2009 Jan 20

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Exclusive Sramana Mitra Interview - Page 2

THE SCHOLARS’ AVENUE

www.scholarsavenue.org

J ANUARY 20 2009

IIT K HARAGPUR

Placements "Now joblessness isn't just for philosophy majors." - Kent Brockman

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ore than 1300 registered, about 800 yet unplaced. These statistics hardly leave any scope for painting a rosy picture. Recession has hit the world economy hard and all IIT campuses bear a gloomy testimony to it. The major sectors of employers of previous years finance and FMCG companies either didn't turn up (see box) or recruited a very select few. S i m u l t a n e o u s l y, s o m e companies decided to play safe and opted for interns instead of full-time hires. If at all, the day has been saved by PSUs which seem to be recruiting en masse and with their revised packages, they are being coveted by students like never before.

Biggies that didn’t turn up Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital, HUL, Google, Proctor & Gamble, Shell, Rio Tinto and of course, Lehman Brothers. (Barclays Capital and HUL did take interns). The precedent was set by the famed day 0 or 1 (suit yourself) companies – ITC and Schlumberger (recruitment down from 12 and 38 last year respectively to 2 each), resulting in the lowest number of offers made on the first day in recent history, down to 19 from over 100 last year. The trend continued for the next couple of days as three multinational firms which came for the CSE final years took a combined aggregate of 1 student. First time recruiters like JP Morgan and Renault Nissan sped the process as the undergrad placements recovered thereafter. After the end of the December phase of placements, half the percentage of undergrads was placed and the average salary was approximated to be around 6 lpa (which stood at 7.85 lpa for first 10 days). While the average pay package at our campus seems to be still unaffected, the reason for this is purely mathematical - the denominator doesn't include those unplaced. The scenario was much worse in

post-graduate courses as their placement percentage just about managed double figures in the first phase, which saw a total of more than 90 companies visit the campus.

this sounds obvious but people are not doing this. Also, social entrepreneurs are looking for people as they hardly get IITians. This might be your chance to learn while working at a social start-up.

That will give them and the industry some time to tide over the grim situation and they will h a ve u t i l i z e d t h e i r t i m e effectively.

It wasn't much different at other IITs too, with a similar excruciatingly slow start and about half of the registered students unplaced at IIT Delhi and Madras till date. The influx of companies has been much less in the 2nd phase but Tanuj Dora, placement committee member, opined that December was one of the worst months for economy in general, hence the situation should improve as they continue to contact more and more companies. He also stated that the number of students placed in 1st phase in Kharagpur was the highest among all IITs.

-Abhinav Ankur, ExPlaceComm. member

For those who have been placed unsatisfactorily, I would say, thank your stars that you have a job, cling on to whatever you have for now, keep applying if you want to but think twice before you switch. This slump doesn't look like its getting over tomorrow, so it is important right now to be in a job that is safe.

Panicked final year students have been left trying to find a way out of the maze of CAT, app-ing and entrepreneurship dreams with an albatross of unemployment/dissatisfied employment hanging around their necks. These drastic times call for drastic change in perceptions. Abandoning the moolah madness, a good work experience should be preferred o ve r a f a t p a y p a c k a g e . According to Abhinav Ankur, explacement committee member, people should use the next couple of years for profile building by giving certification examinations, by doing internships in the time period before jobs, or by going for alternative career paths such as CFA, actuaries etc. so that when market gets better, whenever might that be, they are the first ones to get jobs. There are companies which do not recruit at campuses. So, network with your hall seniors. Internet alone isn't a good enough source. Get their contacts. I know

-Nitin Basant, Fair Issac, Class of 2007

Looking out for a career in sectors which are least affected by recession such as IPL might be another option. I do not see any particular reason why people should shy away from the IP sector.We have little competition currently and the real hurdle is to convince people that we can do well. -Virendra Singh Shekhawat, iRunway But the best bet is to remain attached to academics, and to pursue further studies. However, having said that, the no. of scholarships available in the universities worldwide is at an all time low (being funded mostly by the industry) and the applications at an all time high, so those unplaced should keep trying, exercise all options including applying to the companies that are not visiting the campus. According to Nitin Basant, Class of 2007, IIT Kharagpur, they should start looking for opportunities like taking up Ph.D. even in Indian universities or projects with professors in IISc, ISI or TIFR.

For those who want to turn entrepreneurs, this is a good time to develop your plan, however, there is a dearth of investors in any new plan right now. Also if you are looking at the industry to be your clients, this is going to take a long time to happen, so use this time to develop your product/idea and be ready to strike when the going gets better. During these tough times, especially when high paying jobs aren't readily available as we would want, it's high time for the IITians to do some soul searching and seek out the entrepreneur inside. After all, IITs were created with the vision to create job-givers and not job seekers. Although, even from a startup perspective, things aren't rosy as a couple of years back, but these testing times will separate the men from the boys, good ideas from mediocre ones; which is good for the industry. For the not-so-entrepreneurial, joining other start-ups would be a good option, as they offer good amount of responsibilities and learning opportunities; something which will be useful when the slowdown is over in a couple of years. -Joydeep Nath, Intinno Technologies Pvt. Limited (Also see Sramana Mitra and Dominique Trempoint talk on entrepreneurship on Page 2.)

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Entrepreneurship summit 2009

-Summit 2009 brought about an anthology of events opening an assortment of entrepreneurial avenues for the students. One such competition was Concipio, a B-plan competition which served as a platform for students who look beyond the predefined conventions by opening brand new vistas of opportunity before them. This competition which aims at transforming the raw ideas that are born in the institute into full fledged business models, leads the winning B-Plan from the stage of ideation to that of incubation. The entry which bagged this golden opportunity was Code Green, a revolutionary carbon capture technology designed to remove CO2 directly from industrial utility/power plants. Envision, a product design competition, provided an arena to showcase the next generation innovative products, motivating the participants to take their inventions to the next level. Prateek Agarwal, a final year student of the department of CSE, won the challenge for

devising a multiuser chat room based on J2ME with Bluetooth as a communication medium. Pensez, a Case Study contest, was designed to inculcate an innovative strategy in the students for observing, analyzing and assimilating the va r i o u s p o t e n t i a l entrepreneurial opportunities around us. Eclairez, a Social Entrepreneurship Challenge was an endeavour inspiring students to come up with Bplans designed to empower those at the bottom of the economic pyramid and earn profits for themselves at the same time. Cleangrellite, a t e a m o f VGSOM students won top spot for their end-to-end solution provider for all waste disposal issues.

Start up Talk With a dismal placement scenario this season, entrepreneurship seems to be

the new buzz among students. This fact was clearly evident with the "Start up Talk" being one of the major highlights of Esummit 09. Successful entrepreneurs gave valuable tips to a house packed audience in V4 on new ventures. While Mr. Udit of Intinno and Mr. Arindam of Minekey elaborated on market demand and product innovation, Mr. Krishna Mehra of Capillary and Mr. Shwetank of P2Power solutions laid emphasis on making use of t h e technological expertise at IIT Kgp. Students also got a taste of profitable n o n conventional start ups with the presentation made by Greenhat Ventures and Nature Admire. Greenhat Ventures provides important data regarding suitable career paths and employers while Nature Admire specializes in marketing adventure sports. Rajat Sethi of Exergy

Consortium and Vikram of Data Resolve spoke on their foray in patent marketing and data theft prevention respectively. The talk concluded with Professor Srikanth Patnaik, founder of I.I.M.T, advising on financial aspects followed by an interactive session between them and students.

Rede', the in-house parliament One of the major highlights of E-Summit 2009 was the first ever Parliamentary Debate organised in Kgp, REDE' which saw an overwhelming participation. A miniature Parliament came alive within the closed lecture rooms of the institute building through almost 27 brain-storming preliminary rounds of the three on three debate. The discussions' topics ranged from the collapsing economic scenario to the various ways of the business world. NUJS, Kolkata swept away all major titles including the best Adjudicator. Sumeet Mohanty from IIT KGP was adjudged the best speaker in the grand finale.

Entrepreneurship essentials Exclusive interview with Sramana Mitra and Dominique Trempont The Scholars' Avenue(TSA) met the Forbes author and entrepreneur Sramana Mitra(SM) and the one time CFO of NeXt, under Steve Jobs and entrepreneur Dominique Trempont(DT) at STEP just before the third annual edition of the E-Summit was to kick off. And thanks to these two, it did kick off in splendid style with a jampacked Netaji. Below are excerpts from the the interview. To know more about their views on the b u i l d i n g o f e n t re p re n e u r s , mentorship, social enterpreneurship and their varied experiences log on to http://www. scholarsavenue.org

Google, you don't actually learn anything. Working in a startup is far more challenging and will catapult you onto a steep learning curve. Indian developers put things together so very quickly. What they lack is the ability to gauge the product and determining its market value. Another factor which bothers me is the fact that most of the Indian engineers have made it big in the software sector whereas the fields of mechanical, civil and other disciplines have been largely neglected.

TSA- Don't you think that the current recession will discourage entrepreneurship in India?

TSA- Don't you think that there is an imminent risk factor in entrepreneurship whereas in a job you at least have security?

SM- On the contrary, the present situation is tailor-made for startups. Necessity is the mother of invention. It is only when IITians don't get lucrative job offers that they will think out of the box and make a real contribution. It is indeed pitiful to watch such excellent brains work as low level programmers in software companies. If you plan on joining an already established company like

DT- 10 years into my career, I was in a large successful global company and was approached by a venture capitalist who came to pitch me about joining one of his start ups. At first, I pushed back and explained to him all the things that I would leave behind. I was father of a 3 year old and I saw the risk of risking the livelihood of my family. We had excellent healthcare coverage: the venture

did not. I was paid handsomely; the venture would pay me half. I had a perfect career trajectory; the venture looked like all risk. All I could see in the venture was risk, risk, risk. The VC said: "the biggest risk in life is not to take risk" as this is how you become a mummy after 10 years in a large company and cannot change your ways. This made me think of my father who, all his life, stretched himself and placed bets. I then decided to change my views vis a vis risk and opportunity. I first look at the opportunity then consider the risks and figure out how to reduce them as much as possible. This recipe works very well for me. TSA- Do you have any suggestions to budding entrepreneurs in India? SM-Remember, you never need to have a complete domain knowledge of the technology that you are using. All my startups are in Artificial Intelligence whereas I have done my Masters in Computer Architecture. The key lies in learning how to learn. Believe in yourself. Observe the market carefully and recognize the opportunities available to you. Identify the markets, scrutinize

the business models. DT- India has four huge assets in entrepreneurship: top notch high end education, big local problems (hence markets) that need addressing by entrepreneurs (healthcare, alternative energy, water, rural development, architecture, on line education etc), an enormous knowledge of software (outsourcing) and one of the top creative culture in the world (with France, Italy and the US). Its first challenge is that the culture does not favor risk taking: "why take a chance on a start up when I come out of IIT and can be hired at top salary by a big branded company?" The second (big) challenge is the lack of marketing capability; bridging that gap is a key for India to evolve from being a subcontractor to producing Indian global brands in the world. The third challenge is lack of process: too much chaos for its own good. If it addresses these challenges, the sky is the limit for India. SM- It is wise never to think as one time entrepreneurs. Drive a project to its logical conclusion, reset, take a break and figure out what is next. Learn to think as serial entrepreneurs.

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Intrusive Technology Act? government to promote transparency. Copies of the proposed amendment were not available till the bill was passed by the parliament. Any restriction on the liberty of a democratic polity should be enforced only after a well deliberated consensus which requires public awareness. Salient features of the bill Ø With the advent of e-

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h e I n d i a n Pa r l i a m e n t passed an astonishing 8 bills (which become laws once passed) in 17 minutes, The Scholars' Avenue analyses one of the bills passed and wonders where the Indian Parliament is headed. A bill that directly affects us, netizens, is the I n f o r m a t i o n Te c h n o l o g y Amendment Bill, 2006. The amendment was hurriedly introduced due to importance of certain sections dealing with cyber terrorism, which were proving to be a nemesis for the investigating agencies. The casual manner in which the bill was passed and the lack of public scrutiny or media attention, raises some serious questions highlighting a mockery of the world's largest democracy. Why is it important? What you need to know? The Information Technology act regulates all areas of electronic communication and information sharing which include e-mails, text messages, phone calls, Website content etc.

Questions we are asking ? If the Parliament passes bills in a state of pandemonium without any debate or even consideration, why does it exist at all? ? Why, in a democratic country, are bills not made public before they are passed, but are ‘uncovered’ only through the efforts of activists, even though the government maintains websites for the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha? ? Why did the media not highlight the issue of such an important and controversial bill being passed by the Parliament without debate, and chose instead to give prominence to the flippant remarks of an MP, and the ensuing uproar? ? Shouldn’t the government create some sort of a public consensus before making laws that can curb the liberty of the people? ? Why are we, as citizens, typically uninformed of relevant issues such as this, and why do we chose to care only when decisions directly harm us? The Government of any country is an absolute reflection of its people and we have only ourselves to blame.

The amendment shockingly gives sweeping powers to the government to collect and use any information transmitted or published electronically, for the purpose of the Investigation of 'ANY' offence. Earlier this was possible only in the cases of cognizable offences. What is more disturbing is the lack of effort on the part of the

governance and e-commerce, regulations have been put in place to legitimize electronic records and contracts with the help of electronic signatures. Ø Setting up a Cyber Appellate Tribunal with powers equivalent to that of a civil court, for trying offences booked under the Act.

Offences recognized under the Bill include: ? Sending offensive messages which are deemed to cause 'inconvenience, insult, danger, criminal intimidation' etc. ? Retention or usage of a stolen communication device or information stored in such a device. ? Cyber terrorism which is defined to be an act that compromises the integrity of the nation or strikes terror in its people. ? Publishing or transmitting 'obscene' electronic material. Powers that have been conferred upon the regulatory agencies which can be used to prevent incitement of any cognizable offence or to investigate any offence: ? Interception or monitoring of information sent through any computer resource. ? Prevention of access of any information through a computer resource. ? Monitoring and collection of data transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource, for the purpose of maintaining cyber security or preventing the spread of a computer contaminant. The safeguards that are in place to regulate these powers are that they will be carried out only after recording the reasons in writing. The act also mentions that other safeguards may be prescribed if required.

History

Glossary

The United Nations General Assembly enacted a model law on electronic commerce, a legal framework for countries to formulate their laws governing electronic commerce and communication in 1997, in order to establish uniformity in the globalised IT space. In line with the UN and the rest of the world, India passed the Information Technology Act in the year 2000 the first step to regulate and bring into the purview of the law the cyber arena. As the only law to deal with any kind of IT related activity it was woefully inadequate to deal with critical issues like cyber-terrorism, phishing, spam and child pornography.

Act - A statute or law made by a legislative body. Amendment - An alteration proposed or put into effect by legislative or constitutional procedure. Cognizable offence – An offence under which a suspect can be arrested without a warrant. (i.e. – a grievous offence) Bill – In the legislative process, a bill is a proposal that is the first step in creating a new law. To become a law, a bill must be passed by both the Houses of the parliament and then approved by the President. Standing committee - Permanent House committees that consider bills and issues and recommend measures for consideration by the full House. Communication device - Cell Phones, Personal Digital Assistance (Sic), or combination of both or any other device used to communicate, send or transmit any text, video, audio, or image. Computer resource - A computer, communication device, computer system, computer network, data, computer database or software.

Especially after the Baazi.com debacle in 2005 which included an IIT Kgp student trying to sell obscene videos online, the demand for an amendment in the IT act grew. In response, the Government of India drafted the Information Technology Amendment bill in 2006, which after initial rejection by the standing committee report was finally passed with some modifications by the Parliament on December 23, 2008.

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FEATURES AVENUE

Chip in, cash out

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n view of the recently extended Central Library timings, opportunities have b e e n m a d e a va i l a b l e f o r students to work in the library on a part-time basis. This fresh initiative seeks volunteers to keep watch at key locations to prevent the illicit 'issue' of books.

Volunteers @ CL

Students would be assigned responsibilities in pairs through a random slot allocation. Weekdays have only one twohour slot from 10 PM to midnight, while on the weekends, duty is branched into two seven-hour shifts – 10 AM to 5 PM and 5 PM to midnight. A pair allocated a slot on a weekday, would work on that particular day of the week for the whole month. However, batches listed for the weekend shift may be tasked only once in the month. The monetary compensation being offered is Rs. 100 for an hour of service. 24 students (from both undergraduate and postgraduate streams) have already registered under this scheme. The list of students is refreshed on a monthly basis and the applications for a particular month must be submitted to the deputy librarian before the 15th of the previous month. Should there be more applicants than the manpower required, the volunteers would be preferred based on the parental income criterion.

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Updates on constructions

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fter a busy semester of renovation and construction work, The Scholars' Avenue caught up with Prof. S K Bhattacharya, HOD of the Department of Civil Engineering on the progress made so far, and to dispel a few r u m o u r s a n d misunderstandings that have crept up over the months.

protection and coating.

by June. As RK and RP Halls had failed the integrity tests, they are Prof. Bhattacharya has also receiving new blocks from the laid to rest speculations over the ground up – this is slated to be handling of hall dues and fees completed by August. The two factoring in the additional new hostels are currently in the resources the construction work planning stage, with one's requires. The water and power design already finalised and the supply for the construction sites other in progress. Sites are being is provided on a contractual prepared near MMM Hall and beyond Zakir Hussein Hall. The new Guest House What’s on paper? is also expected by There has Ø New blocks in PAN to be ready by next June April. been many a Ø Construction of new blocks in RP and RK started question lately Ø Two new hostel near MMM and Zakir Hussain halls over the tests It has indeed Ø The entire process to be completed in 18 months performed to been a bumpy ride evaluate the f o r t h e structural construction integrity of the older halls; one basis, and will not affect our work, with difficulties in recent incident comes to mind fees. Care is now being taken to selecting contractors and price wherein a portion of a roof in prevent any scarcity of water – rise of important components Patel Hall had given way. again, the water crisis in one such as steel proving to be major However, Prof. Bhattacharya b l o c k i n Pa t e l H a l l wa s hurdles, but now the work is assures us that all the tests had apparently due to the relocation finally gaining momentum. The been done as per Indian of a water tank as a part of the stipulated time for the entire Standards. Moreover, the Patel roof work, rather than an actual process is about 18 months – incident was the result of some shortage. work has been planned out in a irregular drilling work making phase-wise fashion so that an accidental puncture. All It is hoped that the current portions of the new structures drilling has been ceased since, round of construction in the w o u l d b e r e a d y f o r and work has moved on to rain PAN loop will be wrapped up accommodating students in the coming semester.

May I help you? IIT KGP received a very special New Year's gift this year with the inauguration of a "Helpline Desk" facility at the institute gate leading to the Main Building. This integrated unit, built to serve as a Security Hub, a Logistics Counter, an Information Desk and an E m e r g e n c y F a c i l i t y. T h e Director, Deputy Director, Dean of Student Affairs and other dignitaries were present at the inauguration of this facility.

One can approach this 24x7 desk for information about the campus, besides availing logistics support in matters like blood banks, medical assistance and transportation. There is plenty of manpower here to run the show. Quick Response Teams (QRTs) have been formulated to be kept on standby and to be dispatched whenever any sort of assistance is required. The men here are equipped to handle accidents,

intruders, fire, snakes, street dogs, emergencies in water and other such situations. This desk will also serve as a central station for different CCTV cameras to be set up at different locations on campus. This facility can be reached at three numbers: 81002-4. People present there were quite optimistic about the success of this endeavour. Here's wishing them all the very best!

Alumni meet ‘09 A cup of nostalgia for the class of ‘59 and ‘84

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he 6th Annual Alumni Meet-2009 witnessed our alumni converging from every corner of the world at IIT Kharagpur. It was heartening to see the joy and exultance on their faces as well as the love and dedication for their Alma matter. IIT alumni have always been synonymous with success and it was inspiring for the students to see so many success stories from the earlier batches. The presence of highly accomplished entrepreneurs added grace to the event. The inaugural function on the second day was followed by

an institute alumni interaction. The photo session saw the alumni of the 1959 and 1984 batches come together. The highly interactive student alumni interaction had E-cell demonstrating its activities. Its active participation, which led to IIT Kgp bagging top honours in the B-plan competition at the Pan-IIT summit, was lauded by all. The presentation included details of the innovative Deferred Placement Program. Then our illustrious alumni gave valuable tips on entrepreneurship with Rajeev Gupta, MD of Cisco, and Mr.

Anand Deshpande sharing their experiences. The need to have some training on CV writing and good marketing strategy was stressed. This was followed by a presentation by the T & P cell. The student participation and the formation of the student committee for the T & P section were lauded. The T & P cell also requested the co-operation of the alumni in the form of mentorship, recommendations and financial aid. The event concluded with the Alumni Cell informing the alumni of the new measures in place for better networking among them.

The alumni were then treated to scintillating performances by the ETMS, WTMS and TDS. After dinner, the alumni were escorted to their respective halls for a nostalgic trip back in time.

WTMS performance at the Alumni meet

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44th Inter-IIT meet Bronze for kGP

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he 44th Inter IIT meet held at IIT Madras had mixed emotions in store for the KGP contingent. In the overall men's General Championships, we bagged the third position which is one better than last year, but in the women's General Championships we plummeted to a miserable sixth position as compared to second last time. IIT Bombay retained the cup with 97.65 points and the runner-up IIT Madras trailed far behind with 72.2 points. IIT KGP managed a total of 41.42 points for the third position. This time the march past (which traditionally had a very poor turnout as far as KGP was concerned) was given equal weightage as other sports. As a result, our turnout was a staggering 99% and we scored 7.42 points in the ten-point event. Things began well for us as we won league matches in Cricket, Football, Volleyball, Hockey and Badminton though Basketball wasn't as inspiring. Unfortunately, this elation was short lived as we suffered some unexpected defeats during the later part of the meet. Though there wasn't a single

gold in our kitty, we got 4 silver and 3 bronze medals in all. The Hockey team performed exceptionally well to get a bronze medal although out of the 11 players, 8 were first timers at the Inter IIT. Interestingly,

earlier so as to clash with the Inter IIT meet(11th to 17th Dec.) , a much better performance could have been achieved.

Thanks to impartial and honest refereeing as compared to last time, we pocketed silver in Basketball too. In swimming we received the bronze medal. In the women's General Championship, the only medal was a bronze in table tennis.

Athletes in Action Niraj Sangode who was to participate in both football and long jump events could not do so due to a last minute change in schedule which resulted in a clash of timings for these two events. Bipul Kumar, the General Secretary for Sports and Games decided to go in his stead for long jump and in spite of his lack of practice managed to give a gold winning performance. This, along with gold in javelin throw, resulted in an overall silver medal in athletics. In Badminton and Table Tennis we retained the silver medals.

Many players were sorely missed as they couldn't make it to the meet due to the placements. IIT Bombay didn't feel this shortcoming as it offered airfare compensation to enable its participants to fly in for their event and return the same day. Despite the misery being faced in placements, S h ya m K i s h o r ( A t h l e t i c s Captain) and Rajesh (Weightlifting) went for the meet and bagged gold and silver m e d a l s r e s p e c t i ve l y. T h e thought on everyone's minds was that if the eventual break in placement season (20th Dec. to 5th Jan.) was only scheduled

This meet was unique in that it received participation from thirteen IITs for the first time. As the six new IITs (Bhubaneshwar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Bihar) have few students, they were represented by a batch of ten students each and competed only amongst themselves in some of the athletics events. The people at IIT Madras were hospitable and cooperative and did everything possible to make the other IITs feel at home. Compared to last ye a r, t h e r e we r e f e we r complaints and everything went smoothly. After much furore, this event served only to encourage us at IIT KGP to continue our perseverance in bringing home that coveted shield.No doubt we will prevail soon in the future and finally get to where we should really belong.

Jagriti Yatra A train Journey with a difference

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ow often have you had one of those late night bhaat sessions that invariably ended with all of you cursing the government, the "system" and proclaiming that the times are such that your "genius" is wasted on such a world? How often have you or someone you know, given up all those ideals you came into this institute with, when someone waved a lot of green in your face or gave you a chance to visit foreign shores. If the answer to any of those questions saw you nodding your head, then the Jagriti Yatra is something you should know about. Conceptualised by an IIT Delhi Graduate way back in 1997, The Jagriti Yatra, in its present form was organised by the Jagriti Sewa Sansthan. The purpose was to re-infuse the Indian youth of today with passion and to inspire them to dream and to act by introducing them to the real heroes of India, the grassroot level entrepreneurs (social as well as economic). These

extraordinary people, with what little they have in terms of funds a n d volunteers, make a very real and profound change in the lives of hundreds of India's masses every day. T h e J a g r i t i Ya t r a wa s basically a 18-day journey across India (starting and ending at Mumbai) covering 13 stops all over the country. On the train the yatris participate in discussions, debates, seminars etc. Role models from all over India, identified by the organisers, gave seminars on the work they and their organisation do. The common thread among these organisations is that they all started out as a response to a problem and in the course of solving that problem, they incorporated innovation to such

an extent that some of them have business practices rivalling those of the best multi-national corporations. Besides this there were 6 televised panel discussions at different locations during their journey, soon to be telecast on CNBC TV 18. The yatris were also complemented by visits to the places that these role models have actually touched with their entrepreneurial activities. The actual sight of the positive effects that a little bit of entrepreneurship applied in the right direction can have left a profound impact on many of the yatris. The organisation of the yatra was a feat deserving much kudos. The organising team headed by Swapnil Kant Dixit (alumnus of IIT KGP) admirably tackled the several logistical

problems that came with ferrying 350 odd people around a country like India in accordance with an unforgiving schedule. The dedication of the team and the cooperation of the To be a part of this Ø sensational event, register o n l i n e a t www.jagritiyatra.com/getinv olved/. An elaborate selection process follows. Ø Once selected, the participant can choose to either pay for himself (Rs.34000 per head) or apply for sponsorship. Ø This time, there were ten students from IIT KGP on the trip, many of whom were sponsored.

yatris in ensuring that the maximum possible could be achieved by this journey without any logistics issues was really commendable.

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Enter the cloud RoboCup

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f you have ever watched some of those old sci-fi films where people could access info about everything under the sun with a few tap-taps at a dusty terminal by the corner and spouting technobabble about the "vastness of the interwebs", you must have been impressed with the potential of going virtual. There has already been a revolution behind the scenes to this effect over the last few years in the form of Cloud Computing - a rising paradigm that allows us to completely virtualize our applications and processes. Cloud computing involves the storage of info in datacentres on the internet (metaphorically called the "Cloud") and served to clients anywhere. Grand - so what's new, you ask? As recent trends seem to indicate, companies such as Amazon, Google and IBM are taking virtualization of data to the next level. We have grown to be rather dependent on webmail, web storage, blogs, online photo albums, etc. in our daily lives, and all of this has a very flexible back-end working to simplify matters. Today's gamut of Web 2.0 apps focus on delivering software as a service - the only software we need on our end is a browser, with which we can play games, watch videos, edit presentations, documents and spreadsheets, sync data and much more. This can be seen as the next step from grid and utility computing models – clouds can be powered by a grid of computers sharing resources with little centralization and the ability to be billed as a "perishable" quantity rather than as actual infrastructure. We can use the computing power of hundreds of systems for operations, and pay for just the storage space or processing power that we use instead of having to buy a whole mainframe for our needs. Now companies like blog sites or webhosts can store your data in remote server farms and offer unlimited storage capacity for little or no charge at all – if Wordpress or Blogger were managing all your data themselves, they'd be hardpressed for physical storage space. Circa 2007 there has been a push by Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc. to move to cloud

storage for offering greater shares of free online space. A plethora of Web 2.0 media storage services have also cropped up over the last year, such as Dropbox, OmniDrive, AllMyData (which uses a peerto-peer grid storage technique with rather unsatisfactory results), etc., offering anywhere from 5 to 25 GB of free space. The big guns like Amazon's S3, Nirvanix and Mosso can offer u p wa r d s o f t e r a b y t e s o f scaleable data storage for about 15 cents/gigabyte/month. And of course, cloud apps like Gladinet and Windows Live Skydrive offer seamless storage

or BSD systems on remote computers and run any software of them, using your own portable terminal as an interface. This can be a major cost-cutter as you can share this software amongst multiple clients. The remote hardware does the hard work, so all you need is a smartphone and a good connection. The really exciting breakthroughs are from the world of HD – projects like AMD's recent Fusion Render Cloud supercomputer with over a thousand graphics processors have been specially designed for serving High Definition media to portables via the cloud through server-side rendering. This means you can watch full length HD-quality films or play some of the latest, most computationally intensive games with an OLPC laptop so long as you have a web browser.

The only real issues with cloud computing are security and privacy. If you log in from public terminals, you'll Research centers like this one in Jülich have to exercise are networked by IBM's Blue Cloud caution against Initiative to create a powerful cloud. keyloggers, sniffers and the like. Also, reputation is key – be wary of between the cloud and your who maintains your data, and system. Gladinet takes it a step who has access to it. Ensure further by integrating file sound authentication and transfer between Google Docs, authorization practices. Picasa Web Albums, Skydrive and Amazon S3 like they were This organization of regular folders. It seems we can information promises to modify manipulate large quantities of the way we use computers and information from afar without systems. Interestingly, while it ever having to interact with the appears to decentralize our own systems that store them in the work and promote mobility, it first place. may also simultaneously converge towards a Cloud Computing has centralization of data, especially immediate relevance to the if the market witnesses a mobile market. As developers monopoly. Already Google the world over rush to produce seems to have such a reign over applications for ultra-portable web based information. It handsets, netbooks, etc. it is remains to be seen how well clear that stand-alone power is such companies protect our being sidelined in favour of privacy and security if the accessibility. Virtualization whole world goes virtual. But solutions like Xen allow you to hey, if it gets Crysis on a install Windows, Solaris, Linux cellphone, it’s okay with us!

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oboCup is coming to India! By bringing this to India, IIT Kharagpur has added yet another feather to its cap in the field of robotics. IIT Kharagpur is the first Institute in South Asia to obtain approval from the International RoboCup Federation for this initiative. RoboCup Challenge @ India cherishes the same dream as the International Robocup Federation: "By 2050, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win a soccer game, complying with the official FIFA rules, against the winner of the most recent World Cup of Human Soccer.” The event will include three of the leagues featured in the International Robocup competition- Small size League featuring five robots from each side battling it out on a 5m by 7m arena; Simulation League involving two teams each consisting of eleven software programs, or 'agents'; and Conference, where scientific contributions in areas relevant to the RoboCup will be presented. The competition, backed by FIFA is scheduled to be held in our very own campus from 28th to 30th August. RoboCup Challenge @ India is essentially a research initiative and is expected to attract individuals, corporations, and universities with an interest in any of the various relevant fields of research. Bringing such a groundbreaking initiative to life is never easy, and event organizers Prof Jayanta Mukhopadhyaya and Sudeshna Sarkar are among those involved in putting this show on the road. Chief Coordinator Kaustubh Tripathi, 4th year student of the Department of CSE, names recent KGP alumnus Aamir Ahmed, who received exposure to RoboCup during his internship at ISR, as his inspiration for working on this project. Not one to rest on his laurels, he describes the setting up of an Indian RoboCup Committee to hold an Indian RoboCup Open as one of his and his team’s future goals. So watch out Indian RoboCup Open, here we come!

THE SCHOLARS’ AVENUE

BHAAT A V E N U E

² T U E S D A Y , J A N U A R Y 20 T H 2009

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Writers’ Anonymous Helping you fight writers’ block Writers' block is a lot like a mosquito. It just isn't right. It doesn't seem like something a well-meaning God would have created. It's one of those things that seems to serve no purpose. One of those things that you even a person who wouldn't hurt a fly would jump at with a vengeance that you wouldn't have thought him capable of. It just doesn't fit into the larger scheme of things. It's like a stray piece in a jigsaw puzzle - you can't complete the picture. Mankind's quest for the ultimate answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything will not be complete until it finds a rational reason for their creation. Fret, not, though, for you are not alone. There are many people who have or have had the same problem. Moreover, we've got your back. We will help you understand your problem and take you step-bystep through a procedure for solving it. We are a consortium of highly successful poets, with a large number of pieces to our credit. Does the name 'anonymous' ring a bell? We call ourselves Writers' Anonymous. True to our name, we're writers and we're anonymous. So, here's what you need to do to kick your problem in the keester and get some writing done. These steps are tried and tested, so you need not worry about their authenticity or validity. We know what we’re talking about :

Step 1: Accepting that you have a problem Now that you're reading this, you're already half done with this step. Mary Poppins says that well begun is half done. We dont' like the idea of messing with a woman who can stuff a standard sized umbrella into a small handbag, so we're going to take her word for it, and tell you that you're off to a great start. We give you enough credit to realize that you've probably already shredded/deleted enough half baked drafts. If you haven't, go fish. If you have, well, you do realise you have writers' block right? Those are the very symptoms.

method acting is, in a nutshell, the positioning of yourself in the shoes of the role you are playing and behaving as if you were he/she/it. The application of method acting to sidestep the need for creativity is simple. Imagine that you were your English teacher from school. You could wear a moustache/frock for effect. Pace up and down the room a couple of times. Make sure you get into character. Throw a couple of notebooks across the classroom,

Step 2: Brainstorming again We know people high up. We have the statistics with us. 81% of writers' block cases are because of "starting trouble", generally due to the non-existence of a fixed topic to write about. Writers' block results in the temporary loss of a bodily fluid that enhances creativity. The name of the fluid we refer to is irrelevant at this juncture. What is relevant is the fact that there are many ways to c i r c u m ve n t t h e n e e d f o r creativity. We assume that you've heard of method acting. For

a l l p e o p l e . I f yo u d o n ' t remember anything about your school days, you probably couldn't do it. If you do remember your school days, but only the bits that involved Physics class, you probably couldn’t do it. If you have no creativity to start off with, you’re probably not much of a method actor anyway. To get your creative juices working again you can do one/many of the following: 1.Beat yourself up every time you can't think of an idea. 2.Listen to The Doors. 3.Scare a stranger on the road, photograph his reaction, and write about the emotions that the expression on his/her face evokes in you. 4.Set your watch back half a day and act as if you travelled to the past, and that you're giving your day another shot. 5.Break something. 6.Repair something. Step 4: The last resort Write a self-help column.

hunt for the blackboard duster, write out a couple of remarks in diaries. Then think of an essay topic for your students. There you have it.

P.S.: Bhaat Avenue may not be held responsible for any loss of life/hair/property/spouse resulting from the use of advice from this column. The only animals harmed during testing were human beings, but we know people in the UN, so ha!

Step 3: In case 2 didn't work Circumvention doesn't work for

Did you know: Someone has 44 credits this semester

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NEWS AVENUE

THE SCHOLARS’ AVENUE

² T U E S D A Y , J A N U A R Y 20 T H 2009

PAN IIT MEET 2008 Global Alumni Conference "In the last six decades the IIT system has produced over 170,000 graduates. It is generally estimated that about a third or more of these alumni have found opportunities in other countries where they are universally acknowledged to be leaders in their fields of endeavour. They have played an important role in technological break-through around the world and in changing the image of India in the West. The vast majority of IIT alumni who have remained at home have become leaders in their own right within India. Many of them are brilliant academicians, passionate research scientists, path-breaking thought-leaders, enterprising industry captains, leading policy makers and society's change agents."

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r i m e M i n i s t e r D r. Manmohan Singh could not have used more appropriate words in his inaugural address to the Global Alumni C on f e r e n ce or g a n i se d b y PanIIT. The meet, held during 19th-21th December, took place in IIT Madras, 2008 being their Golden Jubilee. The theme was Innovate with what you know, Inspire new Narratives, and Transform India. The meet was graced by over 200 distinguished industry leaders and panelists including leading academicians and policy makers, venture capitalists, private equity and financial institutions, industrialists, CEO's, and strategists. It was further attended by some 3000 plus IIT alumni, 2000 plus IIT students and over 500 leading research scholars. The various sessions included several panel discussions, talks, a debate and even a knowledge capture session. A couple of noted strategic thinkers, Dr. Stephen Cohen and Prof. Kishore Mahbubani discussed the challenges and opportunities ahead of India in the next 15 years while economist Dr. Raghuram Rajan spoke on India's possibilities in becoming one of the Top-3 economies in

T EAM S CHOLSAVE Executive Editors : Anuj Dayal, Arish Inam, Robin Anil, Sheekha Verma, Sreeja Nag, Suvrat Bafna Editors: Anup Bishnoi, Deepak Cherian, JS Deepthi, Mithun Madhusudan, Pranesh Chaudhary, Srinath Sinha, Vinayak Pathak Asst. Editors: AVN Murthy, Bharat Bhat, Dheeraj Golla, Mayank Kedia, Pallavi Jayannavar, Siddharth Prabhu, Siddharth Singh, Suyash Bire Reporters: Abhirajika A, Amiya Adwitiya,Arvind Sowmyan, Ratan J S, Tiyasa Mitra, Vijay, Sumeet Mohanty Junior Reporters: Achyut Bihani, Deepesh Kumar, Indra Saha, Mahtab Soin, Parth Govil

Delegates and Alumni at the Pan-IIT meet the world. Dr. Stephen Cohen assured all that the IIT community is legendary and makes its presence felt even in America. Another interesting session was a video interaction with none other than Orkut Buyukkokten, Product Manager of Google, in which he spoke to students and campus youth about social networking in virtual mode. Nobel Laureate and leading Economist, Prof. Amartya Sen, brought the proceedings to a fitting end with a valedictory keynote addressing how IITs, IITians a n d Pa n I I T c a n i n s p i r e , innovate, and transform India into a global superpower.

Open Session Reloaded Kept promises, more often than not, go unnoticed as did the second interaction session initiated by Director Damodar Acharya on 14th January. At the last session back in November, Deputy Director M Chakraborty, amidst all the student-angst and frustration, notified that these sessions would be implemented twice every semester. Provision of a platform where students can freely put forth their grievances and suggestions being the ideology behind this initiative. However, a much scantier turn up this time was well humoured by Arnav (VP, TSG) as a positive sign that students were much happier than they were back in N o v e m b e r. T h e d i r e c t o r reassured that measures to

'All work and no play' has always been unacceptable to IITians. The meet was thus spiced up by concerts and cultural programmes by star performers. There even was a golf tournament held at the Madras Gymkhana Club golf course. Chess reached an unparalleled height as Vishwanathan Anand singlehandedly tackled 14 tables at a time! D r. M a n m o h a n S i n g h motivated IITians to contribute their knowledge for the welfare and development of our own country. "I believe it is India's destiny to become a knowledge improve student amenities were in full swing which would be realised to a large extent by 2011, IIT Kgp's Diamond Jubilee year. Students put forth their queries, complaints and suggestions in the following session which were made note of. Deputy Director pointed out that every issue raised would be looked into, even if they were not intently discussed during the session. The next interaction session is scheduled to be held in April. O NLINE N EWS To read these articles online and to give your feedback on them, please visit our website at www.scholarsavenue.org. The website provides the latest campus news through our coverage of events as they happen.

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p o w e r. T h e I I Ts h a v e contributed handsomely in the country's efforts to realize this destiny. The IIT community is acknowledged as a community that has contributed very significantly to the knowledge economy and knowledge society, globally and in India. The IIT impact study findings being released today validate this assessment....If we are to become a knowledge superpower, every sector in the country must be permeated with the thirst for imbibing knowledge, particularly scientific and technological. We seek the help of IIT fraternity to become partners in the process of transformation of India into a knowledge society."The Prime Minister's tone brimmed with confidence. Bob McDonald , the Chief Operating Officer for Procter & Gamble, stressed on the importance of innovation calling it the key to improving quality of life for people in every part of the world. Innovation, he remarked, is the primary driver of business, financial and economic growth. Talking of the role of IITians he explained, "The fundamental importance of innovation creates a unique demand for leadership. We need strong innovation leaders not just in our labs or universities, but at senior levels in business, in legislative and policy roles, and in not-for-profit and nongovernmental institutions." The clear outcome of all discussions was that IITians are counted upon to make significant contribution to worldwide progress in technology, research and social welfare. It is also expected of us to actively rise up 'to the service of the nation'. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh voiced his hopes, "I urge the IIT community to rise to its true potential by being aware of the wider national and societal concerns and helping catalyze and realize the institutions and processes that will connect the abilities of our rich knowledge community with the energy and potential of the larger society.”