Mayank Desai's Collection of Spiritual and Motivational Stories

The more conscious you are, the more intensely you live

mayankdesai — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 05:59:26 +0000

Osho – THE ESSENTIAL TEACHING OF GAUTAM THE BUDDHA is not a teaching at all, but an awakening. A way to become more aware. He does not give you a doctrine about existence, but he gives you a methodology to see that which is. He is not concerned with God, he is not concerned with the other world beyond. His whole concern is you – the awareness within.
Hence Buddha has been misunderstood by almost everybody. The religious people have not been able to understand him because he does not talk about God. They have not been able to appreciate him because he does not talk about the other world. And all the religions have depended on the other world. They are against THIS world and for some illusory world somewhere there in the future – beyond this life, beyond this body, beyond this moment. Their whole world is a fantasy world. They persuade people to sacrifice the real for the unreal, they persuade people to sacrifice that which is for that which is not yet and may not ever be. They persuade people to sacrifice the present for the future – how can they understand Buddha?
Because he does not talk about the other world at all. He is not an other-worldly one. But he has not satisfied the materialists either, the atheists either. Because they think this is all that there is – eat, drink, be merry. And Buddha says: This is not all that there is. You are living only on the surface of things. There is a depth to things – but that depth can be known, fathomed, only if depth to you go deeper into your own being, into your own consciousness.
The more conscious you are, the more intensely you live. The more conscious you are, the more reality becomes available to you. You EARN reality only through being conscious. When one is absolutely conscious, one is absolutely real.
Naturally, the materialists, the this-worldly people, cannot agree with Buddha, because they say, ”This is all. The surface is all, the outside is all, there is no inside to it.”
So nobody is agreeing with him. The religious don’t agree, the irreligious don’t agree. His approach is a very radical approach – it is against the worldly, it is against the other-worldly. He brings a new light, he brings a new understanding. That understanding he calls ’mindfulness’.
You have to understand this word ’mindfulness’. If you can understand this single word ’mindfulness’ you will have understood Buddha’s whole being, his whole approach. And he is one of those who have known. If you want to ask anybody, ask a man like Buddha.
But his approach is a methodology, not a doctrine. It is a way of life. People live like robots, they live mechanically. Buddha says: Live non-mechanically. Each of your acts has to be luminous with awareness. And then each act starts revealing reality to you. And he does not make any distinction between the profane and the sacred – there is none. The profane is the sacred, if you live it consciously.
Just going for a morning walk – if you can walk consciously, this is prayer. There is no need to go to any church. Prayer has no relationship with a church or a temple, prayer has something to do with your quality of awareness. You can do a thing prayerfully, and the thing may be anything, cleaning the floor, cooking the food, washing the clothes, taking a bath, going to sleep.
It reminds me of one of the most beautiful stories about Buddha’s closest disciple, Ananda. Ananda lived with Buddha for forty years – and he lived like a shadow. He never left Buddha for a single moment, not even in the night; he would sleep in the same room where Buddha was sleeping. He had taken a promise from Buddha…
When Buddha became enlightened, Ananda came to him to be initiated. He was a cousin brother of Buddha and older than Buddha. He asked Buddha, ”I am your elder brother. Once I am initiated, I will be your disciple. Then whatsoever you say, I will have to do – then I cannot say no. That is the meaning of disciplehood – a person decides, ”Now I will say yes to my master, whatsoever he says. If he says ’Jump and kill yourself’ I will jump and kill myself.” Surrendering the no is the secret of disciplehood.
So Ananda said, ”I am going to be your disciple. Before I become your disciple, as your elder brother I want one promise. Right now I am your elder brother and I can order you” – the old Indian tradition – ”you are my younger brother and I can say this to you. You have to give me this promise, that you will never tell me to leave you. I will stay with you; wherever you go I will be with you. I will follow you like a shadow, I will serve you like a shadow. Even in the night I will be sleeping just by your side, continuously ready to serve you.”
Buddha promised. And Ananda lived with Buddha for forty years. No other disciple lived so close. But because he was so close he started taking Buddha for granted – naturally. He was so close, he started forgetting Buddha. He was so close that he never tried what Buddha was saying. And the day came when Buddha dropped his body…
Many who had come after Ananda had become enlightened. Ananda was not yet enlightened. He wept bitterly. His misery was great; there was no consolation. Now suddenly he became aware that forty years had been a wastage. ”I lived with this man – a rare opportunity, very rare. To find a Buddha is rare, and to live with a Buddha for forty years continuously – it has not happened before, it may not happen again. Forty years in a long time. And still I have missed.”
He stopped eating food, he stopped all kinds of other activities. He decided to become enlightened before it was too late – it was already late. Day and night, he was trying to be aware… And a great council was going to be arranged soon – all the enlightened disciples were going to gather together to collect the sayings of Buddha. Ananda was not invited. And he was the most reliable source, obviously – nobody had lived with Buddha so long, nobody had as much information as he had. Nobody had listened to Buddha so much – morning and evening, day and night, he was always there, just watching. Whatsoever Buddha had said, he had heard it. And he had a miraculous memory, absolute memory – he had the power of absolute recall. But still he was not invited to the council.
It was not possible to invite him. He had known Buddha, his word was reliable, his memory was perfect – but he had no inner validity. He himself was not yet a Buddha. Yes, to collect facts he was the right person. But what about truth? And facts and truths are different dimensions. A fact may be a fact and yet may not be true. And a truth may be true, yet may not be a fact.
Truth is not the sum total of all the facts – truth is something more. Facts are mundane, superficial. Truths are not on the surface, they are inner. Ananda could say everything factual, but he had no inner validity. He himself was not a witness. So even those who had not lived with Buddha were called to the council, but not Ananda.
He worked hard, he staked all. Each moment he was trying to be aware, alert, mindful. And the last night came – tomorrow morning the council was going to gather. Ananda was going mad: it had not happened yet. He was becoming more and more tense and he was putting in all that one could put, all that was humanly possible. He was ready to die for it.
The middle of the night had come and nothing had happened yet. And he was driving himself crazy. For days he had not eaten, he had not slept, he had not taken a bath – there was no time to waste. One o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock, four o’clock in the morning… and he was just on the verge of either going mad or becoming enlightened. It looked more like madness: he was exploding, he was falling apart.
Then suddenly he remembered, Buddha had always said: Be aware, but in a relaxed way. Be aware, but without any tension. Attention without any tension. Calm and quiet. Alert, but with no strain. That memory came in the right moment – he relaxed. He was so tired, dead tired, that he went to bed. When he was just going to put his head on the pillow – fully aware, relaxed – he became enlightened. The moment his head touched the pillow, he became enlightened.
He slept, for the first time in his whole life, a different kind of sleep. He was asleep as far as the body was concerned, but his inner light was aflame. Deep within his being, he was alert and aware. Morning came, and he was still asleep. Other monks came to see whether he had been able to make it. They looked in the room, and it had the same fragrance as that of Buddha – the same luminosity, the same grace and grandeur. And Ananda was fast asleep but his face had the light, the light that comes from within. Even in his sleep he was mindful. There was grace, there was a silence surrounding the room, there was a new space.
He was invited immediately. He asked the other monks, ”Why? What has happened now? Why were you not asking me to come to the council?” And they said, ”Just one day ago, your memory was just the memory of the outside of things. Now you know from the inside – you yourself have become a Buddha.
BUDDHAHOOD MEANS WHEN YOU BECOME SO ALERT that even in your sleep the alertness continues as an undercurrent. Even when you die, you die fully alert – now there is no way to lose your alertness, your alertness has become your nature. This is the essential message of Buddha.
Source – Osho Book “Take It Easy, Vol 2″ Shubhuti

Our gold-plated culture of corruption :

mayankdesai — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 09:00:39 +0000

No race can be congenitally corrupt. But can a race be corrupted by its culture? To know why Indians are corrupt let’s look elsewhere. What patterns and practices distinguish us?| Aakar Patel

Analysis on corruption in India does not address its cultural aspect. We see nothing peculiar about corruption in India (except that it is everywhere). We see many corrupt individuals in a system unable to correct itself. Our media reports corruption episodically. One independent incident of greed follows another. Let us set all that aside and look at it differently. No race can be congenitally corrupt. But can a race be corrupted by its culture?

To know why Indians are corrupt let’s look elsewhere. What patterns and practices distinguish us?

First: Religion is transactional in India. We give God cash and anticipate an out-of-turn reward. Our plea acknowledges we aren’t really deserving. The cash compensates for our lack of merit. In the world outside the temple walls, such a transaction has a name: “bribe”. In India God accepts cash from us, not good work, for which there is no reward. We don’t expect something from God in return for sweeping our neighborhood streets. We go with money. Observe this in another way. Why does the wealthy Indian give not cash to temples, but gold crowns and such baubles? To ensure his gift isn’t squandered on feeding the poor. Our pay-off is for God. It’s wasted if it goes to man. See what this has produced. In June 2009, The Hindu published a report of Karnataka minister G. Janardhan Reddy gifting a crown of gold and diamonds worth Rs. 45 crore to Tirupati. According to the temple’s website, Tirupati got 3,200kg silver and 2.4kg of diamonds in just one year. The temple encourages such giving, according to a report in The Telegraph in April 2010. Those who gifted a kilo of gold, worth over Rs. 21 lakh, got “VIP darshan” (which means cutting the queue) of the idol. In 2007, Vellore’s Sripuram temple was built with 1,500kg of gold. By weight alone it is worth Rs. 325 crore. In May 2010, according to The Economic Times, 1,075kg of gold was deposited by Tirupati with the State Bank of India (SBI) for safe keeping. In 2009, 500kg was deposited with the Indian Overseas Bank. Good lord!: (above) The Swaminarayan temple in Neasden, London (CGP Grey/Wikimedia Commons); and priests bathing the idol of Venkateswara in Tirupati (PTI). In June 2004, Business Standard reported that Tirupati couldn’t melt down 8,000kg of gifted gold ornaments because devotees had stuck precious stones to their gift. This 8 tonnes of metal, worth Rs. 1,680 crore but actually useless, was gathering dust in temple vaults. On 11 February, according to The Hindu Business Line, 1,175kg of gold was deposited with SBI, and the temple trustees had yet another 3,000kg of gold handy. What will they do with all this metal? Gold-plate the walls of the temple (lending new meaning to the phrase “India Shining”). This work was halted by the Andhra Pradesh high court in December. Not because it was wasteful—such things aren’t vulgar to Indians—but because it might have damaged wall inscriptions. India’s temples collect so much of this stuff they don’t know what to do with it. In February, 17 tonnes of silver, worth Rs. 117 crore, was found in an Odisha temple. The priests say they had no idea it was even there. But the devotee keeps giving. Tirupati alone gets between 800kg (The Economic Times’ estimate) and 1,825kg (The Telegraph’s estimate) of gold a year. When God accepts money in return for his favours, what is wrong with my doing the same thing? Nothing. This is why Indians are so easily corruptible. Our culture accommodates such transactions morally. This is key. There is no real stigma. The demonstrably corrupt Indian leader can harbour hope of a comeback, unthinkable in the West. Our moral ambiguity towards corruption is also visible in our history.

This is our second point. Any number of books on Indian history tells us of the capture of cities and kingdoms after guards were paid off to open gates, and commanders paid off to surrender. This is unique to India. We read of battles won after battalions evaporated. Our corrupt nature has limited warfare on the subcontinent. It is striking how little Indians have actually fought compared to ancient Greece and modern Europe. The Turks’ battles with Nadir Shah were vicious and fought to the finish. In India fighting wasn’t needed, bribing was usually enough to see off our armies. The invader willing to spend a bit of cash always brushed aside India’s kings, no matter how many tens of thousands peopled their infantry. Little battle was given at the “Battle” of Plassey. Clive paid off Mir Jaffar and all of Bengal folded to an army of 3,000. There was always a financial solution to taking our forts. Golconda was captured in 1687 after the secret back door was left open. In 1700, the fort of Parli, west of Satara, the headquarters of the Maratha government, fell after it took a bribe from Aurangzeb. In 1701, Aurangzeb invested the Panhala fort for two months without success. Then he bribed the Maratha commandant Trimbak, who let the Mughals in. Aurangzeb took the forts at Wardhangarh, Nandgir, Wandan and Chandan without fighting. Khelna fought the Mughals (led by the mercenary Sawai Rajputs of Amber) superbly till commandant Parshuram accepted his bribe and gave up the fort. According to The Cambridge History of India, Torna was the only fort captured in that long campaign without bribes. Allahabad was taken by the Mughals in April 1720 when Girdhar Bahadur left the gates open after being promised governorship of Awadh. The same year Asir opened its gates to Nizam-ul-Mulk after a bribe. The Raja of Srinagar gave up Dara Shikoh’s son Sulaiman to Aurangzeb after a bribe. Shivaji took Kondhana (which he renamed Sinhagad) after the Mughal commander was bribed. The Mughals lost Penukonda to the Marathas in 1706 after the commandant was paid off. We must understand that this isn’t one man bribed alone. He must share that money with his officers, who must in turn pass it along to the infantry and cavalry. Everyone participated in this treason.

Question is: Why do we have a transactional culture while civilized nations don’t?
The answer is that we haven’t learnt to trust one another as Europeans have. Indians do not buy the theory that we can all rise if each of us behaves morally, because that is not the message of our faith.

This is the third point. Our faith assures us that God will deliver for us individually, but we must deliver to him too. When Europeans came here they built schools (there were zero schools in Gujarat before Mountstuart Elphinstone built the first 10 in the 1820s). When we go to Europe we build more temples. Patels alone have built 12 Swaminarayan temples in Britain. Unfortunately, the European is tolerant and the Indian quite shameless, though it’s true also that he’s unaware of what he’s doing. He’s practising his magic in a culture where it isn’t needed. He doesn’t need God’s favours in a society that isn’t corrupt, that is moral, that is equal. All he needs is hard work, which he’s quite capable of giving. Some might say the doctrine of our faith doesn’t support this behaviour. That shouldn’t concern us here. We’re talking about its practice, the way we do religion, rather than its philosophy, which is ultimately meaningless. The way we do it is Hobbesian. We are up against everyone else, except God—and even he must be bribed.

Indians : Facts and FAQs : Good Article.

mayankdesai — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 07:55:28 +0000

Anatomy of an ‘Indian’: | Aakar Patel

Q: Are Indians patriots?

Analysis: Patriotism is “love of one’s country and willingness to sacrifice for it”. The second aspect is objective and can be documented. If we observe Indians, do they demonstrate willingness to sacrifice for their country? The answer is no. In his country the Indian is an opportunist—in traffic, in queues, in avoiding process, in littering, in avoiding taxes. Where he can find advantage, he will take it (see note 1). He doesn’t see this as wrong. This is why he must be constantly policed—because he hasn’t internalized common good.
A: Indians are not patriots.

Q: Are Indians nationalists?

Analysis: Nationalism is the “feeling of superiority of our nation over others”. In India, the word has not yet acquired the menace it has in English. Nationalism (“rashtravad”) is a good word, a warm word in all Indian languages. In character: Opportunism distinguishes Indian cities from European ones. Satish Bate/Hindustan Times

A: Indians are nationalists.

Q: Are Indians opportunists?

Analysis: Opportunism is “taking advantage of opportunities without regard for the consequences for others”. This describes accurately the difference between our cities and those in Europe.

A: Indians are opportunists.

Q: Are Indians pious?

Analysis: Piety is “the quality of being religious”. Religiousness is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power.

A: Indians are religious and pious.

Q: Are Indians taught morals?

Analysis: Morals are “concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour”. There is a problem here, and it is the definition of right and wrong behaviour (see note 2). Good conduct from “morals” in English is different from “dharma” in our languages.

A: The answer is that Indians are taught not morals, but dharma.

Q: Are Indians racist?

Analysis: Racism is the belief in superiority and inferiority based on skin colour. Indians view those fairer than them differently. We discriminate positively against whites and negatively against blacks. Indians aspire to be white. No Indian cosmetic promotes dark skin.

A: Indians are racist (see note 3)

Q: Are Indians secular?

Analysis: The universal meaning of secularism is accepting politics that is independent of religion. Our Prime Minister is not Hindu. Our most powerful leader is not even Indian. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi are the faces of a secular India. Pankaj Nangia/Bloomberg

A: Indians are secular.

Q: Are Indians hypocrites?

Analysis: Hypocrisy is “claiming moral standards to which our own behaviour does not conform”. Let’s examine corruption in India. One: The everyday behaviour of Indians is incompatible with our views on corruption. Two: Demonstrably corrupt people are admired and returned to power by us. (see note 4).

A: Indians are hypocrites.

Q: Are Indians communal?

Analysis: The universal definition of communalism is “reliance on cultural and social groupings”. The most important clue—matrimonial advertisements—indicates our discomfort at leaving our social group.

A: Indians are communal.

Q: Are Indians conservative?

Analysis: Conservatives are “averse to change, holding on to traditional values, especially in politics”. Our politics is not based on values, but on group opportunism. Dogma does not win elections in India.

A: Indians are not conservative.

Q: Are Indians liberal?

Analysis: Liberalism is “being open to new behaviour and being willing to discard traditional values”. The collapse of vernacular schooling, the success of Indians in the modern economy shows our ability to easily set aside traditional values in our self-interest.

A: Indians are liberal.

Q: Are Indians tolerant?

Analysis: Tolerance is the “willingness to tolerate beliefs and opinions at variance with ours”. The Indian belief is polytheism (“many gods”) and pantheism (“god is everywhere”). This is mistaken for religious tolerance (see note 5). Tolerance must exist outside of this belief. Does it? The answer is no. Those who hold views opposed to ours must shut up or face violence. The evidence is in newspapers every day.

A: Indians are not tolerant.

Notes 1. Where his countrymen are damaged by his individual action—through illegal immigration—the Indian will choose himself over India. Embassies observe and record national behaviour. Violations by Indians over decades, not racism, have made visa access restrictive, quite rightly, to all Indians. In Australia the Indian youth behaves as he does in India, and then complains of racism when society objects and punishes him. Our patriotic feeling is weak, though our nationalist sentiment is strong.
2. Is Shri Ram’s murder of Vali and his treatment of Sita moral? Is Shri Krishna’s advice to Arjun on Karna moral? Is his action on Jayadrath moral? Is Acharya Drona’s behaviour with Eklavya moral? Our texts say: “Yes.” They are right according to dharma (if the question is asked in an Indian language). But they are wrong morally. Dharma is opportunistic, while morals are not.

3. We mustn’t blame faith for this. Our texts repeatedly insist that our favourite gods—Shri Ram, Shri Krishna and Shiv Mahadev—are all black-skinned.

4. Indians think of corruption as something on the outside, which must be “solved” by the government. We are greatly agitated over this. The paradox is that a most honest, unelected man has been imposed by a foreigner over Indians on sufferance. Corruption is actually “inside” us but not apparent to a nation of hypocrites.

5. On the question of religious pluralism in Hinduism, Narendra Modi says Indians show acceptance and not tolerance. He is quite right. Tolerance is confused with pluralism (just as corruption is confused here with bribery).

Zakaria: What Greece teaches the U.S. (via Global Public Square)

mayankdesai — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 05:57:03 +0000

Editor's Note: The following is a transcript of a Q&A with Fareed Zakaria. Amar C. Bakshi: What lessons do you draw from Greece's economic crisis? The situation in Greece highlights for me how different America’s economic crisis is from Europe’s economic crisis. America’s economic crisis is one that is actually economically soluble but politically very difficult to solve. If we were to repeal the Bush tax cuts, we'd get $4 trillion of revenue … Read More

via Global Public Square

First 100 Days” in office — which stabilized a country

mayankdesai — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 05:55:35 +0000

There is something crazy about what is going on in our country today. Our fiscal condition continues on an unsustainable path, the European currency is heading for a crackup, the Arab world is in the midst of a crackup, unemployment is creeping upward and basically our two parties are telling us that they will not make the reforms that we know are necessary because it would involve too much pain and could imperil their chances of winning the presidency in 2012.

Josh Haner/The New York Times

Thomas L. Friedman

Ever since President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s legendary “First 100 Days” in office — which stabilized a country ravaged by the Depression — the first 100 days of every president have been used as a measuring stick for success. That’s over. I’ve said this before, and I believe it even more strongly today: We’ve gone from the first 100 days to the “Only 100 Days.”

Really — it feels as if Barack Obama had 100 days to push through the basics we needed to stabilize the economy and then lay the basis for his one big initiative — health care reform — and then he was preparing for the midterms, and then he was recovering from his midterm losses and then he was announcing his re-election bid and then, judging from all the Republicans who have declared for the presidency already, the 2012 race got started. As such, the chances of the two parties successfully doing something big, hard and together to fix the huge problems staring us in the face are very small — unless the market or Mother Nature imposes it upon them.

Therefore, let us all now hold our breath and hope that nothing really bad happens until the next president has his or her 100 days in early 2013 to take a quick shot at fixing the country before getting ready for the 2014 midterms and 2016 elections.

There is no way that America can remain a great country if the opportunities for meaningful reform are reduced to either market- or and climate-induced crises and 100 working days every four years. We need a full-time government, and instead we’ve created a Congress that is a full-time fund-raising enterprise that occasionally legislates and a White House that, save for 100 days, has to be in perpetual campaign mode.

To get elected today, politicians increasingly have to play to their bases and promise things that they cannot possibly deliver (5 percent annual growth for a decade) or solutions to our problems that will be painless for their constituencies (we’ll just raise taxes on the rich or we’ll just cut taxes even more) or to keep things just as they are even though we know they can’t possibly stay that way without bankrupting the country (Social Security and Medicare benefits).

The truth is, we need to do four things at once if we have any hope of maintaining American greatness: We need more stimulus to keep the economy from slipping back into recession. But we need to combine that stimulus with a credible, legislated, long-term plan for cutting spending and getting the deficit under control — e.g., the Simpson-Bowles deficit-reduction plan. And we need to raise new revenues in order to reinvest in the sources of our strength: education, infrastructure and government-funded research to push out the boundaries of knowledge.

That’s right. We need to do four things at once: spend, cut, tax and invest. And unless we do all four at once we’re not going to break out of our slow decline. But to do all four at once will require a new hybrid politics, which does not conform to the political agenda of either major party.

The Democrats are ready for more stimulus but have refused to signal any serious willingness to cut entitlements, like Medicare, that we know are unsustainable in their present form. The Republicans are all for spending cuts but refuse to accept any tax increases that we need to pay for the past and invest in the future. So what we’re basically saying as a country is that unless the market or Mother Nature make us pay, we are going to hand this whole bill over to our children.

Maybe it is just my friends, but I find more and more people completely disgusted by this situation and looking for a serious Third Party candidate who could run in 2012 and deliver the shock therapy to the corrupt, encrusted, two-party duopoly now running the show in America.

Such a Third Party would have a simple agenda: 1) Inject a short-term stimulus. 2) Enact Simpson-Bowles. 3) Shrink our presence in Afghanistan. 4) Raise automobile mileage standards. 5) Impose a gasoline tax to pay for a massive increase in government-supported scientific research and a carbon tax to pay for new infrastructure and stimulate clean-power innovation.

Do I think such a Third Party can win in 2012? Not likely. But it doesn’t have to win to be effective. If such a party attracted substantial voters on such a platform, it would shape the agendas of the Republicans and Democrats. They would both have to move to attract these voters by changing their own platforms and, in so doing, might even create a mandate for the next president to govern for an entire term — not just 100 days.

Classic Lateral Thinking Exercises : try this …

mayankdesai — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:22:03 +0000

Test yourself with these thinking exercises. The solutions are at the bottom of the page. Don’t be lazy. Try hard to figure these out before you look! It’ll be a lot more satisfying.

There is a man who lives on the top floor of a very tall building. Everyday he gets the elevator down to the ground floor to leave the building to go to work. Upon returning from work though, he can only travel half way up in the lift and has to walk the rest of the way unless it’s raining! Why?This is probably the best known and most celebrated of all lateral thinking puzzles. It is a true classic. Although there are many possible solutions which fit the initial conditions, only the canonical answer is truly satisfying.
A man and his son are in a car accident. The father dies on the scene, but the child is rushed to the hospital. When he arrives the surgeon says, “I can’t operate on this boy, he is my son! ” How can this be?
A man is wearing black. Black shoes, socks, trousers, coat, gloves and ski mask. He is walking down a back street with all the street lamps off. A black car is coming towards him with its light off but somehow manages to stop in time. How did the driver see the man?
One day Kerry celebrated her birthday. Two days later her older twin brother, Terry, celebrated his birthday. How?
Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones? This is logical rather than lateral, but it is a good puzzle that can be solved by lateral thinking techniques. It is supposedly used by a very well-known software company as an interview question for prospective employees.
A man went to a party and drank some of the punch. He then left early. Everyone else at the party who drank the punch subsequently died of poisoning. Why did the man not die?
A man died and went to Heaven. There were thousands of other people there. They were all naked and all looked as they did at the age of 21. He looked around to see if there was anyone he recognized. He saw a couple and he knew immediately that they were Adam and Eve. How did he know?
A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they were not twins. How could this be so?
A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the man. The man says ‘Thank you’ and walks out. This puzzle claims to be the best of the genre. It is simple in its statement, absolutely baffling and yet with a completely satisfying solution. Most people struggle very hard to solve this one yet they like the answer when they hear it or have the satisfaction of figuring it out.
A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven’t eaten in 3 years. Which room is safest for him?
A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him under water for over 5 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. But 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can this be?
There are two plastic jugs filled with water. How could you put all of this water into a barrel, without using the jugs or any dividers, and still tell which water came from which jug?
What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away?
Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday? (or day names in any other language)
This is an unusual paragraph. I’m curious how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so plain you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though. Study it, and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out.

The solutions are below. Don’t be lazy. Try hard to figure these out before you look!

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Solutions

The man is very, very short and can only reach halfway up the elevator buttons. However, if it is raining then he will have his umbrella with him and can press the higher buttons with it.
The surgeon was his mother.
It was day time.
At the time she went into labor, the mother of the twins was traveling by boat. The older twin, Terry, was born first early on March 1st. The boat then crossed a time zone and Kerry, the younger twin, was born on February the 28th. Therefore, the younger twin celebrates her birthday two days before her older brother.
A square manhole cover can be turned and dropped down the diagonal of the manhole. A round manhole cannot be dropped down the manhole. So for safety and practicality, all manhole covers should be round.
The poison in the punch came from the ice cubes. When the man drank the punch, the ice was fully frozen. Gradually it melted, poisoning the punch.
He recognized Adam and Eve as the only people without navels. Because they were not born of women, they had never had umbilical cords and therefore they never had navels. This one seems perfectly logical but it can sometimes spark fierce theological arguments. (Just what a HUMOR list needs!!) ;^)
They were two of a set of triplets (or quadruplets, etc.). This puzzle stumps many people. They try outlandish solutions involving test-tube babies or surrogate mothers. Why does the brain search for complex solutions when there is a much simpler one available?
The man had hiccups. The barman recognized this from his speech and drew the gun in order to give him a shock. It worked and cured the hiccups–so the man no longer needed the water. The is a simple puzzle to state but a difficult one to solve. It is a perfect example of a seemingly irrational and incongruous situation having a simple and complete explanation. Amazingly this classic puzzle seems to work in different cultures and languages.
The third. Lions that haven’t eaten in three years are dead.
The woman was a photographer. She shot a picture of her husband, developed it, and hung it up to dry.
Freeze them first. Take them out of the jugs and put the ice in the barrel. You will be able to tell which water came from which jug.
The answer is Charcoal.
Sure you can: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow!
The letter “e,” which is the most common letter in the English language, does not appear once in the long paragraph…

Alternate Solutions

Kyle Powerly offers several alternate solutions that fit and that are actually simpler, thus meeting Occam’s Razor. (when presented with two explanations, the simpler of the two is probably the correct one)

Because one of them did not necessarily celebrate their birthday on the day they were born, but celebrated later or earlier. Much simpler than having Mom giving birth while crossing the International Date Line and tossing in a Leap Year and the like. Needlessly complicated.
Because he was the one who put the poison in the punch. Of course he wouldn’t drink any *after* he poisoned it. Who goes to the effort of making poison ice cubes, except Bond villains and those bad guys in the “Encyclopedia Brown” mystery stories we read in elementary school?
Because they were adopted. It’s a coincidence they were born on the same exact day. OK, so Occam’s Razor could be applied equally to both solutions…

List of universities in India

mayankdesai — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:37:21 +0000

This is a list of universities in India. India has both private and public universities, many of which are supported by the Government of India and the state governments. Apart from these there are private universities supported by various bodies and societies also exist. Most of the universities listed under the top south Asian universities are located in India.^[1]

Types of universities in India include:

Central university, or Union university – established by Act of Parliament and under the purview of the Department of Higher Education, Government of India. ^[2] The University Grants Commission (UGC) list 42 central universities.^[3]
State university − run by the State government of each of the States of India, and usually established by a local parliament act. The UGC lists 274 state universities, around 170 of which receiving Central/UGC assistance.^[4]
Deemed university, or “Deemed-to-be-University” – a status of autonomy granted by the Department of Higher Education, Union Human Resource Development Ministry, on the advice of the UGC, under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956.^[5] The USG list from 23 June 2008 lists 130 deemed universities.^[6]
Private university – while private universities approved by the USG can grant degrees, they are not allowed to have off-campus affiliated colleges. the The USG list from 20 May 2011 lists 82 private universities.^[7]
Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) – a group of autonomous engineering and technology-oriented institutes with special funding and administration. The original Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 lists seven IITs.^[8] Nine more are listed under the Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 2010^[9] which was passed by the Lok Sabha on March 24 2011^[10] and is still to be adopted by the Rajya Sabha.

Universities

Andhra Pradesh

University	Location(s)	Type^[3]^[4]	Established	Specialization	Sources
A.P. University of Law	Visakhapatnam	State	2008	Legal	^[11]
Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University	Hyderabad	State	1964	Agricultural science	^[12]
Acharya Nagarjuna University	Guntur	State	1976	General	^[13]
Adikavi Nannaya University	Rajahmundry	State	2006	General	^[14]
Andhra University	Visakhapatnam	State	1926	General	^[15]
Andhra Pradesh Open University	Hyderabad	State	1982	Distance education	^[16]
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, Srikakulam	Etcherla	State	1988	General	^[17]
Dr. Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao University of Health Sciences, Andhra Pradesh	Vijayawada	State	1986	Healthcare science	^[18]
Dravidian University	Kuppam	State	1997	Dravidian languages	^[19]
English and Foreign Languages University	Hyderabad	Central	1958 (1973^†)	English and foreign languages	^[20]
Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management	Visakhapatnam	Deemed	1980 (2007^†)	Technology and Management	^[21]^[22]
ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education	Hyderabad	Deemed	1995 (2008^†)	Management, Law, Science & Technology	^[23]^[24]
International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad	Hyderabad	Deemed	1998 (2001^†)	Information Technology	^[25]^[26]
Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad	Hyderabad	IIT (Amendment)	2008	Technology	^[27]^[9]
Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture & Fine Arts University	Hyderabad	State	2008	Architecture and Fine Arts	^[28]
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University	Hyderabad, Anantapur, Kakinada	State	1965	Technology	[4]
K L University	Vijayawada	Deemed	1980 (2008^†)	Engineering	[5]
Kakatiya University	Warangal	State	1976	General	[6]
Krishna University	Machilipatnam	State	2008	General	[7]
Maulana Azad National Urdu University	Hyderabad	Central	1998	Urdu Language	[8]
Nalsar University of Law	Hyderabad	State	1998	Law	[9]
NIT-Warangal	Warangal	Institute of National Importance	1959	Technology	[10]
NTR University of Health Sciences	Vijayawada	State	1986	Medical	[11]
Osmania University	Hyderabad	State	1918	General	[12]
Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University	Hyderabad	State	1985	Telugu Language	[13]
Sri Krishnadevaraya University	Anantapur	State	1981	General	[14]
Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam	Tirupati	State	1983	Women’s Only	[15]
Sri Sathya Sai University	Puttaparthi	Private	1981	General	[16]
Sri Venkateswara University	Tirupati	State	1954	General	[17]
Telangana University	Nizamabad	State	2006	General	[18]
University of Hyderabad	Hyderabad	Central	1974	General	[19]
Vikrama Simhapuri University	Nellore	State	2008	Post Graduation	[20]
Yogi Vemana University	Kadapa	State	2006	General	[21] §

^† granted deemed university status ^§ Currently non-functional

Arunachal Pradesh

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	yhujtyuhtcstre	Website
North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology	Itanagar	Deemed	1986 (2005^†)	Technology	[22]
Rajiv Gandhi University	Itanagar	Central	1984	General	[23]

^† granted deemed university status

Assam

IIT Guwahati campus

Tezpur University Gate

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
Gauhati University	Guwahati	State	1948	General	[24]
Dibrugarh University	Dibrugarh	State	1965	General	[25]
Assam Don Bosco University	Azara	State	2009		[26]
Assam University	Silchar	Central	1994	General	[27]
Tezpur University	Tezpur	Central	1994	General
Assam Agricultural University	Jorhat		1969	Agriculture
Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati	Guwahati	Institute of National Importance	1994	Technology
National Institute of Technology, Silchar	Silchar	Deemed	1967	Technology

Bihar

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website

B. R. Ambedkar Bihar University	Muzzafarpur	State	1960	General	[28]
Bhupendra Narayan Mandal University	Madhepura	State	1992	General	[29]
Central University of Bihar	Patna	Central	2009	Post Graduate	[30]
Chanakya National Law University	Patna	State	2006	Law	[31]
Indian Institute of Technology Patna	Patna	Institute of National Importance	2008	Technology	[32]
Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences	Patna	State	1983	Medical	[33]
Jaiprakash University	Chhapra	State	1990	General	[34]
Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University	Darbhanga	State	1961	Sanskrit	[35]
Lalit Narayan Mithila University	Darbhanga	State	1972	General	[36]
Magadh University	Bodhgaya	State	1962	General	[37]
Nalanda Open University	Patna	State	1987	Distance Education	[38]
National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Research	Hajipur	Institute of National Importance	2007	Pharmaceuticals India
National Institute of Technology, Patna	Patna	Institute of National Importance	1924	Technology	[39]
Rajendra Agricultural University	Pusa	State	1970	Agriculture	[40]
Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University	Bhagalpur	State	1960	General	[41]
University of Patna	Patna	State	1917	General	[42]
Veer Kunwar Singh University	Arrah	State	1994	General	[43]

[edit] Chandigarh

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Ref
Panjab University	Chandigarh	State	1882 (1956^‡)	General	[44]
Punjab Engineering College	Chandigarh	Deemed	1921 (1954^‡) (2003^†)	General	[45]

^‡ relocated to Chandigarh
^† granted deemed university status

Chhattisgarh

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekanand Technical University	Bhilai	State	2005	Technology	[46]
Dr. C.V Raman University bilaspur	Bilaspur	Private	2006	General	[47]
Guru Ghasidas University	Bilaspur	Central	1983	General	[48]
Hidayatullah National Law University	Raipur	State	2003	Law	[49]
Indira Gandhi Agricultural University	Raipur	State	1987	Agriculture	[50]
Indira Kala Sangeet University	Khairagarh	State	1956	Music	[51]
Kushabhau Thakre Patrakarita Avam Jansanchar University	Raipur	State	2004	Journalism	[52]
MATS University	Raipur	Private	2006	General	[53]
Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University	Raipur	State	1964	General	[54]
Pandit Sundarlal Sharma University	Bilaspur	State	2005	Distance Education	[55]
Sarguja University	Ambikapur	State	2008	General	[56]
Mahirshi university	Bilaspur	Private	2006	General	[57]

Delhi

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
All India Institute of Medical Sciences	Delhi	Institute of National Importance	1956	Medical	[58]
Ambedkar University, Delhi	Delhi	State	2007	Social Sciences & Humanities	[59]
Delhi Technological University	Delhi	State	1941	Technology	[60]
Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University	Delhi	State	1998	General	[61]
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi	Delhi	Institute of National Importance	1961	Technology	[62]
Indira Gandhi National Open University	Delhi	Central	1985	Distance Education	[63]
Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology	Delhi	State	2008	Information Technology	[64]
Jamia Hamdard	Delhi	Deemed	1989	General	[65]
Jamia Millia Islamia	Delhi	Central	1920	General	[66]
Jawaharlal Nehru University	Delhi	Central	1969	General	[67]
National Institute of Fashion Technology	Delhi	Autonomous	1986	Fashion Design	[68]
National Law University, Delhi	Delhi	State	2008	Law	[69]
Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology	Delhi	Autonomous	1983	Technology	[70]
School of Planning and Architecture	Delhi	Deemed	1959 (1979^†)	Architecture	[71]
University of Delhi	Delhi	Central	1922	General	[72]

^† granted deemed university status

Gujarat

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
Anand Agricultural University	Anand	State	1938	Agriculture	[73]
Bhavnagar University	Bhavnagar	State	1978	General	[74]
CEPT University	Ahmedabad	State	1962	Architecture	[75]
Charotar University	Anand	State	2009	Science & Technology	[76]
Dharamsinh Desai University	Nadiad	State	1968	General	[77]
Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology	Gandhinagar	Private	2001	Information & Communication Technology	[78]
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University	Ahmedabad	State	1994	Distance Education	[79]
Ganpat University	Mehsana	Private	2005	General	[80]
Gujarat Ayurved University	Jamnagar	State	1966	Ayurveda	[81]
Gujarat National Law University	Gandhinagar	State	2004	Law	[82]
Gujarat Technological University	Ahmedabad	State	2008	Technology	[83]
Gujarat University	Ahmedabad	State	1949	General	[84]
Gujarat Vidyapith	Ahmedabad	Deemed	1920 (1963^†)	General	[85]
Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University	Patan	State	1986	General	[86]
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad	Ahmedabad	Autonomous	1961	Management	[87]
Krantiguru Shyamji Krishna Verma Kachchh University	Bhuj	State	2003	General	[88]
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda	Vadodara	State	1949	General	[89]
Nirma University of Science and Technology	Ahmedabad	Private	1994	Technology	[90]
Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University	Gandhinagar	Private	2007	Energy	[91]
Sardar Patel University	Vallabh Vidhyanagar	State	1955	General	[92]
Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology	Surat	Institute of National Importance	1969	Technology	[93]
Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University	Palanpur	State	1972	Agriculture	[94]
Saurashtra University	Rajkot	State	1967	General	[95]
Veer Narmad South Gujarat University	Surat	State	1967	General	[96]

^† granted Deemed university status

Himachal Pradesh

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
Arni University	Indora	Private	2009	General	[97]
Baddi University of Emerging Sciences and Technologies	Baddi	Private	2002	Technology	[98]
Bahra University	Waknaghat	Private	2010	General	[99]
Central University of Himachal Pradesh	Dharamsala	Central	2009	General	[100]
Chitkara University	Barotiwala	Private	2008	General	[101]
CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishwavidyalya	Palampur	State	1978	Agriculture	[102]
Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry	Solan	State	1985	Horticulture & Forestry	[103]
Eternal University	Baru Sahib	Private	2008	General	[104]
Himachal Pradesh University	Shimla	State	1970	General	[105]
Indian Institute of Technology Mandi	Mandi	Institute of National Importance	2009	Technology	[106]
Indus International University	Una	Private	2009	General	[107]
Jaypee University of Information Technology	Waknaghat	Private	2002	Engineering	[108]
Manav Bharti University	Kumar Hatti	Private	2009	General	[109]
National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur	Hamirpur	Institute of National Importance	1986	Technology	[110]
Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences	Solan	Private		Bio Technology	[111]
Sri Sai University	Palampur	Private	2010	General	[112]

Haryana

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
BPS Mahila Vishwavidhyalaya	Sonipat		2006	Women’s only	[113]
Central University of Haryana	Mahendragarh	Central	2009	General	[114]
Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University	Hisar	State	1970	Agriculture	[115]
Chaudhary Devi Lal University	Sirsa	State	2003	General	[116]
Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology	Murthal	State	1987	Technology	[117]
Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology	Hisar	State	1995	Science & Technology	[118]
Indian Institute of Management Rohtak	Rohtak	Institute of National Importance	2010	Management	[119]
Kurukshetra University	Kurukshetra	State	1956	General	[120]
Maharishi Dayanand University	Rohtak	State	1976	General	[121]
Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma University of Health Sciences	Rohtak	State	2008	Health Sciences	[122]
Maharishi Markandeshwar University	Ambala	Deemed	1993	General	[123]
National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra	Kurukshetra	Institute of National Importance	1963	Technology	[124]
OP Jindal Global University	Sonipat	Private	2009	General	[125]
YMCA University of Science and Technology	Faridabad	State	1969	Technology	[126]

Jammu and Kashmir

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
Baba Ghulam Shah Badhshah University	Rajauri	State	2002	General	[127]
Central University of Jammu and Kashmir	Ganderbal	Central	2009	General	[128]
Islamic University of Science & Technology	Pulwama	State	2005	Science & Technology	[129]
National Institute of Technology, Srinagar	Srinagar	Institute of National Importance	1960	Technology	[130]
Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu	Jammu	State	1999	Agriculture	[131]
Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir	Srinagar	State	1982	Agriculture	[132]
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University	Katra	State	1999	Science & Technology	[133]
University of Jammu	Jammu	State	1969	General	[134]
University of Kashmir	Srinagar	State	1956	General	[135]

Jharkhand

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
Birla Institute of Technology	Ranchi	Deemed	1955	Technology	[136]
Birsa Agricultural University	Ranchi	State	1982	Agriculture	[137]
Central University of Jharkhand	Ranchi	Central	2009	General	[138]
Indian School of Mines University	Dhanbad	Deemed	1926	Mining	[139]
National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur	Jamshedpur	Institute of National Importance	1960	Technology	[140]
Nilamber Pitamber University	Palamu	State	2009	General	[141]
Ranchi University	Ranchi	State	1960	General	[142]
Sidhhu Kanhu University	Dumka	State	1992	General	[143]
Vinoba Bhave University	Hazaribagh	State	1992	General	[144]

Karnataka

Jnana Bharathi Campus of BU

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
Bangalore University^[29]	Bangalore	State	1886	General	[145]
Christ University^[30]	Bangalore	Deemed	1969 (2008^†)	General	[146]
Gulbarga University	Gulbarga	State	1980	General	[147]
Kannada University	Hampi	State	1991	Kannada language and Culture of Karnataka	[148]
Karnataka State Open University	Mysore	State	1996	Distance Learning	[149]
Karnataka State Women’s University	Bijapur	State	2003	Women’s only	[150]
Karnatak University	Dharwad	State	1949	General	[151]
Kuvempu University	Shimoga	State	1987	General	[152]
Mangalore University	Konaje	State	1980	General	[153]
Manipal University	Manipal	Deemed	1900 (1993^†)	General	[154]
National Institute of Technology, Karnataka	Surathkal	Institute of National Importance	1960	Technology	[155]
Tumkur University	Tumkur	State	2004	General	[156]
University of Mysore	Mysore	State	1916	General	[157]
Visvesvaraya Technological University	Belgaum	State	1998	Technology	[158]
JSS University	Mysore	[Deemed]	2008	Technology,Science,Managment,Arts	[159]
Yenepoya University	Mangalore	Deemed	1991 (2008^†)	General	[160]
KLE University	Belgaum
University of Agricultural Sciences	Dharwad
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore	Bangalore	Public
Indian Institute of Science	Bangalore	Public
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham	Bangalore, Mysore	Deemed University	2002	Technology, Management, Arts and Science
Indian Statistical Institute	Bangalore	Institute of National Importance
Jain University	Bangalore
The National Centre for Biological Sciences	Bangalore
National Institute of Fashion Technology	Bangalore
National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences	Bangalore	Institute of National Importance
National Law School of India University	Bangalore
Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences	Bangalore
IIIT – Bangalore	Bangalore
Nitte University	Mangalore

^† granted deemed university status

Kerala

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
Calicut University	Tenhipalam	State	1968	General	[161]
Central University of Kerala	Kasaragod	Central	2009	General	[162]
Cochin University of Science and Technology	Kalamassery	Autonomous	1971	Technology	[163]
IISER Thiruvananthapuram	Thiruvananthapuram	Autonomous	2008	Science	[164]
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham	Kollam and Cochin	Deemed	2002	Science, Technology, Management, Medicine and Arts	[165]
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode	Kozhikode	Autonomous	1996	Management	[166]
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology	Thiruvananthapuram	Deemed	2007	Space Science	[167]
Kannur University	Kannur	State	1996	General	[168]
Kerala Agricultural University	Thrissur	State	1971	Agriculture	[169]
Kerala Kalamandalam	Cheruthuruthy	Deemed	1930 (2006^†)	Performing arts	[170]
Kerala University of Medical and Allied Sciences	Thrissur	State	2009	Medical	[171]
Mahatma Gandhi University	Kottayam	State	1983	General	[172]
NIT Calicut	Calicut	Institute of National Importance	1961	Technology	[173]
National University of Advanced Legal Studies	Kochi	State	2005	Law	[174]
Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology	Thiruvananthapuram	Institute of National Importance	1974	Medical	[175]
Sree Sankara University of Sanskrit	Kalady	State	1993	Sanskrit language	[176]
University of Kerala	Thiruvananthapuram	State	1937	General	[177]

^† granted Deemed university status

Madhya Pradesh

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Ref
Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Jabalpur	Jabalpur	Institute of national importance	2005	Engineering, Design and Manufacturing Institute
Indian Institute of Management Indore	Indore
Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior	Gwalior
Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology	Bhopal	Institute of National Importance
Indian Institute of Technology Indore	Indore	Institute of National Importance
Jaypee University of Engineering & Technology	Guna	Private University	2003	Engineering University	[178]
Indian Institute of Forest Management	Bhopal
Indian Institute of Soil Science	Bhopal
Barkatullah University	Bhopal
Madhya Pradesh Bhoj Open University	Bhopal
Thiruvananthapuram Bhopal	Bhopal
National Institute of Design Bhopal	Bhopal
National Law Institute University Bhopal	Bhopal
Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism	Bhopal
National Law Institute University	Bhopal
Rajiv Gandhi Technical University	Bhopal
Devi Ahilya University	Indore
Rani Durgavati University	Jabalpur
Ujjwal Prakash VidyaSagar University	Jabalpur^[31]
Dr. Hari Singh Gour University	Sagar	Central
Vikram University, Ujjain
Maharshi Panini Sanskrit University	Ujjain
Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University	Jabalpur
Rajmata Vijayraje Scindia Agricultural University	Gwalior
Raja Mansingh Tomar Music University	Gwalior
Jiwaji University	Gwalior
Laxmibai National Institute of Physical Education	Gwalior
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic University	Katni
Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramoday University	Chitrakoot
Awdhesh Pratap Singh University	Rewa
Indira Gandhi National Tribal University	Amarkantak

Maharashtra

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Ref
Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University	Nagpur	State
University of Pune	Pune	State
North Maharashtra University	Jalgaon	State
Tilak Maharashtra, Deemed University	Pune	Deemed
Shivaji University	Kolhapur	State
University of Mumbai	Mumbai	State
Solapur University	Solapur	State
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University	Aurangabad	State
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University	Lonere,Raigad Maharashtra	State
Symbiosis International University	Pune	Deemed
Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University	Amravati	State
Bharti Vidyapeeth University	Pune	Deemed
NMIMS University	Mumbai	Deemed University
Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University	Nashik	State
SNDT University	Mumbai	State
Solapur University	Solapur	State
Swami Ramanand Teertha Marathwada University	Nanded	State
Tata Institute of Social Science	Mumbai	Deemed University	1936 (1964^†)	Social Sciences	^[32]
International Institute of Population Studies	Mumbai	Deemed University
Institute of Chemical Technology	Mumbai	Deemed University
National Institute of Industrial Engineering	Mumbai
VNIT	Nagpur
Dnyaneshwar Vidyapeeth	Pune	Open	State	Technical
Homi Bhabha National Institute	Mumbai	Deemed University	2005	Research Institute

Meghalaya

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
Martin Luther Christian University	Shillong	Private	2005	General	[179]
North Eastern Hill University	Shillong	Central	1973	General	[180]
Techno Global University	Shillong	Private	2009	Technology	[181]

Mizoram

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Ref
Icfai University	Aizawl
Mizoram University	Aizawl	Central

Nagaland

University PRIVATE	Location(s)	Type PRIVATE	Established 20006	Specialization	Ref
The Global Open University Nagaland

Orissa

University	Location(s)	Type	Specialization
Siksha O Anusandhan University	Bhubaneswar^[33]	Deemed
Berhampur University, Berhampur
Biju Patnaik University of Technology, Rourkela
Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management, Bhubaneswar
Fakir Mohan University, Balasore
Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar
National Institute of Technology	Rourkela
National Law University-Odisha	Cuttack
North Odisha University	Baripada
Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology	Bhubaneswar, Chipilima(Sambalpur)
Ravenshaw University	Cuttack
Rabi shankar University	Cuttack
Sambalpur University	Sambalpur	State	General
Utkal University	Bhubaneswar
Vedanta University	Puri-Konark
Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Burla	Sambalpur	State	Technology
Institute of Mathematics and Applications	Bhubaneswar
KIIT University	Bhubaneswar
Centurian University	Parlakhumundi
Utkal University of Culture	Bhubaneswar
Shri Jagannath Sanskrit Vishvavidyalaya	Puri
Central University of Odisha	Koraput	Central

Puducherry

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Ref
Pondicherry University	Pondicherry	Central	1985	General	^[34]
Saradha University	Kariakal
Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth University	Pondicherry	Deemed	2001 (2008^†)	Medical

^† granted deemed university status

Punjab

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Ref
B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology	Jalandhar	Institute of National Importance
Baba Farid University of Health Sciences	Faridkot
Central University of Punjab	Bathinda	Central
Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University	Ludhiana
Guru Nanak Dev University	Amritsar
Lovely Professional University	Phagwara
Punjab Agricultural University	Ludhiana
Punjab Technical University	Jalandhar
Punjabi University	Patiala
Thapar University	Patiala
Indian Institute of Technology,Ropar	Ropar	Institute of National Importance	2008	Technology and Research	[182]
Panjab University	Chandigarh
Punjab Engineering College	chandigarh
Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law	Patiala
Chitkara University	Rajpura , District- Patiala	Private

Rajasthan

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Ref
Banasthali Vidyapith	Tonk and Jaipur	Deemed	1935	Women’s only	[183]
Bhagwant University Rajasthan	Ajmer
Birla Institute of Technology and Science	Pilani, Rajasthan
Shridhar University	Pilani, Rajasthan
Singhania University	Pacheri Bari, Rajasthan
Suresh Gyanvihar University	Jaipur
IASE University	Sardarsahar
Ankit Institute of Technology and Science	Renukoot, UttarPradesh
Jai Narain Vyas University	Jodhpur
Jaipur National University	Jaipur
Jodhpur National University	Jodhpur
Jagdish Prasad Jhabarmal Tibrewala University	JhunJhunu, Site – www.jjtu.ac.in
Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University	Ajmer
Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur		Institute of National Importance
Mody Institute of Technology and Sciences	Lakshmangarh
JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth Univeristy	Udaipur				^[35]
NIMS University, Jaipur
Mody Institute of Information and Technology Sciences	Rajastersity, Jodhpur
NIIT University	Neemrana, Rajasthan
Rajasthan Sanskrit University	Jaipur
Rajasthan Technical University	Kota
Rajasthan Vidyapeeth University	Udaipur
Shri Jagdishprasad Jhabarmal Tibrewala University	Chudella
Sir Padampat Singhania University	Udaipur	Private	2008	Engineering & Management
The LNM Institute of Information Technology	Jaipur
University of Bikaner	Bikaner
Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University	Kota*
University of Rajasthan	Jaipur	UGC	1947	General
Mahatama Jyoti Rao Phoole University	Jaipur, Rajasthan
J K Lakshmipat University	Jaipur, Rajasthan
vij university	Rajasthan
Jagannath University	Jaipur
Madam Mohan University	Jaipur

Sikkim

University	Location(s)	Type^[3]^[7]	Established	Specialization	Ref
Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India	Gangtok	Private	2004	Management	^[36]^[37]
Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management	Jorethang	Private	2006	General	^[38]
Sikkim Manipal University	Gangtok	Private	1995	General	^[39]
Sikkim University	Gangtok	Central	2007	General	^[40]
Vinayaka Missions Sikkim University	[Gangtok]]	Private	2008	General	^[41]^[37]

Tamil Nadu

Anna University campus

Madurai Kamaraj University Main Gate

Periyar University Administrative Block

Karunya University campus

VIT University main building

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
Alagappa University	Karaikudi	State	1985	General	[184]
AMET University	Chennai	Deemed	1992	Maritime	[185]
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham	Coimbatore	Deemed	2003	General	[186]
Anna University	Chennai	State	1978	Technology	[187]
Anna University of Technology, Coimbatore	Coimbatore	State	2007	Technology	[188]
Anna University of Technology, Tiruchirappalli	Tiruchirappalli	State	2007	Technology	[189]
Anna University of Technology Tirunelveli	Tirunelveli	State	2007	Technology	[190]
Annamalai University	Annamalai Nagar	State	1929	General	[191]
Avinashilingam University	Coimbatore	State	1987	Women’s only	[192]
Bharath University	Chennai	Deemed	1984 (2003^†)	Technology	[193]
Bharathiar University	Coimbatore	State	1985	General	[194]
Bharathidasan University	Tiruchirappalli	State	1982	General	[195]
Chennai Mathematical Institute	Siruseri	Deemed	1988 (2006^†)	Science	[196]
Dr. M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute	Chennai	Deemed	1988 (2003^†)	Technology	[197]
Gandhigram Rural Institute	Dindigul	Deemed	1956 (1976^†)	Nai Talim	[198]
Hindustan University	Chennai	Deemed	1985 (2008^†)	Technology	[199]
Indian Institute of Technology Madras	Chennai	Institute of National Importance	1959	Technology	[200]
Indian Maritime University	Chennai	Deemed	2008	Marine Science	[201]
Institute of Mathematical Sciences	Chennai	Autonomous	1962	Mathematics & Sciences	[202]
Kalasalingam University	Krishnankovil	Deemed		Technology	[203]
Karunya University	Coimbatore	Private	1986	General	[204]
Madurai Kamaraj University	Madurai	State	1966	General	[205]
Manonmaniam Sundaranar University	Tirunelveli	State	1990	General	[206]
Mother Teresa Women’s University	Kodaikanal	State	1984	Women’s Only	[207]
NIT Tiruchirappalli	Thiruchirapalli	Institute of National Importance	1964	Technology	[208]
Noorul Islam University	Kumarakovil	Deemed	1989	General	[209]
Periyar Maniammai University	Vallam	Deemed	1988 (2007^†)	Technology	[210]
Periyar University	Salem	State	1997	General	[211]
Ponnaiyah Ramajayam Institute of Science & Technology	Thanjavur	Deemed	1985	Technology	[212]
Sathyabama University	Chennai	Deemed	1988 (2001^†)	Technology	[213]
SASTRA University	Thirumalaisamudram	Deemed	1984	General	[214]
Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya	Kanchipuram	Deemed	1993	General	[215]
Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute	Chennai	Deemed	1985 (2001^†)	Medical	[216]
SRM University	Kanchipuram	Deemed	1985 (2003^†)	Technology	[217]
Tamil University	Thanjavur	State	1981	Tamil Language	[218]
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University	Coimbatore	State	1971	Agriculture	[219]
Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University	Chennai	State	1997	Law	[220]
Tamil Nadu Open University	Chennai	State	2002	Distance Education	[221]
Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University	Chennai	State	1989	Veterinary Science	[222]
Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University	Chennai	State	2005	Sports & Physical Education	[223]
The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University	Chennai	State	1987	Medical	[224]
Thiruvalluvar University	Vellore	State	2002	General	[225]
University of Madras	Chennai	State	1857	General	[226]
Vinayaka Missions University	Salem	Deemed	1983 (2001^†)	Medical & Engineering	[227]
Vel Tech University	Chennai	Deemed	1997 (2001^†)	Technology	[228]
VIT University	Vellore	Deemed	1984 (2001^†)	Technology	[229]

^† graned Deemed university status

Uttar Pradesh

Banaras Hindu University

University of Lucknow

IIIT Allahabad Library

Muir Central College, now part of the Science Faculty of Allahabad University

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
Aligarh Muslim University	Aligarh	Central	1875	General	[230]
Allahabad University	Allahabad	Central	1887	General	[231]
Amity University	Noida	Private		General	[232]
Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University	Lucknow	Central	1996	General	[233]
Banaras Hindu University	Varanasi	Central	1916	General	[234]
Bundelkhand University	Jhansi	State	1975	General	[235]
Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture & Technology	Kanpur	State	1975	Agriculture	[236]
Chaudhary Charan Singh University	Meerut	State	1966	General	[237]
Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University	Lucknow	State	1911	Medical	[238]
Dayalbagh Educational Institute	Agra	Deemed	1917(1981)^†	General	[239]
Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar University	Agra	State	1927	General	[240]
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University	Faizabad	State	1975	General	[241]
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University	Lucknow	State	2006	Law	[242]
Gautam Buddha University	Greater Noida	State	2008	General	[243]
GLA University	Mathura	Private	2010	Technology & Management	[244]
Gorakhpur University	Gorakhpur	State	1973	General	[245]
IFTM University	Moradabad	Private	2010	Technology	[246]
Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad	Allahabad	Deemed	1999	Information Technology	[247]
Indian Institute of Management Lucknow	Lucknow	Autonomous	1984	Management	[248]
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur	Kanpur	Institute of National Importance	1959	Technology	[249]
Indian Veterinary Research Institute	Bareilly	Deemed	1889	Veterinary Science	[250]
Integral University	Lucknow	Private	2004	Technology	[251]
Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University	Chitrakoot	Private	2001	Disabled Only	[252]
Jaypee Institute of Information Technology University	Noida	Deemed	2001	Information Technology	[253]
Kanpur University	Kanpur	State	1966	General	[254]
Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth	Varanasi	State	1921	General	[255]
Mangalayatan University	Aligarh	Private	2006	General	[256]
Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology	Allahabad	Institute of National Importance	1961	Technology	[257]
M. J. P. Rohilkhand University	Bareilly	State	1975	General	[258]
Narendra Dev University of Agriculture and Technology	Faizabad	State	1975	Agriculture	[259]
Noida International University	Greater Noida	Private	2010	General	[260]
Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences	Allahabad	Deemed	1910(2000)^†	Agriculture	[261]
Sampurnanand Sanskrit University	Varanasi	State	1971	Sanskrit	[262]
Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology	Meerut	State	2002	Agriculture	[263]
Sharda University	Greater Noida	Private	2009	General	[264]
Shobhit University	Meerut	Deemed	2006	Technology	[265]
Shri Venkateshwara University	Gajraula	Private	2010	Technology	[266]
Swami Vivekanand Subharti University	Meerut	Private	2008	General	[267]
University of Lucknow	Lucknow	State	1921	General	[268]
Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University	Allahabad	State	1998	Distance Education	[269]
Uttar Pradesh Technical University	Lucknow	State	2000	Technology	[270]
Teerthanker Mahaveer University	Moradabad	Private	2008	General	[271]
Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University	Jaunpur	State	1987	General	[272]

^† granted Deemed university status

Uttarakhand

Front view of Forest Research Institute

Main (Administrative) Building, IIT Roorkee

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Website
Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya	Haridwar	Private	2002	General	[273]
Doon University	Dehradun	State	2009		[274]
Forest Research Institute	Dehradun	Deemed	1905	Forestry	[275]
Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology	Pantnagar	State	1960	Agriculture and Technology	[276]
Graphic Era University	Dehradun	Deemed	1998	Technology	[277]
Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya	Haridwar	Deemed	1902	General	[278]
Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University	Srinagar	Central	1973	General	[279]
HIHT University	Dehradun	Deemed	1994 (2007^†)	Medical	[280]
Himgiri Zee University	Dehradun	Private	2003	General	[281]
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee	Roorkee	Institute of National Importance	1847	Technology	[282]
ICFAI University	Dehradun	Private	2003	Finance & Management	[283]
Kumaun University	Nainital	State	1973	General	[284]
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies	Dehradun	Private	2003	Energy & oil	[285]
Uttarakhand Open University	Haldwani	State	2005	Distance Education	[286]
Uttarakhand Technical University	Dehradun	State		Technology	[287]

^† granted Deemed university status

West Bengal

Jorasanko Thakur Bari where RBU is located

WBNUJS front entrance

IIT Kharagpur Main building

B.E. College Shibpur old gate

University	Location(s)	Type	Established	Specialization	Sources
Aliah University	Kolkata	Central	1780 (2007‡)	General	^[42]
Bengal Engineering & Science University	Shibpur	State	2010	Engineering	[288]
Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya	Haringhata	State	1974	Agriculture	[289]
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta	Joka	Autonomous	1961	Management	[290]
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Kharagpur	Institute of National Importance	1951	Technology	[291]
Indian Statistical Institute	Kolkata	Institute of National Importance	1931	Statistics	[292]
Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research	Mohanpur, Kolkata	Autonomous	2006	Science	[293]
Jadavpur University	Kolkata	State	1955	General	[294]
National Institute of Technology, Durgapur	Durgapur	Institute of National Importance	1960	Technology	[295]
Netaji Subhas Open University	Kolkata	State	1997	Distance Education	[296]
Presidency University, Kolkata	Kolkata	State	2010	General	[297]
Rabindra Bharati University	Kolkata	State	1962	General	[298]
Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University	Belur, West Bengal	Deemed	2005	General	[299]
Senate of Serampore College (University)	Serampore	State^[43]	1818(1829‡)	Theology	[300]
Sidho Kano Birsa University	Purulia & Bankura	State	2010	General
University of Burdwan	Bardhaman	State	1960	General	[301]
University of Calcutta	Kolkata	State	1857	General	[302]
University of Gour Banga	Malda	State	2008	General	[303]
University of Kalyani	Kalyani	State	1960	General	[304]
University of North Bengal	Siliguri	State	1962	General	[305]
Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidyalaya	Cooch Behar	State	2001	Agriculture	[306]
Vidyasagar University	Medinipur	State	1981	General	[307]
Visva-Bharati University	Santiniketan	Central	1951	General	[308]
West Bengal State University	Barasat	State	2008	General	[309]
West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences	Kolkata	State	1999	Law	[310]
West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences	Kolkata	State	1995	Veterinary Science	[311]
West Bengal University of Health Sciences	Kolkata	State	2003	Medical	[312]
West Bengal University of Technology	Kolkata	State	2000	Technology	[313]

‡ as university

The Future of Innovation: Can America Keep Pace?

mayankdesai — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 06:01:30 +0000

By FAREED ZAKARIA Sunday, June 05, 2011 :

“The first step to winning the future is encouraging American innovation.” That was Barack Obama in his State of the Union address last January, when he hit the theme repeatedly, using the word innovation or innovate 11 times. And on this issue, at least, Republicans seem in sync with Obama. Listen to Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich or Mitch Daniels and the word innovation pops up again and again. Everyone wants innovation and agrees that it is the key to America’s future.
Innovation is as American as apple pie. It seems to accord with so many elements of our national character — ingenuity, freedom, flexibility, the willingness to question conventional wisdom and defy authority. But politicians are pinning their hopes on innovation for more urgent reasons. America’s future growth will have to come from new industries that create new products and processes. Older industries are under tremendous pressure. Technological change is making factories and offices far more efficient. The rise of low-wage manufacturing in China and low-wage services in India is moving jobs overseas. The only durable strength we have — the only one that can withstand these gale winds — is innovation.

Even more troubling, there are growing signs that the U.S. no longer has the commanding lead it once did in this area. Two reports from the Boston Consulting Group and the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) that use hard measures such as spending on research, patents and venture funding as opposed to surveys find that the U.S. ranks not No. 1 but No. 8 and No. 6, respectively. In fact, the ITIF rankings have a category that measures how much a country has improved its innovation capacity from 1999 to 2009, factoring in measures like government funding for basic research, education and corporate-tax policies. Of the 40 countries analyzed, the U.S. came in dead last.
What is innovation? We don’t really have a good fix on the concept. We know it when we see it. But this much is clear: it encompasses more than just scientific or technological breakthroughs, as becomes apparent when you look at which companies are considered the most innovative. In the world of business rankings, it is very rare for a company to rank first in every survey, since the criteria often vary greatly. Yet when tackling innovation, one company, Apple, utterly dominates the lists, whoever puts them together.
So how would one define Apple’s innovations? It is not a company that focuses on pathbreaking science and spews out new inventions and patents. The 2010 Booz & Co. ranking of companies by their expenditures on research and development places Apple 81st. As a percentage of its revenue, the company spends less than half of what the typical computer and electronics company does and a fifth of what Microsoft spends. Apple’s innovations are powerful and profound, but they are often in the realms of design, consumer use and marketing. This is hardly unusual. In fact, the application of technology in service of a consumer need or business objective is what true innovation always has been.

Viewed from a historical perspective, that combination at the heart of successful innovation becomes clear. Len Baker, one of the founding fathers of the Silicon Valley venture-capital industry, says, “My favorite example is Isaac Merritt Singer, who invented the first commercially successful sewing machine. The real benefit to society was that he was the first person to sell to women, because prior to this it was assumed that women couldn’t operate machinery. His company invented the installment plan and the trade-in. That’s innovation. Think of eBay: eBay didn’t create new technology. It used technology and revolutionized the way people do things.” This idea of innovation as a new business process is of course older than modern capitalism itself. The system of accounting called double-entry bookkeeping, invented in Renaissance Italy, was powerfully connected to the development of trade and commerce. New ideas in all kinds of fields can fuel economic growth.

But while novel business ideas are crucial to innovation, so too is new technology. Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, argues that “you need both.” In Google’s case, he explains that the technological breakthrough of a new and better search program came first; only later were ideas about how to make money out of it developed by building a new model for advertising sales.

The ecosystem that encourages technological breakthroughs and their application does not develop in a vacuum. It requires great universities, vibrant companies that devote time and energy to research and — yes — large amounts of government funding. The latter may be a controversial topic in theory, but in practice, the rise of technology was clearly fueled by government. A multitude of technological innovations have been associated with the government, often with the military. Forget the steam engine (developed using cannon designs and technology) and take something as modern as the microchip. After it was invented in 1958 by Texas Instruments, the federal government bought virtually every microchip that firms could produce. The Breakthrough Institute reports in a paper that “NASA bought so many microchips that manufacturers were able to achieve huge improvements in the production process — so much so, in fact, that the price of the Apollo microchip fell from $1,000 per unit to between $20 and $30 per unit in the span of a couple years.” And then there is DARPA, the Defense Department’s venture-capital arm, which has had an astonishing string of successes, helping fund stealth technology, the beginnings of the global-positioning system and, most famously, the Internet.

In the rest of the world, the role of the state is not controversial. While Americans continue to debate whether government should have any role in fostering innovation, the fastest-growing economies are all busy using government policy to establish commanding leads in one industry after another. Google’s Schmidt points out that “the fact of the matter is, other countries are putting a lot more money into nurturing new industries than we are, and we are not going to win unless we do something like what they’re doing. South Korea is a classic example. Who would have thought that South Korea could become a major iron and steel and shipbuilding country in the world? But some 40 years ago, in their organized way, they decided those are the industries they were going to go after. And there is now increasing evidence that Chinese companies are beginning to do things that are innovative — often with government assistance.” There are many who believe that China’s government-led innovation won’t work, but at least for now, in industries like solar panels, wind turbines and high-speed rail, China is establishing a commanding lead.

Even those who look skeptically on direct support of specific technologies agree that basic research requires government funding. Ultimately, innovation cannot work without both significant government support and a vibrant and dynamic private sector that allows people to experiment, fail and try again. The U.S. remains the best place in the world to do just that, and despite our ideological bias, the U.S. government has actually spent hundreds of billions of dollars funding science, technology and even specific industries. The problem may be less the theory than the practice. Whereas once we funded the development of the computer chip, now we dole out money to agribusiness. Like so much else in Washington, funding for innovation has become less merit-based and more politicized.

Yet even if the U.S. can put together the combination of government policy and private initiative that lets innovation bloom, it won’t solve all our current problems. The U.S. is climbing out of a recession in which corporate America is doing well but unemployment remains sky-high. Those with capital are prospering, but the average worker faces powerful challenges.

Will innovation solve this problem? That’s not an easy question to answer. Consider Apple, now the second most valuable company in the world by market capitalization, just after ExxonMobil. Its innovative skills have led to rich rewards for its stockholders and managers, but if you compare it with the Taiwan-based firm Foxconn, which actually makes many of Apple’s products, a crucial difference emerges. The companies have comparable revenues, but Apple employs about 50,000 people; Foxconn, 1,000,000. And there lies the key lesson. We need innovation urgently. But if we are to get the U.S. back to work, we need perhaps even more urgently to rebuild American education, reform our training system, revive high-end manufacturing, focus on new growth industries and rebuild our infrastructure. In fact, finding new ways to do these old tasks might be the greatest and most important innovation of all.

Defining innovation -By John Kao

mayankdesai — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 05:47:46 +0000

Editor’s Note: John Kao, dubbed “Mr. Creativity” by The Economist, is the chairman for the institute of large scale innovation and author of Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovative Edge, Why it Matters and What We Can Do to Get it Back. This post is part of the ongoing “Global Innovation Showcase” by the New America Foundation and the Global Public Square.

In my experience, if you work a room with 100 leaders of business and government, you are likely to get at least 50 different definitions of innovation. Stand up a panel of 10 innovation experts and you are likely to get at least a half dozen different perspectives.
Today, the word innovation is groaning under the weight of multiple meanings.
Does it refer to the ability of individuals to harness their creativity to generate value? Yes.
The prowess of certain companies such as Apple and Genentech? Yes.
The unique innovative abilities of certain societies – California, Singapore, Finland? Yes.
Is innovation about making money? Yes.
Is it about making the world a better place and harnessing the power of societal capabilities? Yes.
Is there such a thing as social innovation? Yes.
Is innovation, as President Obama stated in his 2011 State of the Union address. the key to winning the American future? Yes.
Is it about science and high tech? Yes.
Is it about design and psychology? Yes.
Does it have to do with people? Yes.
Systems? Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

The fact that innovation is being talked about a lot these days only adds to the confusion. My latest Google search for the word innovation returned 280 million hits. So it would seem that some clarity about what innovation actually is would be useful before we charge off on the white horse of innovation to save the world, make a fortune or follow our bliss.

The dictionary defines innovation as “creativity applied to some purpose to realize value.” I thought this was a pretty good definition when I was teaching at the Harvard Business School eons ago.

This is a corporate definition, on which in fact most of our commonly held concepts and theories about innovation are based. But as I’ve spent more time with public sector stakeholders for innovation – and I’ll have more to say about my work with national innovation czars in a forthcoming post – it has become obvious to me that societies are not in the business of creating new products or services that can be sold at a margin to realize growth in earnings per share through economies of scale. No. They are in the business of providing for the wellbeing of their citizens, assuring access to basic societal entitlements such as education and healthcare, pursuing the human adventure (think space travel) and constantly reinventing the value proposition that underlies the relationship between government and its citizens.

So the definition of innovation I have been using for a while that has seemed to stick is this: Innovation is the set of capabilities (individual, company, societal) that allows the continuous realization of a desired future by transforming what is possible into what is valuable for many.

Let me unpack this definition briefly. First, innovation is defined as a capability – a set of muscles that are cultivated through effort and investment. The ability to innovate is not a wish or a mood – it is as much a practice as playing jazz piano. No one can play on short notice unless they already know how to do it and have acquired the necessary musical skills, familiarity with music theory, history and more.
Check Out: More from the “Global Innovation Showcase” created by the New America Foundation and the Global Public Square.
Second, innovation is continuous – it’s not something you do once and then forget about.
Third and most importantly, innovation has to be about something – I call this “the desired future”.

Ultimately it is relevant only insofar as it enables you to achieve what you want – whether as an individual (your heart’s desire), a company (the vision), or a country (national destiny). The desired future shapes the trajectory of innovation efforts, what I call “the innovation journey”.
It is based on creativity (what we see as possible through imagination, intuition and gut feel), but needs to be translated into practical, valuable outcomes.

Finally, the notion of “for many” suggests that innovation must lead to some kind of pervasive change. Thomas Edison with his first light bulb in hand was an inventor; a light bulb deployed to change the lives of many is an innovation.

My personal take on Current Indian Politics : Mayank Desai

mayankdesai — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 10:28:14 +0000

14th June, 2011.

Current Political fraternity right now are as confused as we common men. As they also like to see India prosperous and have great future for them and for future generation and they also dont know how to stop corruption and strengthen Indian Political system. Hearing one of the politician debating on Lokpal Bill she said, “I have also protested during my college days and beginning of my political career” and i wonder what happened once she became Member of Parliament? Has she agitated for or against own political party for common men and their suffering? Where’s that zeal of doing something for your country and people gone? That’s one answer i like to get from any politician…

When young politician want to make mark on big arena they choose local troubling issue and fight for it and then they take another till they become Member of Parliament(MP) or Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA). Once they become MP very few really work for common man they then start working for party funds and start doing politics within party to get good portfolio so they contribute lot of their time to please political bosses then poor aam janta. They collude with business man and start making money for next election and or for party fund. That is how, if not all, most politician behave and become corrupt or inefficient for common man.

Now lets talk about us common man. You may have notice so many people saying that “On my floor light bulb is not working and our secretary is not doing anything. In my society there is so much garbage and secretary is in effective. Security is not good and our managing committee is corrupt.” After this kind of talk we normally go home and if our bedroom Air condition is not working, mind you ceiling fan is working but AC is not working then we immediately call electrician and fix it. But we dont care to change light bulb which is on our own floor. The point i want to make is : we aam janta is just concerned about our own family and their well being and least care about my society, my community, my street, my area and lastly my nation.

Friends how many of you really do unselfish social work? One of the leadership course i did, the trainer said think about when you really feel happy??? and he said one of the best thing which i agree. “When you do unselfish work for others you feel so much better and happy.” So friends do participate in Managing committee of housing society and do social work which can make life of others little better. We must also cast our vote during election.

This has been regular scenario in our country from last so many years so let me share my views on current affairs. First let me take out my anger towards politicians and their cowardice and selfish act :

1. We are asking USA to declare Pakistan as terrorist nation. We complain to international community for Pakistan’s alleged role in Kashmir and terrorism in our country. Its like if some road side romeo tease my mother or wife or daughter and i ask my neighbor to inter-vein to protect my dear ones. That is cowardice and its unacceptable to me and i guess most of you.

2. Most dreaded sin of our politician is incident which occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries. Can you believe those victims are still fighting for compensation and its really criminal on our govt system for not doing justice.

3. The Shah Bano case was a controversial divorce lawsuit in India, in which Shah Bano, a 62 year old Muslim woman and mother of five from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, was divorced by her husband in 1978 and was subsequently denied alimony. The case created considerable debate and controversy about the extent of having different civil codes for different religions, especially for Muslims in India. This case caused the Rajiv Gandhi government, with its absolute majority, to pass the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 which diluted the secular judgment of the Supreme Court and, in reality, denied even utterly destitute Muslim divorcees the right to alimony from their former husbands. I still cant forgive Rajiv Gandhi and congress for doing that to please muslim community and not thought about muslim women. How can we have two different laws in our country one for hindus and others and second relax law for muslims. If muslims dont have to pay alimony as per their law then cut their hand while they do pick pocketing and or do uncivilized crimes. Congress is secular because they pamper Muslims or any community who can vote for them.

4. Supreme Court given verdict that criminal people can not fight election. Friends all parties yes all parties passed a law allowing criminals to fight elections. Why dont they pass a law that even criminals can join Police force and even Army with same logic that a criminal can become MP and may become even Home minister.

5. Supreme court has asked to hang Mohammad Afzal Guru in 2002 and still as on 14th jun 2011 he still is in Indian Jail awaiting his death penalty. Kasab is yet not hanged nor given verdict and we are demanding 50 odd terrorist from Pakistan where are we going to keep them as we dont have guts to hang them.

there are many such incidents and to stop those kind of act happening in future we need strong Jan Lokpal Bill.

I strongly feel we must have Jan Lokpal Bill to make sure that people who are making decisions and taking bribes and doing unethical work in social life will come under lokpal purview. Right now no politician or civil servant is worried from Judiciary or Police as they know even if they go to jail once they get bail and cases can run upto 10 to 25 years and they dont have to worry much. They are fearless in current political scenario. Hassan Ali who has not filled income tax can have huge real estate and number of bank accounts. He also can have multiple passports and no one bothers about it. Remember Sukhram case more than 5 crore cash was recovered from his residence judiciary cannot do anything and he died. We also should have very good Judiciary system. 10 time the no of courts and Judges so speedy judgement in predefined time limit should be given as its said “Justice delayed is justice denied.” Right now even if you are cheated by builder or businessman or anyone it takes years to prosecute that person and you loose mental peace. We need these corrupt politician and civil servants and even corrupt businessmen to fear from independent entity which can investigate their wrong doing and prosecute them in time bound manner. If require please come out in large numbers on 16th August 2011 so that Government can hear our voices against corruption loud and clear.

Please get out of your comfort zone when nation really need you. please dont keep quite when you see some unethical or injustice done around you. Lets make India proud. Its nice country to live in in-spite of all these problems. Teach basic human civic sense to children and community and also observe it by our-self.

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Mayank Desai's Collection of Spiritual and Motivational Stories

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Our gold-plated culture of corruption :

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Josh Haner/The New York Times

Classic Lateral Thinking Exercises : try this …

Test yourself with these thinking exercises. The solutions are at the bottom of the page. Don’t be lazy. Try hard to figure these out before you look! It’ll be a lot more satisfying.

Solutions

Alternate Solutions

List of universities in India

Contents

Universities

[edit] Chandigarh

Gujarat

Haryana

Kerala

Tamil Nadu

Uttarakhand

West Bengal

See also

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My personal take on Current Indian Politics : Mayank Desai