Articles

Karnataka’s Menstrual Leave Policy: Women Empowerment or Unintended Bias? Karnataka’s Menstrual Leave Policy: Women Empowerment or Unintended Bias? Prayaga Venkata Rama Vinayak November 14, 2025 Articles In a welcome move, the Government of Karnataka recently approved Menstrual Leave Policy, 2025, allowing female employees throughout the State to avail one day paid leave every month, in addition to other paid leaves sanctioned by their organisation. This policy applies to all women employees both in the public and private sectors across the State. Further, this leave does not require any pre-approvals from employers, but only prior intimation by the employees to their respective authorities. This move is worthy of emulation, as the State Government’s intention is to create a work environment that enhances women’s participation in the workforce. States such as Bihar, Kerala, and Odisha have implemented similar policies in the past. However, Karnataka’s policy explicitly covers both government and private sector employees, unlike those of the other States. Nevertheless, the initiative also warrants an analysis of its effectiveness in achieving the intended objective of women’s empowerment. One of the shortcomings of the policy is that it appears to apply only to employees in the organised sector, as no government currently has adequate mechanisms to implement such a policy in the unorganised sector, which employs a larger workforce. As of October 2025, Karnataka has approximately 10.96 million (1,09,61,042) unorganised sector workers registered on the e-Shram portal, of whom 58.1 percent (about 6.36 million) are women. However, many more women workers remain unregistered on the portal. Consequently, a majority of women employees in the State are unlikely to benefit from the policy. For micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), granting 12 additional paid leaves may lead to more absenteeism and payroll costs. From the women labour force point of view, the new leave policy may worsen the hiring bias, especially in micro and small firms that operate on very rigid workforce margins. Moreover, the state government has not proposed any reimbursement or tax offset to encourage small employers to implement the policy. The private sector may view women as costlier or less reliable employees due to additional leave entitlements like maternity, childcare and now menstrual leave. The “Voice of Women” Survey Report (2024) by Aon sheds light on how women employees view workplace equity and flexibility, which is pertinent while evaluating policies like menstrual leave. The survey mentions that findings reinforce years of research showing that women face microaggressions at work in the form of subtle and seemingly innocuous comments based on stereotypes. Nearly 42 percent women reported that they face judgmental comments or expressions on leaving work early or working remotely. Furthermore, one in three mothers reported facing career setbacks after returning from maternity leave — for 75 percent of them, the impact lasted up to two years, while 25 percent experienced setbacks lasting more than three years. We can understand from the above-mentioned survey that women are already going through lot of unavoidable discrimination in their workplace irrespective of many DEI (Diversity, Equity and inclusion) friendly policies. These kinds of policies will even amplify the ongoing discrimination to next level and, it’s worth noting that without awareness among the people in the work environment about female menstrual health and it’s impacts this kind of policies just pay a lip service to the concept of women empowerment. The periodic Labour Force Survey Report (2023-24) reveals that Karnataka’s Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), which indicates how many people are either working or looking to work out of the total population, is 49.9 percent for rural women, lower than the nation’s average of 51.2 percent. For urban women it is 33.5 percent, slightly above the nation’s average of 31.2 percent. The consolidated LFPR of women in Karnataka is 43.6 percent lower than the nation’s average of 45.2 percent. Further, Karnataka’s Worker Population Ratio (WPR), which indicates the proportion of working population, is 49.5 percent for rural women, a tad below the nation’s average of 50 percent. For urban women, it is 32 percent, considerably above than nation’s average of 28.8 percent. The consolidated WPR of women in Karnataka is 42.7 percent, slightly lower than the nation’s average of 43.7 percent If the state government policy is implemented without addressing the recruitment bias faced by women in the private sector, especially in small firms, the already existing gap between the Karnataka’s LFPR and WPR of rural women will be widen, weakening the State’s efforts towards women empowerment. The policy may be modified to make it easier to implement. Instead of mandating complete paid leave, the governments can incentives organisations to grant remote work facilities for at least 3-4 consecutive days, wherever feasible. This will allow women to take proper care of their menstrual health. Also, the state government may consider this an opportune time to strictly enforce menstrual-friendly infrastructure in all workplaces with adequate hygienic and sanitation facilities across the public and private sectors. It would be commendable if the State Government could find convergence between schemes such as Koosina Mane, which empower local bodies and promote decentralization, and the implementation of new policies related to women’s menstrual health. Such an integrated approach would be mutually beneficial to both employees and employers. Further, it is essential to consult as many stakeholders as possible, including women, before implementation of the policy. The Karnataka State Menstrual leave policy is a welcome move, but it also brings some real concerns that may be overlooked. The matter requires a holistic understanding. It should aim to incentivise organisations instead of making them more hesitant to hire women, especially in smaller companies. The State Government should make sure the new policy supports both women and workplaces, without benefitting one at the cost of the other. Real inclusion means creating equal opportunities, not in offering special provisions that may inadvertently widen the very gap the policy seeks to close. The Author is Public Policy Fellow at AgaPuram Policy Research Centre, Erode The views expressed by the author are personal and does

ஏழாவது நிதி ஆணையமும் சவால்களும் ஏழாவது நிதி ஆணையமும் சவால்களும் Chandrasekaran Balakrishnan November 7, 2025 Articles தமிழகம் 2030ஆம் ஆண்டுக்குள் 1 டிரில்லியன் டாலர் பொருளாதாரம் என்னும் இலக்கை நோக்கி முன்னேறிக்கொண்டிருக்கிறது. இருப்பினும், 2031-32ஆம் ஆண்டுக்குப் பிறகுதான் இது சாத்தியமாகும் என்று ஆய்வுகள் தெரிவிக்கின்றன. ஏனெனில், பயனுள்ள பரவலாக்கப்பட்ட நிர்வாகம் முதல் பல்வேறு முக்கியத் துறைகளின் வளர்ச்சி சார்ந்த சவால்களில் கவனம் செலுத்துவது, பிராந்திய ஏற்றத்தாழ்வுகளை நிவர்த்திசெய்வது வரை பல துறைகளில் புதிய சீர்திருத்தங்கள் தேவைப்படுகின்றன.  

‘Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor a non-starter due to state govt’ ‘Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor a non-starter due to state govt’ Saravanan M June 6, 2024 Articles                                                                                   Read in : தமிழ் The Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor project is a prestigious project of the Union government that has not left the drawing boards because of the attitude of the state government. India’s defence and aerospace sector has been growing in double digits (10% CAGR) as compared to the global growth of 4%. However, much of the spend has been going towards imports. For instance, more than 80% of aerospace industry components are still imported.  In recent years, several steps have been taken to reverse this trend by developing and levering the capacities of local industries. The launch of Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan has given a moral boost to the MSMEs but a significant shift is yet to happen. Some of the major policy changes brought in recent years include Reform in Defence Acquisition Procedure, 2020. Under this, the defence sector has been earmarked 64% of its modernisation funds (Rs.71,000 crore) for procurement from domestic industries, and FDI limits were raised with an automatic route for 74% for new investments. Further, India had reserved defence equipment and machinery for the public sector, but now it has opened up to 100% for Indian private sector participation. A total of 333 private companies were issued a total of 539 Industrial Licenses. Out of these, 110 companies have begun commencement of production. Besides MSMEs, Tamil Nadu has several national public sector enterprises (HVF, OCF, EFA, OFT, HAPP, CFA, etc) which manufacture various defence and aerospace equipment.   Moreover, two important steps were taken by the Defence Ministry which has notified two ‘Positive Indigenisation Lists (PILs)’ with a total of 209 items for which there would be a restriction for import. Two Defence Industrial Corridors, one each in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, were mooted. It has been envisaged to attract total investments of Rs 20,000 Crore in the two Defence Industrial Corridors of Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu by the year 2024-25. There is a reason to focus on Tamil Nadu for establishing a Defence Corridor given its long track record of presence of many private sector companies which are supplying equipment, and machinery, for the national defence and aerospace sector at least since 1973. Besides MSMEs, the state has several national public sector enterprises (HVF, OCF, EFA, OFT, HAPP, CFA, etc) which manufacture various defence and aerospace equipment. The State has a new policy (2019) for the promotion of defence and aerospace sector that advocates harnessing the potential of having a large number of engineering colleges, institutions, and a track record of several years of specialisation in the R&D sector. Tamil Nadu has more than 60 companies that supply defence and aerospace components to national aggregations. Tamil Nadu aims to achieve “more than 30% share of the Indian Aerospace industry output” in the next decade.   Though the Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor was formally launched in 2019 covering cities like Coimbatore, Salem, Trichy, Hosur, Kanchipuram, Chennai, Vellore, etc, little progress has been made largely due to fragile relationship between the Union government and concerned departments/organisations. IIT Madras was roped in as Knowledge Partner to take up the Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor to the next level. Has the state government interacted with the Knowledge Partner in the right spirit and in the interest of the State to build a vibrant industry ecosystem? The answer is not known, but much progress has been made in Uttar Pradesh project. According to the latest data available on 21.03.2022, the Uttar Pradesh state government has signed 63 MoUs with industries worth Rs.8,764 crore investment, of which 25 MoUs were finalised with Rs.2,527 crore investments for implementation under various stages. Actual investments of Rs 1,552 crore have been effected.   A Union government reply to a question in Parliament on the Tamil Nadu situation said “arrangements have been made through Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs), etc. for potential investment of Rs.11,103.00 Crore by 39 industries. Current actual investment in Tamil Nadu Defence Industrial Corridor is Rs.2,217 Crore”. Words like arrangements are used when there is nothing to show even on paper and that MOUs have not been signed for that amount. In the case of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Corridor, the institutional and industrial collaborations signed through MoUs are transparent. The state industry minister has said that some Rs 1,150 crore has been invested in the corridor projects, but no details have been given on what is off the ground already and who are the private players. At the time of the defence corridor launch in 2019, it was reported that the corridor had attracted investments worth Rs.3123 crores. Tamil Nadu still aims to achieve investments worth Rs 10,000/- crore in defence and aerospace sector alone by the end of five years period. The state aims to achieve $ 10 billion worth value addition in the next decade. After three years, the state government enterprise, Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (TIDCO), which promotes the Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor projects, announced that it intends “to engage a professional firm as providing PMU, strategy and advisory services for the Defence Industrial Corridor in Tamil Nadu.” The firms will be finalised by 30.06.2022. That such a firm is only to be engaged now raises questions over claims of investment. Has the state government interacted with IIT Madras, the Knowledge Partner, in the right spirit and in the interest of the State to build a vibrant defence industry ecosystem? There are many industrial corridors in Tamil Nadu and many could not take off in the past many years. Agitations led by the DMK had stalled them. Now the DMK-led government is struggling to build trust and confidence among business enterprises

Embedding EdTech in Higher Education Institutions Embedding EdTech in Higher Education Institutions Saravanan M April 13, 2023 Articles            The pandemic posed several challenges to the education sector. Despite these, the whole education sector carried on unscathed, thanks to educational technologies and digital facilities. Educational technologies offer myriad benefits to all stakeholders and enhance the overall capacity of higher education institutions (HEIs). In this piece, the term “educational technologies” is used in an expanded sense to include the entire bouquet of technologies and applications employed well beyond the classrooms or teaching-learning activities, as defined usually, and covers the entire gamut of operations of the HEIs. The following are some major benefits, that are certain to accrue, from digitalisation. These benefits highlight the importance of embedding technology into institutions on a priority basis. Digital Divide When it comes to digital technology, the student is often the teacher. This is so because the students of this generation are, by default, digital literates, compared to teachers who need to work towards learning technology. Not being adept at technological usage puts even knowledgeable teachers at the backfoot in terms of teaching and results in sub-optimal teaching-learning outcomes. While subject knowledge is paramount, technological adeptness has become a prerequisite for teachers. Having an in-house education technology centre would help faculty members to learn, train and narrow the digital divide.  Content Development Lesson plans, lecture notes and lectures of the teachers are all their intellectual properties. It is a fact that a teacher delivers the same content in different ways on different occasions, depending on the context. In traditional classroom mode, almost every content that a teacher provides to the students is retained only in some young curious minds that could comprehend the topics discussed, unlike in a digital classroom that is equipped to digitally capture the lectures as given, for eternity. Further, if the lectures are recorded, it motivates some faculty members to prepare and deliver better than they otherwise would have. Thus, the content created and stored could be used for faculty development also.  Digital Evaluations Even before the pandemic-forced adoption of technology, many institutions, including public universities that are usually constrained financially, have digitised their evaluation process, having understood its utility. With the choice-based credit system (CBCS) and continuous internal evaluation now being almost universally adopted, a lot of person-hours are required to execute the evaluation process. In most cases, faculty members are responsible for much of the evaluation work, which crowds out their time for academic work. Even for non-teaching staff, digital infrastructure is a huge aid. Digitising the evaluation process allows secure, transparent, any-time, any-place evaluation, and does so with cost reduction and saving invaluable time of the faculty members.  Enriching Academic Outcomes Besides collecting and storing rudimentary data, educational technologies also help capture data that were hitherto impossible to conceive. For instance, data that are too abstract like the number of times a student winks or rolls his/her eyeballs per minute, while reading some virtual content, which is used as a proxy for a student’s attentiveness or attendance, can also be captured. If the institutions are unwaveringly committed to outcome-based education then educational technologies provide the best option to gather, analyse and interpret digitally captured data about students and teachers at various levels and periods. Institutions can then leverage these valuable insights about the teaching-learning process to attain better academic outcomes. The adoption of educational technologies will lead to a transformative curriculum relevant to the knowledge era, where the outcome of education alone matters and not the mode of education. Collaborative Research  The main purpose of HEIs is the creation of knowledge through research. Innovative ideas blossom when more minds collaborate. With interdisciplinary research and study bearing more fruits, digitising the research process is paramount. Web-enabled technologies foster research by clustering teachers, students, researchers, scholars, and industry into one coherent whole, by substantially negating the time-space constraints. Most technology imparting institutions conduct hackathons to find solutions to various problems. But they are held as one-off events than being mainstreamed as a regular aspect of the academic process. Infusing technology into the research and mainstreaming it will promote collaborative ideating, learning, research and innovation. Aiding Administration Managing the admission process, human resources, assets including estates, infrastructure, procurement, research projects, etc. have all been digitised in top institutions in various forms like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or University Management System (UMS), etc. Further, all rankings and accreditations are based hugely on data that are scarce and scattered. Usually, faculty members hold additional responsibility for some administrative jobs including those related to ranking and accreditation. Systems like UMS helps institutions complete tasks swiftly, and collect and retrieve data efficiently, resulting in saving a lot of precious time of faculty members. With a plethora of benefits emanating from digitising institutions, any investment in higher education needs to focus predominantly on the creation and strengthening of the digital infrastructure, as against sprucing up the conventional assets and modes like bricks and mortar structures, printed books, physical evaluations, etc. Any delay in adopting technology across the operations will put HEIs at a huge disadvantage. Views expressed by the author are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of the Centre for Public Policy Research. Facebook Instagram X-twitter

Strengthening Doctoral Program: Going beyond UGC Ph.D. Regulations 2022 Strengthening Doctoral Program: Going beyond UGC Ph.D. Regulations 2022 Saravanan M February 14, 2023 Articles The University Grants Commission (UGC) recently notified its latest Regulations 2022 to award the Ph.D. degree program. Some far-reaching changes have been introduced. and the removal of mandatory research publication and Ph.D. admission to four-year undergraduates with a one-year degree have caught the attention of many. While the sceptics of the new norms may have reasons for their apprehensions about the loss of quality, the reforms ushered in through the regulations are essential and were due for some time.  Further, regulations are to be seen through the prism of both equity and excellence. A higher focus on equity comes at the cost of quality and vice versa. Regulations per se prescribe the minimum standards and allow institutions to peg higher standards as may be required. The new regulations have unburdened students from the compulsory publication of research papers, leading to not just the proliferation of predatory publications but also the ghost-writing of research pieces. The entry to four-year undergraduates with a one-year ‘ ‘master’s degree is envisaged by the National Education Policy (NEP) and in line with generally accepted stipulations of many foreign universities. The new regulations have defined the broad contours and provided more space for higher education institutions to frame guidelines as per their choice and necessity to enhance quality. The following discusses how the universities could secure and promote the value of their doctoral programs. Higher Admission Norms The regulations require at least 55 percent in the postgraduate program and at least 75 percent for those seeking admission with a four-year degree. Institutions may determine a higher cut-off across the roster and admit students accordingly. Another area for improvement is the entrance exams conducted to admit students. Not all universities conduct entrance exams. Entrance exams ensure that only the students with adequate academic credentials cut. It promotes transparency by nullifying any scope for student admissions based purely on the personal rapport between the supervisor and the prospective student. The State governments or higher education councils may facilitate the conduct of standard entrance exams for all its public universities to ensure uniform standards. Top private universities need to fix higher standards. Industry Collaborations A notable feature of top universities is their collaborations with industry for research and innovation. The industry is usually eager to solve problems of society for commercial reasons, while the universities act as altruistic social guardians. The inherent complementarity is leveraged through the tie-ups between academia and industry. In addition to teacher-scholar interactions, the scholars need to be given a platform to engage with the industry during the coursework phase, when they broadly know their research area but not necessarily the final research topic. This will encourage scholars to direct their research toward solving real societal problems than working on abstract problems. Co-supervisors from the industry can rope in as much as possible and necessary to nurture collaboration, gain additional knowledge, and have different perspectives.  Fellowships & Teaching / Research Assistantship A section of doctoral students comprises those who have not found favour with the job market, and as such, their real inclination may not be research. On the contrary, few already employed may have more passion for research than employment, but economic compulsions would have excluded them from research programs. While fellowships are available, universities can also chip in with their budgetary support in addition to the existing fellowships, which are usually sponsored through the Union government. Institutions that place a premium on research must provide fellowships & Teaching / Research Assistantships generously to invite and retain scholars. Incubation Offers Students who do not have economic constraints may need entrepreneurial support. For those students with a flair for entrepreneurship, universities may provide opportunities to incubate their findings and help develop solutions and products. While this may not be possible in all universities, high-ranked public and private universities could provide support for translating research into monetisable forms. Most successful unicorns have come from universities. Promoting Mobility Collaborative work is rewarding and more so in research work. Universities can encourage scholars to undertake part of their research in industrial settings in any place. A scholar may be encouraged to take up course work or do research partly in another university if required, and complete the research in the parent university by allowing credit transfers and knowledge transfers. While the regulations require disclosing the scholar’s details and research work, Vidwan, an online repository for all researchers, can be tapped for networking and collaborations. Transparent & Genuine Evaluation While external evaluations are required, some universities send the theses to foreign universities. However, it would be beneficial if those foreign universities are reputed for their rigour and academic outcomes. With softcopies of the theses being available, each university can enlist foreign faculty and securely obtain a virtual evaluation.  Regulations are only the minimum limits. Universities need to assert their academic freedom,  show academic responsibility and ensure that the doctoral programs are at least worth the duration of the program, if not more.  Views expressed by the author are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of the Centre for Public Policy Research. Facebook Instagram X-twitter

Opinion: Little to celebrate in one year of DMK party rule Opinion: Little to celebrate in one year of DMK party rule Chandrasekaran Balakrishnan May 18, 2022 Articles                                                                                 Read in : தமிழ் It has been a year since the DMK party assumed power in Tamil Nadu after a decade of being in the opposition. Ads in major newspapers and digital platforms recently projected the one year of DMK rule as one of glory. Some of the terms used in the publicity were “the driving force”, “maintaining a balance”, “boost to infrastructure”, “rejuvenating MSMEs”, “shining power sector” and so on.  But some fact checking will help us see what the real achievements were. Last week, Assam also celebrated one year of its new government. And Tamil Nadu’s achievements don’t quite match with Assam’s. Their assessment and parameters are realistic and Tamil Nadu’s are dubious. For instance, in Assam, in one year, the crime rate per lakh population has declined by 57%. The state’s economic growth rate was 13.89%. We do not know the status of Tamil Nadu at least for the above two aspects. Power cuts, increased incidents of drug smuggling, corruption in government machinery and so on are some of the features of the one year of DMK party rule. Another feature of the Dravidian model seems to be anti-decentralization. The administrators of local bodies had the power to sanction projects worth below Rs.40 lakh but now that power has been curtailed and vests in the state capital. Moreover, Tamil Nadu government has announced that it will get a loan of Rs.23,500 crore in the first quarter April – June 2022. The DMK government had already availed nearly one lakh crore rupees loans during the financial year 2021-22 for doles and freebies promised in their election manifestos. But few in the media covered it. The government doesn’t seem to accord top priority to policies towards realising double-digit or higher economic growth. Only high economic growth will enable the government implement welfare programmes and schemes. A case in point is that the share of Tamil Nadu in overall national exports is only 9% whereas it is 19% for Karnataka. The DMK pays lip service to important reforms which have been pending for decades such as in the power sector, loss-making public transport, loss-making state-owned public enterprises, etc, but hasn’t moved forward on them. The MSME sector is yet to be revived with infusion of capital and adequate infrastructure facilities. There is not a single unicorn or start-up that emerged in the last one year because state politics is focused largely on welfarism, freebies, caste, language etc., all in the name of social justice. None of these will add value in the long term for the economy. Policy missteps have marked the one year of DMK party rule such as in the anti-NEET Bill, direct appointment of university vice chancellors, constituting a committee on New State Education Policy, instigating farmers against national projects like GAIL,etc. Under the e-NAM registration of mandis with traders, Tamil Nadu is one of the worst performers with a registration of mere 63 Mandis (2912 traders), 98 FPOs with 2.15 lakh farmers which accounts for just 1% of the farmer population Under the e-NAM registration of mandis with traders, Tamil Nadu is one of the worst performers with a registration of mere 63 Mandis (2912 traders), 98 FPOs with 2.15 lakh farmers which accounts for just 1% of the farmer population. Best performing states are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana. The government’s “Meendum Manjappai” scheme is a much needed one and we should appreciate the novel initiative but the campaign did not reach the common people. Tamil Nadu does score in several parameters, but the DMK party government cannot claim credit for it. For instance, in the latest report on the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), Tamil Nadu was ranked as one of the top few states with the lowest poverty across India. Under the latest Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 3rd Edition, June 2021), Tamil Nadu was ranked 2nd and one of the top three states in the country besides Kerala and Himachal Pradesh. Tamil Nadu has allocated a higher budget at 5.3% on medical and public health and family welfare compared to other states. Delhi tops with 12%. Tamil Nadu is the top state in the country which has issued 2.47 crore E-Cards under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) with 10.9 hospitals approved for getting medical insurance coverage worth Rs 5 lakh every year for each eligible family. When the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) was announced in 2016, maximum applications (230) were received from Tamil Nadu in the academic category for start-ups. In terms of corporates/individuals, the state stood fifth (129 applications). Tamil Nadu is the second-highest funded state (Rs.25.58 crores) in the country for start-ups by youth and college students. Though, many new policies were announced over the last year, little effort was taken to lure potential investors with an assured ecosystem to move to the next level of industrialization. (The author is an economist and public policy expert) https://inmathi.com/2022/05/18/opinion-little-to-celebrate-in-one-year-of-dmk-party-rule/52055/     Facebook Instagram X-twitter

Reforming Operational Processes for Online Higher Education Reforming Operational Processes for Online Higher Education Saravanan M February 28, 2022 Articles   Self-help is the best help, it is said. For some reason, universities are indifferent towards helping themselves by leveraging whatever autonomy they are bestowed with. For over a decade, there has been a need that is felt for online delivery of higher education by a section of youth and the already employed. But the policies have predominantly remained in favour of in person teaching-learning. Enter the pandemic. Brick and mortar gave way to optic fibre cables and mobile signals. The time was ripe for universities to assert their autonomy and innovate. It was an opportune moment for transformation and operational innovations however, the opportunity was mostly treated as a mere chance to change the mode of the lecture by teachers. Opportunities junked by universities since the Covid calamity struck are a good case in point. Class Scheduling Class scheduling was a mundane matter that was altogether missed. The fixed, continuous classwork hours followed during the normal offline days were religiously adopted for virtual classes too. As mobile phones were the primary tool for attending online classes for most students, attending continuous online classes resulted in phones draining out midway, forcing students to trade off one class for another just to charge their drained-out mobile batteries. One essential upside with online education is the flexibility it offers in terms of learning anywhere and anytime. Unimaginative scheduling nullifies that advantage. Universities could have scheduled classes innovatively like having one course per day with mini-breaks, or having two courses per day with longer durations of 2-2.5 hours each with a longer break in between, or having flexi-hours with multiple breaks instead of the fixed continuous working hours. Customising Syllabi Universities used the same syllabi that were finalised for in-person teaching mode in the pre-pandemic period. When classes were conducted virtually, the syllabi were not customised to keep the students engaged. Given the syllabi that were amenable for in-person classes, the teachers focussed more on finishing online lectures and syllabi than clarifying the concepts to the understanding of the students. This resulted in casualness among the students and lacklustre lectures from the teachers, as interactions were not as much as they would have otherwise been had the syllabi been ‘personalised’ for online sessions. Even those teachers who were committed were straight-jacketed without bespoke syllabi for online sessions. Flipped Pedagogy Offline teaching provides more scope for eliciting active participation from the students, even if a teacher does not exclusively plan for it. This is not possible online, where the onus for making the session participative lies squarely with the teachers. Online classes could have been made highly interactive had flipped classroom model been adopted, where the lecture content is provided upfront to the students, who would work upon it at home and come to the class prepared for interactions and discussions-based learning. Quality, free content is available aplenty, which could have been easily used. If needed, lecturing in online classes could have been fully replaced with discussions based on digital content shared before the classes. This would have been an enriching endeavour even for the teachers. Collaborative Teaching It is a fact that students are digitally more literate than teachers with the former being comparatively adept at operating various electronic gadgets with ease. Being an expert in the subject but lacking digital skills to convey the subject matter expertly to the online attendees puts a teacher at disadvantage and students at loss. A cue could have been taken from the Japanese Lesson Study, in which teachers solve classroom issues together in a collaborative manner and improve teaching-learning outcomes. As the size of a class is not an issue in online mode, teachers could have jointly conducted online sessions with the academically more experienced & knowledgeable teacher delivering the lecture and the digitally better-equipped teacher handling the gadgets and ensuring interaction in the class. Evaluation Reforms Evaluation is another segment where the old pattern could have been done away with. As syllabi are modularised with each unit carrying specific credits, evaluation of student learning could have also been modularised, wherever possible. Year-end or semester-end exams need not be the norm, as proctoring online exams are extremely difficult and expensive. Continuous internal assessments alone would suffice to evaluate the learning outcomes and can completely replace compulsory term-end exams, even after accounting for teacher biases. Further, open-book exams, virtual quizzes, virtual group discussions, virtual presentations, etc. could have been used for evaluation. Conclusion When the outcome is the linchpin for evaluating the performance of higher education institutions, policy and processes also need to be outcome-based. The policy matter is just half the story and is beyond the scope of higher education institutions. When policy parameters fixed by the regulators are not facilitatory enough, universities need to tweak processes to make up for the policy loss. Even when the pandemic changed the academe upside down, universities just played their routine role and were not able to leverage the right set of circumstances for building back better during the pandemic. Going forward every university would be a hybrid university of varying degrees and the pandemic has provided us with a tipping point. Reforming processes is where the higher education institutions were and are found going through a rigmarole at the cost of innovation. This aspect needs immediate attention. Views expressed by the author are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of Centre for Public Policy Research. Featured Image Courtesy: Economics Times Facebook Instagram X-twitter

Policy Pathways for Online Degree Programs Policy Pathways for Online Degree Programs Saravanan M December 20, 2021 Articles   If governance can be likened to a journey, people are the passengers wanting to reach a destination, facilitating institutions are the vehicles used, processes adopted are the drivers of the vehicles, and the pathways to the destination are the policies followed. How safely, successfully, comfortably and timely the passengers complete their journey depends on the people at the helm and the strength of policies and processes adopted. Policies and processes are like relationships. They require constant attention and calibration. Taking them for granted would derail the journey, putting all at risk and discomfort. At present, the passengers destined to reach online degree programs (ODP) find themselves at crossroads, aboard wobbling vehicles driven by people of varying calibre. In the higher education sector, policies are primarily the responsibility of the regulators and the processes are that of the educational institutions. Educational outcomes are heavily influenced by the interplay of policies and processes. This piece covers the policy pathways where hurdles, which could have been dismantled when the pandemic began its onslaught, are still galore. One interesting characteristic about technology is that while it catalyses many changes in society, it undergoes constant mutation itself. When technology remains in a state of perennial flux, policymakers dealing with technological usage are caught in a catch-22 situation. Given the humongous challenge, our policymakers deserve immense appreciation for their efforts in introducing course credits via massive open online classes (MOOCs) in 2016 and later permitting universities to offer ODP. They also merit kudos for frequent policy infusions concerning online and open & distance education even during the pandemic.  The lapse, however, was neither inaction nor proaction, but in not heeding to the law of returns to scales. When the pandemic situation demanded a massive transformation, what was delivered was frequent incremental changes. When the first wave of the pandemic started to wreak havoc, online delivery of education became the only viable option. With the classes and evaluations getting held virtually in the last academic year, the higher education system got completely digitised. Juxtapose that with the latest norms: only institutions with at least 3.26 NAAC score or within the top 100 in NIRF ranking can provide ODP and institutions are allowed to have up to 40 per cent of the total courses in a programme as MOOCs courses in a semester (deserves separate discussion on another occasion). While the moves, though a tad belated, are welcome, the dosage is not enough.  The number of universities is 1019. The number of universities with NAAC score of 3.26 or above is just 84. Considering this and the top 100 of NIRF, it is very likely that only 100-odd universities are eligible to offer ODP, barring almost 90 percent of the universities from providing ODP. Further, the eligible universities too can offer only 3 UG and 10 PG ODP.  To give another perspective, there are no eligible universities in the States of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. The entire North-Eastern States are unrepresented. Interestingly, there are 114 universities whose scores range between 3.01 to 3.25, which includes universities from the States of Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, and UT of Puducherry. Reflecting on the extant eligibility norms, the following questions arise:  With private online education providers coming up with customised ODP, it is only a matter of time before the market recognises them for employment purposes on a massive scale. It is for the regulators to lead the show or be led by chaging market dynamics.  Views expressed by the author are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of Centre for Public Policy Research. Featured Image Courtesy: Economics Times Facebook Instagram X-twitter

Logging into Online Higher Education v 2.0 Logging into Online Higher Education v 2.0 Saravanan M September 11, 2021 Articles   Old is gold is a popular adage. But old giving way for new is a perennial reality. The traditional brick-and-mortar classroom-based education is now passé, at least among a large segment of the higher education sector, which have bet their money on online education. Till recently, this segment was perceived as an elite cohort, unrepresentative of the mainstream higher education players. However,  not anymore. The pandemic accidentally unleashed the power of online education by negating face-to-face classes for over a year, as all academic operations were conducted virtually. Online education is now at an inflection point and about to get massified any time soon. The various advantages of online higher education is not the focus of this piece. The growth of online education is undisputable, but the moot question is its quality, which is debatable. More specifically, the quality of the teaching and learning process and the concomitant outcome.  This article highlights the problems that beset online higher education and cursorily delineates ways to overcome them. The hindrances to quality in online higher education can be clustered under two categories: inadequacy of hard infrastructure and inability of soft infrastructure. Inadequacy of hard infrastructure India certainly is better placed in terms of its mobile connectivity and affordable internet or mobile data. It would not be an understatement to say that the education sector survived the onslaught of the pandemic due to the extant connectivity via smartphones and mobile data. But, the ubiquitous mobile phones cater only to the student end of the teaching-learning process, that too with certain glitches, but not to the other end i.e., the teachers. Despite the high mobile density and affordable mobile data, the quality of connectivity is still below par even in urban regions, which houses almost 40 per cent of the total colleges in the country. Free or affordable mobile data, as provided by by the Tamil Nadu government last year, will not make up for the poor quality of connectivity and erratic power supply. With these infrastructural gaps, students still suffer last-mile issues.  A teacher cannot – and even if possible, ideally should not – make do with mobile phones for conducting classes. Interaction with and participation of students are two key ingredients that are insufficient in online sessions and mobile phone usage by teachers would only aggravate it. As per the latest data available, 81 and 86 per cent of the universities and colleges respectively have computer centres. But the operational efficiency of these computer centres is anybody’s guess. NKN connectivity, a high-speed internet connection, is available only to 55 and 23 per cent of universities and colleges respectively. The figures for NMEICT connectivity stand at 40 and 22 per cent. Unless investment is committed to strategically improving digital infrastructure, the quality of online education would remain elusive. Inability of soft infrastructure Teachers are either digitally conversant or digitally sub-competent. While the former can seamlessly and efficiently toggle between offline and online modes of teaching, the latter find it difficult to navigate through the digital tools. While the teachers may be conversant with the subject, they may necessarily not be so in delivering their knowledge to the students using the digital medium. They need to be oriented towards using technology in their academic endeavours. Or, in the words of the learned J Krishnamurti, the educator needs to be educated. Another challenge with online education is that a teacher has no space to mask chinks in his or her armour, as each session can be recorded, used and dissected later, many times over. Online education does not provide a platform to a teacher who is just an information provider, as many avenues are available online to do it. Online teaching requires a teacher to be informative, educative and also inspirational so that not just teaching, but learning also happens in every session. Every teacher, irrespective of her stature and experience, needs to attune herself to the requirements of the virtual model of education. To that end, a change in attitude among academicians is welcome and mandatory. If people are at the heart of the soft infrastructure, the nuts and bolts of it are the processes they create. Even with adequate infrastructure, people cannot function well sans enabling processes. For elucidation, the case of curricular revision in school education during the pandemic needs to be studied. The swiftness seen in school education in terms of governments revising the syllabi taught to students and the changes in pedagogy were striking compared to the higher education sector. Despite having autonomy, not many universities revised their curriculum to make it amenable to the online system. What was meant for teaching offline was retained for online mode too. Both teachers and students went through the same rigmarole that was adopted earlier in the offline mode. What is taught and how it is taught in a face-to-face mode is different from an online mode. Different modes necessitate different processes. An immediate relook of processes is essential to enhance the quality of online or blended education. Pumping in resources and creating digital infrastructure are necessary, but it is a long process. Comparatively, orienting academicians to adapt to online or blended teaching is relatively less time-consuming. Even less time-consuming is to effect changes in higher education policy commensurate with the requirements of the new method of delivery of educational service. This is the low-hanging fruit. The policymakers at the governmental level and educational administrators at institutional & departmental levels need to establish a conducive policy environment and facilitatory processes, which will form focus of the next piece. Views expressed by the author are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of Centre for Public Policy Research. Facebook Instagram X-twitter

Evaluating Online Evaluations in Higher Education Evaluating Online Evaluations in Higher Education Saravanan M August 11, 2021 Articles   Not all changes are engineered. Some are unplanned and abrupt. The pandemic has triggered unexpected actions resulting in normalising events hitherto considered implausible. One such new normality is witnessed in the education sector, more specifically in the higher education sector, where a tectonic shift has taken place. What initially started off as a stop-gap virtual teaching arrangement continued for almost an academic year to finally complement the teaching-learning process with virtual evaluation of student learning outcomes. That the online method of teaching and learning, including evaluation, will henceforth become an inevitable part of the system is a no-brainer. But what piques the interest of the stakeholders is how the online evaluation method has panned out and the upside and downside attached to it. This is an attempt to piece together the cost and benefits associated with conducting online evaluations based on the recent experience, at a generalised aggregated level and decipher the net outcomes of online evaluations. The analysis encompasses the three principal stakeholders: institutions, teachers, and students. The responsibility to continue with their educational services propelled the higher education administrators and institutions to find ways to conduct online examinations to gauge the learning outcomes of students. The preceding online teaching phase did certainly help institutions, besides the other two prime parties–teachers and students—at least in terms of removing any misgivings about the practicality of moving wholly towards technology for assessments. The nature of online evaluations differed based on the nature of the institutions. Autonomous institutions like universities and autonomous colleges undertook their evaluations in a similar fashion, in contrast to the non-autonomous colleges, who followed the systems developed by their affiliating universities. For universities and autonomous colleges, conducting online examinations has cut down the paperwork. Institutions have also saved on answer paper procurement cost. In some cases, setting of question papers by external members, moderation, printing, distribution of question papers to various colleges/ units have been done away with. In terms of evaluation charges, institutions also have saved on Travelling Allowance that is paid to external evaluators who commute to evaluation centres. Non-autonomous institutions benefitted by not having to organise examinations physically, which otherwise they would have. Financially, institutions seem to have trimmed expenditure, while retaining the usual receipts from examination fees, resulting in a net increase in revenue, which is a welcome happening, especially for resource-starved government institutions. As of now, storing evaluated scripts online is not costing much, but it may become pricey if the online mechanism is adopted regularly. Teachers went about question paper setting, moderation, and evaluation of answer scripts in almost the same way as they had in the past, except that this time it was done virtually. Further, most teachers also had the benefit of evaluating from the comforts of their homes and at a convenient time, which was not possible during evaluating answer scripts physically in designated evaluation centres at a stipulated time frame. Online evaluations have not additionally cost institutions or teachers monetarily, compared to in-person examinations and evaluations. The workload also does not seem to have increased. Students seem to have developed some liking for online exams due to reduced time durations of examinations in some cases, availability of more time for preparation as time spent on commuting to the examination centres is not required. Further, the pattern of questions, at least for mid-term or internal evaluation was more objective than theoretical, compared to offline, making it easier for students to answer. To help students, who had technical issues like poor internet connectivity, additional time was offered to students to upload their answer scripts. This extra time was used by the students for not just uploading answer scripts, but also to keep writing answers over and above the usual stipulated time. Hence, practically, students had more time in online mode than the conventional in-person mode. One irritant to the students, though, was that in some cases they had to buy papers for answering questions, which, in the offline mode, was supplied to them out of the examination fees paid by them.Though the online evaluation has many benefits attached to it, the biggest drawback is the quality of the assessment of learning outcomes in the online examinations.  The conventional in-person examinations ensured student learning outcomes are genuinely assessed compared to the online examinations, due to physical supervision of students during the examinations. Though some institutions took pains and conducted proctored online examinations, those cases were few and far between. Even those online proctoring mechanisms adopted had few loopholes, which were skilfully and ingeniously exploited by some young minds to their undue benefits. Many believe that online student performance did not reflect their understanding of the concepts and consequently the learning outcomes, as they had scope for malpractices for answering in the online mode. Further, many institutions, including the affiliated colleges, junked the usual third-party or external evaluation of answer scripts and went for in-house paper corrections. This opened the scope for mark or grade inflation as internal evaluation sometimes paves way for favouritism towards their own students for obvious reasons. While the less learned students got more marks than they did merit, the learned ones got a raw deal as their efforts did not get the real deserving recognition, which was the norm in the offline mode.  What the higher education sector has achieved via the online mode in the last one year is incredible, given the almost insurmountable challenges thrown by the pandemic. The administrators, teachers, institutions, and students deserve kudos for the accomplishment. The online system is still shaky but is here to stay. It, therefore, needs to be pruned of the quality issues to stand the test of time. The way forward is to ensure quality and use the online mode wherever appropriate. One important prerequisite to improving online evaluations is to begin with improving the online teaching-learning process, which is the subject for the next piece. Image Courtesy: DNA