issue 15.1

THE INSIGHT QUARTERLY is the students’ newsletter of IIT Bombay. The views expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Students’ Gymkhana, IIT Bombay. Contact us at [email protected] for permission to reproduce contents

Have you been worried about the measures taken to safeguard your stay at IITB? Have you had any hassles the last time you were

at the the Main Gate? Have you wondered why the security shoved you off from that perfectly harm-less spot you were at? InsIghT collected student opinions though a survey, which had over 500 respondents. We plan to present a report based on the survey results to the Standing Advisory Committee on Security Arrangements, which has been formed by the Director to review the secu-rity arrangements at IITB. Do visit our website www.insightiitb.org to view the complete survey results and for more updates.

General Security on CampusIt is very heartening to see that an extreme major-ity of students feel safe on campus. This should be attributed to the commendable work done by the Security Office. Although the majority has responded in the affirmative, 2% of respondents have indicated that they don’t feel secure on campus at all. Inadequate lighting during the night time has been raised as a major issue affecting campus security. Over 85% of the survey respondents felt the need to increase the street-lighting. The KReSIT, LCH areas have been mentioned repeatedly to have inadequate lighting. Students should immediately report to the GSHA/Hostel Council in case they observe street-lights to be dysfunctional. InsIghT came across several instances wherein the Vigilance Team helped out students of IITB. Be it securing a camera from outside the campus precincts or safeguarding a student’s interests from the clutches of rogue cops, the Vigilance Team leaves no stone unturned to lend help in a meritorious case.

Security from Animals A huge majority of our respondents were uncom-fortable with cows, dogs, snakes and those elusive leopards and panthers on campus. The Security Section however has an interesting take on this. The Maharashtra forest officials have informed them that one of the most important reasons why no human was harmed yet by the panthers is because of the abundance of dogs on campus that serve as easy prey for them. Cameras have been fixed on trees to observe the entry point of panthers into the campus and it has been noted that the forest bound-ary on the H8-H13 stretch serves as the principal entry point. Due to poor lighting, students are often asked to hurry up along this stretch.

Room SearchesRooms are often searched by the vigilance for hostel misconduct. Several people seemed annoyed

by the late night searches conducted by the Vigilance Team. The Security Section however says that several instances of hostel misconduct are

reported during late hours. Over 25% survey respon-dents have also reported that they found the security staff very high-handed in such situations. While such rooms searches are essential to ensure compliance of hostel rules, legitimacy of these searches also need to be ascertained. If an official in plainclothes requests to search your room, in addition to verifying the iden-tity of the person to check if he’s from the Security Section, you could also call up the Duty Officer anytime at 9167398596 to ascertain if the search was authorized. Once the search is done, you should also ask the Security Official to give you in writing, the summary of the search whether anything objection-able was found or not.

Main Gate Entry ProblemsPeople have reported experiencing a lot of hassles for non-possession of ID cards at the Main Gate.

IITB Security: Students’ Safety is the Highest Law

Thou shalt always possess thy ID card while on campus after 11 PM

Thou could call up the Duty Officer anytime at 9167398596 to ascertain if a room search was authorized

If thy ID card needs to be detained for any reason, ensure that thou always gets in writing from the Security Person that thy ID card is in the possession of the Security Office

Thou should report any incident immediately to the Security Control Room

Thou could call up Security Control Room 24x7 on 2572 8000 from thy mobile or 1122 on the Intercom

MADALSA SINGH , MEGHNA SREENIVASAN ,NIVVEDAN S, SASHANK KONETE,SUMAN RAO, SWAPNIL CHICHANI

While sometimes one might just have forgotten, very genuine reasons ranging from loss of ID card to ID card being in the possession of the Security Office have been quoted by the survey respondents. Having a computer at the Main Gate where a stu-dent without an ID card can verify his/her identity by logging into the LDAP system, would greatly alleviate these pains. A proposal for LDAP authenti-cation is already in the pipeline, to be available once the new Main Gate is constructed. At present, entry would be allowed to current students against an entry in the register irrespective of the time of the day.

Being Shooed Away from Random PlacesOver 84% of survey respondents expected the Security Office to provide them with an explana-tion before they were asked to disperse from a non-restricted area. The Security Office says that their measures are for students’ safety and should not be misconstrued as moral policing, especially when couples are involved. Even if a particular area is completely safe in the eyes of the students, they might actually be panther-prone. They also say that due to the sudden nature of panther alerts, it might not always be possible to intimate in advance. Apart from panthers, there are also other risks involved. There have been cases of chain-snatching at the H10 junction. Movement is also restricted in the night at the Guest House area as the noise tends to disturb the dignitaries staying on campus that time.

Confiscation of ID CardWhile in most situations involving breach of rules only the roll number of the student is noted down, there might come some instances where the ID might need to be detained to ensure that the student will promptly report to the Security Office the next day. If a security person wants to detain your ID card for any reason, you can request him to give you in writing, stating that your ID card has been detained and is in the possession of the Security Office. If you believe that your ID card should not be detained in that particular instance, you could go upto the Security Office and sort matters out with the Duty Officer if necessary.

THE INSIGHT OUARTERLYIIT BOMBAY STUDENT MEDIA BODY | ESTABLISHED 1997 INSIGHTIITB.ORG | VOLUME 15 · ISSUE 1 | SEPT 2012 | PAGES 12

© 2012, FOR PERMISSIONS TO REPRODUCE ANY CONTENT FEATURED IN THIS EDITION, PLEASE REACH US AT [email protected]

02Has your LAN been acting up lately?

Want to know what the CC has to say? We find out.

09We tackle a reader's shout to identify

systemic issues with Merit-cum-Means scholarships.

11Wouldn't it be excit-ing to work on real

industry projects and get paid? We investigate.

60% want a report documenting violation of rules

want a warrant prior to a roomsearch

62%

68% favour compulsory ID Cards at the Main Gate

73% people want female students to have the right to request female security personnel

InsIghT | September 20122 www.insightiitb.org

Although the Computer Centre says there’s no reason for the Internet to be slower this semester, over 88% of the survey respon-

dents found the Internet speed to be substantially slower than last year. This was rather unexpected especially as the Internet bandwidth has actually been doubled recently. Some of the hostel sysads feel that the this might be due to misconfigura-tions in the switches while yet others feel that it is because of netmon being bombarded with unau-thorized requests from malicious/misconfigured applications, causing delays in processing legiti-mate requests.

A 10-minute IP ban was enforced this year to tackle bombarding issues. If your computer is bombarding netmon with unauthorized requests, your IP will be banned for a period of 10 minutes at netmon. While this is an effort towards a solution, it sure does cause confusion as a lot of students often mistake

the IP ban for a network disruption. Worse still is the fact that most students and even sysads are unable to figure out why their computers are bom-barding netmon, thus forcing them to live with their IPs getting banned recurrently.

Around 97% of the respondents also experienced frequent outages when the entire network was inac-cessible. Hostels 2 and 5 have reported instances of complete outages for a major portion of the day. The CC says that the problem is specific to the Hostel area and is most likely to be caused by bottlenecks and congestions at the Hostel switches. While the exact reason is not clear, it is hard to pinpoint because the usage patterns in the hostels are very different from the rest of the institute. With limited manpower, the CC is trying its best.

Prof. Manjunath, the Head CC says, "It would be very helpful if more students got involved as the

Institute Network Review ANISH GUPTA, ANSHUL AVASTHI, CHIRAG CHADHA, NIVVEDAN, PARTH LOYA

Note: This article reflects the opinions of the writer based on the polled respondents alone and can only be indicative of those of the whole student body and that of the writer.

InsIghT: Can you tell us about the Institute’s total Internet bandwidth and how it is distributed among the users? Also, how do we prevent people from using the resources unfairly?Computer Centre: The institute currently has a total Internet bandwidth of almost 2 Gbps; IITB has recently become a part of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) which gave us a 1 Gbps dedicated link in addition to the links we had from Tata Communications and Vodafone. Our internal net-work backbone is also about to be upgraded to 10 Gbps from the current 1 Gbps to ensure that we’re futureproof to further increases in bandwidth. The CC doesn’t actively “divide” or restrict the bandwidth. Users just send requests and the bandwidth split hap-pens on its own accord. There is no predilection to residential/academic area and all users of the network are at par with respect to Internet bandwidth. That being said, it is highly unlikely for one person to sig-nificantly hog the network resources due to the large bandwidth available.

I: The traffic statistics at nms.iitb.ac.in reflects the peak utilization to be just about 50% of the available bandwidth. Can’t we utilize it fully and give better speeds to the users?CC: A network is not healthy when the utilization is very high. For instance, at over 90% utilization, the response times will be so high that most of the requests will timeout. There’s no ideal utilization but the delays are roughly proportional to 1/(1-r) where r is the utilization. It is analogous to traffic flow on a road – the more the usage, more the congestion and

longer the delays. However, 50 % is perhaps a bit less. Thanks for bringing it to our notice. We could perhaps significantly increase it from the current 50%. The CC will look into it.

I: The institute network has drawn flak from a lot of students lately with complaints of slower connec-tion speeds and more network outages. Is there any reason behind it?CC: The Institute’s bandwidth has in fact been doubled recently. We see no reason why students should observe speeds slower than last year. However,

we have observed a few problems lately. One is the bombarding of netmon with wrong/no authentication credentials possibly by misconfigured / malicious applications. This affects the network overall, some-times leading to connection requests being refused to

legitimate users. The CC has currently implemented a recurring IP ban of 10-mins to counter this. The other is specific to the hostel area where are there seem to frequent disruptions. This is likely to be caused by bottlenecks and congestions in the switches at the hostel level. We’re not entirely sure why this is happen-ing. The CC and the sysads team are looking into it.

I: The faculty recently got proxy-free access to the internet with a novel authentication system through ifwa. This will reduce the troubles that students face configuring the proxy server for each of their appli-cation. When are students expected to be allowed to use it?CC: The ifwa is still in its testing phase and has been opened to faculty-only from May, 2012. The response from the faculty has been positive. We will open it up to students very soon once we’re confident that it will function smoothly for the giant traffic from students.

I: The passwords on gpo/moodle/netmon etc travel on clear text. Are there any plans of implementing a secure connection for these servers?CC: The situation has been acknowledged. We already have a secure version of GPO at https://gpo.iitb.ac.in. You may expect SSL for other LDAP services soon.

Note: When the 1Gbps NKN link is down, the peak bandwidth utilization on the other two links was over 95% without much perceived difference in response times. This seems to contradict CC's reply to the question on utilization levels.

Things to expectInternal Network Backbone upgrade to 10 Gbps : This means faster downloads from internal sites and more importantly from DC!

Secure encrypted connections to LDAP services : You can soon forget your packet sniffing worries.

Proxy-free Internet access : Hassle-free inter-net access with almost nil configuration and of course bidding a glad goodbye to netmon.

H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H9 H10H13

Respondents having more than 4 outages per day

30%

50%

70%

Note: Data for H11, H14 and Tansa has not been ploted due to insufficient response.

YES, many don't work and I found it a severe handicap

NO, all work fine.

YES, I had to stop using them and change my usage

YES, I could find alternatives.

YES, but I would'nt have used them anyway

INCONVENIENCE Do you face

problems with Applications due

to Proxy?

13%

15%

37%

21%

13%

YES, but with my consent

YES, but with written permission from the Head, CC

NO, unless a warrant or a court order is issued

YES, I don't have a problem

Should the CC be allowed to view your browsing logs ?

52 % YES

48 % NO

9% No, I'm not aware of it and I don't mind.

15% Yes, I'm aware of it but I don't mind

37% Yes, I'm aware and I'd like connection security (SSL) implemented

38%No, I'm unaware, but I'd like connectionsecurity (SSL) implemented

PRIVACYDid you know

that your LDAP passwords are

cleartext ?

Out of nowhere, a lot of complaints could be heard about the Institute network this semester. The Institute network, which has always been taken for granted, sud-denly became the target of complaints ranging from frequent disruptions, unreliability and general sluggishness to complete network outages for hours in some hostels. InsIghT conducted a survey to analyse how widespread the problem actually is and also to gather student opinions on other issues pertaining to the network.

students would better understand the usage patterns in hostels. Any new ideas to improve the network are welcome and privileged access can always be negoti-ated on a case-by-case basis. The Sysads are doing their part but there definitely needs to be morevoluntary involvement from interested students."

Lunch Hour with the CC

NO, CC should not maintain browsing logs at all

3InsIghT | September 2012www.insightiitb.org

IIT-Gandhinagar was established in 2008 under the mentorship of IIT-Bombay. While it initially functioned out of a temporary campus with

only 20-odd faculty members, the institute now boasts of a faculty strength of over a 100 and an 585 acre campus. Student-life is rich and vibrant with students actually playing an active part in plan-ning and designing the campus. With a strength of around 600 students across 4 batches and an enthu-siastic administration, IIT-Gn distinguishes itself as a very fraternal and tight-knit community.

AcademicsMechanical, Electrical and Chemical Engineering— UG and PG programmesWhile the institute initially offered only Bachelor degrees it now takes in students Post Graduate students as well. It also offers minors and honours along the same lines as IIT-B. Although IIT-Gn still has limited research infrastructure, the curriculum strongly encourages a research atmosphere and predominantly project-based learning with most courses having a compulsory project component. This environment has resulted in an impressive 15 students out of the first batch of 87 students opting for MS and PhD programmes in top universities including Caltech, MIT and Stanford.

For Branch Change, all students need is a good enough reasonInterestingly, branch change rules are probably the most liberal in IIT-Gn as compared to other IITs, with students only needing a convincing reason to change their major. Also, for those at IIT-B who crib about an AP grade being worth the same grade points as an AA grad, in Gandhinagar an AP is worth 11 grade points –though the cap on the SPI is still 10.

Cultural ActivitiesCultural Festivals: ‘Blithchron’ (inter-college) & ‘Jashn’ (intra-college)A good number of cultural clubs were founded in the very first year – although they did have to contend with substantial skepticism initially. In the first year

Life at IIT Gandhinagar – A sneak peak

The last 5 years have seen the establishment of eight new IITs in the country. One cannot help but wonder, how the new kids on the block fare as compared to their older counterparts. InsIghT brings you a brief glimpse into the student life at IIT-B’s mentee – IIT-Gandhinagar.

of its founding, the newly elected Student Council suc-ceeded in organizing 12 -15 events across all genres. Over the past 5 years, these clubs have made their presence felt in the city through outstanding achieve-ments at city level competitions. In only its 4th year, ‘Blithchron’ has amassed a footfall 12,000 odd students and has played host to renowned perform-ers like Parikrama, Fire on Dawson and Junkyard Groove. Just like we have here, the celebration of religious festivals forms an integral part of the cul-tural calendar.

An AP grade is worth 11 grade points, though the cap on SPI is still 10SportsMajor leagues: Inter-Department GC, Hallabol, League of Football Players(LFP)IIT-Gandhinagar is equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure and coaching personnel for almost every sport. While the lower student intake and other teething troubles result in IIT-Gn lagging behind its older counterparts at Inter-IIT, IIT-Gandhinagar outperformed all the new IITs at the Inter-IIT sports meet last year finishing 10th and 7th in the men’s and women’s category respectively. The institute level sporting scenario can be best illustrated by three major events namely Inter-department GC, Hallabol and League of Football Players (LFP). The General Championships are fought inter-department rather than inter-hostel as is the case in IIT-B with boys and girls competing separately in 8 sports for the GC title. Played along the lines of EPL, League of Football Players has six clubs (including a faculty and staff club) competing for bragging rights. Hallabol has 10 unconventional games being played with twisted rules post-mid-night under floodlights.

Hostel Life3 hostels – 2 for boys and 1 for girlsIt will be quite some time before inter-hostel GCs are established, for at present only 3 hostels accom-modate the 600 odd students, 1 of them being a girl’s hostel. Although security in these hostels is top-notch, keeping in mind the freedom of students no surveillance or vigilance exists.

Boys and girls are allowed in each oth-er’s hostels 24x7

The entire campus, including the hostels, has Wifi with no limit on timings or downloads. Boys and girls are allowed in each other’s hostels with no

restriction on timings. Although the concept of a Hostel Council doesn’t exist as of now, the Student Council consisting of the General Secretary, and four Institute Secretaries (Cultural, Sports, Academics and Technical) ensure that intra hostel activities keep the students engaged. A ‘Student Guides Program’ exists on the same lines as the ISMP in IIT-B.

The entire campus has Wi-fi with no limits on timings or downloadsPlacement SceneIn the very first year of its inception, the Placement Team managed to secure jobs for an impressive 91% of the registered students – only 60 students applied for campus placements from a total pass-ing out strength of 87. The average compensation was INR 7 lakhs, while the highest package offered was INR 12.5 lakhs CTC by Microsoft. This is especially remarkable considering hurdles like lack of experience and industry contacts that the newly-established Placement Team would have had to surmount. The team is hopeful of better compa-nies offering better packages in the near future. The entrepreneurship culture runs strong in IIT-Gn – regular workshops, lectures and seminars are conducted, although there isn’t a dedicated student body for the same yet. Five students from the first convocated batch opted out of placements to estab-lish ‘GridAnts’— a distributed computing start-up. The administration has been helping them since their first day, providing office space and logistical support – quite like SINE in IIT-B.

Nitai Bajaj Incumbent G.S. Cult, IIT-Gn

For me personally, IIT-GN has been a great mentor, in all the aspects of life. The academics are great, the faculty is great, and new ideas are always welcome. Nobody is afraid to try out new ideas. And this has been one of the core principles of everyone at IIT-Gn. One of the biggest advantages that we have over our older counterparts is that we don't have any bag-gage. We don't have any age-old rules or traditions to follow. We have the luxury of making our own traditions, setting new trends and correcting the shortcomings of our older counterparts.

Respondents having more than 4 outages per day

NC PuneethBatch of 2012 (1st convocated batch)and 1st G.S.Cult of IIT-Gn

When we walked into the institute in August 2008, there were no seniors waiting to welcome us or guide us about anything. Lack of student activities saw the initial few months teeming with excessive group-ism in our tiny batch of 90 people. To bring order to this chaos, an election was held to elect various PoRs and I became the first ever Cultural Secretary for IIT-Gandhinagar. I strove to set up a culture in what appeared to be a very dry and mechanical student-life. A few of my friends suggested that we could have a Cultural Festival. We were totally inexperi-enced, first year students with no contacts and no acquaintances and had absolutely no idea what goes into organizing a cultural festival. I remember how we (4 core-members and I) had to go door-to-door in search of sponsorships, and all the discouraging rejects we got to hear. The fest was organized in March with every single person in our batch having contributed in some way or the other.

PRAKHAR SINGH, SHREY JAIN, SIDDHARTH DUTTA, SMRITI MITTAL, SURYA KAZIPETA with NC PUNEETH, NITAI BAJAJ, VINIT JOSHI, WASIM KHAN from IIT-Gn


ANSHUL AVASTHI, ARJITA KULSHRESHTHA, BODHI VANI

Insights into Freshmen Isolation

At IITB, hostels become an integral part of a student’s life from the very first day he steps onto campus. Freshmen hostels pos-

sess their own set of long standing traditions which might break down in future with the introduction of a new hostel system. From the next academic year, freshmen would be allocated to Hostels 15 and 16, isolating them from the rest of the campus. The Supreme Court had passed an order to the effect that 1st year students must be segregated into new hostels, presumably a one-stop, knee-jerk solu-tion to the problem of ragging.

We at InsIghT put forth, for this issue, the ques-tion of how this move will affect specific aspects of student life viz. extracurricular affairs, academic issues and the holistic development of a person. We found that opinions are varied across all demo-graphics of campus - be it professors or students.

Several freshies come under the influ-ence of seniors who who lure them into a myriad of extracur-rciular activities" Prof. Ballal

Generale ExtracurricularsExtracurricular activities play a huge role in help-ing individuals frame their personalities outside the academic sphere. Most cultural activities are imparted down from one batch to another by a series of institute-wide events followed by hostel orientations conducted by the hostel council. With no social-secretaries around, to gather freshies for various orientations, the initial interest in cult could see a massive drop. Moreover, the growth of cultural activities at IITB have always somewhat hinged on the idea of competition and the absence of an inter-hostel competition such as freshizza, could be detrimental to it.

InsIghT approached Poorna Chandra, the current GS Cult, to get his views on the whole scenario. Poorna believes, that with a little more effort on the part of Cult Council, the interest in cultural events could easily be maintained. For the first few weeks, the conveners of various clubs would prob-ably have to take over the herding duties currently carried out by hostel secretaries. An intra-freshie event along the lines of Freshizza could easily be carried out in an inter-wing or interdepartmen-tal format in order to get freshies to participate against each other as equals. While organizational changes would have to be incorporated in the Cult Council to adapt to this system, this change should be pretty manageable.

If anything is suspected to taking a hit, in all like-lihood it will be the one-on-one mentorship that 1st year students receive from immediate hostel seniors. As Jhonny Jha, an ex-head of the ISMP (Institute Student Mentor Programme) puts it, “It is the juniors who carry on hostel traditions, infus-ing vigor in seniors, and in return learn their craft from seniors”. It is easy to see a scenario wherein freshmen would be a little bit at loss as far as extracurriculars are concerned, but this is probably a problem that various councils and IBs will learn to tackle in time.

Academics and Other Serious StuffHow academics are affected by the presence of seniors is another cause for a great dichotomy of opinion, this time largely so between professors and recent alumni. Prof. Ballal for one, firmly believes that freshmen come under the influence of seniors who allegedly lure them towards a myriad of extracurricular activities on campus - cultural, technical, sporting and working for Independent Bodies. Several professors echo Prof. Ballal’s views, many of whom believe that segregation will help freshmen channel their energy into academics when they are most vulnerable to be influenced.

Of course, we must reiterate the fact that seclu-sion into a few purely freshmen hostels is possibly the very opposite to a deterrent to seniors as far as luring into extracurriculars is concerned. As Siddharth Shanbhag, a cabinet member of the ISMP team pointed out that secluding freshies in a single hostel would allow IBs like MI, Techfest and E-Cell to amply exploit the initial admiration freshies have for their seniors. If anything, segregating freshmen will prevent them from interacting with seniors who can provide them with a balance of sorts in their lives. With this argument, the isolation of fresh-men will facilitate the instilling of a biased view of campus life in them and could potentially hurt their academics far worse than the current system does.

By the time these freshmen are in their sophomore year they might become too independent and rigid to understand the importance of advice from seniors"Jhonny Jha Ex-ISMP CoordinatorBonding Between The BatchesIn here lies the absolute crux of the argument, where first we shall tackle the lethal word - ragging. For the past few years, IIT Bombay has seen almost no incidents of ragging. Nearly all students are

united in the belief that the interaction with seniors in the freshman year, is not only harmless, but also proves to be extremely valuable in the coming years. However, Prof. Ballal, a prominent member of the anti- ragging squad believes that in order to weed out ragging completely, the decision taken by the Supreme Court is perfect. Although he agrees that serious incidents do not take place these days, he argues that even if one person gets mentally affected by ragging, that is one career lost for us. In the process of eradicating this activity, we may be losing out on more than what we bargained for.

The importance of interaction with seniors is an unquantifiable, but essential part of college life. Prof. Parmananda, a faculty advisor himself, says that the problems a student faces can only be understood by a student him/herself. For instance, he says, a student’s Faculty Advisor has absolutely no idea how to help him deal with home-sickness, a problem that could affect every sphere of a student’s lives. At times like these, you may not be in a position to call your mentor to help you out all the way from another hostel. Neha Rambhia, an alumni who was a mentor in her 5th year, recalls an incident from her 4th year when she found a freshie just before her semester had started, overwhelmed with the moving and unpacking, and being alone for the first time, breaking down into tears.

While the culture of hostel-spirit in 15 and 16 would undoubtedly be intense, the move to sopho-more year could spell disaster for these freshmen. To quote Jhonny Jha, “..the ice would be too thick to break once you enter the sophomore year. You tend to become too independent, too rigid to actu-ally understand the importance of advice from seniors. In a span of a few years, these freshmen would become seniors and they would be com-pletely aloof from the batches junior to them.” However, Prof. Anindya Dutta, HCU (Hostel Coordinating Unit) Chairman, argues that such interaction is not so great on a hostel level anyway. He believes that seniors will inevitably drift to the freshie hostels, and such interaction can easily happen in the department or via extra-curricular activities.

For an undergrad who spends only a couple of years in this campus, the first year mostly defines what they are interested in and will land up doing for the rest of their stay at IIT Bombay. It is also the year in which freshies are most free, where senior guidance and exposure can help them the most. The precise implications of this move could only be realized with time. However, student bodies can make cer-tain arrangements to accommodate for this change and to overcome any shortcomings.


Often caught up in the hassles of finding your medical records in the hospital? Ever wor-ried about your private medical records just

floating about in public? When the issue was raised with InsIghT, we jumped right in to find if there was a better way.

Medical records can give out a lot of information about a person; details protected under doctor-patient confidentiality that many would not be comfortable with others finding out. The present system where someone can walk in and access anyone else’s files is hugely detrimental to privacy and confidentiality. Besides, wouldn’t it be easier for both students and the hospital staff if all you needed was your ID card and all the records along with prescriptions were completely digitized?

We set out to find what it would take to completely digitize IITB Hospital. Our first stop was the administrative department at LH Hiranandani

Hospital. We had an hour long discussion with an official there who informed us about the various legal requirements to go digital. He also asked us to brood over a completely digital Hospital Management System including inventory manage-ment, labs, OPD, prescriptions and pharmacy, as opposed to just digitizing the medical records.

Our next stop was the Chief Medical Officer(CMO) of IIT Bombay. The CMO, Dr. Nisha Shah, however had a different picture to paint. She says that digitization would increase the per patient consultation time since factors such as response time of the computer and time taken by the doctor to type in patient's details, would now come into the picture. With the kind of flow that IITB hospital deals with, she believes that such delays would directly impact the waiting time. Besides that, additional factors viz. the working condi-tion of computers and reliability of institute network would also be affecting essential healthcare services if we don’t have comprehensive fail-safe mechanisms.

When InsIghT suggested spare computers and lesser patients per doctor, the CMO said that IITB hospital already has a huge patient flow and the current number of doctors is barely sufficient. She believes that if we were to think of anything digital, we would need to have more doctors and also ensure that these doctors were sufficiently acquainted with the new system by conducting training workshops. All this might hamper the services during the transition phase which is not acceptable again for essential health services.

When asked if there was a way out, she replied that increasing the manpower is the answer to all our woes - more doctors, more nurses and more office staff. The new hospital building would ease some space constraints, but increasing the workforce is absolutely essential. She mentioned that medical records were not always publicly accessible until a few years back when an office staff would issue your file against an ID card. However, with increas-ing patient flow it was becoming unmanageable and led to a lot of delays.

She quoted a phenomenal decline in the number of hospital staff which was around 80 about ten years back, while it is merely around 50 right now, despite the huge increase in campus population in recent years. She says that with declining work-force, the hospital’s priority is to provide the best possible medical assistance, while everything else is secondary.

The reason for the manpower shortage, though, seems unclear. The CMO says she has sent repeated requests to the administration for hiring more doc-tors and staff, but with little avail. InsIghT will be following up with the administration to unearth the roots of this problem. Visit www.insightiitb.org and stay tuned for further updates on the issue.

Digitization of IITB Hospital Records MADALSA SINGH, NIVVEDAN S, SASHANK KONETE, SOMESH SONTAKKE

Mismanaged Allocation of Rooms to Freshmen ANUBHAV MANGAL,SMRITI MITTAL, VINAY YADAV

One of the biggest reasons why IIT-Bombay is the most sought after destinations in the country, and indeed amongst IITs as well,

is the enormous cultural diversity there exists on campus. People from all corners of the country come together and participate in the huge plethora of activities on campus. Each day we are exposed to varying cultures, traditions; all this plays a major role in shaping us into the individuals that we become when we pass out. Our roommates and wingmates play a pivotal role in who we become over the course of our stay here. Inevitably, It would be fairly detrimental for students to be segregated based on any kind of criteria.

To ensure such healthy interaction, it has been the institute’s mandate to allot rooms to freshmen in as random or non-biased a fashion as possible. As far as possible, category students are grouped with general category students as roommates and wing-mates. Rooms within wings are randomly allotted to prevent regional bias. The only parameter that is considered is that the students within a wing should belong to the same department.

However, this year such a random allotment was not followed. Due to the fourth round of counsel-ling, which was done to facilitate allocation in the new IITs where seats were still empty after the first three rounds, the JEE office sent the list of students that were admitted to IIT-Bombay on the 12th of July, which left very little time for allocation

of rooms and roll numbers as the new semester started on the 18th of July. This list sent by IIT-D (The IIT which hosted the JEE 2012) was sorted department-wise and rank-wise. General category students were sorted on the basis of the ranks on the General Merit List, while category students were sorted on the basis of their separate category ranks. Due to a lack of time, this list was used as it is for the allocation of rooms to freshmen, causing a category based segregation amongst allocation of rooms to freshmen. We talked to Rahil Bharani, ISMP Mentor head who said “It is unfortunate that at the time of room allocation, the HCU did not have access to information regarding the region to which he or she belonged or their category, and given the pressing time constraints, was forced to proceed with room allocation. We hope that such a situation does not arise next year. What makes the IIT expe-rience unique and what molds our personality in a very big way are the people we meet and interact with. Here, we come across people from all over the country and there is a lot to learn and exchange cul-turally. In this light, we encourage the freshmen to interact and not let this limit their IIT experience."

To try and verify whether such an allotment had actually occurred amongst the freshies this year, InsIghT conducted surveys in the freshmen hostels asking them various personal details. We found that students had indeed been segregated based on their categories. For example, In Hostel 10, out of all 60 students that responded to our survey only 3

rooms had a mix of general and reserved category students. The wings were also divided in parts by category. There was hardly any inter-mixing. Similarly in other hostels we found that 94% of all freshmen had roommates of the same category. The rooms while allotted on the basis of branch, always feature students of that branch which are from the same category. This has caused the wings themselves to be divided into a ‘general’ half and a ‘reserved’ half.

InsIghT spoke to Prof. Anindya Dutta, Chairperson of the Hostel Co-ordinating unit IIT-Bombay regard-ing this. He said, “It is best to mix students as much as possible. We will have to take care in the future to ensure such a mistake does not happen again”.

Unfortunately, this segregation could have deeper, darker ramifications than simply an absence of diversity in freshmen interactions. It could create tensions amongst freshmen from different sides of the caste barrier. While we can hope that nothing unfortunate will happen, such an allotment is a perfect breeding ground for any kind of caste-based resentment to rear its ugly head.

While it seems that nothing can be done about the current situation of room allotment, the fact that this was an inadvertent mistake on the part of the authorities and not a dark motive is cause for hope. Hopefully, now that they will be wary in the future, such mistakes in allotment will no longer occur.


Who's who on campus ? ADITYA GANGRADE, ANISH GUPTA, DAVIS MATHEW, SHRUTI MITTAL, SMRITI MITTAL, SUMAN RAO

Seven (full) Professors, Convenor: Prof. UN Gaitonde

GSAA (UG & PG), GSHA, ISMP coordinators (2 in number), Institute Doctoral Representative, Institute Masters Representatives

Prof. H.S. PandalaiFinance and External Aff airs

Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri Dean International Relations

Prof. Ravi SinhaDean Alumni & Corporate Relations

Prof. Shiva PrasadDean Academic Programmes

Prof. A. K. SureshDean Faculty Aff airs

Prof. U. A. YajnikDean Student Aff airs

Prof. Devang V. Khakhar

DirectorThe Director, in his role as the highest administrator and as Senate Chairman, is tasked with the direction and manage-ment of the institute. The Director is an appointee chosen from amongst the leading academic personalities of the nation. In the name of the institute’s Visitor (The President of India), the Director is chosen by the Board of Governors and the Ministry of HRD. The institute administration typically has no say in the matter. Statistically, the Director is often from outside the institute, either from other IITs or from reputed universities.

Deputy DirectorsThe two Deputy Directors are directly appointed by the Director in an opaque process. They exhaustively take care of all the administrative tasks. The Deputy Director for Academic and Infrastructural Affairs (DD - AIA) is respon-sible for the functioning of the academic departments, the faculty as well as infrastructure development. The Deputy Director for Finance and External Affairs (DD - FEA) is responsible for public, international, alumni and corporate relations. He is also responsible the institute’s fi nances, placement and training of students, quality improvement and continuing education programme.

SenateThe Senate is the body of all the (full) Professors of the institute along with seven student representatives. It is the highest body in terms of academic matters and deals with admissions, degrees, and everything in between. The Director serves as its Chairman and moderator while the Registrar is the ex-offi cio Secretary. It is the Senate (called the Academic Procession in this matter) which exclusively has the right of conferring degrees and presenting them at the convocation. The Senate is assisted in its duties by various Senate sub-bodies, like the Senate Nominations Committee (SNC), academic evaluation bodies (UGAPEC, PGAPEC), curricular policy bodies (UGPC, PGPC), etc.

All ( full ) Professors, Registrar, GSAA (UG and PG), GSHA, ISMP Heads, Institute Masters Representatives,

Institute Department Represetatives

RegistrarSenate Nominations CommitteeThe Senate Nominations Committee is an elected sub-committee of the IIT Bombay Senate. All full professors who do not hold administrative positions are eligible to be a member of the SNC. After a voting process in which all the full professors participate, a 6-8 member SNC is formed for the year. This SNC is tasked with assessing, evaluating and recommending professors for leadership positions in the institute. It is on the recommendation of the SNC that the Director appoints professors to Deanships and Headships of Institute Programmes.

Student RepresentativesThe seven student representatives in the IIT Bombay Senate lend student perspectives and serve student interests at the highest body of institute policy making.

When established in 1958, the IITs were not the giant brands that they are now. They were fl edglings, overshadowed by institutions like the BHU and VJTI. One factor which has always differentiated these two sets of institutions is the internal administration. While elsewhere it is largely in the hands of non-academic staff, IIT Bombay has always

distributed the administrative leadership amongst its senior faculty. Even purely non-academic matters like security or estate management are headed by faculty in-charges in fi xed tenures. Many observers fi nd that this has lent a deep sense of ownership of IIT-Bombay in the faculty body, contributing heavily to building the IITs to the stature of what they currently are.

Policy SynergyThe various stakeholders converge at the Senate to assist in the democratic evaluation and formation of policies. The DUGC or the DGPC can bypass institute level committees to directly table department con-cerns for the Senate’s approval. The UGAPEC and the PGAPEC assist in assessing student progress for rel-evant action by the Senate. The student representatives can use this platform to directly sensitize the admin-istration to student concerns, particularly relevant for issues like curriculum modifi cations, LAN BAN, JEE reforms, etc.

Faculty AppointmentsA candidate typically joins as an Assistant Professor, usually around the age of 32-33. The mini-mum expectation is a PhD and some post-doctoral research experience. The interview panel consists of subject experts from across the country, a nominee of the President of India (usually deputed by the Ministry of HRD) as well as the Director-IITB and a few senior faculties. In around 3-4 years, the faculty-member is eligible for the post of Associate Professor. Promotions are not time-bound in IIT-B. Teaching records, research papers published and PhD theses guided are a few yardsticks used to assess these promotions. The panel consists of only the HoD and the Director, apart from external members like eminent experts and the visitor’s nominee. The promotion to (full) Professorship is decided almost only by external members, with only the Director representing the institute in the interview. A full Professor automatically becomes part of the IIT Bombay senate, and is now assumed capable of leadership positions like Deanships, department and program Headships, etc.

DeansThe Deans are appointed by the Director on recommendation of the Senate Nominations Committee (SNC) for a tenure of three years. The SNC in its closed door meetings discusses and debates the match between an existing vacancy and a (full) professor. For example, for the post of Dean SA, the SNC would probably look into the professor’s tenure as Warden. After due discussion, the SNC forwards a shortlist of fi ve names to the Director. The Director may appoint any one of them as the next Dean, or he may request the SNC to come up with another list of fi ve.


Heads of 15 Institute Departments

Prof. R. K. MalikAcademic and Infrastructural Aff airs

Prof. N. VenkataramaniDean Infrastructure Planning & Support

Prof. Rangan BanerjeeDean Research and Development

Prof. U. A. YajnikDean Student Aff airs

Prof. Devang V. Khakhar

DirectorThe Director, in his role as the highest administrator and as Senate Chairman, is tasked with the direction and manage-ment of the institute. The Director is an appointee chosen from amongst the leading academic personalities of the nation. In the name of the institute’s Visitor (The President of India), the Director is chosen by the Board of Governors and the Ministry of HRD. The institute administration typically has no say in the matter. Statistically, the Director is often from outside the institute, either from other IITs or from reputed universities.

Deputy DirectorsThe two Deputy Directors are directly appointed by the Director in an opaque process. They exhaustively take care of all the administrative tasks. The Deputy Director for Academic and Infrastructural Affairs (DD - AIA) is respon-sible for the functioning of the academic departments, the faculty as well as infrastructure development. The Deputy Director for Finance and External Affairs (DD - FEA) is responsible for public, international, alumni and corporate relations. He is also responsible the institute’s fi nances, placement and training of students, quality improvement and continuing education programme.

Heads of the Departments (HoDs)The HoDs are appointed by the Director in an opaque and unilat-eral process. The HoD is tasked with the implementation of institute policies at a ground level and therefore is a direct appointee of the Director. Faculty review is discreetly taken by the Director and the DDs before appointing an HoD, but it would be false to assume that the department always gets its choice of HoD.

Typically seven (full) Professors, Convenor: Head of Department

Department UG CommitteeThe Department Undergraduate Committee discusses policies, curricula, award of Undergraduate Research Awards and other UG academic matters pertaining to the department. The minutes of the meeting may be directly tabled at the Senate IIT-B for debate and approval.

Typically seven (full) Professors, Convenor: Head of Department

Department PttG CommitteeThe Department Graduate Programmes Committee discusses policies, curricula, degree conferrals and other graduate and postgraduate academic matters pertaining to the department. The minutes of the meeting may be directly tabled at the Senate IIT-B for debate and approval.

Policy SynergyThe various stakeholders converge at the Senate to assist in the democratic evaluation and formation of policies. The DUGC or the DGPC can bypass institute level committees to directly table department con-cerns for the Senate’s approval. The UGAPEC and the PGAPEC assist in assessing student progress for rel-evant action by the Senate. The student representatives can use this platform to directly sensitize the admin-istration to student concerns, particularly relevant for issues like curriculum modifi cations, LAN BAN, JEE reforms, etc.

Dean of Student Aff airs: from the horse’s mouthUnsurprisingly, it is the post of the DoSA which interests most students. Some professors shun the posi-tion, dreading the prospect of having to tame thousands of students with raging hormones. Some fi nd it to be a “three year job running events and melas”. Others fi nd it an enriching experience. InsIghT spoke to Prof. Gopalan (ex- DoSA - two consecutive terms, ex-HCU Chairman and ex- Warden) about his experiences. Amusedly recalling how it has always been challenging to manage student life, he narrated a couple of anecdotes from his earlier dabbles at student affairs. When Prof Gopalan was Associate Warden of H9, the council met to discuss hostel affairs and festivi-ties. Having to tend to domestic duties, he left the meeting early. Next thing he knew, he got a call from a livid DoSA (Prof DK Ghosh) the next day, asking him to immediately come to the hospital. To his horror, the hospital was fl ooded with his hostel students, all of whom were high on a trip from bhaang overdose. Students were pulling off strange antics and were mouthing weird dialogues left, right and centre.

The raging DoSA simply refused to believe that Prof Gopalan knew nothing of large-scale bhaang prepa-rations in his own hostel. He stormed to the hostel to pull up the maint-co. To Prof Gopalan’s amplifi ed horror, the frail councillor pulled out a written note signed by the Warden permitting bhaang preparation for Mahashivratri. On further probing, the story emerged. After Prof Gopalan had left, the council asked the Warden to sanction bhang preparation. Egged on by the council, the Warden recalled his student days and agreed that Mahashivratri was just incomplete without bhaang. The fl aw, Prof Gopalan amusedly recalls, was how the Warden naively believed that an oral instruction to “limit consumption to one glass a student” would be rigidly followed by his saintly students. Another time, a hostel-council came to him (their Warden) asking for money to sanction rent for a movie screening episode. This was the 1990s, a time of VCRs and tapes. He sanctioned it after asking for a list of ten candidate movies. Soon he was to come to know that the movies which actually got screened were, let’s say, inappropriately rated.

Prof. Gopalan handled it in his own unique way. He refused to sanction labour for the hostel’s desired volleyball court, instead asking the students to build it by their bare hands. A bemused Main Building took note, as the students – happy for having evaded disciplinary action – went about building courts and painting the hostel.

AfterwordThere exists much myth and speculation amongst students as to what transpires in the land of professorial PoRs. Some feel that it is no different from the post-mongering that the student community sees every year, while some believe that these posts are just a rubber stamping formality accepted by the faculty for the additional perks it bestows.

In truth, the faculty body understands that each one must deliver his/her own portion of administrative responsibility if IIT-B is to continue its tryst with excellence. Says Prof NB Ballal of the Dept of MEMS, “Faculty who join IIT-B do not do so just to later become a HoD or a Dean. They come here to excel in academia. The prestige and fame comes in our recognition by academic peers around the world, not from the post we hold. Yet, it is IIT Bombay which fuels our academic journey, and to keep that going we all have to bear our portion of the responsibility. And there is enough responsi-bility for everyone to bear”.

DeansThe Deans are appointed by the Director on recommendation of the Senate Nominations Committee (SNC) for a tenure of three years. The SNC in its closed door meetings discusses and debates the match between an existing vacancy and a (full) professor. For example, for the post of Dean SA, the SNC would probably look into the professor’s tenure as Warden. After due discussion, the SNC forwards a shortlist of fi ve names to the Director. The Director may appoint any one of them as the next Dean, or he may request the SNC to come up with another list of fi ve.

Hierarchy

Interaction


Academic Credits for Technical Projects? ANAMIKA AGRAWAL, ARCHANA DAS, SABAREESH C, SAMPATH SATTI, SATWIK PRADHAN, SOMESH SONTAKKE, YASH TAMBAWALA

“Pursue something which you would do even for free” - an oft repeated mantra. But how about getting credits for a technical project you’ve been working really hard for?

A lot of technical projects happen in the institute. Some, like IITB Racing, AUV and Pratham among others, are really

demanding on the students. They take up a lot of the students’ time and energy, especially within the semester. A study of the student satellite program of IIT Bombay, Pratham, which InsIghT had published on its website a few weeks back, goes to show how students in such projects are self-motivated, and wholeheartedly work on the project with a lot of passion. But what happens when they ask for credits for the same ?

Technical projects should not become a means of obtaining cheap credits which happens in most course projects"Prof. Shiva Prasad Dean APAt first sight, it seems only natural to do so. They are spending time on technical activities, gaining a lot of experience in the process, innovating too. Much of their work overlaps with courses, imply-ing they gain proficiency in the same. Hands-on experience is a must for an engineer, and is very useful for their career too.In the institute, we do have the Electronics Design Lab (EDL) course in the Department of Electrical Engineering. The course awards 6 credits per course, and for appli-cants, it is mandatory to attend 2 laboratory slots each week. EDL requires the student to come up with an idea and sell it to the professors in-charge. The ideas include projects ranging from hard core stuff like a device for audio-visual entertainment, cruise control, digital oscilloscope, power line com-munications, portable power analyser to a bicycle calorimeter. There also is regular performance evaluation thereby requiring focus and dedication on the applicant's part. Unfortunately, the expenses are reimbursed only if the project is complete and handed over to the professors or WEL lab.

But even though the course was a huge hit 4-5 years ago, there has been a steady decline in popularity. In fact, EDL-2 was discontinued this semester because of lack of applicants. Also, EDL-2 had EDL-1 as a prerequisite, which has no mean-ing since both of them have the same structure. The EDL does seem to be the perfect example of ‘Technical Projects for Credits’ , so what are the rea-sons behind the declining popularity over the years?

According to Prof. Shiva Prasad, Dean AP, technical projects should not become a means of obtaining cheap credits which happens in most projects. Else, the entire purpose of learning through hands-on experience becomes a mere show. At the end of the day, all that seems to matter is the end result and the grades, not unlike any other course in the cur-riculum, for the student.

Supposedly, students do not take the EDL course merely for credits. The probable reasons for the decline in popularity can then be the excessive

Evaluation brings in a certain negativity among the students. Technical projects then seem more of a compulsion than something exciting or challenging"Prof. H. Narayananworkload, which actually is owing to thefact that students fail to foresee what all it may take for the project. The enthusiasm fades quickly and there are complaints of students not showing up at all. The faculty members take it thus as a lack of motivation from the part of students. And since there are credits involved, the student most likely pesters the professor at the end for credit. This is not at all in the spirit of technical activities as a part of extended learning.

Taking up technical projects for credits is mostly seen as an implementation problem, owing to the lack of flexibility in the curriculum unlike universi-ties abroad. But we also have Prof. H.Narayanan’s views, who strongly believes that evaluation brings in a certain negativity among the students. Technical projects then seem more of a compulsion than something exciting or challenging. Till the time it remains at a hobby-level, students have a fascination for it, but with this, it becomes the same old rat race for them. An analogy given by him

is that of a sweet-eating competition, where you start eating sweets not for the delight you achieve in doing so, but simply because of the competitive nature of the contest. There’s also the lack of actual innovation if credits become the sole aim; then, wanting to do something new is unlikely to coincide as an aim. So, formalisation of technical activities is not at all necessary if students are enthusiastic themselves. Contests such as the Technical GCs are sufficient in themselves, wherein students are prompted to innovate for the sake of hostel glory.

Another factor extremely important for any techni-cal project, especially done as a part of curriculum, is guidance. According to Prof. Shiva Prasad, the first person a student is supposed to report to in case of a problem during the project is the profes-sor under whom the project is undertaken. But this is where a communication gap may often exist. Prof. Narayanan rightly emphasises on students taking charge and mentorship should be best done by students who can place themselves in their men-tees' position rather than teachers who have other duties as well. Professors are there for guidance and for resolving conflicts among students.

The question still remains unresolved: whether or not technical projects be awarded credits. Though, right now we do have avenues for doing research under guidance of professors, it is a difficult task to convince people that a technical project, that is defined by students and worked upon in teams (instead of individuals) has a correct parameter for grading. The end verdict as we think is for the cur-riculum to evolve in its own accord thereby leading to a feasible system. However, this could certainly be a possibility in future.


Shout! : Misuse of the Merit-cum-Means Scholarships AYUSH KANODIA, ROHAN SATISH SABLAY, SHRUTI MITTAL, SIDDHARTH BHANDARI

The Merit-cum-Means (MCM) scholarship was instituted by the Government of India to provide fi nancial support to students

from lower income groups. But the system is often hoodwinked by a certain students to their advan-tage with people from higher income brackets and possibly lesser merit getting the scholarship over lower income students.

InsIghT dug deeper and realized that the problem was grave as the policies and framework of the MCM scholarships were not clearly defi ned, thereby enabling students to bend rules easily to their ben-efi t. The fi ndings were taken to Prof. Alok Goyal, Convener, Scholarship Committee and detailed discussions took place resulting in some concrete resolutions towards making the system water-tight.

This article gives an account of the present frame-work and the issues present thereof:

[1] No Annual Review of Awardee’s Merit or Means:Status Quo: MCM scholarships are awarded for the entire duration of the candidate’s studies at IIT-B. These scholarships continue inspite of the increase in income or decrease in merit.

Harms: The annual renewal also limits the number of students getting these scholarships if they missed applying in their freshmen year. There are many cases wherein students have underperformed and yet continue to receive the scholarships. In addition, The 5th pay commision caused substantial increase in the income of those working in the government sector. As renewal of scholarship on a yearly basis is not done, students have been using the system to their advantage.

Administrative Perspective: The present system is in line with the Government of India directive which states that scholarships once allocated are permanent for the degree programme. Prof. Goyal, pointed out that that he does not want to police students. He believes that trust is the cornerstone of the system and it is the moral responsibility of the student to state that his parental income has increased and should be discontinued from the scholarship. In case of receipt of complains about the wrongdoings of any particular student in this respect, he asks for a legitimate proof of the income to be presented.

Possible Solutions: An annual check mechanism to ensure the genuineness of the documents submitted by the students, and their continuous fulfi lment of the means criteria. Recommendation accepted.

Students often misuse the system by submitting the income-documents only for the lesser earning parent rather than the gross parental income.

[2] No clear declaration of cumulative income of both parents:Status Quo: Students applying for the scholarship are expected to submit documents declaring their gross parental income. Form 16 issued by the Income Tax Department, which details tax deduc-tions and net income paid is generally used for this purpose. This is often misused by students by submitting the income-documents only for the lesser earning parent rather than the gross parental income.

Harms: People who have parents, both of whom are earning, submit documents of the parent whose income falls within the specifi ed limits, and are granted the scholarship even when their gross parental income is much above that mentioned in the criteria.

Possible Solutions: Students could be asked to pro-duce Form 16 (for government employees) or income tax return documents (for others), for both parents, or produce an affi davit for the non earning parent. Recommendation accepted.

[3] Nominal weightage to consistency of Merit: An obvious question that arises is — how does merit compare with means? It turns out that this scholarship focuses primarily on the lack of means to fi nance your education, and there is a clear prior-ity allotment of scholarships on this basis. Merit is merely a yardstick used in cases where after allocating scholarships to the most needy, there are not enough funds for all eligible. Further, before

2009, when the means criteria was a gross annual parental income of INR 2,00,000 or less, there was no requirement of merit as there were ample funds for everyone who applied.To put things in perspec-tive- in 2011, scholarships were awarded to those students, whose:

i. income less than INR 2,00,000, JEE rank less than 6000

ii. income between INR 2,00,000 and INR 3,50,000 lakh, JEE rank less than 3000

iii. income between INR 3,50,000 and INR 4,50,000, JEE rank less than 1500.

Once the scholarship is awarded, there are rather lenient annual checks to ensure that students fulfi l the means criterion. If an awardee’s CPI falls below 6, he is issued a warning. If this continues the fol-lowing semester, the same warning is sent to his parent. The third time, there is a discussion with the student’s faculty advisor, and a fi nal call is taken.To quote Prof. Goyal, “We view everyone with a CPI above 6 in the same light, and they are equally meritorious according to the scholarship commit-tee.” However, an XX grade is treated more strictly, since it shows genuine disinterest on the part of the student.

Administrative Perspective: On being asked for changes to this system, InsIghT was made to understand that merit is only an ad-hoc criterion of the scholarship, as seen by the institute and the Government of India. The scholarship aims at ensuring the continued education of fi nancially needy students and that the principle of allocation of funds would largely remain the same.

If any student is in dire need of funds to sustain his educa-tion, he can approach me. I shall try my level best to support him through the funds with the scholarship committee.”

- Prof. Alok Goyal, [email protected]

On being informed about the above issues, the authorities were convinced of a need for signifi -cant changes in the present system. Prof. Alok Goyal informed InsIghT that with regard to these pressing issues, the institute would commission some important changes:

Students would be given the option of applying for the scholarship at the beginning of each aca-demic year. The selected candidates would then have to compulsorily provide proof of parental income for both parents. The income check would also be made mandatory for renewal of scholarships, with a requirement to submit latest income proofs for each parent by each benefi -ciary every year.

The process would be digitized via the ASC website and LDAP authentication. A portal for applications would be made available and stu-dents would be allowed to upload scanned copies of their parental incomes.

The committee agreed to be more transparent about its activities in the future, and all details about fund allocation and changed or updated policies would be up on the offi cial website, once the selection process is completed for a given year.

Prof. Goyal believes that the system shall be up and running by November and they shall have a test run for the Spring Semester. The system in its full scope shall be used next year onwards.

Solutions in the Pipeline

To get a complete set of rules and regulations with regard to the MCM scholarships please refer to

http://bit.ly/MCM_rules_2012

If you think there is any issue that InsIghT needs to take up, send us a Shout! at [email protected]

Students have been misusing the MCM scholarship programme. The scholarships being given to above-mean students/ non-meritorious students can be channelled into helping out a lot of needy students. A key reason for this is the lack of stringent rules and a well-defi ned system. This problem is very grave — even if the system misses out on 1 student who needs this scholarship but fails to get it, there are substantial harms to him and his family."

-Swati Agarwal, Final year, Dual Degree, Aerospace Engineering


Y be civic when you got swag? ARCHIT KEJRIWAL, PRIYANK PARIKH

In IIT Bombay it really seems diffi cult to care about anything. It’s hard enough to bother about one’s own priorities and really laughable to

expect us to bother about others’. The apathy that creeps into students at the institute over time is now an epidemic; ingrained in our psyche. A psyche that allows us to be late, unclean and ill-mannered without so much as a “ditch bey”. On a very perti-nent note, we cannot stress enough that this article is not written to offend or blame. But, we’re going to try to overstress anyway, so here: this article is not written out of spite, arrogance or elitism. We simply wanted to call attention to the malaise that has crept into the student community, and how it affects us all. So trying hard again: We don’t think every IITian is guilty of displaying these traits. But some of us are guilty of some of them, and in many ways the writers are often guilty of the same too. Being cute and clueless like Mr. Bean is one thing, but we might be taking it too far.

In a place where everyone has time but few have money to spare, punctuality doesn’t make it very far. We simply don’t care about being on time, do we? When it’s an institute matter, we’re reasonably reliable, and lectures and tests all begin on time (mostly?), ensuring we’re around in time for the important stuff. Unfortunately, so many things fail to make the “important” grade, like club-events and competitions. Heck, even placement PPTs don’t start on time - and in this case the college’s reputation is at stake. We get that organizers push events back to maximize participation and we don’t blame them for it. The sad part is that punctuality is punished when people turn up according to their own version of what “late” is (we’re very fl exible with words that way).

It’s certainly not true that the freshies are rid of their punctuality as soon as they decide it’s not worth being on time for their MA105 classes. MA was painful for many many reasons, (editor’s note: the writers must be permitted to let their grades infl uence opinionated articles) but we probably shouldn’t blame it for converting so many otherwise punctual people, into disillusioned latecomers.

To all those reading this and passing off the writ-ers as meek milquetoast milksops with mole-hill to mountain making minds, we’d like to point out that this very tardiness seeps into all aspects of life. The placement deadline gets postponed year after

year because some of us don’t bother to start early- whoa! These are the placements people! General knowledge: deadlines are going to be extended and have been for the past few years, so let’s all collec-tively not bother to try, shall we? Suggestion: search through your GPO mails for the word “extended” and it is all painfully obvious. The idea of deadlines is such a joke now that we’ve come to think these extensions are our right. The student community as a whole really needs to wake up and realize deadlines are not meaningless, or at least aren’t supposed to be.

Eateries on campus like Brewberrys and Campus Hub have signs on the tables asking customers to dispose of the plates and cups. Most of us seem to have gotten our heads around only the get-food part of self-service, not the get-rid-of-waste. The most trashy part is many students don’t throw their trash in trash cans (the fancy new livestock-proof ones which dot the institute). Is it really that hard?

Can’t wait to move onto another pressing issue - patience, a virtue that is lost among us. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to leave a classroom or elevator without having to declare war on people trying to get in at the same time? Lights are left turned on in rooms for days on end when the students have left for home; not just students, but professors and staff as well! Halogen lights in hostel grounds are nearly never turned off. Taps are left running well after their need has expired.

We live in an institute where the administration installs jammers in auditoriums because it doesn’t

entrust us with the decency to turn off our cell phones and respect the speaker, and threatens to withhold grades because we’re too apathetic to fi ll in the course evaluations. Perhaps it’s because we’re simply unaware of the consequences of what we’re doing, certainly most of these problems relate to most Indians and the Indian ethos as a whole rather than IIT Bombay specifi cally. But shouldn’t we, with all our celebrated ‘cream-of-the-country’ness, compel the correction?

It’s interesting to note that there’s something very important to individuals at stake here: the future. It’s not true that we’ll all mass-recalibrate immedi-ately after college. The little die-hard aspect of bad habits must be heeded, because these habits might have already marred how people perceive us, the college and the country as a whole before we grasp that the outside world isn’t half as forgiving. The same belief that lets us proudly note in our foreign-intern-hungry (spam) mails that we are pursuing such-and-such degree in The premier institute of India, conversely bestows us with the responsibil-ity of representing our country internationally. Rights and duties, ladies and gentlemen.

We, the writers, don’t have all the answers. We might even be failing miserably at expressing the ‘not-stress-enough that this is not an elitist rant’ sentiment. This article wasn’t intended to be about preaching and pointing, but rather acknowledging and addressing. Ideally it should be imbibed and internalized, not inanely imposed. Don’t you think life can be much easier in IIT if someone isn’t trying to buy a samosa over your head (extra chutney dena bhaiya).

Search your GPO mails for the word 'extended' and its painfully obvi-ous that the idea of deadlines has become a joke

Shakti Na Raha! AYUSH MISRA, RAHUL MAGANTI , SMRITI MITTAL

There is little that most students at IITB desire more than good homely food. The interest in the hostel-mess generally decreases expo-

nentially as the semester progresses. Places inside the campus like Aahaar (more popularly known as Shakti) come as a major respite to the student com-munity. The long queues during peak hours stand testimonial to that fact. However, this relief is soon going to be short lived.

The small place, situated behind Gulmohar, is soon going to be shut to give way to a new Guest House next to Jal Vihar and Van Vihar. Aahaar, which is the livelihood of 13 workers, provides breakfast, lunch and tiffi n service to the students and staff members on campus. When we spoke to the Aahaar owner, he told us that their 11 month contract had ended last year. However, their request for renewal of contract fell on deaf years. The Deputy Director has given them permission to continue their ser-vice till the construction for the new guest house

starts, but no response has been received regarding shifting Aahaar to some other place on campus. The Aahaar owner told InsIghT that a signature campaign was conducted by them where they took signatures from those who came to Aahaar for lunch. However, it was not taken to the Deputy Director as, Mrs. Atwankar, head of Kresit and who is handling Aahaar, told them that the authorities will not be demolishing Aahaar at the moment.

When InsIghT spoke to Mrs. Atwankar, she told us that the authorities did not wish to shut down the place, but, were trying to fi nd some other place on campus. Aahaar was started by an NGO called Vidya. Their MoU had ended in 2010 and it was being handled by her with the support of some faculty members. It was suggested that Aahaar be converted to a corporative society. Mrs. Atwankar told us that she didn't want to take this further with-out the confi rmation of them securing a place on campus. A signature campaign was carried out in

2010 as well, which was then shown to the Deputy Director. He told them that they could continue Aahaar for the time being. Some legal proceedings were in progress regarding the construction of the Guest House then. However, as they are almost fi nished, it is expected that Aahaar would be shut down by September end. She added that they pro-vide the service with no motive of earning profi ts and the place is extremely popular among the Jain population. Aahaar has received gifts like refrigera-tors from people who were a regular at that place.

Places selling junk food can be found in abundance in and around IITB. However, the need for a place which gives simple homely food can be felt across the campus. We can only hope that Aahaar or some other place like it can be soon built within the campus which would be accessible to both students as well as staff.


Student Involvement in Industry Funded Projects ABBAS ALI BOHRA, ANISH GUPTA, SABAREESH C, SMRITI MITTAL, YASH TAMBAWALA

Where Do We Stand Today

As the premier technical institution of the country, IITB remains the leader when it comes to collaborating with the industry

on research projects. With more than 350 active engagements with the industry, IRCC (Industrial Research & Consultancy Centre) has made it clear that industrial collaboration is a very high priority. However, the student community of IITB remains largely unaware of the possibilities which exist in working on industrial projects. Apart from consul-tancy projects given to the faculty, the concept of Student Sponsorship also exists, wherein students get a stipend and research grants to pursue a fi eld of his interest. Industry projects can be a great opportunity for any student keen on understand-ing the fi ner details of working with an industry. Not only does it refi ne a student’s interests but also keeps him in touch with several industrial prac-tices. However, such projects must contribute to a student’s academic learning as he pursues them.

Professors often off er a part of their consultancy project funding as stipend to students At no point should it become a routine job for the student and a low cost option for the industry, believes IRCC. This has been the major challenge authorities face when offering industrial projects directly to students.

Existing Mechanisms for Industrial ProjectsAs far as any industry is concerned, it has mul-tiple routes to enter into a research collaboration with IITB. Consultancy Projects, Sponsored Research Projects and Sponsored Students are the ones which are most often seen in our campus. Consultancy Projects refer to short term projects, with a duration of 1-2 years to solve industry spe-cifi c problems. Sponsored Research Projects are the ones wherein the deliverables have a much wider coverage, with a long term perspective of 2-5 years for completion. Industries also have an opportunity to sponsor a student in a fi eld of his interest through the Sponsored Students route. In these three routes, the involvement of students is mostly through a

faculty member or a PI (Principal Investigator), as the IRCC deems fi t. In most cases, the faculty member or PI forms the fi rst point of contact between the indus-try and the concerned student.

Current Industrial Set-ups at IITBOne such organization which has been an estab-lished partner of IITB is Applied Materials(AMAT). Since 2006, Applied Materials has actively supported student partnership in projects pursued by the company at IITB. More than 25 PhD students and 50 undergraduate/graduate students have been involved with AMAT’s projects. The company has also hired student interns nearly every summer to work on their projects. Apart from AMAT, many companies offer fellowships for PhDs/M.Techs working in their fi eld of research. Companies like Intel Corp., Schlumberger Asia Services, TCS, Cummins India have also been associated with students on projects in the past and continue to do so in varying aspects.

Various companies have also sponsored laboratories

in the institute, where students can work on their proj-ects. Examples of such laboratories include Applied Materials Nanomanufacturing Laboratory, Cummins Research Engine Laboratory, PowerAnser Lab and the Yahoo! Hadoop Cluster. Such laboratories are breeding grounds for student-industry collaboration.

Professor’s Role in an Industrial ProjectMost professors who are approached with consul-tancy projects often investigate into the feasibility of handing over a part of the work to students and pay them a part of their remuneration as stipends. In some cases, the tasks to be done are so sensitive and/or diffi cult, that to meet the deadlines set by the MoU between the professor and the industrial organiza-tion, the faculty prefers to complete the entire project by himself.

Intellectual Property RightsIn most cases, if the industrial project uses signifi -cant institute resources, the IP(Intellectual Property) rights lie with the institute and all the legal pro-ceedings are carried out by IITB. Also, industrial set-ups at IITB have agreements in place with IRCC and the ownership of the IP generated is decided within the framework of these agreements. Even then, there have been cases in which an industry has encroached upon the IP of the student without the knowledge of the student or the institute. In such cases the students have approached IRCC for assistance who has helped them all the way through. For more information in this regard you could check out the IRCC website.

Portal to Connect Industry and StudentsAs of now, no formal portal or structure exists for direct interaction between students and industry. This is mainly because of many constraints which exist on either side. Students working on such projects need to realize that interaction with industry involves adherence to deadlines, working towards agreed-upon action items and confi dentiality of their information. The Institute also realizes the fact that such projects should function only when they have some academic value associated with it. For such a system to be in place, with a formalized structure, we need one of the student bodies to take initiative and take this a step ahead. Any such interaction will only be possible through the IRCC offi ce, which will bring industries on board and make it more student-friendly. In the near future, it might be possible to have such a portal only when there exists a reason-able demand for it on either side.

Tejas Naik, a PhD student of the Electrical Engineering Department, who has been working with Applied Materials for his PhD work, shares his experience on working with an industrial setup.

“I feel honoured and really lucky to be work-ing on an industry project of AMAT for my PhD work. It gives me the opportunity to work on current industry problems. One gets valuable opinions from the team of professors assigned and the group members. We have regular meetings that keep our projects going. One has to constantly look for different solutions while tackling the problem. Handling different problems in institute facilities could be tricky sometimes, but you get all possible help from the professors and AMAT authorities to use external facilities as well. In extreme cases, the processes can be done in actual industrial environment too. Although I am the only student working on this project, the useful guidance from professors and their post-doctoral fellows along with constant inputs from the industry has made my experi-ence worthwhile. It gives you one a clear vision, which is the most important thing when you take up a project."

Personal Account

Th e Cow Account — Show me the Mooooo-ney ROHAN SATISH SABLAY, SMRITI MITTAL

The domain of Hostel Affairs is so large that we might often come across something that might take us by surprise. Former GSHA,

Abhishek Agarwal (Monty), had stumbled upon what was called a cow account. Evidently, this account has money stored in its coffers for over 30 years that has by now nearly tripled after com-pound interest. InsIghT took up this investigative piece and spoke to the various stakeholders to fi nd everything possible related to the ow account.

So what’s the story? Back in the 80’s all hostels

(that existed then) decided to centralize the milk supply to the hostels via Aarey Dairy to provide for the milk requirements of the campus. Aarey was chosen primarily due to the provision of better quality milk as opposed to other local vendors. Aarey would deliver milk at Hostel 3 everyday

Amount Deposited by IITB against Hostels

H1 Rs. 13,000.00 H2 Rs. 12,000.00 H3 Rs. 10,000.00 H4 Rs. 10,000.00 H5 Rs. 10,000.00 H6 Rs. 10,000.00H7 Rs. 10,000.00 H8 Rs. 10,000.00 H9 Rs. 11,500.00 H10 Rs. 5,000.00H11 Rs. 3,000.00

Total Amount Rs. 1,04,500.00Amount Deducted Rs. 18,000.00 (for 12 milk cans lying in H3 @ Rs. 1,500.00/can)Net Account Balance Rs. 86,500.00Amount Compounded over 20 yrs. Rs. 2,02,391.88

which would then be distributed amongst the various hostels. H3 was entrusted with all major transaction and administrative duties. Unfortunately, after a period of time, hostels began to default on their bill payments to H3. When this was brought to the notice of the Institute, the Institute gave some monetary amount on the basis of consumptions per hostel which was used on a rolling basis. This amount remained in the cow account against which hostels used to pay their bills.

These hostels continued to take milk from Aarey, but eventually many hostels started to opt for local and private vendors as they charged less. The supply from Aarey was eventually stopped. The account though continued to exist for a long time after that. It was offi cially closed in February 2010. At present there is balance of Rs. 2,02,391.88 in the short term fi xed deposit of the cow account.


Chief EditorsNidhi Shanbhag, Saideep Kishore Sudi

Editorial Board Anubhav Mangal, Ayush Misra, Bodhi Vani, Nivvedan S, Rohan Satish Sablay, Sabareesh C, Shrey Jain, Suman Rao, Vaibhav Pittie, Yash Tambawala

Execution PanelAbbas Ali Bohra, Aditya Gangrade, Anamika Agrawal, Anish Gupta, Anshul Avasthi, Archana Das, Archit Kejriwal, Arjita Kulshreshtha, Ayush Kanodia, Chirag Chadha, Davis Mathew, Madalsa Singh, Meghna Sreenivasan, Parth Loya, Prakhar Singh, Priyank Parikh, Rahul Maganti, Saaz Sakrikar, Sampath Satti, Sashank Konete, Satwik Pradhan, Shruti Mittal, Siddharth Bhandari, Siddharth Dutta, Smriti Mittal, Somesh Sontakke, Surya Kazipeta, Swapnil Chichani

Illustrations – Arpit Agarwal

Website Designer – Rahul Gupta

Design & Layout – Uttam Sikaria, Vikrant

The InsIghT Team

You don't need no AutonomyThe format of the IIT-JEE has changed from 2013 amid much opposition. This new format has a screening test, followed by a main test. Also, students entering the IITs must be in the top 20 percentile of their respective boards. InsIghT spoke to an IIT-B professor (who prefers to be anonymous) who has seen the documents and presentations of the HRD ministry committees recommending the changes. Matter has also been derived from Prof. Dheeraj Sanghi’s (CSE,IITK) website which has most of these documents. There emerges a shocking story of how the autonomy of the IITs-guaranteed by law-was trampled by the HRD ministry.

‘The IITs are Institutes of national importance estab-lished…’ These words, which no-one reads, are at the beginning of the JEE Brochure. Around admission time, finding myself very bored, I had read even this supremely dry prose. Yet it is only now that I have come to realise the true value of these bureaucratic words.

The IIT Act that set up the IITs in 1961 decrees that the IITs are autonomous institutes. Each institute’s Senate is in charge of all academic issues including admis-sions. The IIT Council chaired by the HRD Minister is meant to coordinate and advise the Senates.

The present furore about the JEE has been caused by the recommendations of the Ramasami Committee. It is important to note that this committee has been set up not by the Senates but the HRD Ministry. It was formed with the aim of designing a single national engineering entrance test.Prior to the Ramasami Committee, the Acharya Committee formed in 2010 with a similar mandate had made almost the same recommendations. But nearly all senates rejected it with detailed feedback.The Acharya Committee’s report, while calling for Board marks to be a part of the ranking system, also called for a lot more data to be analysed before imple-menting a new system. The ministry, urged by the Council, formed what was ostensibly a follow-up com-mittee which was the Ramasami committee. But this committee just made the same recommendations. .

The HRD minister Kapil Sibal said that the committee held extensive consulta-tions with IIT faculty. “But the faculty had no idea such meetings ever hap-pened”, says an IIT-B Professor

Crucially, the need for more studies was now only a side recommendation Since this committee too wanted board marks as an admission criterion, normalization across all boards became essential. The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) was asked to conduct a feasibility study on this. Their reply was blunt: ‘Since the subject scores do not appear to be comparable, the question of combining them for comparability of aggregate scores across the boards does not arise.’

However, ignoring the fact that normalization itself was statistically wrong; the committee then asked ISI the best method for normalization. The ISI reported that analysis should be carried on for a longer time, but that the assumptions used in the nor-malizing model were not in agreement with actual marks data. And this was based on a comparison of only 4 boards over 3 years while the actual system will have to cover marks across forty-two boards! Remarkably, the committee still recommended normalization.

It is ironic that this committee, ignored many online polls showing overwhelming opposition from stu-dents, alumni and faculty to its proposals. Instead of facing this public rejection, maybe the committee should’ve asked these genuine stakeholders first? Here the situation gets even more complex. The HRD minister Kapil Sibal said that the commit-tee held extensive consultations with IIT faculty. But an IIT-B professor says that the faculty had no idea such meetings ever happened; no notice about these meetings was ever given.

The IIT Council met in September 2011 to discuss a presentation and draft report of the Ramasami com-mittee. Here, the Council accepted the entire report even though the report itself allegedly wasn’t ready until two months later! Additionally, the Council codified in the IIT Act- with the Senates decid-ing academic issues and the Council coordinating between them- was reduced to a minister having full powers to change a non-existent report. Brazenly, despite the draft report being similar to the Acharya report, the Council ignored the previous negative feedback from the Senates and went ahead and formed an implementation committee.Even this wasn’t the final nail in the coffin of auton-omy. The report, accepted in September, prepared in November, was apparently, literally hidden from the Senates. A professor at IIT-B says that out of nowhere the Academic Office called an emergency

Senate meeting in February 2012 to discuss the pro-posed changes, changes that the faculty had never heard about. When in this meeting, the report was cited, professors had no clue what its contents were. They ended up relying on newspaper leaks and sharing second hand copies.

Senate meetings were held in every IIT and revealed a split. Madras, Guwahati and Roorkee broadly accepted the changes. Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur and Kharagpur rejected them. Yet the min-ister brazenly assured us the IITs had unanimously accepted the report! As the clock moved forward into May, the minister portrayed the four senates as resisting reform in order to protect their “exclusiv-ity” and “elite-ness”. It was implied that it was the dissenting Senates that were playing with the aspi-rants’ future by not accepting the reforms quickly.But opposition from these Senates continued, and reached a peak with IIT-K threatening to start its own admission test- the autonomy enshrined in the IIT Act allowed for this. The issue reached national TV, and there the lack of logic in the changes was exposed publicly. Now the Council hastily recon-vened, and drew up a formula using even less raw data and analysis. That only the top 20 percentile of each board are eligible for IIT admission was decided arbitrarily. But it is a statistical fact that there is great variation in board performance at the 20th percentile. For the same underlying reason that normalization isn’t possible, this percentile for-mula is weak too.

But now, to the public eye, it appeared that the Council had compromised by not forcing through the Ramasami recommendations; so the Senates had to reciprocate this compromise. Even so, each Senate put forward its own objections (for example IIT-B suggested a subjective mains paper). These were all rejected by the JAB, which, like the Council, has no faculty on it.

Thus the ministry with the help of the council has pushed through changes which neither professors nor students are in favour of, while ignoring their own committees’ call for more studies. Under pres-sure, IIT Senates accepted the changes but with modifications, which were overruled. What seems to be the main aim of the Ministry- pushing through a cosmetic change, however harmful, by 2013- has been achieved. The small matter of the IITs’ auton-omy has been sacrificed.

SAAZ SAKRIKAR

From the Editors' deskWith this edition, we rechristen our print issue to THE INSIGHT QUARTERLY. InsIghT - The Student Media Body has evolved over the past 15 years from just being a bi-monthly newsletter to having a fully functional website, frequently delivering quality content through videos and articles. In the previous 2 months we have published articles with a frequency of nearly 2 articles each week. We have integrated different forms of media for reporting events thereby increas-ing impact multifold. In our collaboration with IITBBC we have released videos pertaining to current affairs viz. the helipad saga, the Kapil Sibal talk with IITB students along with an IITBBC Spotlight video on Pinaki, a Phd student of IITB. This summer, we ran a hugely successful blog - Internal Affairs, which featured stories shared by individuals about their internships and travel experiences. We thank our readers for supporting us through the past few months and hope to strengthen this bond we share. For more updates and to stay connected with IITB, please visit our website www.insightiitb.org.

Cheers!Nidhi & Saideep

issue 15.1

Documents

campus security

security arrangements

security section

students of iitb

security office

security staff

general security

survey respondents