Baby Dropping Ritual...

Reuters reports that "Muslims in western India have been observing a bizarre ritual - they've been throwing their young children off a tall building to improve their health. The faithful have been observing the ritual at a shrine in Solapur, in western India's Maharastra, for more than five hundred years. They believe it will make their children strong and say no accidents have ever happened!"

The struggle to educate...

I know several of my cousins, friends, relatives, who register with
Montessori's and kindergarden schools, as soon as they get married,
many even after their engagement. They don't have kids for over 5
years after, but they need to do this to ensure a seat for their their
3 year old child who will be born five years later. Seats for
elementary and middle school kids are at a premium as well,
"donations" for these seats are very high and recommendations to even
be able to pay these donations need to come from very high level
officials, or someone with a lot of clout. It is very hard for a
middle class person to afford and make happen.

As I had said on one of my earlier blogs, education in India is so
tightly tied to class, caste, money and not sufficiently associated
with merit. Here is an excerpt of and article about this in the New
York Times today --
" The anxiety over school admissions is a parable of desire and
frustration in a country with the largest concentration of young
people in the world. About 40 percent of India's 1.1 billion citizens
are younger than 18; many others are parents in their 20s and 30s,
with young school-age children.

Today, for all but the very poor, government schools are not an option
because they are considered weak, and the competition for choice
private schools is fierce.

The scramble is part of the great Indian education rush, playing out
across the country and across the socioeconomic spectrum. The striving
classes are spending hefty amounts or taking loans to send their
children to private schools. In some cases, children from small towns
are commuting more than 40 miles every day to good, or at least
sought-after, schools. New private schools are sprouting, as
industrialists, real estate developers and even a handful of foreign
companies eye the Indian education market.

That market is a lot like other things in India. Supply lags far
behind demand as cities grow, pocketbooks swell and parents who
themselves may have struggled in their childhoods want something
better for their offspring."

Read the full article at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/02/06/world/asia/06school.html&tntemail0=y

Several Indians among 2007 Young Innovators Under 35

Each year Technology Review magazine announces the top young
innovators under 35. Each year I read these listing I am amazed at the
quality of work and the research that goes into each innovation.

From TR magazine --
"Since 1999, the editors of Technology Review have honored the young
innovators whose inventions and research we find most exciting; today
that collection is the TR35, a list of technologists and scientists,
all under the age of 35. Their work--spanning medicine, computing,
communications, electronics, nanotechnology, and more--is changing our
world."

Go to this link to find the complete list with bio's and other details --
http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/

Eight Indian Americans in 'junior Noble' race

Indian American kids have continued to perform well and impress. Here
are a few more that are making waves --

From MSN India --
"Eight Indian American high school seniors are among forty high school
seniors named finalists in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search
2008. The competition, often called the junior Nobel Prize, is
America's oldest and most prestigious high school science competition.
Each finalist will receive at least $5,000 in scholarships and a new
laptop.

The finalists will display their research at the National Academy of
Sciences and meet in Washington, D.C. in March for a rigorous judging
process, meetings and interactions with national leaders and leading
scientists. The top winner will receive a $100,000 scholarship from
the Intel Foundation. The finalists' independent research projects
include diverse areas and interesting findings."

For the full report and complete details ---
http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1218086

Two Million Minutes

There has always been a dialog about the type of education one
receives in countries in India and China, versus the kind of education
in the US. There is now a new documentary that speaks to this effect,
and compares American students with those in India and China.

An excerpt from an article in US News and World Report --
"Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination follows six students
through their senior year of high school in the United States, India,
and China. Brittany Brechbuhl is a 17-year-old who's in the top 3
percent of her graduating class at Carmel High School in Indiana. She
aspires to become a doctor but also wants to join a sorority and
"party." Neil Ahrendt, 18, is another talented Carmel student who is
the senior class president and former quarterback of the football
team. These American teenagers' attitudes toward academics differ
sharply from those of their peers in India and China, who seem more
motivated and focused. Take, for example, 17-year-old Apoorva Uppala,
who attends Saturday tutoring sessions to prepare for her university
entrance exams. She wants to become an engineer, which she calls "the
safest" profession in India. In Shanghai, Jin Ruizhang, 17, preps for
international math tournaments. He is already the top math student at
his school and hopes to get into a prestigious university offering an
advanced math program."

View the trailer here--

Full article at --
http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/2008/01/30/comparing-american-students-with-those-in-china-and-india.html

The film's website is at --
http://2mminutes.com/characters.html

One Laptop Per Child