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Brainfeed

` 100 | November 2020 | Volume III | Issue 8

Cracking competitive exams in times of Covid

q

They’ve said it!

uotable quotes

You must be the change you wish

to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi

Art is the daughter of freedom. -Friedrich Schiller

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. – Thomas A Edison

You always pass failure on the way to success. - Mickey Rooney

What the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind of man can achieve. – Napoleon Hill 2

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

Letter from the Editor

The results of NEET and JEE exams are over and done with but there has been so much debate on the ‘if and ‘but’ that no one was sure if they would be held at all. The nation was divided, those who wanted the exams and others who thought it was not a good idea. In spite of natural calamities, lack of safe transport, absence of accommodation near test centres and the fear of transmitting the virus, exams were conducted and the results ushered in a new standard of scoring. The scheduling of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) has developed into a subject of controversy. The NEET, an entrance exam for medical colleges, was initially planned on September 13, and JEE Main, which for engineering colleges, was scheduled from September 1 to 6. The dates have been finalised after two rounds of postponement due to the pandemic. With the first round of NEET 2020 counselling already going on and the second round of counselling scheduled to be conducted by the end of November, history has been made and few tragic incidents too have surfaced. On one hand we have, medical aspirant from Odisha Shoyeb Aftab and Akanksha Singh, who have topped the national entrance exam with a perfect score. There is sad news from another state, Madhya Pradesh, where young VidhiSuryavanshi has taken her life owing to an error shown in her

virtual results. Her initial score shown was 6 marks, however, she bagged 590 marks as disclosed later in the OMR sheet. The cover story unveils how the JEE cut-off percentile for candidates in the common rank list (CRL) which presently is 90.3765335 in 2020, increased from 89.7548849 last year. It highlights interview excerpts of several toppers across all states focussing on their preparation strategies, time management, career choices, mental-health and others to inspire future aspirants to learn from the best and inculcate those lessons in lives. Read the articles by R P Yadav and Sandeep Jain, to know more about job prospects in the coming year and what students can do to gear up for campus recruitment drive. Also, do not miss the interview of Ravneet Pawha to gather specific insights from the educationist themselves about how universities are tweaking policy to accommodate more students in the coming times. If you have ideas, suggestions or even critiques related to education. Do write in, we are all ears. You can reach us at [email protected]

Brahmam K V Chief Editor, Higher Education Plus

November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Contents 12

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November 2020

Cracking competitive exams in times of Covid

INFO-HUB

UPDATE

Never stopped preparing for the exam.............................................. 14

Upturn in job market as festive season kicks in ....................................26

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

Opini o nat e d

MUST-KNOW

I nf o r m ati o n

Brainfeed

November 2020 | Volume III | Issue 8

www.highereducationplus.com Editor-in-Chief Brahmam KV

Science News

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Sweden, a big draw for Indian students Sweden Calling

Fresh grads gear up for jobs

Executive Editor: Harish Kakani

RP Yadav

Sub Editor: Triparna Ray

Douglas Washburn

Insta News

Special Consultant: Ahsanul Haq Art & Design: Chebrolu Vengala Rao Circulation: Hemachander S +91 84487 37157 +91 91777 74851

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Career in Computer Science beckons

Developing communication models is the key

Sandeep Jain

Common financial mistakes college students make

Printed Published and Owned by Kakani Veera Brahmam Published and Registered at 8-3-191/565/K, Vengal Rao Nagar SR Nagar Post, Hyderabad-500038 Telangana, India Contact Nos. +91 84487 37157 +91 7207015151

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Email [email protected] [email protected] RNI NO. TELENG/2018/76430

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Universities are tweaking policy to accommodate students

Career in filming, anyone?

Ravneet Pawha

Champions of will power

Gregory Bennett

© All Rights Reserved by BRAINFEED HIGHER EDUCATION PLUS for all material published in Brainfeed Higher Education Plus Magazine. Brainfeed Higher Education Plus is a monthly magazine. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.

Book Review November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Science

NEWS Even the coldest parts of the ocean are getting warmer Thermometers anchored at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean recorded an average temperature rise of about 0.02 degrees Celsius over the last decade, researchers report in the Geophysical Research Letters. That warming may be a result of human-driven climate change, which has boosted ocean temperatures near the surface, but it’s indistinct since so little is known about the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean. “The deep ocean, below about 2,000

meters, is not very well observed,” says Chris Meinen, an oceanographer at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Miami. The deep sea is so hard to reach that the temperature at any given research site is typically taken only once per decade. But Meinen’s team measured temperatures hourly from 2009 to 2019 using seafloor sensors at four spots in the Argentine Basin, off the coast of Uruguay.

The first roomtemperature superconductor has finally been found The discovery evokes daydreams of futuristic technologies that could reshape electronics and transportation. Superconductors transmit electricity without resistance, allowing current to flow without any energy loss. But all superconductors previously discovered must be cooled, many of them to very low temperatures, making them 6

impractical for most uses. Now, scientists have found the first superconductor that operates at room temperature — at least given a fairly chilly room. The material is superconducting below temperatures of about 15° Celsius (59° Fahrenheit), physicist Ranga Dias of the University of Rochester in New York and colleagues report October 14 in Nature.

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

Turning space images into music makes astronomy more reachable Put into music, telescope observations of the center of the Milky Way make a serene tune, glittering with xylophone and piano notes. The iconic Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula, meanwhile, sound like an eerie sci-fi score. And the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A is a sweeping symphony. These musical renditions, or sonifications, were released by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Center. “Listening to the data gives [people] another dimension to experience the universe,” says Matt Russo, an astrophysicist and musician at the astronomy outreach project SYSTEM Sounds in Toronto. Sonification can make cosmic wonders more accessible to people with blindness or visual impairments, and complement images for sighted learners. SYSTEM Sounds teamed up with Kimberly Arcand, a visualization scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., to create the new pieces.

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Insta

NEWS

Jamia Millia Islamia launches online refresher course on EVS

Jamia Millia Islamia has launched an online refresher course on Environmental Science for teachers of colleges and universities. The programme was jointly run by varsity’s Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC) and Department of Geography. Around 100 faculty members of different colleges and universities including Jamia are participating in the course being organised on Google Meet.

AICTE Approves Concessions in Admissions For Kashmir Migrants The Ministry of Education has allowed certain concessions to the wards of Kashmiri Migrants as well as Kashmiri Pandits/Kashmiri Hindu Families (Non-Migrants) living in the Kashmir Valley in admissions in educational

institutions in other parts of the country from the academic year 2020-21. The concessions include relaxation in the cut-off percentage up to 10 % and increase in intake capacity up to 5 per cent course-wise.

‘When we reimagine education, we must imagine it for everyone’: Tharoor Shashi Tharoor spoke on reimagining education for all on the second day of the InspirED virtual conference on education. He shared several insights around his vision for India’s children in the light of the new National Education Policy and also drew the audience’s attention to the fact that to reimagine education, we must imagine what an excellent education will look like for vulnerable communities. While it’s 8

challenging for a child to stay focused in digital classrooms for longer hours, educators who are excellent otherwise are also struggling to command the attention of these online classrooms.

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

IIT-Jodhpur launches BTech in AI, data science

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur will offer a new undergraduate programme in artificial intelligence and data science from the academic session 2020-21. The new BTech programme will have courses in computer science, mathematics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, and their applications in various domains. Students who opt for the course can also take a specialisation in areas including visual computing, socio-digital realities, language technologies, robotics, and the Artificial Intelligence of Things.

Declare the dates for Diwali break, teachers request in Maharashtra

IISc Bangalore offers course in computational data science

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore will soon offer an advanced programme in computational data science. The 10-month executive programme is for current and aspiring data engineers, data analysts, data architects, and data scientists. The course is being offered online in partnership TalentSprint — an online

learning platform. The course will also have a case study where analyse how the industry uses computational data science through real-world use cases. The course curriculum will include machine learning, the mathematics of data science, neural networks, data engineering and business analytics.

39.57 lakh online classes conducted in Chhattisgarh in last 8 months A program was launched by the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel to provide non-stop education amid battling the Covid-19 crisis. With the schools being shut down for more than 8 months, amid the nationwide Covid-19 crisis, Chhattisgarh’s innovative academic program “Padhai

Tuhar Duar” is receiving appreciation from all across the country for successfully conducting 39.57 lakh online classes. “Even the NITI aayog has appreciated the efforts of the state for continuing education via both the mediums,” the official release said.

After the state government declared that schools will continue to remain online until Diwali, teachers have now requested the education department to declare the dates for Diwali break. As schools continue to teach online since June, the education department has still not come up with a timeline for the conduct of examinations. “Schools need to finish their exams before the Diwali break. For this, we need to know the dates for the Diwali vacations in advance. Right now, each school is coming up with their own exam plan,” said Rajesh Pandya from the Teachers’ Democratic Forum.

Odisha task force reviewing new education policy

The State Government has formed a task force and six sub-committees to study the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 and submit its recommendations to the Centre, said Higher Education Secretary Saswat Mishra. Union Education Secretary Anita Karwal, who reviewed the current education system in Odisha had sought the State Government’s view on the new policy. Officials, however, had said more time would be required to submit the views and recommendations for their incorporation in the policy as date for meeting of the task force hasn’t been finalised yet.

November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Insta

NEWS Karnataka to begin UG classes from Nov Karnataka government is making preparations to reopen the colleges in the state from November. The final decision regarding the reopening of colleges would be taken keeping in mind the safety of the students and staff amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Deputy

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Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan stated that the final decision regarding the resumption of undergraduate and postgraduate classes will be announced by the government shortly. Meanwhile, online classes are being conducted for the students.

Self-financed colleges in Haryana suffer

Self-financed degree colleges across the state are facing the heat as the Department of Higher Education (DHE) has not refunded the money to them even several days after the deposition of fees by the students figuring in the first and second merit list for the admissions to first year of undergraduate courses. The colleges are finding it difficult to pay salaries to their staff and bear other expenses. Due to ongoing Covid pandemic, students are bound to make online payments to the DHE account.

IIT Madras gives academic flexibility to students

Delhi Police constable teaching to slum kids

Indian Institute of Technology Madras has one of the best academic curricula in the world and offers academic flexibility that is unrivaled, even among the IITs. IIT Madras has the extraordinary distinction of being the only Indian Institute to have been ranked as No.1 Engineering Institution for five consecutive years in National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Ministry of Education, Govt. of India. Out of the electives, students are free to choose about eight courses (called ‘Free Electives’) from any of

Concerned about the education of poor children, Delhi Police constable Than Singh has set up a school in a temple behind the Red Fort. He starts his classes at 5 in the evening after he finishes his duty. He started the school in 2016 with four children but now has almost 50-60 students from nearby slums. The students between 5-15 years of age greet him when they come to the school in the evening. Parents of these children work as labourers and don’t have enough money to afford their children’s education.

the 16 departments of IIT Madras as well as other approved institutions. The students can get 72 credits from pursuing courses as diverse as ‘History of India,’ ‘Psychology’ and ‘Economics’ to ‘Artificial intelligence’ and ‘Machine Learning.’

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

Participation of girls in higher education increasing, says PM Prime Minister Narendra Modi said participation of girls in higher education is increasing, and gross enrolment ratio of girls in studies is higher than boys. He also urged the student’s community to adapt to the changing nature of work. “At every level of education, gross enrolment ratio of girls is higher than boys across the country,” PM Modi said while

Kerala goes completely digital in public education

addressing the centenary convocation ceremony of Mysore University. But he did not give further details.

NCTE approves extension of validity of Teacher Eligibility Test National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has approved the extension of validity of Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) certificate from 7 years to the life time. The decision was taken in the 50th meeting of the General Body of NCTE. “The Council considered the agenda item and approved the validity of TET certificate changing it from 7 years to life time. This provision would have prospective effect and for those who have already passed out (already having TET certificate), NCTE will take legal

opinion and will act accordingly,” reads the minute of the 50th GB meeting of NCTE.

Capgemini remove TOI logo Capgemini announced the launch of Tech Challenge 2020, the seventh season of its unique hackathon designed to identify the best programmers from across India. This hackathon invites passionate developers and tech enthusiasts to leverage their coding skills to design innovative solutions for a sustainable future. Capgemini in India

today announced the launch of Tech Challenge 2020, the seventh season of its unique hackathon designed to identify the best programmers from across India. This hackathon invites passionate developers and tech enthusiasts to leverage their coding skills to design innovative solutions for a sustainable future.

Kerala has become the first state in the country to go completely digital in public education. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will soon be making the official announcement of the same. The state was able to achieve this feat with the help of hi-tech projects consisting of Rs. 493.50 Crore hi-tech school project for the secondary schools and the Rs. 300 Crore hi-tech lab project for the primary schools in the state. As per reports, 16000 public schools in the state have now been equipped with 374,274 IT equipment which includes 23,098 projector screens, 43,250 mounting kits, 4,545 LED TVs, 4,578 DSLR Cameras, 4,720 full HD webcams, 4,611 multifunctional printers along with high-speed broadband connection in 12,678 schools.

November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Cover Story

Cracking competitive exams in times of Covid A total number of 1,50,838 candidates appeared in JEE (Advanced) of which 43,204 candidates have qualified the test. This year students have made history in bagging 100 percentiles across NEET and JEE exams. Let’s find out what is in store for the students appearing in 2021 By Triparna Ray 12

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

S

tudents who appeared for competitive exams in the year 2020 have had to brace challenges that no generation has. Unprecedented, would be an understatement. Preparing for exams whilst remaining indoors was in itself a challenge and making it makes it count even more. Cut off of exams were a big relief for students Officially, a total of 15.97 lakh candidates registered for NEET exam 2020, while over 13 lakh candidates appeared for admission to 80,055, MBBS, 26,949 BDS, 52,720 AYUSH and 525 BVSc& AH offered in colleges of India. Likewise, nearly 74 per cent candidates who had registered for JEE-Mains appeared for the test amid strict precautions in view of COVID-19 even as the attendance figures dipped from 94.32% per cent in the January session. According to statistics available with the Ministry of Education, out of 8.58 lakh applicants, 6.35 lakh appeared for the engineering test from September 1 to 6. The exam was conducted after being deferred twice in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Odisha’s Soyeb Aftab created history by securing a perfect 100 per cent score in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), results of which were announced by the National Testing Agency (NTA). He scored 720 marks out of 720 grabbing the headlines and the top slot in the all India merit list. Akanksha Singh from Delhi also scored 720 on 720 marks, but the NTA placed her on the second position in the all India merit list. It is because of the tie break policy. Delhi boy Chirag Falor secured All India Rank (AIR) 1 this year. In the JEE Main, Chirag had secured 12th rank with 100 percentile marks this year. With 99.99 percentile, Era Sarda has topped among girls candidates in Delhi. She has secured AIR 79th rank. Besides, four other Delhi boys —Gurkirat Singh,

Laksh Gupta, Nishant Aggarwal, and TusharSethi have scored 100 percentile.

Why students writing NEET, JEE in 2021 will have to study the omitted portions? As stated by Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry officials, the syllabus has been rationalised in July to reduce the burden on students but the core concepts have been retained. In July, a few months after the new academic year began, the Central Board of Secondary Education decided to reduce its syllabus by 30 per cent for students of classes IX to XII. The decision was taken owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, which made the students miss a lot of their classes. At the same time, an RTI filed with the NTA, that sought the syllabus for JEE and NEET 2021 was disposed off. The RTI was filed by Vivek Pandey, a medical student from Madhya Pradesh. “The Question Papers for NEET (UG) is based on a Common Syllabus notified by the Medical Council of India (MCI). NTA has no role in framing the syllabus for NEET,” read its remark. A few state boards too followed suit, right after the CBSE’s decision.However, it looks like the students who are preparing for competitive examinations like JEE and NEET cannot afford to skip these topics.

JEE Main in more regional languages The Ministry of Education announced that the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main will be conducted in more regional Indian languages from next year. The exam is currently conducted

only in Hindi, English and Gujarati.The National Testing Agency (NTA) will now add more languages to this list for the exams starting 2021. The ministry, however, has not announced the names of the languages. The decision was informed by Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in a series of tweets on his official Twitter handle.The minister also said “the decision of JAB (Joint Admission Board that conducts the JEE Main) will help students comprehend questions better and score higher”. So far, only the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) is conducted in regional languages. Apart from Hindi and English, NEET is also held in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

Implications The ministry’s announcement also said the JEE Main will be conducted in “regional languages where entry to state engineering colleges is decided based on an examination conducted in regional language”. States like Assam, West Bengal, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Gujarat, among others, conduct engineering exams in the state’s regional languages. The idea now is to conduct JEE Main in regional languages in such states. Nishank also said this decision will have far reaching implications as ‘top scoring countries in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) examination use mother tongue as a medium of instruction.’

November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Cover Story

Never stopped preparing for the exam A quick chat with NEET 2020 topper Soyeb Aftab, who has created a record. Here are the excerpts from the interview. By Triparna Ray

Q. How are you celebrating your success? I am very happy. I was not expecting a rank 1 in NEET 2020. When I gave the exam, I hoped to get around 700. I wasn’t sure about two of my answers. It was only after the NEET 2020 answer key was out that I became sure of my marks.

Q. How was the entire experience of NEET 2020? I never stopped preparing for NEET 2020. I did not go home for the past two years. I think the consistency during NEET preparation paid off. And my motivation to serve people grew stronger during this time.

Q. Were you enrolled with any coaching institute? I started preparing for NEET 2020 in April 2018. I went to Kota for NEET preparation and enrolled myself in a leading coaching institute there. I have been living in Kota since, and I haven’t been home all this while.

Q. How important are coaching institutes for NEET preparation? Coaching classes helped me to stay focused. When I came to Kota, I had dreamed about getting a seat in Government College. The coaching institute guided me and my marks began to improve. In Class 11, I thought maybe I can secure 14

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

a position for myself amongst the top 500. In Class 12, my average score used to be around 700. Now, I started feeling that I can secure a rank amongst the top 100. All this while, the faculty was very supportive and helped me throughout. Even during COVID-19, the teachers stayed in contact with us. Even if I could not perform well in any mock test, they would call me to motivate me.

Q. How did you balance your NEET preparation and preparation for Class 12? I used to attend school from 7 am to 2 pm, then I would directly go to my coaching institute. My classes ended by 7 pm and this left me exhausted. I managed to spend around 3 hours for self study. But I was not happy with the fact that I could only spare 3-4 hours for self study, therefore, I used to make up for it by studying on the weekends.

Q. Which college are you going to choose now? I want to study in AIIMS Delhi.

Q. Any advice to the future NEET aspirants? I would like to say that they should try to remain consistent during their preparation. They must avoid deviating from their path and focus on their goals instead of all the obstacles.

Cover Story

My aim was to become a doctor or a scientist A quick one-to-one with NEET 2020 AIR 6TH, Guthi Chaitanya Sindhu with 715 marks.

Q. How you are feeling? I am feeling very happy after the announcement of the NEET 2020 result and am very elated. I will be celebrating my success with my family and teachers.

Q. When did you start your preparations for the NEET exam? I started preparing for NEET in class 11 and class 12 only, and this was my first attempt. I started my preparations by studying with KKR Gautam earlier and they are mainly known for preparing students for IITs and students begin their preparations as early from class 8 or class 10. I made my mind to pursue my career in medicine and hence started preparing for NEET 2020 exam in class 11 back in 2018.

Q. When and what inspired you to be a doctor? I always wanted to become either a doctor or a scientist and was always fond of biology and related sciences. It was while I was in my intermediate that I had to make a choice between Medical (PCB) and Non-medical (PCM). It was then I decided to choose Medical (PCB) and made up my mind to pursue a career in the field of medicine. I aspire to take admission in AIIMS, New Delhi.

Q. How challenging it was to prepare for both board exams and NEET? It was not that challenging in actual as both have the same set of syllabus. My main focus was NEET and all the basic concepts re based on the NCERT books. So while preparing for NEET 2020 exam I thoroughly studied NCERT books along with detailed notes provided by my mentors. As far as the board exams are concerned, I only studied last month.

Q. How did your coaching was affected during the lockdown? I took coaching for the NEET 2020 exam at Sri Chaitanya. As the syllabus was completed and we had done the revision as well before the lockdown was announced hence it didn’t have much impact because of the lockdown. All the teachers were available all the time and were easily approachable, we at times cleared our doubts over WhatsApp.

Q. Which subject is your weak and in which one is strong? As I managed to study each subject equally hence, I don’t think I have any weak or strong area in particular. However, I solved a lot of questions in Physics and Chemistry.

Q. What strategy did you follow on exam day? I didn’t have any specific strategy for the NEET exam, though NEET 2020 was quite easy and I solved the Physics questions first as they appeared first followed by Biology and Chemistry in the question paper. November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Cover Story

Playing Table Tennis Helped Me To DeStress JEE Advanced 2020 Topper, Chirag Falor has scored 352 marks out of 396 marks in the JEE Advanced 2020 exam. An excerpt from the interview. By Triparna Ray

Q. What was your reaction? I just woke up when my mother told me that I got a call from the Director of IIT Delhi that I secured the first rank. I couldn’t believe that. I couldn’t digest the fact at that moment. Then, I was getting calls every second, so, it was good.

Q. Which school did you attend?

I actually liked the computer-based format because in the computer-based exam there is one benefit that we can change the answer because I could go back and correct my answers even if I found something wrong later on.

In Class 11 and 12, I studied in Delhi at Pragati Public School Dwarka and did my coaching from Aakash Institute.

Q. Do you think practising from the previous year papers help?

I got 12th rank and 100 percentile.

Previous years’ papers helped me a lot. The week before JEE Advanced I just picked the previous years’ papers in the same manner in which I was supposed to give the exam. I was trying to mimic the same environment as the original exam so I could get the idea of the JEE Advanced exam and I could get the feeling before so I don’t face problems in the exam. Previous years’ papers were super useful.

Q. Why do you want to study in graduation?

Q. When did you start your JEE Advanced 2020 preparation?

I will be doing a Bachelor of Science in Physics.

I started my preparation in Class 9 from Pune and then I went to Delhi for

Q. What is your overall and subjectwise score in JEE Advanced 2020? I got 352 overall and 196 out of 198 in paper 1 and 156 out of 198 in paper 2.

Q. What was your JEE Main rank and marks?

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Q. What preparation strategy did you adapt for the computerbased exam?

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

better studies in Class 11 and Class 12. I completed my JEE syllabus while on Class 11 and during Class 12, I focussed more on mock tests. Mock tests helped me to practice a lot. One of the things our faculty did was error analysis for each individual student so they identified my weak topics even when I couldn’t identify them myself so I could work only on those and that helped me a lot.

Q. How was the preparation for JEE Advanced 2020 different from JEE Main 2020? I actually didn’t prepare for JEE Main exam. Just before JEE Main 2020, I studied the NCERT textbooks and I majorly prepared for JEE Advanced 2020 throughout.

Q. How did you de-stress yourself during the preparation? I used to play table tennis after lunch and dinner so that would help in digestion and keeping my body fit. If I had some free time then I would play chess with my friend or even go for stargazing on the roof.

CLAT Topper

Ishan Thakur, AIR 19 shares how staying away from social media helped him score CLAT 2020.

Q. How does it feel? Since last year I have been preparing very hard for the exam. I also took a break from all social networking platforms and focused sincerely on my preparation. Actually, I was confident of making into one of the top three NLUs this year but AIR 19 was quite unexpected.

Q. What are your course preferences through CLAT? My preference was joining any one of the top three NLUs but now I will be joining NLSIU Bangalore, the top most law college of the country which is usually dream of every law aspirant. I would be studying B.A LLB (Hons) there which is a 5-year integrated course. I think B.A is the best option to study along with LLB as the subjects in both of them are closely related.

Q. How did you manage your study during the pandemic? The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown have had a huge impact on all the aspirants preparing for various exams. Also because of the pandemic our exam got postponed thrice. During this phase I tried my best to motivate myself and keep studying

Doing the right thing was the key which I think helped me very well to clear this exam. I think amidst the uncertainty due to the pandemic, pushing myself and doing the right things for my preparation was the key.

Q. Did you take mock tests? Throughout my preparation I have given more than 70mock tests. I think giving mock tests is an essential part of preparation as it helps you to understand your weaknesses and strengths and you can then work accordingly to improve your score. Also, after taking the mock the important thing is its thorough analysis which I think many people don’t follow.

Q. What was your study routine for CLAT? During the initially days of my preparations I used to study in the early morning hours but after the pandemic came and lockdown was imposed the routine started to fluctuate. I think every day is different. Some days I used to study the whole day and on other days just 4-5 hours; so it depends as studying for the same number of hours daily is a difficult task. But during the final days before the exam I gradually increased the time I used to give to my preparation. Also taking short breaks is very important according to me as it rejuvenates you to study for long hours in a single go. November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Cover Story

Better to be scared than be overconfident Pragna Yenduri scored 475 out of 480 in LSAT India 2020. She shares to Higher Education Plus about how she cracked the exam.

I secured 97.17 percentile on the exam. LSAT India doesn’t disclose the exam score for all the sections.

test atmosphere by solving mocks on my laptop, three hours per day for one month before the exam. This helped me focus better on the screen and avoid any distractions.

learned many tips and shortcuts taught by those test experts.

Q. How did you manage time between board exams and entrance exam prep?

Q. Could you tell us your preparation strategy that helped you crack LSAT India exam?

I finished my board exams few months prior to writing the LSAT India exam. I had sufficient time to finish my preparation after writing the Class 12 exams, hence my preparation for the college entrance exams and Class 12th exam didn’t conflict.

I solved over 30 LSAT India mocks. I was also assiduous in rectifying all the mistakes I made on the mocks, so that I don’t repeat the same mistakes on the day of the exam.

I started my preparation around May. I used to follow the 10+6+8 plan which is 10 hours of combined studies for CLAT and LSAT India and since May, I studied 3 hours exclusively for LSAT India, 6 hours of leisure and completing your daily chores and 8 hours of sleep. I wrote at least one LSAT mock exam every day. I timed myself and made sure that I was able to finish the sections within the allotted time.

Q. What is your LSAT India score?

Q. How was it taking LSAT India exam amid COVID-19 pandemic? I didn’t let COVID-19 affect my preparation or confidence. Due to COVID-19, the exam was held in online mode for the first time and that too at home. I was anxious initially because the technical skill set required for both offline and online modes is so different. I was also tensed about internet connectivity, server issues as unlike the exam centre you have nobody to help you at home. Nevertheless, I adapted to the change as soon as I learned about this news. I tried to simulate the 18

Q. How did you prepare for different sections of LSAT India exam? Reading section was the easiest for me. Time management was my main issue with both of logical reasoning sections. I tried to solve as many Logical Reasoning section tests as I can, so I can identify the different question types and the respective reasoning skills I need to solve them. After every mock, I would thoroughly analyse the questions I got wrong and rectify them. Analytical reasoning was initially the hardest for me. I watched numerous LSAT videos on YouTube and

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

Q. What study plan did you follow for this exam?

Q. Any tips for students who are planning to take the exam next year? I would advise the students to be strongwilled. It is okay if you falter sometimes or score low in the tests. Consistency is the key. It is better to be scared than have pseudo confidence. I wasn’t at my best right at the start but I kept going. Since LSAT is all about spontaneous assessments the more u solve the mocks the more u sharpen, quicken your skills. Please take each day as it comes & chalk out a balanced study plan.

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Chagari Koushal Kumar Reddy scored 100 percentile. He shares his success story guiding future aspirants to score well. Q. Was JEE Main 2020 January exam your first attempt? I am very happy about my JEE Main 2020 result. This was unexpected but I am satisfied with the scores. Yes, this is my first attempt in JEE Main.

Q. What is your NTA score in JEE Main 2020 January exam? My subject wise JEE Main 2020 January exam scores are: Chemistry – 100 Mathematics – 99.9768056 Physics – 99.9884028

All the candidates who are appearing for JEE Main must make sure that they are perfect with the basics.

Give your best shot every time Q. How much time did you spend for JEE Main exam? I started studying for the JEE Main 2020 exam from class 9 onwards. I spent almost 9 hours for JEE Main 2020 preparation. I also took college tutorial classes seriously.

Q. Which subject did you focus more and why? I first made sure that I was perfect with the basics in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics and followed NCERT thoroughly. But reading and referring NCERT is not enough for JEE Main exam. You will always need higher concepts and good books to perform well in the examination.

Q. What is your future plan? I am preparing to pursue Engineering from any of the old IITs (Bombay or Kharagpur or Madras or Roorkee or Kanpur etc). I have an interest in doing research and developing new technologies.

Q. Any tips for future aspirants? All the candidates who are appearing for JEE Main must make sure that they are perfect with the basics. They should not stress out and focus on their studies only. If in first attempt they did not get any good score, it is totally fine. They can try again and give their best shot next time. November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Cover Story

Consistency is the key A quick chat with Tushar Sethi, a student of Bal Bharti Public School in Sector 14, Rohini, Delhi. Tushar bagged the 10th rank in AIR with 100 percentile in JEE Mains, 2020. Q. What exams did you prepare for?

Q. What was your JEE Main preparation strategy?

He was preparing for the major all-India engineering exam for four years. He started hi preparation from class 9.

I started my preparations as early as in class 9, as I had enrolled myself into a 4 years Classroom program at Vidyamandir Classes. From class 11 onwards, I followed a planned schedule and focused mainly on studies, curtailing my favourite sport volleyball.

Q. What is your NTA score? My score was 100 percentile and I secured an AIR of 10th.

Q. What was your family’s reaction? His parents Puneet Sethi and Sangita have always supported him and are overjoyed with his performance in the JEE Main 2020.

Q. What do you to relax from studies? Till class 10, I was too much involved in sports, especially volleyball, in order to maintain my physique. But from class 11 onwards, I focused on studies and followed a planned timetable.

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Q. Which books did you refer to while preparing for the JEE Main 2020 exam? I relied mostly on the materials provided by the coaching institute.

Q. What is your future plan? I am yet to decide which branch of Engineering to go for.

Q. What will be your message to future aspirants? I feel that students need to be focused and need to remain consistent in their preparations.

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Always aim for the best Bagging the position of AIR 11th, Anantha Parakrama a young boy from Telangana has put his first step ahead to accomplish his childhood dream of becoming a doctor. Q. What are your feelings on this achievement? It always feels good to be a topper and thank you.

Q. What motivated you to choose medicine as a career? My father’s passion for his job who is a doctor has motivated me to pursue medicine as a career. From childhood only I have decided that I will be a doctor.

Q. Did you take any coaching for NEET 2020? I have taking coaching classes from Sri Chaitanya and attended some test series of Allen also.

Q. What was your daily routine for NEET preparation? I use to decide my topics for the day and finish it at any cost. I never counted my time of studying as soon I completed my decided syllabus, I use to chill with my friends.

Q. Which subject is your weak one and in which are you strong?

Q. Is this your first attempt?

My both weakest and strongest subject is Physics.

It was my first attempt and I am preparing for the NEET when I was in Class 11th.

Q. How was the last minute preparation exam?

Q. How did you prepare for both your board exams and NEET? When there was board i have prepared for only board and as for NEET i have lots of time i have prepared for it separately. This lockdown helps my preparation a lot.

Q. How did you prepare for NEET 2020 during COVID-19? The uncertainty on NEET exam was stressful but as I already mentioned earlier it helped me a lot for my NEET preparation.

This lockdown has turned the preparation scenario totally but the online mode of NEET preparation is quite beneficial.

Q. Which college is your dream college for studying medicine? I want to pursue neurology from AIIMS, Delhi.

Q. Any suggestions for future aspirants? I want to give my suggestion for aspiring candidates through a quote “It is better to aim high and miss than to aim low and hit.” November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Cover Story

Improvise daily on speed and accuracy

Rounak Dalmia, a young vibrant boy from a small town in Orissa bagged 52nd position in the IIT JEE Advanced. He shares his experience with Higher Education Plus. Q. What is your percentile score in JEE Main 2020?

took time to get used to the mode, but after practice I picked up pace.

I had attempted the January 2020 exam, my overall percentile score was 99.88. The individual percentile scores for Maths, Chemistry and Physics were 99.96, 99.02 and 99.68 respectively.

Q. Was there a difference in the preparation strategy in the last months of JEE Main considering that the board exams are also coming up?

Q. Why do you want to study engineering? My love for Mathematics and passion for computer science was the main reason for my interest in engineering. I had decided to choose this as my stream since my 10th standard. I would be opting for IIT Bombay Computer Science because they have the best curriculum.

Q. When did you start your JEE Main preparation? I started preparing for my JEE Main after class 10th. I followed a set routine and vigorous practice. During my practice sessions I mainly focused on concepts and tried to improvise on my speed and accuracy. My routine for the last two and half years was attending coaching classes and continuous practice till midnight with small breaks in between.

Q. Did you face any difficulties since the examination was conducted completely in computer-based mode? Since the time of my preparation I always focused on the online mode and never switched to offline, primarily because every alternative Sunday I had to write computer based mock tests. Initially it 22

There wasn’t much difference in the preparation strategy as the concept and syllabus for Boards and Mains are largely the same, however the way questions are asked in each are different. For instance in Boards the questions asked are mostly subjective and theoretical based whereas for Mains it is objective and numerical. On a daily basis I attempted as many mock tests as I could, additionally for Boards I practiced more of Physics, Maths and Chemistry.

Q. JEE Main sample papers and mock tests – how extensively did you practise with the help of these? Mock tests are the rank deciders. Through mock tests maximum concepts and analysis are practiced. Additionally one should also give equal importance to revising past two- three years exam papers, since you get an idea of the exam. Everyday I used to practice mock tests and previous year papers for 3-4 hours.

Q. Did you face any problems during the JEE Main examination? Some chapters in the syllabus required memorisation, which was quite challenging for me. Also while preparing for Chemistry the portions were a little difficult, as I had to memorize concepts.

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Continuous revision of chapters and concepts helped me overcome this challenge.

Q. Which subject was the easiest and which was the toughest in JEE Main? What do you think is a tough thing to manage during the JEE Main exam? The easiest subject to crack was Mathematics because the level of preparation for the subject focuses more on practice. On the other hand Chemistry was the toughest subject because it required a lot of memorisation and the questions were a little confusing. It is crucial to manage speed and accuracy during the IIT JEE Main exam, because one is required to solve every question within two minutes.

Q. What do you think are the key factors behind your stupendous success in JEE Main? I practiced as many mock tests and previous exam papers as possible. With the guidance of teachers and high quality study material I was able to overcome my weaknesses in difficult topics and secure rank 52 in IIT JEE Advanced.

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Inspired

Video Links

Ratan Tata

Jeff Bezos

Ratan Tata was the former Chairman of Tata Sons, one of the promoter holding companies of the Tata Group. Tata received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and completed Advanced Management Programme from the Harvard Business School. He was honoured with the second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in 2008. In the video Tata talks about the various points in his life which can inspire us to face challenges in our lives.

Jeff Bezos the founder and creator of Amazon. com one of the most successful online stores of contemporary world had always wanted to be an inventor. At the age of 30, with a determination to pursue his long standing dream Bezos took to starting his own venture, not sure of whether at all the path he has chosen would reap benefits or take him to a dead end. Watch the video to know about the mantras that Jeff Bezos shares on life and decision making that has made him a globally acclaimed and successful businessman.

Indian Industrialist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dLKZZN5tSo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_63VIDJbWw

Alok Kejriwal

Jessica Cox

Alok Kejriwal is a passionate Indian businessman, who defines himself as passionate digital entrepreneur. Mr Kejriwal is the co founder and CEO of Games2win, one of the largest mobile gaming companies in the world. He holds a Master’s degree in Business and Commerce from Sydenham College of Commerce & Economics, Mumbai. It is incredible that having a commerce background Mr Kejriwal not only championed in the IT industry but went on to open a few start-ups as well. In this video Mr Alok Kejriwal talks about the importance of focus in our life, and how being centered and with the right amount of intention and attention does one’s goal start manifesting.

Jessica Cox is a Pilot, a black belt in the American Taekwondo Association and an enthusiastic piano player. All the skills that she possesses makes her a super talented woman of the contemporary world, what makes her stand out is the fact that this super woman is armless, but that has in no way deterred her enthusiasm to become an air bender. Jessica was born without arms, but her unbelievable spirit to never say no inspired her to accomplish tasks such as piloting a plane with her legs. Watch the video and get inspired on how to eliminate negative traits from life and work towards the goals just as Jessica Cox does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6WqeriMrkM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2IqpPSF9-U

November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Cover Story

SKETCHING HELPED ME AFTER EVERY MOCK EXAM Studied at Universal Public School, Preet Vihar, Delhi, Roopak Priyadarshi AIR 64 shares about his preparation tactics.

Q. What was your reaction upon knowing your score? I knew right after giving the exam, that I would score above 270 marks because I had attempted every question correctly to the best of my knowledge, but still getting 288 marks was a pleasant surprise. Although, I did have some regrets because my 3 mistakes were all in numerical type questions, which I could have easily avoided.

Q. What is your percentile score in JEE Main 2020? My JEE Mains 2020 percentile score was 99.9965567. Subject wise score was: Physics 99.9827833. Maths 99.9793399. Chemistry 99.9913916. I scored equally i.e. 96 marks in each subject totalling to 288 marks.

Q. Why do you want to study engineering? I decided to study engineering for higher education around grade 9. Mainly it was my interest in the way technology worked, that motivated me to follow this course. 24

I would be taking up computer science as my branch in some reputed IIT mainly because whatever limited exposure I have had to programming, tells me that its one of the most logical things to pursue.

Q. When did you start your JEE Main preparation? I started my JEE preparation as early as class 10th but in those years I prepared the syllabus as a whole mainly with focus on Advanced exam. I started preparing specifically for mains 2 months before the exam in January and 20 days before in September exam. This is sufficient time to revise mains centric chapters and to analyse previous year paper pattern. Other than that over the 3 year JEE preparation, I practiced mains and advanced level questions according to the chapter which I was doing at the time

Q. Was there a difference in the preparation strategy in the last months? Due to coronavirus, we got a lot of time to prepare for the second JEE mains, held in September, but even if it had been held as scheduled in April,

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

as I have mentioned earlier 20-30 days is enough to thoroughly revise mains syllabus, if you have done it sincerely during the preparation. Similarly, for boards, I didn’t do any separate preparation, just spent the week before the boards analysing the previous year papers and the correct way to answer them descriptively. Attending regular school, also helped with board exam preparation and I got a decent 98.2 percent score without much stress at the time of the exam.

Q. Did you face any problems during the JEE Main examination? My computer shut down twice during the examination but the staff were supportive and quickly provided a buffer node each time, thankfully the timer started from where it had stopped and I didn’t lose any time.

Q. How did you de-stress yourself during the preparation? Watching web series and movies works as a great stress reliever for me, and spent my free time binging on the shows I like to watch. Drawing sketches always helped lift up my spirits after a particularly bad mock exam.

Cover Story

Overall Topper Laksh Gupta, JEE Mains AIR 9, a student of Sanskriti School, Chanakyapuri. He had won gold medal at International Economics Olympiad, 2019 held at St.Petersburg, Russia shares his views. Q. Tell us something about yourself. Which board have you studied under? Which school have you studied in?

What is your percentile score in JEE Main 2020?

100 percentile Maths-100 Physics-99.99 Chemistry-99.99

Q. Why do you want to study engineering? Maths fascinates me a lot and IITDelhi provides a perfect combination of Mathematics & Computer Science in MnC branch which I am most interested in.

Q. When did you start your JEE Main preparation? I started my preparation in class 11th. I focussed on both my school studies as well as my coaching studies. School helped me crack JEE Mains & VMC helped in JEE Advanced. I spent around 5 hrs for my coaching studies on normal

school days.

Q. Did you face any difficulties since the examination was conducted completely in computer-based mode? I was quite familiar with Computer based tests as I had given over hundreds of them throughout 2 years in my coaching.

Q. Was there a difference in the preparation strategy in the last months? I tried to give more and more tests for JEE Mains. Since syllabus for both is same, it was easy to manage both.

Q. Are there any special books that you feel have helped with your JEE Main preparation?

Tests on daily basis which helped me manage my time and clarity over my weak concepts. I feel if one is familiar with the pattern, it helps a lot.

Q. Which subject was the easiest and which was the toughest in JEE Main? Since Maths is my favourite subject, I found Maths questions to be the easiest. Physics questions had slightly long calculations which I felt was time consuming.

Q. What do you think are the key factors behind success? I felt my concept clarity was what got me my rank.

Q. How did you de-stress yourself during the preparation?

For JEE Mains, I feel NCERT & Coaching books are enough.

I played guitar and went for a short run to distress myself.

Q. Do you think practising from the previous year papers help and how?

Q. Do you have any message for future aspirants?

In last few days I gave JEE Mains Mock

Always have faith on your hard work and never lose confidence.

November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Study Abroad

Upturn in job market as festive season kicks in By Ankush Sharma, CEO, LokalPe 26

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here is a silver lining in the dark clouds as companies are slowly but surely picking up the threads. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, during the lockdown period, the unemployment rate in India inflated from 8.75 percent to 27.1 percent. On an average 120 million out of 170 million blue collar workers in the country had lost jobs. Although the economy of the country continues to grapple while looking for the measures to stabilise, there is expectancy for the companies to start hiring entry level workers with an urge to work fluently for the festive season ahead. In fact, it is already witnessing an uptick in sectors like logistics and e-commerce, according to HR consultancies, which expect a further spike to come about as companies prepare to cater to the festive season demand. The vacant positions are mostly across roles in sorting, warehouse management, delivery,

Festive Spirit yy Big Basket, DealShare, Amazon, and Grofers, have already hired thousands of blue collars and gig workers in the past few months yy 85% of the employers assume the there will be an increase in the recruitment of bluecollar and entry-level staff yy 53% of the companies are definite to recover within the next three months yy 32% of them are positive about recovering within the upcoming six months yy E-commerce and ITeS businesses are confident that they will resume their operations completely this year by October

packaging, security, among others.

Life of Blue Collars Post Pandemic Discussions around the challenges facing work from home have been around the corner in the past few months. However, hardly anyone talks about what life looks like beyond the white collar. The men in blue have been trudging around to keep organisations running while others trying hard to start earning wages post lockdown. The stakes for these workers have been much higher than the ones in white. The impact of the lockdown and the subsequent downsizing has been felt harder by this workforce who has been disengaged in large numbers. Their low skill level coupled with the sheer availability of manpower to the companies further reduces their bargaining power. Though the understanding between the management and the workers of any category has been much more than before, hardships being faced by blue collar workers are beyond our imagination.

Logistics and E-commerce look bright In the month of April the blue collar workers saw a major downfall. But as recorded by Quikr Jobs, there was a 108% surge in applications and a 36% rise in availability in the succeeding month as compared to April. Further, in June 2020, OLX People, India’s leading tech-powered HR Platform, conducted a survey named; “Employer Sentiment Survey”. According to the survey, 85% of the employers assume the there will be an increase in the recruitment of bluecollar and entry-level staff, amid the COVID-19 pandemic scrutinizing the upcoming festive season in the year. This survey corroborated that e-commerce and ITeS will lead the hiring accompanied by logistics and food companies. In order to be prudent and contemplating to get well composed for the festive season, the e-commerce companies always hire

aggressively from the second half of the year. These companies mostly hire to fill the vacant roles comprisingwarehouse management, packaging, sorting, security and delivery, among others. The survey also mentioned that many companies are confident enough to recover the business losses which occurred due to the pandemic within this year itself. It stated that 53% of the companies are definite to recover within the next three months, and 32% of them are positive about recovering within the upcoming six months. Moreover, there are 40% of semi operational companies from the survey. These companies are into essential services. E-commerce and ITeS businesses are confident that they will resume their operations completely this year by October.

The Future Looks Bright The lockdown has adversely affected the blue-collar gig workers. Many discretionary companies have shut down but the delivery staff is still needed in essential services. Now that the nation is moving towards the unlocking of the lockdown, it is expected that there will be an increased demand for blue, greycollar, and entry level jobs. The internet companies seem to dominate this wave of revival as they bulk up blue collar jobs. Many of them including Big Basket, DealShare, Amazon, and Grofers, have already hired thousands of blue collars and gig workers in the past few months. This festive season sales are smacking along with the Indian Premier League which will pave ways for a shoot up in both food and e-commerce sectors. The festive season sale is going to begin by October from Dussehra and will extend till about Christmas, and this highlights the peak consumer purchase period. All of this will lead to an optimistic revival of hiring for the blue collar workers. The reverse migration has just started and the upcoming festive season is expected to bring a much need relief to everyone - from blue collar workers to retailers and established companies.

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University Calling

69.9% parents wish their children pursue their passion: Lifology Parent Perspective study

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By Praveen Parameswar, CEO – Lifology

one are the days when parents pushed their children into a particular stream. 69.9% of parents wish to see their children pursuing their passion as a career, says Lifology Parent Perspective study conducted across 81,327 parents. The privilege of access to guidance in choosing the right career path was only attributed to urban parents and kids until a few years ago. People in tier II and tier III cities and the rural locations in India, even after covering more than 74% of the total population, did not have access to enough opportunities, resources or support in choosing the right education or career. But the intervention of technology over the last couple of years brought significant changes in the scenario. Six of the major problems the parents and children outside the top cities faced were analysed, and this is how technology helped in resolving the concerns while creating tides of change. Every fifth person in India is in the adolescent age group (10 to 19 years), according to the census data and UNICEF statistics. This is the time when they require proper guidance to choose between pathways in higher education and thereby career.

Awareness options

about

various

career

Seminars, expert talks, and similar events did expose the urban parents and kids to various career opportunities. They were closer to the centre of business and changes in the employment 28

scenario. They were highly inaccessible to the population outside the major cities. But today there are platforms that host curated content through which different career options are introduced to parents and children.

Self-assessment tools and counselling Experts and policy makers always talk about choosing career and higher studies based on aptitude and intelligence orientation. There are scientifically designed tools available for this purpose. However, this has also been used only by top notch schools and learned parents. The counsellors who use these tools used to cater only to the elite crowd. But now any person sitting anywhere in the country has access to aptitude assessment followed by counselling, provided they have an internet connection.

Mentoring opportunities 69.9% of parents wish to see their children pursuing their passion as a career, says Lifology Parent Perspective study conducted across 81,327 parents. But the unfortunate reality is that both the parent and child lack the right mentoring to plan the journey forward. In order to be successful in a field nothing can substitute direct mentoring by veterans in the same industry. As professionals were more centered around cities, it was difficult for children in rural areas to have access to such bright brains. Technology has changed this scenario forever. Now there are opportunities for parents to get an expert in Bangalore or Mumbai or Cochin as a

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

mentor to their kids, irrespective of their geographical location and coordinates.

Test preparation Quality content, high profile teachers and modern learning methodology were inaccessible for children until they were ready to relocate to the hubs of test preparation that are mostly located in cities. Now the scenario is different. Nation’s the best teachers are supporting kids through desktops, tablets and even mobile phones. Another study by Lifology conducted among 38,564 parents across India found that 61% of parents seek the support of e-learning platforms in the last 6 months.

Scholarships and financial aid Except for government sponsored scholarships and financial aid, external support was not accessible for children in the non-urban areas. Now thousands of scholarships worth millions are accessible for children from any part of the country. ‘Buddy for Study’, a prominent Ed Tech start-up in this field claims that they have disbursed scholarships worth 95 Crore till date. There are organisations facilitating application, guidance, selection and funding for education. The way technology start-ups currently helping people to grow beyond geographical proximity to resources can be defined through the above six points. The scope is getting larger day by day. It is sure that the next ten years will change the scenario of education in India in 360 degrees.

Young World

Common financial mistakes college students make By Triparna Ray

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tudents are often short of money. With a little planning one can still have a good lifestyle Every student wishes for the best clothes, accessories and gadgets. Their wants are many but budget tight. Always caught between the two, it is a bitter battle that they find themselves in. With a little planning and smart thinking one can have their cake and eat it too! Literally.

High unrestrained spending Overspending even when not essential is the most common blunder among students. This includes buying designer clothes and high-end shoes or watches, electronic gadgets like phones, laptops, iPads and others, where a less-expensive brand may be equally useful. Check the uncontrolled urge for spending by handling money carefully. Think about this: It is how you carry it off that counts. Even if you wear the best brand but are not confident and comfortable you are heading nowhere

No emergency deposit Stereotypically, college students and even young professionals may not grow the routine of saving some part of an allowance or salary. They keep spending as if there is no tomorrow. Saving some amount for an emergency fund provides an economic security cushion and also generates room for flexible expenditure later. Think about this: Why run helterskelter when in need. Just save 10% per month. It would save you time, energy and embarrassment

Exploiting instant loan apps Nowadays, young professionals and even students at times, have easy access to loans via instant loan apps. These apps offer loans to new to credit borrowers without collateral, but charge a tremendous amount of interest on the principal amount. Eventually, many young professionals and students end up in debts as they use them imprudently. Think about this: There is no free lunch

in this world. And no one would give credit for free.

Lack of budgeting capability For students and young professionals, one of the leading financial errors is not following to a monthly budget. Simple things such as keeping limited cash in the wallet, using a credit card with carefulness and utilising a digital expense manager or budget calculator on phone can limit one’s impulse to overspend. Think about this: Spend only when you need. It is better to be safe than sorry

Spending large amounts on wants Most young people fail to understand the thin line separating the wants and needs. Subsequently, they spend all their finances on wants and do not have sufficient for their needs such as books, tuition fees, research items and essential travel or associated expenses. Think about this: Understanding the difference is crucial in evolving well spending habits.

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Sweden Calling

Sweden, a big draw for Indian students By Douglas Washburn, Marketing Manager at Study in Sweden, Swedish Institute

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weden, a country bestknown as a leader in innovation, sustainability and gender equality is quickly establishing itself as a study destination among Indian students. For Indian students who are looking to think outside the box and who are interested in a more progressive study destination, it’s hard to find a better place to study and live than Sweden as it offers a unique lifestyle in addition to excellent education at an affordable cost.

protect individual freedom. No matter how students identify themselves they can be comfortable knowing that they can live as the person they want to be.

Study any subject in English at the master’s level

Classrooms where you can question your professor

Sweden offers over 1,000 English taught programmes, which is among the most in Europe. The majority of these are at the master’s level where students can literally study just about any subject in English. The only exceptions are a handful of areas where education needs to be in Swedish such as medicine, nursing and teaching. Swedish universities also offer an ever-increasing number of English taught bachelor programmes. Bachelor programmes take three years while master’s programmes are available as one-year and two-year programmes.

Students can be as different as they’d like Sweden – and Swedish universities – are more international than most people think and 25% of the population is foreign-born or has a parent born abroad. 10% of the student body is made up of international students and while Indian students are the largest group of international degree students from outside the EU, there is a huge amount of diversity in Swedish classrooms. While Sweden isn’t perfect it leads the way in gender equality and is often ranked as the most gender equal country in the world (#1 on the Gender Equality Index). Sweden is also one of the most progressive countries in the world for LGBTQ+ rights with strong laws to

Affordable programmes An average degree programme in Sweden costs around SEK 129,000 (~EUR 12,500) per year. While costs vary depending upon the programme a master’s degree in Sweden costs around 1/3 of what a similarly ranked programme in the United States would cost.

Swedish classrooms are nonhierarchical, and students learn to think creatively and critically. Professors are referred to by their first name and students are actually encouraged to question their professors. This promotes a more open and forgiving learning environment and the classrooms at Swedish institutions are likely one of the reasons why Sweden is one of the most creative and innovation countries in the world. “The non-hierarchical and equal study conditions have helped me develop, work with freedom, and given me space to explore” -Samhita, India, Linnaeus University alumna

Focus on learning – not punishing failure In Sweden there is a focus on learning rather than punishing failure. Students are allowed multiple exam retakes and aren’t punished if they fail. “You can keep taking retakes and noone thinks you’re stupid”- Samhita, India, Linnaeus University alumna

Work-life balance means something in Sweden Sweden’s home to one of the biggest ‘Unicorn’ factories in the world. The Stockholm area produces more billion-

dollar companies in the world after Silicon Valley. And no one needs to sleep at the office to achieve this as the working week is 40 hours a week. This applies just as much inside the classroom to the working world and international students will actually have time to meet friends, explore Swedish nature, or however they’d like to use their free time.

Midnight sun and darkness While Sweden might sound like the perfect destination every country has its flaws. Sweden isn’t as cold as many international students expected, with average temperatures hovering around 0 °C, but many students are surprised by the darkness as parts of Sweden receive no more than a few hours of sunlight a day during the winters. While Sweden compensates for this by making sure cities are well-light it can still be a shock for many international students. That being said, many international students seem to enjoy the exotic winter weather and it can be an ideal place to test out winter sports such as Nordic skating or cross-country skiing. The flip side of the darkness is of course that the summers are light and in the Stockholm region the sun hardly sets in the middle of the summer.

5,000 nature preserves and 270,000 islands Sweden is a paradise for nature lovers and is the home to 5,000 nature preserves and 270,000 islands. The freedom to roam, a unique Swedish law, means that all Swedish nature is open to explore, making it an ideal playground for nature enthusiasts. Sustainability is prevalent not only in research and classroom curriculums but also engrained in everyday life and Sweden has clean air, water and streets. International students will be expected to recycle their waste and need to navigate elaborate recycle stations in their student corridors.

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Jobs

Fresh grads gear up for jobs By R P Yadav, Chairman & Managing Director, Genius Consultants Ltd.

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he magnified range of Novel Coronavirus has severely affected the livelihood of working professionals as well as college graduates. Many graduates have been trying to seek jobs or waiting to hear back from the employers concerning the status of their applications. There are some students who have already accepted internships, seasonal jobs, or full-time jobs after graduation, however the share of unplaced students or uncertain jobs remains on top. Most of the students are unsure whether these confirmed opportunities will be cancelled or delayed by the employers. Almost about 60% of graduates are less confident about finding a job during this situation; however, the demand for hiring engineers has witnessed an increase of 38.36%, 37.36% for MBA graduates, 30.54% for graduates, 20.31% for nongraduates and 3.37% for others. Unfortunately, the fear to get into the industry has inadvertently impacted the morale of the students. Uncertainty about job opportunities has already posed several challenges for recent graduates. Those planning to enter sectors like hospitality, retail, aviation may have to overcome unexpected obstacles. While it may be difficult to measure how to navigate the situation with the available resources and information, there are few steps which the new workforce can take to secure an appropriate job during this unprecedented time.

Consider earning interim job experience: Considering the current situation, both financial and psychological, it may be sensible to think about the short- term work or work which is outside the area of expertise. It would not be the dream job which you have been looking for or you have anticipated, however earning some additional financial gain will assist you to navigate through the uncertainty once graduating. This could facilitate in building confidence and adding job experience which would create an edge to stand out in the competitive market. The high surge of hiring is towards work from home jobs which also includes customer service representative, warehouse distribution, stocking, and

• The key to achieve success in the current hiring scenario is to practice mock video interviews • Creating a professional presence on social networking sites and networking groups • It may be sensible to think about the shortterm work or work which is outside the area of expertise. It shows that you are adjustable to the challenging situation

• Demand for hiring engineers has witnessed an increase of 38.36% • Demand for MBA graduates 37.36% • Demand for graduates 30.54% • Demand for non-graduates 20.31% • Demand for others 3.37% food delivery. This can also be an eye-catcher to employers as it shows that you are adjustable to the challenging situation.

Virtual Hiring & Onboarding Virtual Interviews are likely to become the most popular trend in hiring therefore it is important to become comfortable with this new normal. The key to achieve success in the current hiring scenario is to practice mock video interviews. Apart from this creating a professional presence on social networking sites and networking groups may help to understand more about the industry trends, help in getting better opportunities and meet professionals in your chosen field. Networking, mentorship, and informational interviews is done remotely and will prepare you to enter hands on once graduated.

Expect slow pace movement than usual As applications are uncountable and competition is high, one must be mentally prepared to adjust with the slower hiring and onboarding process. In many instances the positions are opening, but they are put on hold for an uncertain period. Adapting to the new expectations as a fresh graduate and entering the workforce can also help adjust in this new environment.

Keep Learning & Gaining Knowledge Companies right now are looking for more excellence and therefore instead of entering the workforce right away after graduation, consider upskilling and adding more education during this time. Consider relevant online certifications that require less investment than enrolling in a new degree. These may open up vast opportunities for future applications. Once things recover you will still want your resume to be on the top as the sectors that’ll witness most opportunities for the year 2020-21 are E-commerce, Pharma, IT, Logistics & Delivery sectors. It is indeed the diversity in your resume that’ll help you take benefit of the increase in employability in the coming months. The most determined and capable ones will get to roam on the greenest lands after we inescapably build it over the other side of the fence. November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Career

Career in Computer Science beckons By Sandeep Jain, Founder, Geeks for Geeks

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n one of the research Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), occupation in this field is projected to grow 11 percent from 2019 to 2029 which is much faster than the average for all occupations. These are enough reasons to tell you why you should enter the computer science field.

There are enormous career opportunities for computer science students. They can work in the fields of development, machine learning/artificial intelligence/data science, testing/ automation, research, DevOps etc. All these are highly recommended and high in demand as per the current job scenario and technical advancement in today’s day-to-day life.

1. Career in Development Development is the most significant and recommended field for computer science students. According to Bureau of 34

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

Labor Statistics jobs in development is anticipated to grow by 24 percent. If we compare it with other profession than the average growth rate for all other occupations combined is only seven percent. We can expect around 302,500 jobs opening in software development by the year 2026. The most popular field in development is front-end development, mobile application development, game development, backend development, full-stack development, cloud development, etc. Some other less known fields but interesting ones are language/compiler development, Linux Kernal and OS development, embedded system development, algorithms/software science development, tools, and enterprise software development, etc. UI/UX designers come in the category of front end development and these developers mainly works on the user interface or front end part. They are technically skilled in the

languages of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and some other front end frameworks. Mobile application developers explore the field of android or iOS development. Apps which you use in your day-to-day life such as Snapchat, voice recorder, music player, etc all these apps are created by mobile engineers. They work closely with the designers, and they are most skilled in the language Java, Kotlin, and Swift. They need to take care of every single little pixel to develop the application. Game developers write the code for games using some gaming frameworks like Unity, Unreal Engine, CryEngine, Corona SDK, SpritKit, etc. Backend developers work mainly on the dynamic part of the application, and they deal with highly complex problems. They write the code for server-side development, and they mainly focus on databases, different APIs, and the architecture of the system. You really need to have good logical, analytical, and problem-solvingskills to become a backend developer. Full-stack developers are specialized in writing the code for both the frontend and backend parts of the application. In cloud development you need to take care of the whole cloud infrastructure of the company, it’s maintenance, and implementation. Knowledge about the Linux, database, and different cloud platforms is essential to become a cloud developer. In today’s date AWS (Amazon Web Service), Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure is the popular one cloud platform.

2. Career in Machine Learning/Data Science/Artificial Intelligence Today we all are aware of this trending field in the job market. Alexa, Google Assistant, Advertising recommendation engine all these are perfect example of AI/Machine learning. This is one of the most recommended fields for computer science students from a career perspective. It’s a huge and fast-growing area and data scientists are highly paid in the job market. In October 2017, New York Times released a report where less than 10000 people all around the world were qualified for AI and Machine Learning related jobs. This field is one of the most challenging fields where you will be focusing on designing a machine learning system and you will be developing the algorithm for that. Most of the work in this field will be related to data analytics problem. You will have to use some algorithms and you will have to write the program to solve the data analytics problem. You will be working on storing, manipulating and organizing the huge amount of data. If a computer science student wants to enter in this field then they really need to be good in machine learning, mathematics or statistics. Data scientists mostly use

Python and R languages, so you need to be proficient in these languages.

3. Testing/Automation This is one of the underrated field but these engineers are highly valuable when it comes to testing software or finding a bug in an application. You can make career as a manual tester or quality analyst. Basically in this field you will have to check the issues with your software and you will also check the quality of the product before a customer uses your product or it’s get launched in the market. Some people consider it a low profile job but the truth is Software Testing Market size exceeded USD 40 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 6% from 2020 to 2026. In this field you will be collaborating with developers, you will be developing the software that tests other code and you will also implement various test scenariosand test cases. QA engineers also write automated tests to execute and verify the functionality of the software.

4. Research Field A computer science student can also get into the research field and become a research analyst, research scientist, research engineer, Inthisfield a lot of research and innovation will be involved. Your core task will be creating, designing and implementing the algorithms to solve the computational problems. You will have to gather the requirements for any design problem and you will have to write the thesis or publish the research paper for new innovations.

5. DevOps Engineers This is also one of the growing fields in the job market where computer science students are interested in making their career. In of the recent study of IT salaries, it was revealed that 46% of companies are planning to hire DevOps in the coming year. Basically, these engineers are kind of network or system administrator. Engineers in this role handle the whole infrastructure and take care of allthe engineering resources needed in the company. What kind of computers are required, how to fix the security bug, how to keep the backup of stored data in database everyday? Most of the companies hire these engineers because of the too big system and they really need someone to handle the entire responsibility of it. These engineers rarely write the code from scratch, so being good in Linux fundamentals with firm knowledge of any scripting language is good to enter in this field. November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Digital marketing

Developing communication models and enhancing marketing efficiency go a long way says Dr Mathew Parackal, Senior Lecturer, Department of Marketing, University of Otago By Triparna Ray

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‘Developing communication models is the key’

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ith the availability of ultra-fast broadband and the establishment of 4/5G cellular network, marketplaces have become ubiquitous – accessible 24/7, from anywhere. In addition, the standardisation of Internet protocol enables browser technology to deliver datagrams to remote locations in real-time. The establishment of networking and browser technology has changed the way we function. For example, communication in the present environment takes place via two-way channels. The traditional communication models (e.g. Shannon-Weaver model) cannot be applied on to two-way communication channels. Another example is the digital footprints we leave behind that produce Big Data to provide market insights. With rich and current data readily available, the traditional use of sampling theory to gain market insight is almost redundant. You can see there is a lot of learning that is needed to communicate and analyses information effectively, which starts with a shift in mindset. Once you believe in the ‘connected world’, then acquiring the knowledge and learning tools will be a breeze.

Trends change fast I can Google and give you a list of trends, but they can get outdated just as quickly as I found them. I think as marketers keeping track of new digital marketing trends is somewhat short-sighted – good for magazines and techies but not for marketers. It will only turn you into a consumer of technology and make you dependent on third-party solutions. With a renewed mindset, you can be the creator of technology/ content/solutions – that is what we teach at Otago. As a (digital) marketer, you need to come up with a digital strategy that defines the technologies for providing unique solutions that the competition cannot imitate. Technologies need to be treated as part of the tactics and not the strategy. What is essential is to have a full grasp of marketing within the context of the connected world. Some of the questions you must be able to answer include: 1) How do you communicate in the connected world? 2) How can you generate meaningful analytics?

If you can answer these questions, then the technologies needed to enhance marketing efficiency within the digital world will become evident to you. My advice is to master the area or discipline (marketing) rather than focussing on learning tools. The latter will organically happen by prioritising the former.

Courses useful for Indian students At the University of Otago, our focus is to turn you into creators of technologies or content. Our courses are designed to give students confidence in the area of studies, be it, digital marketing or sales management. We create learning environments that equip them with the experience and skill to excel in their career as marketers. I believe the experience and skill that Indian students will get from our course will be priceless to work in New Zealand. You can review some of the student learning experience we provide students at the University of Otago at https://wakelet.com/wake/dc7e18191038-4ba3-9018-1874f76dd4cd

How businesses in New Zealand are transforming its communication through a digital format Like in most other economies, digital communication is becoming the primary channel of communication in New Zealand. According to the NZ Advertising industry, in 2019, digital communication accounted for 45.36% of the advertisement spent. The growth in digital communication is warranting the development of communication models that can be implemented in the digital world. Our research at Otago has been focusing on developing communication models for using digital media. Moreover, COVID19 has fast-tracked the digital transformation for both consumers and businesses. In New Zealand, the growth in online grocery shopping suggests consumers are embracing this form of shopping. We are seeing megastores shutting their brick & mortar outlets. For example, the Warehouse is closing 92 stores across the country in favour of their online portal. We are witnessing Universities in New Zealand and around the world embracing digital mode of course delivery. Students coming to Otago will have the opportunity to be part of our research that is establishing the rules of the connected world.

3) How do you establish and maintain relationships within a virtual environment? November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Study abroad

Universities are tweaking policy to accommodate students Ravneet Pawha, Deputy Vice President (Global) and CEO (South Asia), Deakin University says post-study work visa is available even for students studying online By Triparna Ray 38

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

Q. What shift you notice in higher education overseas?

keeps with the upcoming trends.

The global higher education sector has been dramatically transformed as a result of the coronavirus. It has revolutionized the online learning landscape and reshaping application processes. Technology will continue to play a key role in educating future generations.

Universities are also extending their support for monitoring and assisting in travel and visa for students. UK government doubled its post-study visa offer to four-years. Many top schools are giving GRE or GMAT waivers in terms of scores, extending deadlines etc, under the new flexible admission criteria for graduate applicants.

In US, UK, Canada or Australia, universities including the prestigious ones cancelled the physical classes and switched to virtual classes. Though universities are planning to conduct offline classes in batches from the next semester but it might take a few more months before the universities return to normal. In US, some of the universities plan to divide the course over four quarters and allow 50 percent of the students to attend the offline classes for 3 months on rotational basis. Even when one does opt for online classes, universities stumble upon various hurdles. Time difference, internet connectivity, social-economic gap between international and domestic students, low teacher- student engagement in virtual classes and learning loss that students are experiencing due to postponement or cancellation of exams.

Q. Where do Indian students stand? With around 1.09 million Indian students pursuing higher education programmes abroad, makes India a major source of foreign students overseas, as per figures from July 2019 from Ministry of external Affairs. While many students contemplating on their higher education plans overseas, international universities have shown the versatility and eased out not just the admission criteria or reduced fees for online semesters, but also have taken measures to revamp the course structure. The revamp is more relevant for online learning and

• UK government doubled its post-study visa offer to four-years • In US, some of the universities plan to divide the course over four quarters and allow 50 percent of the students to attend the offline classes for 3 months on rotational basis • The Australian government also started granting international student visas and allowed current students to count online study while overseas towards the Australian study requirement for a post-study work visa

The Australian government also started granting international student visas and allowed current students to count online study while overseas towards the Australian study requirement for a post-study work visa. Students while studying online in their home country who hold a student visa will be eligible to apply for a post-study work visa if they are unable to travel to Australia for on-campus studies. Indian students are choosing courses which allow them to continue on-campus study in the coming semesters or offer global internship opportunities.

Q. How do you see the future of blended learning? A blended learning model is not just beneficial to students but the only way forward for us all. The mix of ‘online and offline’ learning approach comes with numerous advantages. Through blended learning model, educators get the flexibility to combine interactive digital teaching using methods such as video conferences and debate forums, with brief one-onone periods or lab sessions on campus. Teaching and learning through live sessions, students exchange programmes, group assignments and collaborative projects, will have a new meaning moving forward, as they become integrated with technology.

Q. What are the employable skills that would be in demand in future? During this time of uncertainty and market volatility, companies would look to hire candidates who are more resilient, with more human skills, positive attitude, adaptability, critical thinking, innovative and creative thought process and agile among other soft skills. For example, in IT sector skills like communication will be in demand, in healthcare the demand will be for proficiency in professional ethics while in retail there will a need of skills such as resilience or problem solving may be essential.

Q. Which courses being preferred? There is a huge shift in the preferences of study areas by students across the globe. While traditional courses are predominant, new areas like sports, psychology, AI, Cyber Security, Software Engineering, Construction Management, Robotics & Mechatronics, Design, International Relations, etc. are growing. November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Career

Career in filming, anyone?

In conversation with Gregory Bennett, Head of DepartmentDigital Design and Visual Arts, School of Art and Design, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) about pursuing career in filming By Triparna Ray

Q. How important is storytelling? Storytelling is at the basis of all successful animations and visual effects sequences. As an animator or visual effects artist every creative decision made is based on how well it contributes to communicating a story in the best and most effective possible way to engage your audience. This includes everything from the performance of your characters, choices in framing shots and camera movement, editing styles, art direction of environments, lighting and use of colour, and awareness of audio and soundtrack. Creating audience empathy for the predicament of your characters is often central to this. Ultimately you want your audience to strongly connect to your story and stay engaged, and this is often most effectively achieved through using the range of filmic storytelling tools to enable your viewer to feel what your character is feeling, to see the world through their eyes.

Q. How is it taught in the university? Foundations of visual and filmic storytelling are taught from the foundation year 1 in the Digital Design Major, in both our practical studio-based courses, and as parallel content in our

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Our graduates have been able to secures jobs and establish successful careers as animators, visual effects artists and motion capture technicians in a range of international and local companies such as WETA Digital, The Mill, Animal Logic, Industrial Light and Magic and Sony Pictures Imageworks.

history and theory classes (theory makes up about 20-25% of overall taught content in the Major). Both the studio and the theory classes introduce students to the principles of cinematography, editing and sound and how they work together to create meaning and communicate character and story. Students also learn about narrative structure – both conventional narrative patterns, as well as experimental and interactive narrative forms, including visual narrative frameworks which are specific to forms such as animation. Performance is another area which forms a core component of animation teaching - how to create compelling acting performances with animated characters; and also in visual effects and motion capture- how to elicit good live action performances through directing actors.

Our graduates have been able to secures jobs and establish successful careers as animators, visual effects artists and motion capture technicians in a range of international and local companies such as WETA Digital, The Mill, Animal Logic, Industrial Light and Magic and Sony Pictures Imageworks.

Q. What is the job prospect in this field? Our graduates have been able to secures jobs and establish successful careers as animators, visual effects artists and motion capture technicians in a range of international and local companies such as WETA Digital, The Mill, Animal Logic, Industrial Light and Magic and Sony Pictures Imageworks. Our industry advisors have emphasised the need for students to understand not only the technical aspects of animation and visual effects software, but to also understand visual storytelling and film language to equip graduates with a critical eye when making creative decisions: to be able to

make judgements about what is, and is not, working in a shot, sequence or film; to know how to make the most of a script – to transform it in the most compelling storytelling experience possible. This can relate to understanding the timing of a piece of character performance, to the appropriate choices around lighting a particular environment. Although this is a competitive and specialised field for jobs there are plenty of opportunities in an entertainment climate which has a high and still growing demand for content.

November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Success Story

Champions of will power Visual impairment is not a hurdle anymore, at least for Ritish, Abhishek, and Soumya By Hansika Chandra

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veryone has their own hardships which they deal with in their own ways, but people who are ultimately successful in their pursuit find ways to create opportunities out of their adversity. We have the best example of a trio who despite having their hardship with strong willpower and diligent performance cracked the CLAT 2020. Meet Madipelly Rithish,20, M Abhishek, 22, and M Soumya,18 who proved their detractors wrong by clearing the national eligibility test. These students come from poor families. Their parents are farmers and belong to the villages near Hyderabad, but these things never came between the strong determination of these students to clear the exam and reach their goals and proving their naysayers wrong.They went to the same school-The Devnar School for the Blind and Sai Junior College run by Devnar Foundation. Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) considered as the most difficult law exam for the students who wants to get into in to the National Law School and it is still a dream for many students in India and so it was for these students but with the help of IDIA and guidance of their institution they made it possible. Increasing Diversity by Increasing access (IDIA) is a panIndia movement to train underprivileged students helped them with training. M Abhishek, who got inspired by his idol Virat Kohli who once went to play a match after losing his father. Ever since, he is my inspiration.” Pooja Bharadwaj from NALSAR University who taught for the CLAT exam.”

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Madipelly Rithish, who is visually impaired by birth talks about how life has not been easy either. He said, “I come from a very small village Jagtial, my parents are very simple people, they still do not know what it means to crack a national eligibility test. My aim is to become a civil servant and law knowledge would help immensely. I need to go and make a name for myself and the better lives of many others like me.” A boy from Vikarabad said, “I wrote 50 mock tests and listened to thousands of audio tapes.”

NVDA to rescue

Another topper, Soumya expressed, “I always wanted to become a corporate lawyer and plans to join National Law School, Jodhpur. My father never supported me but my mother did, she fought with my father to send me school and stood beside me all the time. I started preparing from 11th standard. Thanks for the mentorship of IDIA.Listening to audio tapes and studying for 10 hours helped a lot.” Dr. Saibaba Goud Founder and Chairman of Devnar Institution said, “These students have been with us since their childhood and it feels so great to see them doing so well. They made us all proud. I am so grateful to IDIA for helping students.”

All visually impaired students extensively depend on NonVisual Desktop access which is also known as NVDA, a free open source screen for Blind and vision impaired. Rithish said, “Normally people would scroll, we use arrows and once it points to a particular article, we can listen. For general knowledge they rely on GK today and Study IQ. They also spend hours and hours listening to audio tapes covering issues from politics to sports. Abhishek added, “Apart from understanding legal terms, keeping abreast of general knowledge is a must. I made it a point to listen extensively.” Abhishek feels, reading comprehension is something other students have advantage but we are good listeners and, in the end, understanding passage is all that matters and listening to audio tapes helped a lot. November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Personality Devp

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Community engagement matters

Community engagement has a lasting impact in not just enhancing your personality but also helps in getting admission in a good college

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By Mandeep Kaur Jhajj, Founder TribesforGOOD

ommunity service is gratifying and has several benefits. One of them is maximising your chances of being accepted into college. According to Forbes, 58% of a surveyed 264 admissions officers view community service as having a helpful impact on admissions and 53% view it as a deal-breaker for equally eligible students. Are a few weeks of community service enough? Certainly not. In a 2016 report published by Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, a combination of college admissions officers joined forces to provide community service and ethical engagement suggestions to help applicants strengthen their chances. They highlighted attributes such as passion, prolonged commitment, appreciation of diversity, and emotional and ethical consciousness. This is no easy feat but admission to a top college leading to a pathway of success is worth it.

Community Service Roadmap • Creating a roadmap to achieving long-term community engagement and service is the key to standing out on your college application. The unique position of being a student brings its own pro’s and con’s, which need to be considered. You can start with beach clean-ups to running fundraisers • Identify an area that fuels your fire: College admissions officers want to see the passion in their applicants. Find an issue that makes you want to make a continuous change. Is it women empowerment, quality education, or access to clean water? Dig deeper, speak to your mentors. • Enrol in a course: Sometimes our good intentions can lead to negative impacts due to the lack of knowledge. Broaden your knowledge to avoid this. “What is it exactly that I feel passionate about? What skills do I have right now that I can use to bring about a positive change to this? What level of participation am I aiming for from the

community? Who will benefit from this plan? Who can help me?” • Identify and work on the areas that you need support in. Find a mentor who can guide you in the right direction. • As a student, you need to get all the support from someone who knows the domain. Make connections. You can easily reach out to fellow students who have similar passions and interests to you, with whom you could share ideas and tasks. At a few schools and universities, many clubs have already been founded to make a social impact – join them or pitch them your idea. Also, think of who you already know that could offer useful advice and contacts; these people could be your teachers/lecturers or parents and family friends with experience in fields of interest. Try LinkedIn for finding experts. • Join programs that offer structured guidance and set you up to continue making a difference. • The world is in desperate need of socially and environmentally conscious and proactive leaders and community service and engagement is the starting point of creating them. Tackling a community issue can branch out in one of two directions: developing a new resource or initiative or improving one that already exists. When you choose which side, you’d like to approach the project from, you can think clearly about how to develop it. The World Economic Forum has stated that by 2030, the demand for skills such as “creativity, critical thinking, and decision making” will drastically increase. So, what are you going to do to stand out? You’ll never be truly “ready” for what the world throws at you, but you can be well-prepared. Community service is an introduction to the reality that school often shelters us from. It provides students with a wealth of skills and introduces them to a cross-section of how the world functions. November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Career

Due to the outbreak of covid -19 the scope virtual International internships is widened. Internshala has seen a 30% rise in postings from companies and a 36% increase in applications from students. “There is a subsequent 27% drop for in-office internships.

The changing face of internships

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By Som Sharma, Founder, Edu Brain Group

ith the job market becoming competitive and theoretical knowledge just not enough internships within the country and abroad are growing in prominence. One need not go to an office anymore, you have an internet connection and you can go international. Employers today heavily believe on resumes that consists a relevant work history, whether that’s the form internships, volunteer work, or actual job experience. Therefore, attaining internship experience has become an integral part of the

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education for all students. Due to the outbreak of covid -19 the scope virtual International internships is widened. Internshala has seen a 30% rise in postings from companies and a 36% increase in applications from students. “There is a subsequent 27% drop for in-office internships. Keeping in mind the recent scenario opting for offline internships is not a feasible option therefore learning virtual is a new trend and best possible alternative available. Virtual international internship has widened the scope of learning as it ensures building up the career-relevant skills and getting internationally-recognized, fostering inter-

India has the largest school going population and higher education infrastructure in the world. According to a report, the sector is pegged at $ 100 billion and will grow at CAGR of 7.5% to $ 144 billion by 2020. cultural experience without even travelling or having a stiff 9-5 schedule etc.

5 Doors that virtual International internships has broadened 1. Learning has become affordable Earlier to undergo international internships it required a lot of travelling costs, accommodation costs, time and many other resources therefore now to learn international all you need is internet connection. 2. Building certified global networksVirtual internship magnifies the scope of learning as here you’re sitting at your homes and gaining experience meeting global standards. Developing a network in a completely different country helps to create a community of international colleagues and professionals that you can reach out anytime you need. 3. Learning as per international standardsVirtual internships allow students to learn latest and most effective market skills and techniques which enhance personal training resumes and add more chances for students to attain jobs after their education. 4. Helping in becoming tech-savvy Unlike pre-pandemic times, completing online internships are more about of using technology and understanding communication platforms that businesses are using to stay connected while not working in an office that is Zoom, Slack,

Proofhub, Dropbox, Togl, Co-schedule, Google Apps etc by gaining digital advancement, you will quickly be able to adapt to the same or similar platforms in your future work environment. 5. Boosting up of Resume Working remotely helps in improvising management and self-discipline skills and most importantly adds on the international work experience that you attained.

How participation in online internships abroad is beneficial? The Indian students studying abroad statistics of 2019, released by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs is an eyeopener, 753,000 Indian Students were studying in universities abroad. Indian Students has craze for get an opportunity of International Internships in Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, US, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Germany. During these crucial times being able to gain career relevant skills while sitting at home can possibly help you to kick start your international career. These internship programs will assist you to enhance your skills and will provide relevant industrial professional exposure which will further help in future employability and career prospects. Due to this global pandemic around 80-90% of Indian students apply for the September session but the classes may delay until January due to the crisis. So this is also a big reason for students to get enrolled themselves into a Virtual International Internship. Cost effective training: This program will reduce the travelling costs and many other costs therefore it is a cost effective learning opportunity. Help you build up your profile: Apart from that working remotely will help you improve your management skills like time management, discipline. Help to create a global network: Even in spite of staying at home you can make international networks which will help you to gain global exposure. Interacting globally helps in making a network of like-minded co- interns, mentors and supervisors. Working with flexibility: These internships help in making students flexible as it teaches how to become a self-starter, taking initiative on their own, which is highly preferred by the potential employers. India has the largest school going population and higher education infrastructure in the world. According to a report, the sector is pegged at $ 100 billion and will grow at CAGR of 7.5% to $ 144 billion by 2020. These are some interesting fact about the widen scope of international internship that can lead students towards a bright future. November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Brand Management

Building a luxury brand is no child’s play

By Pranav Raj Aggarwal, Executive Director, International School of Design

According to the 2015 Shullman Report, the number one luxurybuying generation is the Millennial generation (18 to 34 years) who constitute 47% of luxury buyers

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onstantly evolving consumer behaviour is reshaping how we define luxury. Is it ostentatious spending on trend-driven whims like handbags and lipsticks, or investing in unique pieces associated with a specific place or perio d? Is it a concept rooted in product or experience? An everchanging social construct? Or today, in a frantic world cluttered with objects, screens and logos, is it time itself? Once we do identify an answer to this rather

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By 2025 online luxury sales to the global high-end market will more than triple to reach $91 billion. That will make 20% of total luxury sales

40 percent of traditional sales are strongly affected by digital interactions and content

convoluted question, the concern then becomes - how can companies build successful brands in luxury? How can they make those brands resonate with customers across time and space? What are the key success factors that allow certain brands to dominate the global brandscape?

Identifying a luxury buyer In a sense, luxury is the art of desire. The new luxury buyer is younger, richer and well-wired. Worldwide,

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

luxury

consumers

are

increasingly emerging from a class that is accumulating wealth at a younger age than their parents or grandparents did. According to the 2015 Shullman Report, the number one luxury-buying generation is the Millennial generation (18 to 34 years) who constitute 47% of luxury buyers. These consumers have grown up with the Internet and mobile technology and are accustomed to using digital tools and social networks to educate themselves about brands, which in turn allow brands to establish emotional connections with them.

From Burberry’s “The Art of the Trench” campaign to Apple’s lessons to the luxury industry, it has become increasingly apparent that people want different relationships with brands – and it is these young consumers who will drive brands’ revenue in coming years. Finding ways to stay relevant on social media, creating relationships with consumers, and building credibility on e-commerce – that’s what the future of finding luxury customers looks like.

Positing Your Product Luxury companies are not only fighting for survival; they are facing an opportunity for eternal greatness. It is an industry that is in danger of becoming a victim of its own success. The more luxury companies capture mass-market consumers; the more products they have to create. Put simply, the luxury market was not prepared to meet this kind of demand. And this demand is only going to increase. It was reported in McKinsey that by 2025 online luxury sales to the global high-end market will more than triple to reach $91 billion. That will make 20% of total luxury sales.

Narrative Over Quantity More, more, more is not the way to achieve growth in this digitally obsessed and ever more competitive era. Instead, it is narrative over quantity. Brands are seeking multiple avenues that leverage legacy and immediacy to tell their stories at a time when customers are gripped by selfies, designers are constantly pressed to churn out collections, the see-nowbuy-now idea is gaining momentum and seasons are increasingly blurred. One crucial step in building a successful brand is strengthening relationships with the clients- engage them and bring them into your world. Tiffany and Co.the luxury jeweller and specialty retailer is an example. With their #BelieveInLove campaign, they’re sharing real love stories of real people and how their products play a real role in those real stories. They showcase these love stories

on their website and prompt users to shop the story because they understand that beyond their product, because there are feelings involved.

Creating Perceptions of Exclusivity Today it is not good enough to simply churn out product. An authentic and honest brand narrative is fundamental, otherwise you will simply be edited out. It was time for a course correction in the fashion industry as the desire to go faster and faster simply to outdo the other became the driving force rather than putting the dialogue with the customer at the center. Brands like Rolls-Royce, Rolex, Hermès are some great examples of maintaining exclusivity. Rolls-Royce selects who they sell their car to. One cannot just go to their showroom and purchase a Rolls-Royce. They need to be worthy to own a Rolls-Royce. Rolex and Hermès manufacture only a few thousand articles of each product where the demand might be 10x. Even the Crème de la crème will wait to get their hands on these brands’ products.

Hire People Who Understand Your Customer Luxury brands today are focused – obsessed, some head-hunters and luxury insiders say — on building personal, emotional relationships with clients. And to deliver on that strategy, many have created jobs with titles like chief consumer officer, chief experience officer, and chief digital and client officer. Not to say that they are aiming for a one-shot sale but to make the customer feel that he or she is part of the maison. For example, sales assistants who know how to build customer relationships and make sure that the customer gets a personalized service both online and offline and that there is no point of friction between the brand and them.

Explain Your Worth, Don’t Leave It Upto Imagination According to a recent global study

conducted by LuxHub, the lack of a luxury experience continues to be the main barrier to e-commerce at upper prices, with online transactions representing only 16 percent of total sales. However, the study also found that 40 percent of traditional sales are strongly affected by digital interactions and content. The research was carried out in eight markets with more than 6,400 consumers and 25 brands, and it offers insights into how luxury fashion companies can focus their continuing transformations. Areas of concern should include customizing content for different habits in geographical areas and among age brackets. The millennials look at everything, while clients over 50 look for a more personalized experience with suggestions of how a certain item fits into your closet, how to match it and so on, making the shopping experience special and meaningful. In China, for example, salespeople increasingly are paid for the time they spend immersing clients in the worlds of specific brands. The challenge is difficult for retailers.

What’s Next? As Gen-Z consumers – who are a third of the world’s population and spent an equivalent of more than $200 billion annually in 2018— become increasingly important in terms of buying power and social influence, luxury players have to understand their psychologies, develop unique products and build authentic communications to engage with them. It is very important to embrace the benefits technology can provide and the tools to capture trends and data effectively. Data-driven analysis linked to e-commerce channels will be very powerful. We have to pay great attention and learn to understand new emerging markets like Asia, and tailor and localize decisions taking into account the evolving economic, cultural and political environment.

November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Futuristic

Trading & Investing Strategies of Cryptocurrency By Prof Kuber Sharma, Professor of Practice & Investments Dynamics, JK Business School

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xecutive education has always held unparalleled importance in organization development. Management Development program (MDP). MDPs allow participants to refocus and immerse themselves in the latest developments in the concerned industry so that

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they always have a competitive edge over others. Such events specifically equip participants with a sound knowledge base, as well as personal and professional tools, allowing them to strengthen their managerial and leadership capabilities for the uncertain future.

Among several critical subjects, one that needs our urgent attention is Cryptocurrencies. Since their introduction in 2009, these digital and new-age currencies have shown a tremendous growth trajectory. Even though on some rare occasions, they have also faltered but only to rise even stronger. Overall, Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency according to market capitalisation, is up by 64% in 2020. Even for Ether, the Ethereum-based blockchain cryptocurrency, the prices have tripled in 2020.

Understanding Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies can be used as virtual or digital money in the form of tokens or coins that can be used to make secure payments online. These currencies use encryption algorithms and do not have any physical representation. These virtual tokens are not regulated by any government body or financial institution. Most of the times, their value is governed by market forces. Since its inception, its growth has seen several patterns. However, recently their importance in the real-world scenario has grown manifold. This Since their introduction in 2009, these has further pushed the price of digital and new-age currencies have cryptocurrencies. shown a tremendous growth trajectory Few reasons behind this strong Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency phenomenon are: according to market capitalisation, is up by 64% in 2020 • High transparency because of For Ether, the Ethereum-based block distributed ledger technology chain cryptocurrency, the prices have • The high cost of foreign tripled in 2020 remittances These virtual tokens are not regulated • Changing monetary landscape by any government body or financial ®ulations institution • Have given rise to new attractive business models that have in turn attracted lot of investments

Such statistics only give evidence of the strong future for the digital • currencies. This MDP aims to equip you with all you need to know about trading and investing • in cryptocurrencies’ space. By choosing to take part in this MDP on cryptocurrencies, you will be • able to cope with a phenomenon, which is all set to revolutionise the imminent economic system. Moreover, you will learn how • and why is it necessary to include cryptocurrencies in your investment portfolio, irrespective of age and gender. Further, you will be able to understand if such investments can protect you against the sharply rising inflation, act as a hedge against the dollar or if at all these are haven investments like Gold.

The objective of the MDP The main goal of the event is to offer you valid and updated insights into the supremely fast-growing currencies of the future. As of 11 October 2020, the value of Bitcoin is nearly Rs. 8,30,000, which is considerably higher than most of your otherwise profitable equity investments. Besides, unlike stock prices that have plummeted in value due to the current pandemic situation, the cryptocurrencies have only recorded a sharp rise in their prices. This is the ideal time to encash on this ‘on-fire’ market and make most of it. And this MDP is specially designed to help you tap this opportunity and benefit significantly. The program will offer detailed insights into the art of taming BTC and ALTS from one of the experts in the industry. That is not all; the program will also make participants understand how the institutional investors, whales and retail traders use efficient trading and investing strategies to avoid general pitfalls. The participants will also learn how specific investment moves can improve profitability, allowing them to grow their capital by two to 10 times the original value.

Interactive topics of the MDP Some topics that would be covered include: • • • •

How the fascinating crypto ecosystem functions? What is the importance of cryptocurrencies today? How will crypto become a vital part of the near future? Why is it necessary to include crypto in your investment portfolio? What per cent should that be? • How to rebalance your portfolio to absorb Bitcoin’s extreme volatility? And avoid drawdowns in the portfolio? • How to make the most of this budding trend? • Is Bitcoin an instrument of an inflation hedge, shield against the falling dollar and what is the correlation with metals such as Gold

For whom The program aims to benefit: • Institutional Investors • Retail Investors (who prefer to manage their capital or want higher returns than offered by real estate or general market per se) • Students who wish to learn about the most exciting future opportunity November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Univ talk

Universities a hotbed for entrepreneurship By Prof. Prabhu Kumar Agarwal, President (vice chancellor) of NIIT University.

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he definition of entrepreneurship has changed. Businesses and Economies have started diversifying, and there is a hard push on learning radically diverse processes coupled with digital innovation. The global environment has evolved in such a way that entrepreneurship has been setting pathways to transform the future of work in various fields.

1. Industry-linked

When we say universities can act as hotbeds for entrepreneurs, we mean to say that we should be able to provide a platform for students to ensure their innovation and designs reach their audience, and help them fulfil their dreams, while at the same time prepare them as entrepreneurs for the future of work.

2. Technology-based

Innovation is the seed of entrepreneurship; in a world steadily being disrupted by technology, innovation has now become the need of the hour. Many nations have, in-fact, seen a surge in the number of entrepreneurs around their countries owing to cheaper devices, more seamless connectivity, as well as the ease of availability of venture funding and investment.

Universities best places for entrepreneurial spirit According to a recent report by NASSCOM, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, almost 54% Indians were looking to pivot to new business opportunities, which included diversifying into different sectors and building on start-ups on emerging tech such as AI, IOT and Cloud integration. What was surprising to see that even though COVID remains to be the biggest obstacle till date, many young entrepreneurs still wanted to get in big on the start-up scene. We have heard many say that Universities are subjected to only theory, while Harvard and MIT dropouts continue to dominate the Economy and Entrepreneurial landscape? What people often miss is the practical education given to these students at Universities. If one has to choose someone with only a graduation certificate to lead your start-up, or would you choose someone who has a Master’s in Business? The answer is often the latter and for good reasons. When students are taught theory in classrooms and vis-àvis given hands-on training alongside, the prospects of them developing their own Start-ups increase sevenfold. A good student pays attention in class, but a great student goes and sets up their own business. Universities act as intermediaries between what an individual is, and where they want to go. A University that is industry-linked, researchdriven and technology based, help prepare students for the future.

Industry plays a significant role in identifying new courses, designing curricula, facilitating hands-on training for students, sponsoring research, and providing senior managers as visiting and mentor faculty at Universities. These Universities can build partnerships with various industries to facilitate Industry-aligned education.

Some Universities use leading-edge technology in all its functions and activities, such as content development, teaching-learning pedagogies, testing & evaluation, selflearning, and university management. Technology is leveraged to improve teaching-learning process by innovating new pedagogies that match the requirements of individual learners. By Technologically advancing the entire curricula, these Universities make students ready to face the actual world of work.

3. Research-driven Involvement in research culture equips students with a mindset for solving problems throughout their life. Therefore, universities could design each programme to engage students in research. Every student, irrespective of discipline, successfully imbibes this quality through hands-on experience of applying research methodology to a variety of problems. Research enables students in effective application of methodologies they have studied about. Case studies in detail facilitate a mock environment of how things actually work. Research is the foundation for knowledge which in turn provides a platform for showcasing innovative ideas and encapsulating them into reality.

4. Seamless Communication Seamless implies providing students with the occupational, spatial and temporal mobility demanded by today’s globalized economy. It ensures maximising of students’ choices and making sure that they receive a holistic education with no constraints of time and space. Making curricula flexible and more adaptive to the current generation with relation to the kind of comprehensive and readily available material is a right push towards the cause. An industry-aligned, technologically driven University is set to become the new normal, with curricula focused on making students first-generation Entrepreneurs and inculcating the habit of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Education. For Universities to produce more future-ready graduates with a flair for striving to achieve the best, practical education is the key that will bring it all together.

November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Government Jobs

UPMRCL Recruitment 2020

SAIL Rourkela Recruitment 2020

Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRCL), Lucknow has invited applications for the Chief Engineer/ Addl Chief Engineer, GM and other posts. The Railway organization invites applications for Chief Engineer/Addl Chief Engineer, GM & Other Posts from eligible persons having B.Tech, MBA, Post Graduate qualifications.

Steel Authority of India Limited, Rourkela has invited applications for recruitment to 37 Medical Officer, Specialist and Administrative posts.

Eligibility criteria: • Chief Engineer (Civil)/Addl. Chief Engineer (Civil): B. Tech. in Civil Engineering. • Chief Engineer (Sand T)/Addl. Chief Engineer (S and T): B.E/B. Tech. or equivalent in Electronics/Electronics & Telecommunication/Electronics & Communication/ Electrical & Electronics • Chief Public Relations Office: Master Degree in Mass Communication and Journalism • Joint Chief Engineer (Safety): Degree and Post graduate(PG) diploma from any of the following Govt. Recognized University/Institute. Last date of application: November 16, 2020.

Last date of application: November 30, 2020.

Eligibility criteria: • Specialist- MD/ MS/ DNB/ MDS in relevant fields from a recognised university with experience • Medical Officer- MBBS with Post Graduate Degree in Hospital Administration from a recognised university • Administrative- MBBS from a university or institute recognised by the Medical Council of India

Age limit: Specialist- 41 years Medical Officer- 34 years Administrative- 41 years Apply here: www.sail.co.in

Age limit: Above 18 years Apply here: https://www.lmrcl.com/

Cantonment Board Recruitment 2020

WBPSC Civil Service (Executive) 2020

Cantonment Board, Almora has invited applications for the post of Forest Guard. Cantonment Boards are bodies corporate, functioning under the overall control of the central government and under the provision of Cantonment Act, 2006. The pay-scale is Pay Scale: Rs.5200-20200, GP - 1900, Level 2 - 19900-63200. Eligible and interested candidates can apply for the posts through online mode.

WBPSC Recruitment recruits candidates for Civil Service (Executive) Vacancies 2020 Notification. Interested and eligible candidates can apply for 98 Civil Service (Executive) Vacancies 2020. Eligible aspirants can submit your Applications from 05 November 2020.

Eligibility criteria: Intermediate. Knowledge is desirable.

Basic

Age Limit: Minimum 21 years & Maximum 36 years 05 years for SC/ST candidates

Last date of application: November 15, 2020.

03 years for OBC candidates

Age limit: 18-25 years

Apply here: http://www.pscwb.org.in/

Apply here: www.canttboardrecruit.org 54

Computer

Last date of application: November 25, 2020

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

BE AWARE State-wise List of fake Universities as on October, 2020

Do not fall into the trap of fake universities Do check the credentials before joining By Triparna Ray

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he University Grants Commission issued a list of 24 fake universities, meaning institutions not recognised by the higher education regulator or authorised to confer a degree. UGC has been issuing the fake universities list every year since 1994 and, strangely, some institutions have been appearing on it quite consistently. Mahila Gram Vidyapith has claimed itself to be a university in Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh, has been in the list every year since 1994. However, it still continues to admit students and award them degrees and certificates. Another is in Kolkata, The Institute of Alternative Medical Sciences, founded in 2009. This institute offers multiple courses in alternative medicine like Indo-allopathy and homeopathy. Even in the website they have mentioned that eligible candidates can even avail a Registered Medical Practitioner Certificate. The Vishwakarma Open University of Self Employment in Delhi mentions in their website that it is one of the

institutions named by the education ministry to promote self-employment and that it’s the only university creating crores of jobs. Offering 149 courses, mostly in paramedicine. Warning students, the UGC said, “A degree can be awarded, only a University established under a Central, State/Provisional Act or an institution deemed to be university”. It further said, “Students and public at large are hereby informed that presently following 24 self-styled, unrecognized institutions are functioning in contravention of UGC Act, which has been declared as fake universities,” the official notice read. UGC Secretary Rajnish Jain also repeated this statement.

What can students do? Verification process of land giving process can be made stricter by the governments to any educational institution. Checking of the land and usage can be done every 3 to 5 years. Students and parents have to be conscious and aware before applying for admission in any university. They can track about the university through alumni list and contact them on social media, if needed. Check the details of the university through regulatory body websites such as, the UGC, NTA, AICTE etc.

• Commercial University Ltd., Daryaganj, Delhi. • United Nations University, Delhi. • Vocational University, Delhi. • ADR-Centric Juridical University, ADR House, 8J, Gopala Tower, 25 Rajendra Place, New Delhi-110 008. • Indian Institute of Science and Engineering, New Delhi. • Viswakarma Open University for Self-Employment, Delhi • Adhyatmik Vishwavidyalaya (Spiritual University), Delhi • Badaganvi Sarkar World Open University Education Society, Gokak, Belgaum, Karnataka. • St. John’s University, Kishanattam, Kerala. • Raja Arabic University, Nagpur, Maharashtra. • Indian Institute of Alternative Medicine, Kolkata. • Institute of Alternative Medicine and Research, Kolkata • Varanaseya Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, Varanasi (UP) Jagatpuri, Delhi. • Mahila Gram Vidyapith/ Vishwavidyalaya, (Women’s University), Uttar Pradesh. • Gandhi Hindi Vidyapith, Uttar Pradesh. • National University of Electro Complex Homeopathy, Uttar Pradesh. • Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose University (Open University), Uttar Pradesh. • Uttar Pradesh Vishwavidyalaya, Kosi Kalan, Uttar Pradesh. • Maharana Pratap Shiksha Niketan Vishwavidyalaya, Uttar Pradesh. • Indraprastha Shiksha Parishad, Uttar Pradesh. • Nababharat Shiksha Parishad, Anupoorna Bhawan, Odisha • North Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology, Odisha. • Sree Bodhi Academy of Higher Education, Puducherry • Christ New Testament Deemed University, Andhra Pradesh

November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Scholarship

Go get that

Scholarship

Many a student suffers for not knowing which door to knock for a scholarship. Here is a list

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), now referred to as the Ministry of Education, is an independent body of the government of India that looks after all matters pertaining education in the country. Since its foundation in 1985, the ministry has been in charge of policymaking and creating the roadmap for education at different levels in India. AICTE Pragati Scholarship for Girls This scholarship has been announced to empower young girls with knowledge, skills and self-confidence.

Eligibility Girl students who are pursuing the first or second (through lateral entry only) year of technical degree/ diploma course on the basis of marks obtained by them in class 10+2 or equivalent exam can avail benefits under this scheme. The annual family income must be less than Rs 8 lakh from all sources. Also, up to two girls per family are eligible to apply for and receive this scholarship.

Central Sector Scheme of Scholarship for College and University Students As the name suggests, this scheme is meant for class 12 passed students who are studying in college or university. The key objective of this scholarship is to support admirable students coming from economically weaker sections to pursue their higher studies by providing them financial assistance for their day-to-day expenses.

Eligibility

Awards: Up to Rs 50,000 per annum and other benefits

The students, who are above 80th percentile of successful candidates in class 12 or equivalent examination can avail benefits under this scheme.

Application timeline: Between September and October (tentative)

They must be pursuing a regular full-time course such as engineering and medical.

Application mode: Online through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP)

The annual family income must not exceed Rs 8 lakh from all sources.

Number of scholarships: 5,000

Number of scholarships: 82,000 fresh scholarships per annum Awards: Rs 10,000 to 20,000 per annum Application timeline: Between August and October (tentative) Application mode: Online through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) 56

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Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) Introduced with an objective to promote technical research studies among students, this scheme attracts excellent students to pursue doctoral programmes at leading institutions of India like IISc/IISERs/IITs and central universities. The students who apply for a PhD programme at one of the PMRF granting institutions either through direct or lateral entry channel can apply for this fellowship. They must also fulfil the minimum qualification requirements as specified in the fellowship guidelines.

Eligibility BTech graduate, final year BTech, integrated MTech, integrated MSc students from IISc/ IITs/ NITs/ IISER/ IIITs Awards: Stipend of up to Rs 80,000 per month and other benefits Application timeline: Round the year (for this academic year) Application mode: Apply for a PhD programme at one of the PMRF granting institutions.

National Means cum Merit Scholarship

AICTE-Saksham Scholarship Scheme

This scholarship is designated to support remarkable students belonging to economically weaker sections who are finding it difficult to support or fund their education after class 8.

Differently-abled students who are pursuing a technical degree/diploma course from a recognized institution can avail benefits under this scholarship scheme.

In order to prevent them from dropping out and encourage them to continue their studies at the secondary stage, students are provided with a scholarship of Rs 12,000 annually.

Eligibility The students who are currently studying in class 9 and have secured at least 55 per cent marks or equivalent in class 8 examination can avail benefits under this scheme. Also, to appear for the selection test, they must secure at least 55 per cent marks or equivalent grade in class 7 exam. The annual income of the family must be less than Rs 1.50 lakh from all sources. Number of scholarships: 1 lakh Awards: Rs 12,000 per annum Application timeline: Between August and October (tentative) Application mode: Online through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP)

The scholarship aims at promoting technical education among specially-abled students.

Eligibility Students having not less than 40 per cent disability can avail benefits under this scheme. They must be admitted to the first year of degree/ diploma level course or second year of degree/ diploma level course (through lateral entry) in any AICTE approved institution. The annual income of the family must be less than Rs 8 lakh from all sources. Number of scholarships: All eligible specially-abled students will get the scholarship Awards: Up to Rs 50,000 per annum and other benefits Application timeline: Between September and October (tentative) Application mode: Online through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP)

November 2020 Brainfeed Higher Education Plus

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Book Review

Extraordinary: 51 surprisingly simple ways to get extraordinary results

Extraordinary: 51 surprisingly simple ways to get extraordinary results Ketan Krishna Notion Press ` 375

Books

Extraordinary is about the author’s experiences in the form of short stories about how ordinary people with extraordinary dreams get extraordinary results. This book is for people who deep inside have committed to becoming a better version of themselves. The book aims at providing personalized learning to each reader. If you are looking at validations, inspirations, and nudges to help find answers for yourself, this is the book.

Decoding Digital

GRIT: The Major Story

Major DP Singh, VR Ferose and Sriram Jagannathan Hachette India ` 399

Grit: The Major Story is the true account of a man who rose from humble beginnings to become a hero. Faced with the tragic loss of a limb while serving on the frontlines during Operation Vijay in 1999, Major DP Singh’s indomitable spirit came to the fore. Today he is known as India’s first blade runner and a motivational speaker for people who are differently-abled! Written in simple and lucid language, this graphic novel is a page-turner. Major Singh’s story is deeply inspiring and optimistic which will motivate the readers to face, fight and overcome their own battles. 58

Brainfeed Higher Education Plus November 2020

Dozen Pebbles Washed Ashore by Life Aura Bhattacharjee StoryMirror Infotech Pvt Ltd ` 150

“Dozen Pebbles Washed Ashore by Life “ is a perfect companion for you when you’re travelling, spending that leisure weekend afternoon, on a date with yourself at a cosy café, unwinding before going to bed after a long day at work. It transports you to various places, introducing you to the essence of every location, be it in the form of people, food, or just how the sky looks in that place during a clear sunset. It is a collection of 12 fictional short stories, compact, smooth, colourful like pebbles; shaped by the ebb and flow of life.

Dr Somdutta Singh Notion Press Paper Back - ` 474 / Kindle - ` 181.72

The book presents a knowledge-drives-strategydrives-results approach. Blending analytical skills with strategic approach, Decoding Digital is at once, comprehensive and intricate. It is an effort to understand the correlation between the macro and micro of digital marketing. For example, if you are looking at the first step of the marketing strategy for a product, you can make an informed decision by leveraging comparative studies backed by citations of detailed case studies. Further, the reader can gain insights into how design, Facebook, PR and other aspects are interwoven and influence one another.

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RNI NO. TELENG/2018/76430

Postal Regd. No: HCD/5012/2019-21

Posted at PC Secunderabad on November 9-10, 2020 Date of Publication: November 7, 2020

SETTING TR E NDS IN EDUCAT ION SI N CE 1 9 8 9 Est. 1989

With the belief that learning can happen anywhere, unconstrained by physical boundaries, education at CHIREC focuses on:

ACTIVE & MEANINGFUL LEARNING

HIGHLY INTERACTIVE LESSONS

FLEXIBLE ACROSS DEVICES & TIME ZONES

For more information, please: Contact 7680887969 / 7702203382 or Email [email protected] or Visit www.chirec.ac.in Campuses: Kondapur | Gachibowli | Jubilee Hills

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