NKC-10: India's National Knowledge Commission –10: Knowledge commission to meet in first week of August in New Delhi, To launch an allout attack on multiple fronts.
India's National Knowledge Commission is going to meet in the
first week of August in New Delhi to discuss issues related to
knowledge production, use and dissemination. The commission,
according to its chairperson plans "to launch an allout attack on
multiple fronts." Read an account of Amit Chanda's talk with the
chairperson, reproduced below* for convenience, at:
Chanda, Amit (2005): Talking about a knowledge revolution, The Times
of India, New Delhi, July 25, Monday, Education Times, pp 1&7,
http://epaperdaily.timesofindia.com/Daily/skins/TOI/navigator.asp?
Daily=TOIM#TOP(accessed: July 25, 2005).
Dr D.C.Misra
July 25, 2005
______________________________________________________________________
*Q & A
Talking about a knowledge revolution
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Tech Czar Sam Pitroda is back as the chairman of the National
Knowledge Commission to prepare India to meet knowledge challenges in
the 21st century. Pitroda talks to Amit Chanda about his new role
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The architect of India's telecommunication revolution Sam Pitroda is
back in business. This time, Pitroda, however, will be spearheading
the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) as chairperson, constituted
by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in April this year to prepare the
country to meet knowledge challenges in the 21st century. The
commission is going to meet in the first week of August in the
Capital to discuss issues related to knowledge production, use and
dissemination.
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What is the mandate of the National Knowledge Commission?
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The commission — comprising P M Bhargava as vice-chairperson and
members Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, educationists Deepak Nayyar,
Ashok Ganguly, Andre Beteille, Jayati Ghosh and Pratap Bhanu Mehta
—
will be looking at building excellence in the educational system to
meet the knowledge challenges and increase India's competitive
advantage in fields of knowledge.We seek to promote creation of
knowledge in science and technology laboratories, improve the
management of institutions engaged in Intellectual Property Rights or
IPR and promote knowledge applications in agriculture and industry.
The committee will also promote the use of knowledge capabilities in
making the government an effective, transparent and accountable
service provider to the citizen.
The committee members have shared documents on different issues. The
three-day meeting which is going to take place in the Capital in the
first week of August will witness our future course of action and how
we are going to achieve our objectives. We will be coordinating with
concerned ministries like Ministry of HRD, Ministry of Science &
Technology, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of
Agriculture and Ministry of IT to achieve our goals. This will help
us to form an overview and then report to the Prime Minister. We plan
to develop a set of deliverables by October 2 and make public a 36-
month plan from October 2, 2005 to October 2, 2008.
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The commission will focus on matters related to management of
knowledge areas. How are you going to define the parameters?
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The focus is on creation of knowledge, its dissemination and its
utilisation in health, education and many areas. The focus will also
be on life cycle of knowledge, and how it's used when you are a
child, a youth, and old age.
We will talk about quality education which could be at primary,
secondary or higher level and how it can be linked with research and
devel opment, linkages with industry, integration and its application
in university system.
If we want to emerge as a knowledge society we also have to think
about institutions, which need to be created to accelerate the spread
of knowledge in our country. There will be focus on e-governance and
e-learning at tehsil, district and state levels. We will talk about e-
files, multiple accesses and interlinking of all departments through
single system.
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You once said that accessibility rather than density should be the
focus of telecom reforms in the country. Will you follow a similar
out-of-box thinking to bring reforms in education as well?
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The focus is on how knowledge can be used to improve lives and
provide jobs to a large number of people. For example, how knowledge
can be used to provide additional training and tools to upgrade an
electrician's skills and productivity. Twenty years ago when we
embarked on the telecom dream, everyone felt that it was like a pipe
dream. There were 20 questions asked on why telecom and not health,
education, water and many more. Our idea was to provide accessibility
to people in the form of PCO. If you plant the right seed now, the
results will only show after 20 to 30 years.
The climate is right now to bring a revolution in the management of
knowledge as well. We have to start discussing issues at local level
too. We are a country of one billion people but we do not have enough
think-tanks which can discuss issues like water, health and
education. All these issues will be discussed in detail.
The idea this time would be to pick an issue and push it forward. It
could be literacy, higher education, S&T, rural education. We plan to
launch an allout attack on multiple fronts.
______________________________________________________________________
(Source: Chanda, Amit (2005): Talking about a knowledge revolution,
The Times of India, New Delhi, July 25, Monday, Education Times, pp
1&7,
http://epaperdaily.timesofindia.com/Daily/skins/TOI/navigator.asp?
Daily=TOIM#TOP (accessed: July 25, 2005)
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Saturday, July 23, 2005
NKC-9: Review of Mehta (2005a): Regulating Higher Education, etc., The Indian Express, New Delhi, July 14-16.
NKC-9: India's National Knowledge Commission-9: Review of Mehta
(2005a, 2005b and 2005c): Regulating Higher Education, Critiquing the
Regulatory Regime and How to build Quality Institutions, The Indian
Express, New Delhi, July 14-16.
This is a series of three articles by Dr Pratap Bhanu Mehta,
President, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi on the state of
higher education in India. In the first part,* the author points out
to the mismatch of supply and demand with the thrust of regulatory
regime to diminish rather than increase supply, in the second part,**
to the regulatory regime, which concentrates on motives and
intentions rather than the likely outcomes and in the third part***
the author suggests a number of measures for improving quality of
higher education in India. This series assumes importance as the
author – Dr Mehta- is Member-Convener of recently constituted India's
National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and building excellence is one of
its terms of reference and his views may have a bearing upon the
deliberations of the commission.
Dr D.C.Misra
July 23, 2005
___________________________________________________________________
*Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (2005a): Regulating Higher Education, The Indian
Express, New Delhi, July 14, Thursday, p-9, Part-I),
http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_frame.php
**Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (2005b): Critiquing the Regulatory Regime, The
Indian Express, New Delhi, July 15, Friday, p-9, Part-II),
http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_frame.php
***Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (2005c): How to build Quality Institutions,
The Indian Express, July 16, Saturday, p-9, Part-III)
http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_frame.php
(2005a, 2005b and 2005c): Regulating Higher Education, Critiquing the
Regulatory Regime and How to build Quality Institutions, The Indian
Express, New Delhi, July 14-16.
This is a series of three articles by Dr Pratap Bhanu Mehta,
President, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi on the state of
higher education in India. In the first part,* the author points out
to the mismatch of supply and demand with the thrust of regulatory
regime to diminish rather than increase supply, in the second part,**
to the regulatory regime, which concentrates on motives and
intentions rather than the likely outcomes and in the third part***
the author suggests a number of measures for improving quality of
higher education in India. This series assumes importance as the
author – Dr Mehta- is Member-Convener of recently constituted India's
National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and building excellence is one of
its terms of reference and his views may have a bearing upon the
deliberations of the commission.
Dr D.C.Misra
July 23, 2005
___________________________________________________________________
*Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (2005a): Regulating Higher Education, The Indian
Express, New Delhi, July 14, Thursday, p-9, Part-I),
http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_frame.php
**Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (2005b): Critiquing the Regulatory Regime, The
Indian Express, New Delhi, July 15, Friday, p-9, Part-II),
http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_frame.php
***Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (2005c): How to build Quality Institutions,
The Indian Express, July 16, Saturday, p-9, Part-III)
http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_frame.php
Sunday, July 17, 2005
NKC-8: Ministerial working groups to assist the knowledge commission in India
NKC-8: India's National Knowledge Commission-8: Six ministerial working groups to assist the knowledge commission
India’s knowledge commission will address its terms of reference through working groups (WGs) to be constituted by the Ministry connected with each term of reference vide Planning Commission,
Government of India, New Delhi, notification of July 13, 2005.As many as six ministerial working groups will assist the knowledge commission. Such working groups will be set up by
(i)Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) on building excellence in the educational system to meet the knowledge challenges of the 21st Century,
(ii)Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) on promoting research in science and technology,
(iii)Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Improving the management of institutions engaged in intellectual property rights (IPRs),
(iv)Ministry of Agriculture on promoting knowledge applications in agriculture,
(v)Ministry of Commerce and Industry on promoting knowledge applications in industry, and
(vi)Department of Information Technology (DIT) on promoting the use of knowledge capabilities to make the government effective, transparent, accountable and public-oriented.
It appears that the knowledge commission may not undertake any original work but may deliberate on the reports of the ministerial working groups (WGs) and make its recommendations to the Prime
Minister. It is noteworthy that all the members of the knowledge commission are part-time. Policy formulation / intervention is thus likely to depend to a large extent upon the deliberations of these
working groups (WGs) rather than the individual expertise of the members.. It is also, however, not known if any Ministry or Department has onstituted the concerned working group (WG) so far or not.
Dr D.C.Misra
July 17, 2005
India’s knowledge commission will address its terms of reference through working groups (WGs) to be constituted by the Ministry connected with each term of reference vide Planning Commission,
Government of India, New Delhi, notification of July 13, 2005.As many as six ministerial working groups will assist the knowledge commission. Such working groups will be set up by
(i)Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) on building excellence in the educational system to meet the knowledge challenges of the 21st Century,
(ii)Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) on promoting research in science and technology,
(iii)Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Improving the management of institutions engaged in intellectual property rights (IPRs),
(iv)Ministry of Agriculture on promoting knowledge applications in agriculture,
(v)Ministry of Commerce and Industry on promoting knowledge applications in industry, and
(vi)Department of Information Technology (DIT) on promoting the use of knowledge capabilities to make the government effective, transparent, accountable and public-oriented.
It appears that the knowledge commission may not undertake any original work but may deliberate on the reports of the ministerial working groups (WGs) and make its recommendations to the Prime
Minister. It is noteworthy that all the members of the knowledge commission are part-time. Policy formulation / intervention is thus likely to depend to a large extent upon the deliberations of these
working groups (WGs) rather than the individual expertise of the members.. It is also, however, not known if any Ministry or Department has onstituted the concerned working group (WG) so far or not.
Dr D.C.Misra
July 17, 2005
Friday, July 08, 2005
NKC-7: Designate a CKO in each Ministry/Department at the Centre and in the States
NKC-7: India's National Knowledge Commission-7: Designate a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) in each Ministry/Department at the Centre and in the States
Irrespective of when and how India’s knowledge commission commences its work (I have so far not come across any public announcement in this regard), a chief knowledge officer (CKO), not below the rank of a joint secretary, should be designated in each ministry/department at the centre. A joint secretary (JS) in a ministry or department at the centre is a member of the senior management group (SMG) of the ministry/department and typically heads a division or two. In certain ministries, for example, in Ministry of Agriculture and in Ministry of Industry, there is a post of Joint Secretary (Policy Planning). This officer can very appropriately be designated as chief knowledge officer (CKO) in addition to his own duties.
Each ministry/department at the centre also has an administrative reforms (AR) division or section. Such administrative reforms (AR) division or section should also be placed under the charge of the chief knowledge officer (CKO). Similarly, the information technology (IT) division or section should also be placed under the charge of the chief knowledge officer (CKO). Likewise the National Informatics Centre (NIC) staff in the ministries/departments at the centre should also report to the chief knowledge officer (CKO) for making use of the nationwide information and communication technology (ICT) network called NICNET.
Similarly, an officer not below the rank of commissioner (equivalent in rank to a joint secretary at the centre) should be designated as chief knowledge officer (CKO) in the states. Again, note that no suggestion is being made to “create” a new post (which would further add to administrative cost). On the other hand, it is suggested to designate an existing officer as a chief knowledge officer (CKO) in addition to his existing work. But who should be designated as a chief knowledge officer (CKO) in states?
Each state by now has a secretary (information technology) (IT). His job is to assist in information technology (IT) policy formulation and implementation and to promote introduction of egovernance. Often, and very rightly too, the department of administrative reforms is also placed under his charge so that a holistic, instead of fragmentary, view of egovernance could be taken. Also, an important domain of the public sector knowledge management (PSKM) is egovernance, which has been accepted worldwide as an instrument of change and transformation. Ideally, therefore, secretary (information technology) in the states should be designated as chief knowledge officer (CKO) in the states. The state informatics officer (SIO) of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) should also report to the state chief knowledge officer (CKO).
What should be the function of state chief knowledge officers (CKOs)? First, they should act as contact points/liaison officers for the newly constituted knowledge commission. Secondly, they should identify knowledge requirements of various departments and their subordinate organisations. Thirdly, they should launch pilot “knowledge projects” with high “pay offs,” replicability and scalability, and demonstration value. Fourthly, they should generally promote the concept of “knowledge capital” as an instrument of accelerated social and economic development. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the chief knowledge officer (CKO) should capture, codify and exploit knowledge within the state governments for greater public good.
Dr D.C.Misra
July 8, 2005
Irrespective of when and how India’s knowledge commission commences its work (I have so far not come across any public announcement in this regard), a chief knowledge officer (CKO), not below the rank of a joint secretary, should be designated in each ministry/department at the centre. A joint secretary (JS) in a ministry or department at the centre is a member of the senior management group (SMG) of the ministry/department and typically heads a division or two. In certain ministries, for example, in Ministry of Agriculture and in Ministry of Industry, there is a post of Joint Secretary (Policy Planning). This officer can very appropriately be designated as chief knowledge officer (CKO) in addition to his own duties.
Each ministry/department at the centre also has an administrative reforms (AR) division or section. Such administrative reforms (AR) division or section should also be placed under the charge of the chief knowledge officer (CKO). Similarly, the information technology (IT) division or section should also be placed under the charge of the chief knowledge officer (CKO). Likewise the National Informatics Centre (NIC) staff in the ministries/departments at the centre should also report to the chief knowledge officer (CKO) for making use of the nationwide information and communication technology (ICT) network called NICNET.
Similarly, an officer not below the rank of commissioner (equivalent in rank to a joint secretary at the centre) should be designated as chief knowledge officer (CKO) in the states. Again, note that no suggestion is being made to “create” a new post (which would further add to administrative cost). On the other hand, it is suggested to designate an existing officer as a chief knowledge officer (CKO) in addition to his existing work. But who should be designated as a chief knowledge officer (CKO) in states?
Each state by now has a secretary (information technology) (IT). His job is to assist in information technology (IT) policy formulation and implementation and to promote introduction of egovernance. Often, and very rightly too, the department of administrative reforms is also placed under his charge so that a holistic, instead of fragmentary, view of egovernance could be taken. Also, an important domain of the public sector knowledge management (PSKM) is egovernance, which has been accepted worldwide as an instrument of change and transformation. Ideally, therefore, secretary (information technology) in the states should be designated as chief knowledge officer (CKO) in the states. The state informatics officer (SIO) of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) should also report to the state chief knowledge officer (CKO).
What should be the function of state chief knowledge officers (CKOs)? First, they should act as contact points/liaison officers for the newly constituted knowledge commission. Secondly, they should identify knowledge requirements of various departments and their subordinate organisations. Thirdly, they should launch pilot “knowledge projects” with high “pay offs,” replicability and scalability, and demonstration value. Fourthly, they should generally promote the concept of “knowledge capital” as an instrument of accelerated social and economic development. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the chief knowledge officer (CKO) should capture, codify and exploit knowledge within the state governments for greater public good.
Dr D.C.Misra
July 8, 2005
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