario presents a significant challenge for the educator.

Rekha Mathur
Educationist


Tuesday, December 27, 2016

E-commerce vs E-business : Stepping into the Digitized world

Dr Ruchi Nayyar
Assistant Professor & Head Of Department
The NorthCap University, Gurgaon

Broadband connectivity and increased usage of credit cards have provided a favourable infrastructure for the growth of online shopping in India. Continued liberalization in the telecom sector has shown positive effects in the past few years. The Indian Telecom Policy recognized the convergence of different media and permitted direct inter-connectivity amongst various service providers. Presently full – duplex communication for transmission of voice, data and information services is permissible under the telecom policy. Today, internet services can be conveniently obtained from telecommunication providers at affordable rates. Internet has reached common individuals, thanks to sprawling cyber cafes, inexpensive broadband connections and government initiatives of e-kiosks.

E-commerce offers customers maximum convenience. They can visit the websites of multiple vendors in the comfort of their homes and offices and are able to compare prices and make purchases. It is also easier to negotiate price and terms of delivery as the internet can help companies efficiently obtain competitive bid information. From the sellers’ perspective too, e-commerce increases sales opportunities of the sellers. They do not need to build, staff, or maintain a physical store or print and distribute mail order catalogs. Besides, use of automated order tracking and billing systems can cut additional labor costs Sellers can also enjoy the benefit of selling on international platforms and are therefore not limited by the physical location of a store. Internet technologies also help sellers to capture the consumer buying behaviors on the internet which could be used to build an ongoing relationship with the customer by customizing products and services to meet the customer's needs.

Despite providing innumerable benefits to the customers, e-commerce has its limitations too. There are a number of businesses (such as involving perishable foods and custom- designed jewelry) that cannot be successfully implemented on the internet. These products, regardless of the technology are difficult to get inspected from a remote location. There is also a universal standard of e-commerce. Taxation and data transmission over the internet cause a lack of trust in e-commerce. Technically speaking also, companies face problems while integrating their existing databases and transaction-processing software designed for traditional commerce into the software that enables electronic commerce. This resists a number of firms to invest into e-commerce.

E-business refers to the transformation and streamlining organizations value chain activities through the use of internet technologies. Sometimes e-business is equated with e-commerce but many contend that e-commerce is only a part of a much bigger picture. Although the terms e-commerce and e-business are used interchangeably, they are distinct concepts. In comparison to e-commerce, e-business is a more generic term as it refers not only to information exchanges related to buying and selling but also to B2C perspective. E-business enables companies to link their internal and external processes more efficiently and flexibly, work more closely with suppliers and better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers. Besides, while e-commerce utilizes information and communication technology (ICT) in inter-business transactions, e-business deploys ICT to enhance the business in terms of production, customer relationship management and internal management. Therefore E-business is a key component of Higher Management Education to enable students to best utilize the power of the internet to improve customer delivery.

Monday, December 26, 2016

Microwave Heating: From Cooking of Food to Materials Processing Technologies

Satnam Singh
Assistant Professor, 
NCU, Gurgaon

If you think that microwave oven can only be used for cooking potatoes or food, then you should read this article.

The first commercial application of microwaves was primarily in the field of communications, but later on the heating effects of microwaves was accidently discovered [1]. PL Spencer filed the patent for microwave heating of foodstuffs in 1945 [2]. Later on, the microwave heating effects were utilized by many researchers in processing of various materials but at lower temperatures. Applications of microwaves at that time were confined to the wood drying process, cooking food, rubber processing, enhanced chemical reactions etc. 

Microwave heating is totally different from the conventional heating techniques. In microwave heating, heat is generated at molecular level, by absorption of radiations. This causes heat generated from within the material moving towards the outer surface. Further, heating is volumetric in nature, means microwaves are absorbed throughout the volume of materials. In contrast to microwave heating, conventional heating starts from the surface of materials and progresses towards the core of the  material. Due to the volumetric heating nature of microwaves, heating is intense and rapid.  

Earlier it was thought that microwaves cannot be used for processing of metals due to reflection of radiations from the surface, but later it was discovered that microwaves can be effectively used in the processing of metallic based powders [3]. This allowed wide application of microwaves in the materials processing world. The developments in metallic materials processing by microwaves are shown in Figure 1, which depicts the chronological order of various research innovations in this novel field.  

Figure 1: Developments in microwave materials processing techniques [4]

The technology changed from microwave sintering of ceramics to efficient microwave sintering of metallic powders. This area was further targeted and microwaves were used for joining of bulk metallic steels [5]. Afterwards, researchers successfully developed the novel microwave cladding process at IIT Roorkee and developed claddings of metallic powders/ composites/ cermets on bulk steels [6]. In recent times, microwaves were successfully employed for the casting of metallic powders by using domestic ovens [7].

References:

[1] Singh, S, Gupta, D, Jain, V, & Sharma, AK, Microwave processing of materials and Applications in manufacturing industries: a review. Mater. Manuf. Process., 30, 1, 2015.
[2] Spencer, PL, Method of treating foodstuffs, US patent 2495429 A, assigned to Raytheon Mfg Co., 1945.
[3] Roy, R, Agrawal, D, Cheng, J, &Gedevanishvili, S, Full sintering of powdered-metal bodies in a microwave field. Nature, 399, 668-670, 1999.
[4] Mishra, RR, & Sharma, AK, A Review of Research Trends in Microwave Processing of Metal-Based Materials and Opportunities in Microwave Metal Casting. Crit. Rev. Solid State Mater.Sci. 41, 217–255, 2016.
[5] Srinath, MS, Sharma, AK, & Kumar, P, Investigation on microstructural and mechanical properties of microwave processed dissimilar joints. J. Manuf. Process. 13, 141–146, 2011.
[6] Gupta, D, & Sharma, AK, Development and microstructural characterization of microwave cladding on austenitic stainless steel. Surf.Coatings Technol. 205, 5147–5155, 2011.
[7] Singh, S, Gupta, D, & Jain, V, Novel microwave composite casting process: Theory, feasibility and characterization. Mater.Des.111, 51–59, 2016.


Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Pro Vice Chancellor Attends PNGI, 3rd Professional Meet



Brig. S.K. Sharma (Retd.), Pro Vice Chancellor attended the 3rd meeting of the Professional Network Group of India on 17th December 2016 at Gurugram. “The theme of the seminar was Demonetization, its impact on the nation and how must it be managed”. The Chief Guest on the occasion was Mr S.P Gupta (IAS-Director General, HIPA). Dr. D.R. Agarwal, Professor Emeritus at The NorthCap University, Gurugram gave a talk from the perspective of impact of demonetization on macroeconomics. Prof. Sharma concluded the session.

Friday, December 16, 2016

CIP-Continuous Improvement Programme


November is celebrated as the Quality month across the world. Airports are points where the world meets in transit and hence warrants a Quality orientation. Quality month was celebrated at GMR with their entire top management. The final round of presentation of top 10 Continuous Improvement Projects were show cased on 29 November 2016 at the GMR auditorium which was attended by their CEO and the entire top management. The NorthCap University Gurugram’s Prof. Ravindra Ojha was invited as a jury member for assessing the projects and providing guidance for enhancing the improvement culture.