Nationalistic sentiments and election time ..

It is really interesting to see during election time in India when some parties claim nationalism as their birthright and give chits to parties and individuals on who is patriotic and nationalist, with the unwritten understanding that the people who give this seal are the only traders of nationalism in the country and no others have any right to this. This is part of the majoritarian approach to fascism we are witnessing now.

Anybody in the country has to get the final seal of nationalism and patriotism from these pseudo-nationalists who deal in nationalism for their petty interests in regaining the political control of the land and to engage in corruption like the Rafale deal..

Its election time and in India we see Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) starting their branding operations of the opposition political parties as to whether they are nationalists or not.

My frank question is who has given these individuals this right to brand others ? Do they think they are right from the heaven and can hoodwink people and the electorate of their infallibility, trying to convince them into giving them the chance to rule the country once again ?

george..

Sad day for Christchurch ..

A once peaceful place has suddenly turned horrible ..

The shooting by the 28 year old Australian citizen Benton Tarrant in a Christchurch mosque killing almost 40 NZ citizens was shocking . Benton Tarrant live streamed the video from a helmet mounted camera .. 

If the shooter felt he was losing job and living opportunity to the migrants entering NZ, he is an Australian, he conveniently or out of sheer ignorance forgets that his parents also were at one time the hated migrants.

These hated migrants killed the native Maories of NZ or the indigenous native Australians and ungraciously and illegitimately grabbed their land and opportunities ...  It is this realisation that can bring an end to such hate crimes. 

The original natives of Australia and NZ were too kind hearted, good, gracious and hospitable to allow these monster settlers to stay back .. The memories of past 

Devil personified ..
How did he have very strange experiences
which changed his mental makeup ?

Going through the news reports (click here for Washington Post reports), it is clearly evident those are hate killings.

It is indeed shocking. It is also a reminder to the white and right wing chauvinists from around the world that ultra-nationalism is only for the dumb headed. It may get them cheap publicity and a few votes but the damage they are doing on humanity is too damning ..

President Trump of US is the other proponent of similar dumb right wing ideology from the western world and this is but a sad reminder of the future Trump and his politics of hate hold for the people from other parts of the world.

Let this incident be a soft reminder to Trump that his policy of hatred and discrimination will only make the world a sad place for the whole of humanity. He is taking humanity decades, if not centuries back in our march to civility ..

George . 

Great philanthropy from Azim Premji ..

I was really taken aback this morning to read of the great and magnanimous acts of philanthropy shown by one of India's richest persons, in fact, India's second richest person.

It  heartening to read of the huge philanthropic endowment corpus promised by Azim Premji, the Chairman of WIPRO (Western India Palm Refined Oils Ltd or more recently Western India Products Limited) the IT giant from India. Azim Premji committed 67% of his holdings in WIPRO to philanthropy.

I am reminded of the great philanthropy from US John D Rockefeller in the beginning of the 20 th century kickstarting directed philanthropy from the Rockefeller Foundation. (click here for the facts of that kind act..)

The Bangalore headquartered IT Czar has been known for his philanthropic activities  for a long time, and recently to top it all , he promised a $7.5 billion contribution to this corpus increasing his total endowment corpus to the Azim Premji Foundation to $ 21 billion ( or approximately INR 150,000 crores..).

I request the PM of India to come out in the open to acknowledge Azim;s great actions and to felicitate this kind soul for his magnanimous deed to humanity. Azim Premji Foundation funds almost 150 non-profit organisations in India.

Click here for the Hindustan Times report ..

By this great act of humanity and by endowing so much resources to the Azim Premji Trust, Azim Premji is setting an example for the whole of India and the world.

I doubt whether any other business conglomerate in India other than the Tata's have done such great social service in the country. The Birlas, the Ambanis, the Singhanias, the Bajajs have all failed the country in giving a hand of solace to it's citizens. They have throughout history of the past hundred years been sapping the country's resources for their personal benefits.

I know of a bunglow which Aditya Birla purchased for INR 430 crores in Mumbai Malabar Hill in 2018, on the beach, which is unoccupied and unutlised. It fails for our common sense to understand why these people who have sapped the society of resources legitimately or not, fail to give back to society in equal measure for the loot they have sapped.

May the MNCs of the world also start similar Foundations by earmarking a fraction of their profits yearly, the legitimately or illegitimately earned wealth and riches from the developing, less developed and developed nations of the world with the less fortunate in the society.

George..

E-learning effectiveness - beautiful remarks from a colleague ..

Last Saturday 22 February, 2019, IIM Bangalore did a Faculty Development Programme on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). Even though I was a participant at this FDP, could not attend it as my academic commitments at the Alliance University overtook my personal growth and development plans. 

 One of my senior colleagues who attended this IIMB FDP surprised me totally with his very frank observation this morning. He told me , "Professor, your lessons on E-learning were much more effective and covered much more topics like quizzes etc than what was covered at IIMB. Wish you could give us a repeat session on E-Learning.. "

This was the best comments I could get from my colleague in my recent memory. Very very precious !!

This class I had taken almost six years back at Alliance University in Bangalore. When I had given my first presentation on E-learning from Govt. College of Engineering, Goa at Bangalore palace during the FRee and Open Source (FOSS) Conference in 2005, neither IIT Bombay nor IIM Bangalore had embarked on their digital learning initiatives. 

It was indeed a very proud moment for me then as I had overtaken even my alma-mater IIT Bombay at implementing really advanced E-learning initiatives in the Southern and western region of India in 2005. 

Public funding at these public institutions has really given them the fillip. I doubt whether I failed to convince my academic colleagues to take to such modern teaching methodologies .. 

Innovation does not happen overnight.. 

George