2024-03-25 10:13
Katy Milkman points out that the Spring solstice is a good time to start new things. Certain days work well, her research shows, to start new endeavours: New year's day, birthday, anniversar… Read More
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Sunday Posts Blog
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Books; People; Ideas : These are few of my favourite things. As I live between day-to-day compromises and change-the-world aspirations, this is the chronicle of my journey, full of moments of despair and of discoveries, of connections and creations, of the quest of knowledge-as-conversation.
2024-02-07 16:01
Are skills dead?
It is awkward to ask just when everyone is talking about skills.
In our post-GPT age, the consensus is that while ‘h… Read More
2023-12-25 12:56
I have learnt a lot in 2023 and want to put that learning to use in 2024.Chiefly, I have tested and clarified some ideas I have had. I got involved in Higher Education somewhat accidentally… Read More
2023-12-22 14:11
As the year approaches its end, I am travelling around in Europe by train. The apparent pointlessness of my everyday life is pretty obvious from the distance. The usual vocabulary - revenue… Read More
2023-12-12 22:00
New years are for new beginnings, and I am readying myself for one.I have lost my way. Comfort had me, somewhat. Despite all my fear of comfort zones, I became too comfortable with what I wa… Read More
2023-10-24 09:38
I am lately in the question of morality. I almost know that it doesn't matter. History tells us clearly that the sense of morality is historical (what was right in one age, was wrong in anot… Read More
2023-09-19 13:34
We are the stories we tell about ourselves.I am one of those writers in search of a story. That story has not appeared, yet. But I am always crafting one.In this, it is not the start that co… Read More
2023-09-15 11:14
I spend a lot of time speaking with educators. Most of these conversations are about two things: How the world is changing and how higher education does NOT need to change.The assumption is… Read More
2023-08-01 10:00
I have been on the road for almost two months and now heading back to London. As I write this using the inflight wifi, I have a strange feeling: London is no longer home. It feels just like… Read More
2023-05-27 17:08
It has been repeated so many times, it is now a cliché: Our next thirty years will not look like the last three decades! If anything, ever since the end of the Cold War, it was mostly… Read More
2023-05-21 15:57
An AI turnIn conversations about education these days, something about ChatGPT must be mentioned. Otherwise, the speaker appears out-of-date. Like the MOOCs a decade ago, everyone seem… Read More
2023-04-02 11:33
The last year was chaotic for me. My father passed away, and this resulted in a profound shift of perspective. For the first time in my life, I felt disconnected from India. I did not know b… Read More
2023-03-16 02:21
I switched my career to what I thought was Higher Ed (in reality, private training) about thirteen years ago and never stopped being fascinated about it. My fascination, however, is always a… Read More
2023-02-19 19:42
It has been a while I blogged, but my life has completely changed during these couple of months.Overall, these changes have been positive. An idea that a colleague and I developed became a c… Read More
2022-12-28 21:55
Journey is an over-used metaphor.It presents a particular relationship between space and time. But the inherent assumption in a journey is that one moves forward. At a time when someone feel… Read More
2022-12-26 19:49
I am still wandering. But I have one dilemma to add to my list of dilemmas.This is about my political belief. I am one of those liberals who feel increasingly homeless. At a time when everyo… Read More
2022-12-25 15:10
I am officially ending 2022 in my life.It was one of those years which one would wish to forget, but can't. My father's illness and death dominted the year, but also my work project which to… Read More
2022-11-16 12:36
I got into private higher education by mistake. Like any outsider, I looked at the prospect of setting up a college and got excited. It was only when I got inside and started understanding h… Read More
2022-11-09 18:00
I may be wrapping up 2022 a month in advance. This has been the most terrible year in my life, and I would like to make this a short one. Particularly as I embark on a new start, possibly in… Read More
2022-09-23 13:51
My work is in international education. So my mantra is that education must be global! If we are not preparing our students for the global workplace, we are doing them a disservice, I say!&nb&hell…Read More
2022-08-20 09:48
A lot of my work is about preparing our students for the future. Under the general banner of employability, I have a fairly boxed-in view about the future. We deal with college students and… Read More
2022-08-18 06:31
I am working on an idea of a book I want to write.This was in my mind for a while, though I conceived this differently. Initially this was meant to be a joint project, more as a self-develop… Read More
2022-08-14 07:46
Courses are convenient. For any school, college or university, they are a good way to allocate time and resources. They can be fit into calendars, planned for and measured against set criter… Read More
2022-08-13 23:25
It is a rather strange time for me to work on my reading lists, but reading list is a strange thing for me to work on. If anything, in a time like this when my priorities are changing, a rea… Read More
2022-08-12 17:21
I am living through this profound sense of ending - of my identity, my project and partnerships - and now, as a coping strategy, looking to shift my vision to the future. Enough of thinking… Read More
2022-08-10 15:47
I write this on a sad afternoon when I feel the weight of the world.I grew up being told never to be weak. I accepted hardships would come. One would be tempted and led ashtray. The characte… Read More
2022-08-09 21:59
I have somehow defaulted into the education-to-employment transition business. My interests are sincere. I have spent too much time in private higher education to understand the downsid… Read More
2022-08-08 08:07
My carefully constructed plans are all coming to an end. Simultaneously, like a perfect domino. A season for new beginnings is here.The pandemic got me into a mindset. Of waiting. Of be… Read More
2022-07-13 05:23
I have recently been involved in developing and testing a student 'employability' programme. Like any other journey, this one evolved as we progressed. Because we took a design approach to b… Read More
2022-06-05 20:39
Is there anything I believe in?This is one of those profile questions that pop up in diversity and inclusion forms. I prefer not to tick 'prefer not to say' as it seems disingenuous. I belie… Read More
2022-06-01 22:14
My greatest fear is that of mediocrity, of ordinariness.This ranks even higher than that of diabetes, which, given my family history, has the best chance of eventually killing me. But I… Read More
2022-05-22 11:43
I spent the last week at the Ideas for India conference in London. This conference had different strands, and brought the diaspora Indians, India watchers and a number of delegates fro… Read More
2022-05-21 21:54
I recently spoke at an Education Conference and was asked to comment on what is likely to happen in Higher Ed sector post-pandemic. My presentation was about four key changes. I am not… Read More
2022-05-14 20:45
My current work is focused on alternate credentials based on project work. The key idea here is to create credentials based on experience and create a bridge between the academic world and v… Read More
2022-05-12 14:35
Let's start with a hypocrisy warning: I have gone back to college three times for degrees. First time because I was told that was what everyone did; second time, because I migrated and… Read More
2022-05-03 08:43
To understand the state of new imagination in Higher Ed, it's best to look at the recent buzz around microcredentials. Touted to be the next big thing - after what? MOOCs? - this is on… Read More
2022-04-28 18:04
This worked for me before. When I am feeling stuck, lost and unable to progress, I have set myself up for a change. 100 days worked for me best - a commitment to become something else in rou… Read More
2022-04-11 20:03
Today, I wish, would be the first day of the rest of my life.I am in that honest mood: That I feel stuck, of going nowhere, yet again. I knew this was coming. Against my better judgement, I… Read More
2022-03-27 05:44
As it rolls out its National Education Policy (NEP), India is faced with the dilemma that every other post-colonial nation has to answer: Whether to 'nationalise' higher education, by privil… Read More
2022-03-26 05:16
I am in India. I have forced myself into a 'discovery' trip - sitting across the table with potential customers and partners to understand if our ideas have any validity. This has been enorm… Read More
2022-03-22 02:50
I often ask myself this question: Why is it that when the world's best corporations are trying to set up 'campuses', many universities and colleges are so intent on running 'factories'?I kno… Read More
2022-03-09 00:18
University rankings are useless.They reflect irrelevant parameters (like how the ranked universities rank each other), elitist assumptions (how many students they reject) and encourage statu… Read More
2022-03-07 06:34
The ability to fall in love makes us human.It is a complex feeling, the interplay of hormones and the perfect poise of rationality and the irrational, sitting just beyond our understanding … Read More
2022-03-05 09:12
On a rather gloomy day in Melbourne - a sad one when the city has lost its greatest cricketing son ever - I came across the latest idea of government innovation: A minister for loneliness!&n&hell…Read More
2022-02-26 19:19
We are all watching Kyiv with horror. Were we not supposed look forward a spring of openness, after two years of staying home and washing hands?Instead, we are peering into a new normal… Read More
2022-01-07 13:58
India's employment data is sobering (see here). The pandemic has wrecked havoc and the structural problems of the economy - service sector dependence, uneven regional development and health… Read More
2021-12-25 14:58
This is a personal post: Not how to live, as I must accept that I have nothing insightful to offer, but how I should live. As 2021 draws to a close and Britain is gripped, again, by a r… Read More
2021-11-28 14:05
Unlike the Hollywood aliens, the future of Higher Education can not be expected to land in the United States alone.The American universities, of course, lead the world in academic prestige… Read More
2021-11-17 12:16
Sitting at a meeting where I am told that today's learners would rather sit in a café than in a library, I heard the penny drop.Collectively speaking, we no longer have a clue what it… Read More
2021-10-22 17:03
I have been recently lured into reading Jordan Peterson - an impulse borrowing from the local library - though I did not last long. But, I am thankful in a way - it showed me, rhetoric… Read More
2021-10-12 09:51
The cost I pay for being distrustful of praise is that I come across as a pessimist. That makes me an odd person. The general tone of life in the Anglo-saxon world is optimistic. The mo… Read More
2021-10-11 17:04
There was a time - not too long ago - when I used to be excited by venture talk. Spending hours on PowerPoint presentations or ever complicated Excel spreadsheets, I painted the future - and… Read More
2021-10-10 13:56
My Staurday morning was a mild mayhem because I disobeyed the alarm clock. I am always optimistic with my alarm, allowing me at least one snooze. Usually that action gets the phone in m… Read More
2021-09-15 07:58
As higher ed goes online, we must remember: The medium is the message.There is little point trying to do online what we do in campuses. This is what most online higher ed propositions are bu… Read More
2021-09-06 18:54
Dani Rodrik defined 'inescapable trilemma' of our world system back in 2007: That a globalised economy, democratic politics and nation states can't possibly coexist. (See here his post… Read More
2021-08-25 13:25
I have been, admittedly, a constant sceptic of the inflated valuations of online higher education companies. Part of the reason is practical: Most online education companies focus much… Read More
2021-08-17 21:04
The scenes from Kabul Airport are sad and shocking, but they are not extraordinary. If anything, it seems that the Biden administration, even if they did not know what this would look… Read More
2021-08-15 14:09
When the campus is reduced to a screen, are Princeton and Phoenix the same?One may indeed think that higher ed going online create some sort of level-playing field, and in fact, may ev… Read More
2021-08-12 21:54
There is a certain presumption that after the pandemic, edtech is the future of education.Which edtech, I ask. If that's puzzling, that would be ironic. There is a disconnect if… Read More
2021-08-08 11:40
India is where the future of higher education is being decided right now.Of course, the literature on the subject paints a different picture: This is mostly about the future of American High… Read More
2021-07-13 15:43
There was a time when countries and cities rushed out to build their silicon something. After many failures and dead-end real estate, this tendency has now sobered. Silicon valley has remain… Read More
2021-07-06 18:45
The new year 2022 will be like no other. The shock of 2020 and the grappling of hope-and-despair of 2021 will be behind us. The pandemic, which seemed to threaten civilisation earlier, will… Read More
2021-06-23 21:51
As an idealist who rather naïvely believed in shared purpose, I have been confounded by the pervasiveness and silly pettiness of the silos all through my working life. Initially, I appr… Read More
2021-06-14 07:40
There are moments when choices have to be made. This is perhaps one of those, for me.Ever since 2020, I kept my life in a holding pattern. Not thinking about the future, living a day at a ti… Read More
2021-06-05 19:06
1 It is time to make Digital work for people. It's time to think about a Digital Commonwealth. Commonwealth used to be a community for common good. It was so in Renaissance and then for the… Read More
2021-05-30 11:50
As we learn to live through the pandemic, during which work and professions have been transformed through the use of information technology, the question of what effect technology will have… Read More
2021-05-19 13:17
In 1921, just after the Influenza pandemic, H G Wells was writing "Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe." As we strive to look beyond the pandemic, it… Read More
2021-05-10 07:01
For this post, I owe a debt of gratitude to a fellow-traveller who connected through this blog and introduced me to Bloom's 2-Sigma problem. Serendipitous as it was, the conversation l… Read More
2021-05-05 10:35
I wrote in an earlier post, that it is time to move beyond the false binary of online vs offline in education. After the pandemic, it's going to be both.But, as I explained, this is no… Read More
2021-05-02 12:08
Finally, the poll results are out in West Bengal. While Bengalis like me are not surprised - the feeling is more like a collective sigh of relief - many friends from outside are very surpris… Read More
2021-05-01 18:44
While I am, like everyone else, weighed down by sadness of the human tragedy of the pandemic, it is clear that we know how to end the pandemic. Vaccines are working, testing has become more… Read More
2021-04-29 07:48
India loves global kudos: They were credulous that their Prime Minister was declared by the United Nations the best Prime Minister in the world only recently. Therefore, I believe that the h… Read More
2021-04-17 12:14
India's New Education Policy - which sets the legislative agenda for Indian education in the coming years - recommends that the core of India's higher education should be a system of liberal… Read More
2021-03-13 22:03
The Indian economy is at a crossroad. Its internal markets have sustained the economy through the global recession of 2008/9, but as it looks beyond the pandemic, that would clearly not be e… Read More
2021-03-12 10:41
I wrote earlier about my recent experiences regarding the design of education for 'employability' and the field of constraints that any design must consider (see here: Limitations). The… Read More
2021-03-11 10:35
A large part of my work now is designing an educational programme that can sit alongside university curricula aimed at student 'employability'. We started this very predictably - with a mand… Read More
2021-03-09 09:56
A close reading of India's New Education Policy illustrates a dilemma at the heart of India's Higher Education: Whether to become more Indian or more global? For a service economy servi… Read More
2021-02-25 16:11
I am sparred into writing this post by a rather awkward exchange in a recent business meeting. I was there to discuss a project, but my client asked - before we discussed anything else - whi… Read More
2021-02-17 13:14
The two weeks of Covid, it seems, wiped my memory clean - but given me new ones. One of those is a dream - of the most feverish nights - in which I was in a room where all doors out le… Read More
2021-02-10 18:53
Robots are coming for private higher ed.It is usual to toast the rapid automation of work at investor conferences, in the hope that this would break the State monopolies on higher ed and ush… Read More
2021-02-09 13:01
India prides itself of its diversity, but lately it has decided to go monochrome. Suddenly, India's model is China, though no one would admit of it. Harmony, after all, is good for economic… Read More
2021-02-03 10:35
My current work involves the development of an employability programme. As I worked on it, I had a deja vú, an old idea really, which is worth posting about.Years ago, I discovered th… Read More
2021-01-25 10:46
Last spring, people who could not understand, or could not accept, the difference between a Computer virus and a naturally occurring one, were pushing hard the idea that the Novel Corona Vir… Read More
2021-01-14 19:02
I have spent a long time making the case for college education and I see I used two different arguments interchangably.The first of these was the human capital argument, the one about skills… Read More
2021-01-11 19:41
Post-Covid, will technologists save education?It certainly needs saving. We are perhaps looking a whole lost cohort - may be two - who will graduate in a terrible job market and struggle to… Read More
2021-01-05 16:18
2021 has started with a whimper, for me.Fittingly I spent the last two weeks of 2020 in the sick bed, as the virus finally caught up with me. I never said so, but I had to learn first hand t… Read More
2020-12-21 11:00
I always wanted to be involved in higher education in India, but all my attempts so far have ended in disappointments.Sure, there is something in what I want and also who I am speaking with… Read More
2020-12-09 15:00
For as much one admires Darwin, we must remember that he offered a theory, a brilliant one, but only a theory.Darwin may have single-handedly changed science but his brilliance was mor… Read More
2020-11-24 14:58
For a long time now, I have been promoting 'blended learning'. The reasons are various. I have done enough online learning myself to know that the solitary, individualistic learni… Read More
2020-10-29 11:45
Future becomes obsolete, but it happens at a uneven pace. A wise man once said that in history, 'in years, weeks happen, and then in weeks, years happen'. But, the same wise man - Lenin… Read More
2020-10-15 10:41
When I saw this government advert, my reaction was: Cyber what? I did not make the immediate connection that a ballerina is being being expected to become a Data Scientist overnight. I… Read More
2020-10-11 18:19
I was speaking to someone about behaving well when she turned around and said, "so you are asking me to fake it?"Only then, it dawned on me that there could be a potential conflict between a… Read More
2020-10-04 14:47
As a historian, I am fascinated by Hitler.Of course, he is the most studied persona not just in modern history, but perhaps all history. The phenomena of Hitler - his impact - has led to the… Read More
2020-09-17 10:42
The world was flat. Then, it wasn't.We - those who benefitted from the flattening - think Donald Trump is an aberration, Brexit is a mistake and Putin is behind all this, stirring thin… Read More
2020-09-12 10:57
India - with its new education policy - wants to make a new start.In a world of weakening institutions, China-US competition and a rapidly changing climate and disease environment, this is o… Read More
2020-09-11 22:43
When I was in college, I thought I knew
what would happen to my life. I knew where I would live – that was easy: Four
generations of my family lived in the same house. I knew what I wo… Read More
2020-09-10 09:07
As Trump speaks about disengaging from China, the Chinese are doubling down on creating a parallel Information Technology universe free of America-made software. The big tech, usually the ch… Read More
2020-09-07 18:26
I work at the technology-education interface. Most of my day is spent in thinking about how to use technology to expand access to education and to enhance our capabilities to educate. S… Read More
2020-09-01 10:14
As History with a capital H makes a comeback, would we return to studying history?History is an endangered discipline now. There are those who believe study of the past is rather meaningless… Read More
2020-08-25 14:35
Autocrats are on the rise. Many societies, presumed to be democratic, are under the sway of autocratic leaders. Others, who had been under autocratic rule for some time and recently disposed… Read More
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