Nitin Nain

Category: General

My other interests – Robotics, Electronics, Aircrafts, Aviation, MacOS, Windows, Linux, Technology

  • India’s New Education Policy (NEP 2020) — Key Points

    (Cross-post from schooldesk.io)

    A New Education Policy (NEP) for India was approved by the Union Cabinet on 29 July 2020. The policy is forward-looking, inclusive, the right amount of idealistic, and very much doable. There are big changes to the current system in this policy and these are being received very positively by most people, including the opposition political parties. The previous education policy was adopted in 1986 i.e. 34 years ago and this update was long overdue. Here are the key highlights:

    For Schools

    Curriculum

    • 10+2 has been split into 5+3+3+4, covering ages 3 to 18 (instead of ages 6 to 18 previously). Thus, including the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) between ages 3-6. These changes are to be adopted by 2025.
      • 5 years of Foundational Education (Preparatory Classes and Classes 1, 2) +
      • 3 years of Preparatory Pre-School (Classes 3, 4, 5) + 
      • 3 years of Middle School (Classes 6, 7, 8) + 
      • 4 years of Secondary Education (Classes 9, 10, 11, and 12)
    • There will be preschool (ages 3-6) in Kendriya Vidyalayas and other government schools too.
    • Exams in Classes 3, 5, and 8 are to be administered by an appropriate authority.
    • Emphasis on learning in regional language and multilingualism till Class 8: States & Institutions will choose the languages.
    • Focus on Vocational Education that starts from Class 6. Computer Programming classes start from Class 6. Classroom teachings will shift towards competency-based learning.
    Curricular Structure in NEP2020
    Curricular Structure in NEP2020

    Flexible Syllabus (Electives)

    • There will be no rigid separation between arts, commerce, and sciences, between curricular and extracurricular activities, and between vocational and academic streams. Students can select subjects of their liking across streams, particularly in Secondary School. All subjects are to be offered at 2 levels of proficiency.
    • Curriculum content will be reduced in each subject to its core essentials. This has been done to make space for critical thinking and more holistic, inquiry-based, discovery-based, discussion-based, and analysis-based learning.

    Boards and Exams

    • Boards like CBSE, ICSE and the state boards will continue to exist, but they will change to accommodate for the new policy. Boards may, over time, also develop viable models of Board Exams, such as annual, semester, or modular exams.
    • De-emphasize “high stakes” Board Exams: Students can take Board Exams on two occasions in one academic year — one main exam, and a second for improvement, if desired. Instead of just two very important Board Exams at Class 10 and 12, exams will be spread over classes 9, 10, 11, and 12. And there will be a lot of importance given to internal assessment. 
    • There’s a new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH. This body will be responsible for setting assessment standards for students across India.
    • SAT-like University Entrance Tests (from 2022): Students can appear for entrance exams twice a year. (The SAT is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States.)

    Assessment and Report Cards

    • Report Cards will show credits for vocational studies along with marks for regular subjects.
    • The nutrition and health (including mental health) of children will be addressed. This will be done through healthy meals and regular health check-ups. Health cards will be issued to monitor the same.

    Equitable and Inclusive Education

    • Gender-Inclusion Fund will be set up by the Government of India. The fund will be available to States to support and scale effective community-based interventions. Which will address barriers to female and transgender children’s access to education.
    • National Scholarship Portal for SC, ST, OBC, Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Group (SEDG) students to be expanded.
    • The policy aims for 100% enrolment till Class 9 by 2030 and 50% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education (Universities) by 2035.

    For Higher Education/Colleges

    • University Grants Commission (UGC) will be replaced by a new regulator called the  Higher Education Commission of India (HECI),  which will govern the entire Higher Education except for Medicine and Law.
    • 3 or 4 years multi-disciplinary Bachelor’s program.
    • Mid-term dropouts are to be given credits with the option to complete their degree after a break. There will be multiple entry and exit options for those who wish to leave the course before completion.
    • National Research Foundation (NRF): The overarching goal of the NRF will be to enable a culture of research to permeate through universities. The NRF will be governed independently of the government.
    • Open and distance learning to be expanded.
    • National Education Technology Forum (NETF) to be formed that will promote the use of technology in Education.
    • 50% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education by 2035.

    Analysis

    This new format is seemingly closer to the American, British, Australian, and other western education systems, which could be a great thing for us in order to go further in a global world. It is a good and forward-looking education policy, with the right amount of idealism that is very achievable.

    Here are three important points to note when viewing this policy: 1) A lot of research has gone into building this flavour of education over the years, in several parts of the world. And Indian governments have been making micro-changes for several years as well. 2) it gives Indian students an intuitive understanding of the way western education systems work, thus making it easier for them to work with other countries.  And 3), it makes moving across universities at a national or international level easier. 

    The government will need to come up with a solid plan on how some of the enrolment and quality goals would be achieved. The goal to spend 6% of GDP on the Education sector is an old one; formulated in 1948 right after independence. However, the Education sector currently gets 1.7% of the GDP. The policy aims for 100% enrolment till Class 9 (Secondary School) by 2030 and a 50% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education (Universities) by 2035. The current figures are 68% and 26%. These are structural issues that would need more dedicated effort and resources. It’s to be seen how the government will go about in order to achieve these figures. The other points about the restructuring of boards, and regulators, and especially about giving choices of what subjects students wish to study, are a welcome change as well.

    If you’re part of a school administration, I would love to learn with you and assist you in planning and implementing NEP changes for your school.

  • Quick Monitor Buying Guide

    Deciding the screen size

    You ought to consider the right physical size in inches with the screen resolution — deviating too much from the following chart would either make the screen too pixelated or you might find the default font size to be too small. (more…)

  • Product Analytics for growing Startups

    For any product company, understanding how their product performs is crucial in achieving growth. And data-driven decision-making can uncover hidden patterns and help align the products with its long-term vision. The Amazons and Googles of the world are successful because they have successfully used analytics at key stages of their product lifecycles.

    Now of course not every startup should act like Amazon Google, or Facebook and there’s definitely something to be said about the gut feel, product aesthetics, and not blindly following data too. But still, when used consciously, data-driven decision-making can be of great help to any product manager.

    It can be overwhelming to analyze fragmented data from multiple sources: so here are key concepts and methodologies which you can use as a guide for incorporating analytics into your strategy:

    1. Vanity Metrics: Avoid the Temptation

    Metrics such as page views or historical total downloads don’t always convey actionable measurements. They might make you feel positive about growth but think hard about whether you want to base your strategy on these. Every product is different! They are often (unfortunately) used to inflate growth figures but do not indicate real engagement or success.

    Example: If a product shows high page views but low conversion rates, you need to investigate user engagement rather than just traffic.

    2. Metrics vs KPIs

    While metrics are measures of specific aspects of your product (e.g., number of users), KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) directly reflect progress toward your business objectives.

    Example 1: your advertising spend is a metric, not a KPI. Advertising might help you get new users but the money spent is just a measure. A KPI could associate the sales increase with the advertising spend, i.e. cost of customer acquisition could be a KPI.

    Example 2: While tracking user sessions is a metric, the KPI might be ‘User Retention Rate,’ which tells you how well your product is keeping customers engaged. Always ask yourself whether a metric drives actionable outcomes or just provides general insights.

    To sum up, all metrics are not KPIs.

    3. One Metric That Matters (OMTM)

    Just like in your daily life, your startup needs focus! The OMTM is the most important metric that your team should rally around. In practice there might be 2-3 metrics that you might have to track, say sales, UX, and tech debt. But definitely keep this very low and below three.

    Of course, your goals will change with time, so your OMTM evolves as your product and company mature.

    Example: Early on, your OMTM might be “user acquisition,” while later it might shift to “revenue per user.”

    4. Segmentation: Granular Insights Lead to Better Decisions

    Segmentation allows you to break down your data by user attributes like geography, device, age, or behaviour. This helps in observing patterns more minutely instead of being lost due to averaging. As your product grows, you will gain an increasing ability to ask complex questions from your data and then you can optimize marketing efforts or product features for specific user groups.

    Example: A product targeting millennials may realize that users from urban areas have higher engagement rates than rural users, leading to more targeted marketing efforts.

    5. Funnels & User Journeys: Mapping Key Milestones

    A funnel breaks down the steps users take as they move toward conversion. It helps you understand where users drop off and identify pain points in the user journey.

    Example: If your signup funnel shows a large drop-off after the email verification step, it may indicate a cumbersome process or unclear instructions, providing an opportunity for improvement.

    6. Retention

    User retention is one of the most telling metrics of your product’s long-term health. Simply acquiring users isn’t enough if they don’t stay. By cohorting users (grouping them based on when they signed up), you can measure how product changes impact different groups over time.

    Example: If users who signed up after a recent feature launch show lower retention rates, it may be an indicator that the feature has usability issues.

    7. Data Points: Focus on What Matters

    A Data point is a measurement that can be represented numerically or graphically. Here’s a more detailed Wikipedia definition. While it’s easy to get lost in data, not all data points are relevant to every decision.

    Example: Focus on the key data points that align with your KPIs and business goals. Instead of simply tracking ‘all actions,’ narrow it down to those that affect revenue, user satisfaction, or growth.

    Implementing Analytics for Your Product: A 3-Step Approach

    There are three broad steps you need to perform to setup analytics for your product:

    Step 1: Plan

    • Define Product Vision: Ensure you and everyone in the team understand the problem your product is solving.
    • Identify KPIs: What metrics will indicate progress toward your vision?
    • List Critical Metrics: Prioritize those that will guide your strategy.
    • Plan the Funnels: Decide what actions matter most along the user journey.
    • Data Points: Further drill down on where and how you’ll collect the metrics.

    Step 2: Measure

    • Use Established Tools: Focus on your core product instead. This is not the time to get political, whether AWS and Google Analytics are being monopolistic or not. Leverage tools like Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Hotjar for tracking. You can always reflect on these once you have substantial size.
    • Collect & Store Data: You might want to set up separate databases to run regular queries for fetching metrics over time. Set up automated dashboards where possible.

    Step 3: Report

    Mark Actionable Insights: Focus your reports on KPIs, comparing trends with competitors, or tracking user behavior changes. Summarize the findings to share with stakeholders and guide future decisions.

  • What’s inside Google Glass?

    What’s inside Google Glass?

    It’s impressive to see how much punch “Google Glass” packs in an elegant and light-weight construction.

    Google Glass breakdown

    (Image: iFixit)

    I’ve long believed that the ability to create new materials is a good indicator of a country’s production and economic ability. Just look at what Britain, US and Germany did with materials during the industrial revolution and Japan and China in the last century. Right now, US scientists are trying to use the power of Big Data to sequence ‘the materials genome’. 1000 years back it was probably the Middle East, China and India who were acing the material sciences and were indeed economically prosperous.

  • The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver

    Just finished reading this book and would whole-heartedly recommend it. A very engaging read for anyone interested in Statistics, Data Analytics and Predictions.

    “Nate Silver is a statistician, writer, and founder of The New York Times political blog FiveThirtyEight.com. He was named one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People by Time magazine.” He predicted the results of last two US presidential Elections with amazing accuracy. It’s like he can know the future before it happens!

    As the name of the book suggest, with plenty of examples from Weather Forecasting, Sports, Finance, Economics and Politics, Nate explains how he uses statistics and Bayesian Theory to pick up the signals that help him make those amazing predictions.

  • Tips to boost performance of a Windows PC

    I recently dived into fixing some of my PC nagging performance issues. Two years of use called for an overhaul! Here are some tips and tricks I used to fix the issues:

    1. Use System Logs to identify the most critical issues that slow down your PC

    a) Open “Event Viewer”
b) Goto ‘Application and Service Logs’ > Microsoft > Windows > Diagnostics Performance

    You will find your PC performance logs here. Look carefully and you might spot few devices that interfere with the Sleep/Resume performance of your PC. I salvaged 6secs of time from one single service “Toshiba Service Station”. It’s funny that a service by the manufacturer that’s not even required during regular runtime is slowing their machine. Saved about 20 secs in total on wake up time.

    2. Stop applications that start automatically at boot time but aren’t used

    1) Press Win Key + R (to open Run dialog box)
2) Type “msconfig” 
3) Stop all the unnecessary programs under the 'startup' tab.

    I do this often. Several programs like gtalk, gdrive, Skype, Web Cam, vlc, etc start with the system boot up and make the boot process painfully slow. It’s really bad that third party apps compromise a user’s overall PC experience just so that they can launch easily later on.

    Here’s a screenshot of msconfig showing programs that I’ve stopped from launch at boot-time:

    Msconfig dialog box - Windows OS

    3.  Stop unnecessary Services that consume resources in background

    1) Press Win Key + R (to open Run dialog box)
2) Type “services.msc” 
3) See what services you can stop.

    For instance, I stopped the notifications from ‘Intel Management and Security Status’ (the service is for networked update & Anti-theft service which I haven’t enabled for 2years and don’t think can really help after a theft.) and changed the “Toshiba Optical Drive” service to manual (The Optical Disc Drive still works. This service is just to protect the DVD at the time of running. Discs are rarely used now.)

    There are plenty of articles on the web listing non-essential services, so I won’t list them all here.

    4. Adjust Visual Effects

    I removed the following Visual effects without any noticeable effect.

    Windows OS visual settings for System Optimization

    5. Spring Clean Applications on your PC

    Use the Uninstall utility from the Control Panel to get rid of unnecessary programs. There are like 20 programs from Toshiba that I never used: Toshiba Bulletin board, Book places etc… More on this later in this post.

    6. Defragment the Hard Disk

    Right Click on drive under My Computer and find the defragment tool there.

    7. Clean up the Windows Registry

    Windows has a “Performance Issues and  Tools” program. It might highlight some sticking points, but won’t fix everything.

    I’m not really sure if this helps improve performance but it takes only a few minutes. You can look up “clean windows registry” on the internet and you’ll find plenty of resources. Be cautious of installing random ‘Registry Cleaners’ though — they could be malware.

    (more…)

  • Redesigning Windows desktop theme with Rainmeter

    One thing I miss about the Windows OS is the nifty selection of desktop applications developed by some amazing people over the years.

    Macs were too closed and expensive when I started working with computers. While, Windows and Linux gave me an opportunity to dissect my PC and play around with installing different OSes. An invaluable excercise for software developers IMHO.

    The thing I really dislike about Windows is the web development environment — I have to do all my web development work in Linux. And switching OSes is quite a drag. But Win 7 is pretty wonderful if you intend to use it for other purposes.

    Anyway, here’re two screenshots of my desktop from 2010. I created these using a Desktop customization tool called Rainmeter. Not the most user-friendly configuration, but it was fun exploring how much the desktop theme can be bent to your liking.

  • The new Nao is awesome!

    Dec 13, 2011

  • Aero India 2011

    Aero India 2011

    Hot day, a huge crowd, and most people would have gotten back exhausted. The arrangements at AeroIndia could have been better. But props to those who attended. Open-air fields are rough. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger haha. Nevertheless, I did enjoy many things at the show — I had to. I can’t hate aviation.

    So, without much ado Here’s a list of the main aircrafts that performed Aerobatics at the event:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_Tejas (my first viewing of this Indian Fighter Aircraft! I love to hate on HAL for their slow pace,. but this one’s aerobatic abilities pleasantly surprise me!)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_F/A-18E/F_Super_Hornet (US)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-16_Fighting_Falcon (US)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_JAS_39_Gripen (Swedish, in the pic below.)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Rafale (French, Dassault also makes Mirage 2000 which IAF already has)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-30 (Russian, demo’ed by IAF)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurofighter_Typhoon (Developed by a consortium of 4 European countries. An Italian flew it at the show. One of the top aircraft on the show)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_Dhruv (HAL’s Dhruv helicopter seems great too!)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_Kiran (flown by the Suryakiran team)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zl%C3%ADn_Z_50 (Red Bull team’s aircraft)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_2000
    A jet trainer that I can’t recollect now — probably the BAE Hawk
    (And there were IL76, Mi18, Chetak, C-130J, Avro, and others parked away.)

    And this is from the top of my head! I identified almost all of them in Air, given the PA system was quite a hit-and-miss.)