Academic Institutions In India Research Articles

A know your student analysis: a case study on the students of a higher education institute in India

The education system in India is often found to be irrelevant when it comes to adding value to its student, primarily due to lack of knowledge and understanding on student population. Tradition analysis tools may not be much helpful in this situation. A new analysis tool, KYS Analysis, is discussed here and its application is demonstrated using a sample survey of the students of a higher education institute. This study will certainly help in developing new strategies to add competitive advantage in any academic institutions in India or any other similar emerging economics around the world. The practical importance of this article is to contribute to the management decision making process and the use of the insights derived from the analysis by the higher education institutions. The article will be useful to a wide range of readers who are struggling to retain competence and stay competitive in the academic world.

A know your student analysis: a case study on the students of a higher education institute in India

The education system in India is often found to be irrelevant when it comes to adding value to its student, primarily due to lack of knowledge and understanding on student population. Tradition analysis tools may not be much helpful in this situation. A new analysis tool, KYS Analysis, is discussed here and its application is demonstrated using a sample survey of the students of a higher education institute. This study will certainly help in developing new strategies to add competitive advantage in any academic institutions in India or any other similar emerging economics around the world. The practical importance of this article is to contribute to the management decision making process and the use of the insights derived from the analysis by the higher education institutions. The article will be useful to a wide range of readers who are struggling to retain competence and stay competitive in the academic world.

Research Data Management in India: A Pilot Study

Data is a by-product of the research process where published results are the output. More and more research institutes are getting interested in this by-product. Data could be in the form of statistics, experimental results, observational data, interview recordings, etc. Organizing the varied forms of data is a challenge for any institute. This is particularly so in the present scenario of constantly changing technologies for data storage and retrieval. The funding agencies are making it mandatory to archive these datasets so that these can be preserved for the posterity and / or re-used by others. Libraries, as a part of the research institutes, seem to be well equipped to organize and manage these datasets. The author undertook the present study to find the level of involvement of libraries in ‘data management’ in India. A survey was done to assess the awareness about data curation, data archival policies, infrastructure required, technologies used, etc. The survey sample consisted of 15 national research / academic institutes in India. The study showed that libraries’ role in data management in research / academic institutes was still at a very early stage of development in India.

Usage of E-Resources by the Faculty Members of Engineering College Libraries in Erode District, Tamil Nadu: An Analysis

Nowadays E-resources plays a vital role in every intellectual movement of higher education. Due to the significance of these E-resources lot of the academic institutions in India copiously investing to offer access to these e-resources to support teaching learning, and research purpose. The present Study reveals that the existence of different E-resources, awareness of E-resources, preference of E-resources, problems faced while accessing the E-resources and purpose of E-resources usage in faculty members of Engineering College Libraries in Erode District, Tamil Nadu.

Toward the development of a conventional time series based web error forecasting framework

Web reliability is gaining importance with time due to the exponential increase in the popularity of different social community networks, mailing systems and other online applications. Hence, to enhance the reliability of any existing web system, the web administrators must have the knowledge of various web errors present in the system, influences of various workload characteristics on the manifestation of several web errors and the relations among different workload characteristics. But in reality, often it may not be possible to institute a generalized correspondence among several workload characteristics. Moreover, the issues like the prediction and estimation of the cumulative occurrences of the source content failures and the corresponding time between failures of a web system become less highlighted by the reliability research community. Hence, in this work, the authors have presented a well-defined procedure (a forecasting framework) for the web admins to analyze and enhance the reliability of the web sites under their supervision. Initially, it takes the HTTP access and the error logs to extract all the necessary information related to the workloads, web errors and corresponding time between failures. Next, we have performed the principal component analysis, correlation analysis and the change point analysis to select the number of independent variables. Next, we have developed various time series based forecasting models for foretelling the cumulative occurrences of the source content failures and the corresponding time between failures. In the current work, the multivariate models also include various uncorrelated workloads, the exogeneous and the endogenous noises for forecasting the web errors and the corresponding time between failures. The proposed methodology has been validated with usage statistics collected from the web sites belong of two highly renowned Indian academic institutions.

Experience of an academic institute in importing a novel preclinical drug into India.

The article throws light on the process of importing a novel preclinical drug into India based on the real-life experience from one of our studies. A novel drug “X” acting through a new mechanism of action was hypothesized by us to function as a neuroprotectant. It was decided to import this novel drug from a university located in Brazil. An official collaboration pact was exchanged between both the sides. In accordance with the Indian Drug and Cosmetics Act 1940, unauthorized import of drug into India is not permitted. Hence, we decided to apply for the import license from Government of India. During the process of registration, we realized that the CDSCO SUGAM portal did not have facilities for the application from academic institute. We further faced challenges in different steps of import such as registration of the institute, individual drug application, fee transaction through the bank for Form 12, and customs duty clearance in the New Delhi airport. The process of import of drug for the purpose of testing by academic institutes has not been regularized by the CDSCO, and we suggest the apex organization to make separate provision for the academic institutes. This will encourage more academic institutes in India to opt for global collaborative works. This narration will further help them in following the same footsteps without facing significant hurdles. If more research on novel chemical entities is carried out in various academic institutes of India, it would not be far that we discover a blockbuster drug making the whole world turn toward us.

Recent Contributions in the Field of Sediment Geochemistry

Sediment geochemistry is a powerful tool to investigate earth surface processes because sediments record geochemical signatures of their provenance, generation, transport, deposition, and environmental conditions. A significant advancement in the technology of analytical geochemistry has made geochemical analyses of sediments more rapid and precise, which together provided an impetus to the study of sediment system. As a result, high-quality research papers on sediment geochemistry have been published during the last five years from India. A foreseeable growth of research and an increase in the publication are likely in the future because of the new set-ups of state- of the- art analytical instruments for geochemical research at various research and academic institutions in India. Here we are presenting the published important work on sediment geochemistry under three categories, i.e., weathering, erosion, deposition and provenance determination; sediment geochemistry as palaeoclimate proxy; and environmental geochemistry.

Digital Library Acceptance Model and Its Social Construction: Conceptualization and Development

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize a digital library acceptance model and its validation. Based on the extant literature and interviews with experts, a sixty-three statement questionnaire was developed and a survey was conducted to test the proposed model. The target population included library professionals and users from academic institutions in India including faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students. These sixty-three statements were categorized into seventeen dimensions on the basis of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model and two information success models. The model was tested using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The findings suggest that digital libraries can become more useful and acceptable to targeted user groups when they are developed in accordance with four major factors: systemic aspects, informational aspects, perception of the relevant social group, and user learning. This study is unique as it is the first time such a model has been developed for digital libraries with respect to social construction.

An Effective Tool for the Attainment of Course Outcome's and Programme Outcome's

The Outcome Based Education (OBE) has been one of the major concern of most academic institutions in India, especially among engineering colleges since the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) has made it compulsory towards program accreditation. However, the concept of OBE resulted to various attainment to Programme Outcome (PO) based on the Course Outcome (CO). Execution of the OBE may not be an easy matter as the mapping of the CO for each assessment may be mapped to multiple PO. This paper describe the analysis process of the CO and PO attainment for Design and Analysis of Algorithms subject, which is offered to 2nd year students of Computer Science and Engineering, SR Engineering College, Warangal. Two methods are incorporated, (1) direct measurement, and (2) segregated measurement. The study identified that segregated measurement are more sensitive towards identifying the issues which affect attainment of CO and PO. Issues related to non-fulfillment of either CO or PO for Design and Analysis of Algorithms subject can be traced to lack of awareness towards Problem Analysis and Complexity of Algorithms and student's attitude towards subject knowledge.

Influence of ATMs on Spending Pattern: Situation at Technical Academic Institutions in India

The use of ATMs in technical institutions is very interesting, and for many reasons for there are many questions that tend to pop up once the use of ATMs is called into question vis-a-vis the youth. Do students intermingle, influence each other and spend more? Does technical education make students more tech-savvy? Does the location of ATMs influence the withdrawal of cash- and more pressingly, do students withdraw more frequently when an ATM is placed near their hostel or near the college shopping areas? Does the availability of a 24 hour cash source make them spend more, eat out more, and skimp less? Does the ease of transaction make parents supply more money to student (albeit lesser amounts with greater frequency)? Does the introduction of more services than just the withdrawal of money make technically aware and e-comfortable students use these services? Do more ATMs in a limited area mean more cash withdrawn? All these questions have been deeply probed, and answered in this paper based on an exhaustive questionnaire survey conducted amongst the students of one of Indias premier technical academic colleges -National Institute of Technology, Trichy (NITT). This survey has also thrown up some interesting results. Most students feel they spend more due to the presence of ATMs in the campus. The popularity of ATMs seems to be on the rise-for there is a strong pitch for the inclusion of more features to the ATMs. However, and quite worryingly for ATM manufacturers, there is a high incidence of technical glitches occurring. On the whole, the survey seems to conclude that while the introduction of the latest technologies in e-governance is indeed a welcome trend, to sustain the technology and adapt it to a dynamic market environment, the technology must be subjected to relentless innovation and adaptation to local requirements.

Research and patenting in Indian universities and technical institutes: An exploratory study

This study uses data on publication, and patents, of 347 universities and technical institutes of India from 1970 to 2010, to understand their current research status. We find that though the total number of patents and publications has been increasing gradually, the contribution of Indian academic institutions in patenting is still low and needs to be incentivized.

Mirror image analysis of websites of universities for academic innovation-comparison among south east and south asian top-100s

Educational institutions of developing country are in the reverie for cyber world through the launch of website to connect and reconnect to the info-academic world. Educational institutions with tradition posting institutional information on a web never place themselves in the global picture. To place as a top ranked institution in global institutional web map demand visibility, richness of contents, and faculty strength which are known as knowledge enablers.When an institution thinks about innovation of knowledge and display contents of universities then must have to think critically in terms of innovation of these knowledge enablers. South Asian including Indian academic institutions are emphasizing on integration to the cyber world with a dream to become player in the emerging knowledge hub. To become a knowledge hub Indian Institution must have to develop its website for greater visibility. Side by side, researchers and intellectuals must realize the significance of launching the institutional websites for integration of administration, knowledge repositories and class rooms.This study examines and compares the state of South Asian Top-100, South East Asian Top-100. In examining the ranks of 100 Asian Universities Webo-metrics data compared the level of concordance (ranking agreements) and mirror images. The concordances and mirrors images revealed the direction of relationship of variables of knowledge enablers and finally attempts to identify the cues for innovation with the help of web site to launch the websites by South Asian Institutions

Academy-Industry Cooperation: Towards a New Convenant for Indian Business Competitiveness

The role that knowledge plays in competitiveness in the market place, has increased dramatically over the last two decades. This has been arguably one of the most significant economic trends of the late 20th century - a process linked closely with the rapid internationalization of business and finance, and the emerging dominance of knowledge-intensive companies in the global economy. In India, the business leadership has now recognized the need for knowledge, mainly because the economic liberalization policies of the 1990s have exposed Indian companies to the threat of competition. The competitiveness-enhancing knowledge that business firms require is mainly of two types - organizational and technological. The first category of knowledge is that embodied in managerial, organizational and strategic skills, while the other is technological knowledge. On both these dimensions, Indian companies find themselves confronted by the need to change, in order to adapt better to the altered rules of the game. From where will Indian companies source their new requirements of knowledge? By virtue of their charter and mission, the activities of Indian management institutes or institutes of technology are dominated by an applied orientation. Hence, one may expect that such institutions are most likely to be prepared to meet this need. Does it then make sense for Indian business organizations and such academic institutions in India to forge mutually beneficial cooperative arrangements? Answers to these questions, focusing on management institutes, are explored in this paper.As far as Indian academic institutions dealing with management and technology are concerned, they too are confronting a vastly changed scenario, and are reorienting their focus of activity. Increased costs, together with constrained support from the government, have made these institutions much more attuned to market demands. Their response to the changed situation is reflected in the pattern of their teaching, research and training activities. In the leading management institutes for example, there has been a conscious effort to increase market relevance via more and varied executive training programmes. The quality of their core post- graduate (MBA level) degree/diploma programmes is increasingly Professor of Economics & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore judged, internally and externally, by the salaries that their graduates command in the job market. Many management institutes have sought, in other ways as well, to move closer to business and industry. This trend is exemplified by the presence of leading industrialists on campuses, as guest speakers and more prominently, as Chairmen of the governing boards of these institutions. From these synergic trends, one may be tempted to conclude that the pattern and prospects of cooperation between Indian business and management academia are on an optimal trajectory. As we argue below, such a conclusion is unwarranted. Much more progress needs to be made, if the full potential of mutual gains is to be realized. To assess the trends in terms of their significance and long term implications, it is necessary to examine this issue from a strategic perspective. The context is given by the twin processes of liberalization and globalization, and we need to ask in what way the institutional objectives of business and academic organizations can be served by deeper levels of cooperation. This is attempted in this paper. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: The next section takes the question of why academy and industry should cooperate. The discussion in the section is in two parts. Part I examines the industry perspective with particular reference to its current demand for knowledge. Part II considers the issue in relation to the need for strategic knowledge. It focuses on the knowledge that management institutions currently provide to industry. It goes on to examine how the present may change towards greater collaboration. The paper ends with a brief conclusion.

Foreword of the 4th International Symposium on Nuclear Analytical Chemistry (NAC-IV)

The Fourth International Symposium on Nuclear Analytical Chemistry (NAC-IV) was organized at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Department of Atomic Energy, Mumbai, India during November 15–19, 2010. NAC-IV was held in India for the first time. Previous three NAC symposia (NAC I-III) were held in Canada; Halifax (1985), Toronto (1992) and Halifax (2001). These symposia are organized periodically to provide a forum to exchange information on recent developments and applications of nuclear analytical chemistry. The NAC-IV symposium was sponsored by the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), India, and co-organized by the Indian Association of Nuclear Chemists and Allied Scientists (IANCAS). About 300 delegates from various units of DAE & Academic Institutes in India and 27 overseas delegates from 13 different countries participated in NAC-IV. Dr. Srikumar Banerjee, then Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Secretary, DAE, Government of India, inaugurated NAC-IV and Dr. R. K. Sinha, Chairman, AEC (then Direcor, BARC) presided over the inaugural session. Dr. Banerjee in his keynote address spoke about some interesting applications of analytical techniques in general and the role of nuclear analytical techniques (NATs) in particular in both R&D and nuclear reactor technology. Dr. Sinha emphasized the role of different NATs including neutron activation analysis (NAA) and prompt gamma ray NAA (PGNAA) in various programs of BARC and DAE, and also gave a brief account of the nuclear analytical facilities at BARC. Dr. Banerjee released the Book of Abstracts of NAC-IV and Dr. Sinha released the IANCAS Special Bulletin. Dr. A. V. R. Reddy, Head, Analytical Chemistry Division, BARC, and Convener, organizing Committee and Co-Chairman of the NAC-IV Technical Committee welcomed the delegates and outlined the theme of NAC-IV. Dr. V. Venugopal, Chairman of NAC-IV and then Director, Radiochemistry and Isotopes (RC&I) Group, BARC, emphasized that NATs using reactor and accelerator facilities were very important to obtain results with high precision and accuracy. Prof. A. Chatt of Dalhousie University, Canada, President of the NAC symposia series as well as the Co-Chairman of the NAC-IV Technical Committee, gave a brief account of the main objectives of these symposia. He informed that the Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (JRNC), has agreed to publish the peer-reviewed full papers of NAC-IV in two issues of JRNC. Dr. R. Acharya, RCD, BARC and Secretary of NAC-IV proposed a vote of thanks. The scope of NAC-IV included conventional and prompt gamma-ray activation analysis, alpha, X-ray & gamma-ray spectrometry, nuclear analytical chemistry in nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear track techniques, nuclear probes and ion beam analysis techniques, radioisotope tracer methodologies, speciation studies, QA/QC in measurements, applications of NATs to archaeological, biological, environmental, geological, industrial, nutritional, nuclear and pharmaceutical materials, nuclear forensics and safety studies. The technical program consisted of 30 invited talks A. V. R. Reddy Analytical Chemistry Division, BARC, Trombay, Mumbai 400 085, India e-mail: avreddy@barc.gov.in

History of Neurology in India (P04.007)

Objective: To chronicle the history of neurology in India with focus on its establishment and evolution. Background The history of neurology in India is divided into two periods: ancient and modern. The ancient period dates back to the mid-second millennium BCE during the creation of the Ayurveda Indian system of Medicine which detailed descriptions of neurological disorders called Vata Vyadhi (Mishra, et al 2001). The early 20 th century witnessed the birth of Indian modern medicine with the onset of formal physician training at the nation9s first allopathic medical colleges located in Madras (1835), Calcutta (1835), and Mumbai (1848). Prior to India9s independence from Britain in 1947, only 25 medical schools existed in the entire country. Today, there are over 312. In 1951, physicians across the field of neurology and neurosurgery united to create the Neurological Society of India (NSI). Four decades later in 1991, neurologists branched out to establish a separate organization called the Indian Academy of Neurology (IAN). Design/Methods: Information was gathered through literature review using PubMed, MD Consult, OVID, primary texts, and research at various academic institutions in India. Results: Neurological disorders were first described in ancient India under Ayurveda. The transition to modern medicine occurred more recently through formal training at medical schools beginning in the 19309s. Early pioneers include Dr. Jacob Chandy, Dr. B. Ramamurthi, Dr. S.T. Narasimhan and Dr. Baldev Singh who created the Neurological Society of India. Later, Dr. J.S. Chopra, a prominent neurologist and visionary, recognized the need for primary centers of collaboration and subsequently established the Indian Academy of Neurology. Conclusions: As a result of structural and organizational evolution, the future of neurology in India is bright. Nationwide, there are 32 neurology post-graduate training centers and over 500 practicing neurologists. These numbers are poised to grow significantly moving forward. Detailed information with pictures will be presented. Disclosure: Dr. Cheongsiatmoy has nothing to disclose. Dr. Mishra has nothing to disclose.

Academic Underperformance of Indian Universities, Incompatible Academic Culture and the Societal Context1

Recent international rankings of world universities and institutions of higher learning reveal deplorable state of Indian universities. It is argued in this article that since effective functioning of a university is judged by the extent to which it has been successful in achieving its academic goals and in conforming to the accompanying value system and normative complex, underperformance of Indian academic institutions demonstrate insufficient cultivation of the culture supportive to academic excellence. Further, it is asserted that the overwhelming influence of social milieu on Indian academic institutions is not conducive to academic culture compatible to the quest for academic excellence in India, and that proactive role of the academic community can mitigate, to some extent, the impact of this milieu.

Development of botanical principles for clinical use in cancer

Development of drugs from plant sources (botanicals) for the treatment of cancer has not been successful in India, despite a plethora of medicinal plants and an equal number of experiments demonstrating anti-cancer activity of plant principles in vitro. There are several pitfalls in our approach to botanical drug development. Foremost is the lack of industry-academia collaborations in this field. Research goals in Indian academic institutions are generally short-term and mostly aimed at fulfilling the minimum requirements of a doctoral/MD or MPharm thesis. Secondly, quality assurance of herbal formulations is difficult to achieve and good manufacturing practices are expensive to implement. This could introduce bias during the biological evaluation of botanicals. A systematic approach covering a wide range of investigations including but not limited to mechanistic studies, potential herb-drug interactions, pharmacokinetics and bioavailability could help in the optimization of herbal formulations in the preclinical stage of development before they can be considered for clinical trials. Government initiatives such as Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathic have encouraged research in these areas, but are insufficient to promote focused and aggressive evaluation of potential herbs. Particular emphasis should be given to clinical pharmacokinetics, drug interactions and clinical trials in specific cancers for the evaluation of dosage, safety, efficacy and concomitant use with chemotherapy. Only such policies can result in meaningful evaluation of botanicals for cancer therapy.

Characterizing cognitive deficits and dementia in an aging urban population in India.

Rapid rise in the population of older adults in India will lead to the need for increased health care services related to diagnosis, management, and long-term care for those with dementia and cognitive impairment. A direct approach for service provision through memory clinics can be an effective, successful, and sustaining means of delivering specialized health care services. We have established a memory clinic in Mumbai, India by employing the diverse clinical skills available in Indian academic institutions, diagnostic and research expertise of clinicians and psychologists, and the support of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Our project involved recruitment of patients, clinical and neuropsychological assessment, and standardized diagnostic procedures, demonstrating the feasibility of using research methods to develop a memory clinic. In this paper, we describe the development of a community-based memory clinic in urban India, including linguistic and cultural factors and present detailed results, including diagnostic characterization, on 194 subjects with various stages of cognitive deficits. Our findings support the feasibility of developing a memory clinic in a public hospital and successful use of research diagnostic criteria to categorize cognitive deficits observed in this population, which may be used to inform the development of other such clinics.

A simulation study for a number of simultaneous users of an institutional knowledge repository system

Use of an emerging technology for the creation of Institutional Repositories to facilitate knowledge sharing and management among the faculty in academic institutions in India is becoming a necessity even with constraints like infrastructure, manpower and funding. The paper describes a pilot institutional knowledge repository implementation at a Business school in India and presents a simulation conducted to ascertain the number of simultaneous users who can search and view/access the contents of the institutional repository with a minimal server configuration.

Analysis of patenting trends of antifungal drugs in the product patent regime in India

The present study attempts to analyze the patenting activity of antifungal drugs in the pre and post TRIPS period in India. There is a general increase in patent filing in antifungals both by Indian as well as by multinational companies, with greater filing by the latter in the post-TRIPS era. The major filings in the transition and post-TRIPS period have been due to increased product than process patent filings, wherein 75% of the total patent applications in this sector is directed towards product patents and remaining 25% is directed towards process patents. It is observed that Indian academic institutions have been more active than foreign institutions with respect to patent filings in this field.