9 VTU colleges in The Week’s top 100 Engineering Colleges

12 of India's top 100 engineering colleges are in Karnataka

Karnataka has its own name in the quality engineering colleges. Bangalore is always a favorite choice for the technology education. The Week, India’s leading weekly has published the list of 100 top engineering colleges in the country in its June 17, 2012 issue. 12 institutions of Karnataka have secured their place in the list. Out of 12 best engineering colleges in Karnataka, 9 are affiliated to VTU. Other three intuitions are National Institute of Technology (NITK), Surathkal at 15^th place, University Visweswaraya College of engineering at 37^th place and Manipal Institute of Technology Manipal at 38^th place. The 9 best engineering colleges in Bangalore and Karnataka according to The Week which are affiliated to VTU (some are autonomous) are as follows:

No	Rank	College	Place
1	16	RV College of Engineering	Bangalore
2	29	PES Institute of Technology	Bangalore
3	51	Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of technology	Bangalore
4	56	M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology	Bangalore
5	59	Acharya Institute of Technology	Bangalore
6	64	BMS College of Engineering	Bangalore
7	68	Sri Jayacharajendra College of Engineering	Mysore
8	74	National College of Engineering	Mysore
9	91	MVJ College of Engineering	Bangalore

In my personal view the list may interchange. But definitely all are good colleges and felt the The Week- Hansa research survey is fair. Even the ranking may change engineering stream wise. One should also enquire about department in a particular college before taking an admission into it. A best college may a bad department. Thankfully few institutions like New Horizon college of Engineering which used to advertise as India’s second best college through a result of paid survey have not made entry into list to misguide the students. Surprisingly very few colleges of Tamil Nadu are in the list though it has a huge number of engineering colleges. Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has the highest best affiliated colleges.

Accreditation by NBA: Prejudice

It was 24th May. I got a call to visit the college as National Board of Accreditation has come to college for evaluation. Thinking so, if my Alma matter gets accreditation it is my pleasure; went to college. It was the first time I’m seeing college during NBA committee visit. The whole college transforms into some extra ordinary superior status where 90% is unrealistic. Along with few of my senior friends went to the college. When we entered the department our eyes could not believe whether it is a reality what we are seeing in the labs and department. Few senior lecturers were so busy to follow the committee member that he should not get a clue that this is a drama set.

Afternoon we were called to the seminar hall to interact with the committee members. There are alumni and parents of the students to tell their opinion about the college. The session started. It was parents to tell their opinion in beginning. It went like this- “I am happy because my daughter is happy in the college…. I can get all the information regarding my son in 5 minutes. So college is very good…. My son was not good at academics, after joining this college he became intelligent.” Members of NBA committee started sleeping. They started snoring when it came to old students. “I got a job in research institution because of the name MVJCE. (I told myself- for the same reason many did not get a job)…. I got my scores improved when I came to this college (might have learnt copying in exam)…. The road from Hope farm to college was very bad, now it is rebuild (hey lady, they came to assess the college, not Bangalore Development Authority)…. Even in recession we have a good placement…. Garden is very nice, so I could study well and got passed…. It is very good college because I did not get ragged…”

Don’t think it ended up there. There were some students who could wake up the committee members. A person started “I’m very happy to hear that other department is so good, at the same time feeing sad my department is very poor. Our lecturers are so dumb that they do not know anything; there is no transparency in appointing lecturers. Our lab equipments, if it is there, are at very poor conditions that we have to go to some other institutions to do our final year project. Placement office is so hopeless they do not know any other firms apart from Caritor, Wipro, Infosys, TechMahindra. It is just because they need in mass and don’t look for the specific branch. Even after submitting 102 Biotechnology Companies lists with address and phone number the placement office could not make even a single company to arrive at college campus.”

It was another alumnus; call him as ‘sun’ to start his sparkling speech. “My relationship with this college is pretty long as students for 4 years and as a lecturer for one and a half years. I was amazed see the improvements in 6 months from the date when I left the college to today, from nothing to everything in a little while. The knowledge of the lecturers is so poor. It might be due to the recruitment procedures. I should tell how I was recruited. I was interviewed by the professors of E&E and a botany lecturer for the post of reaction kinetics. Do they know the definitions of the reaction kinetics? How they could evaluate? ”

Government plans for the betterment of the country. In this regard the person who has to apply them plays a major role. The saddest thing is when such prejudice comes to education. It has already penetrated.

(The quotes are not in the exact words of the speakers)

VTU, SBI and My result

SBI is the largest bank in India. Pay package for an entry level officer in SBI is double than the average CTC of an entry level engineer graduate. The company in which I got placed told me that it will pay Rs 2,75,000 per year, where here it was Rs 5,40,000 per year. In July, SBI called for application for exam for various officer posts on probationary basis. When I applied in Aug 2008 I was not aware of these facts. As I am always interested in competitive exams made an application. At that time I was clueless about the economic situation of today too.
It was not tough, I could easily clear both SBI prelims and main exams held in Oct and Nov 2008. I got result of main exam in January. The world already started experiencing a hard time. Thousands of job cuts are being reported from all over the world. It was my second anniversary of Campus placement, joining date was not intimated by the company. So I was happy that I could go to SBI and beat the effect of economic recession or also you can term it as depression on me. But the fate was different.
I went to SBI headquarters in Bangalore on 9 Feb 2008. As it had been mentioned in the advertisement of SBI recruitment cell, a person who has finished his graduation on or before 1 July 2008 was only eligible to apply. I had finished my graduation in the month June 2008. Though VTU had provided me the marks sheet tells I passed the exam in July 2008. There started a conflict. On which date I became a graduate? But the officers were not ready to accept my application is valid because there is no proof to confirm I became graduate on or before 1 July 2008. I had completed my last exam in June 2008, if my university VTU had printed the fact that "he has passed the examination held in June 2008" I had no problem. But they did not.
Look at the pictures. First tme table- clearly tells exams were over in June 2008, but certificate read "held in July 2008". A small neglect of VTU made me pay a heavy loss. I was sure that I will get this job, as my performance through out the examination procedures was good , if this mistake from the VTU was not there in my certificate.
Later a question aroused. From when should a student considered as a graduate? Is it on the day when he gets result? or from the day when he writes the last exam? or the day when the university delivers convocation certificate? When it was discussed with the educationalists and some high court attorneys they made clear that a student becomes a graduate from the day when he writes the last exam. Result tells whether he became a graduate or not from that day. But now, whom should I blame for this? University- VTU- which did not provide the fact that I passed the exam in June 2008, or SBI- not willing to accept my application because I don't have a proof that I had not been a graduate on 1 July or my result itself?

Economic Meltdown Kisses Biotechnology Research

Finally world economic meltdown kissed biotechnology too. It took time, may not be at that extent other fields are affected, but it is. There are several reasons to say it will continue even after other firms recovers.
I have some friends working for both research institutions and biotechnology companies. One of my friend in an Indian research institution tells they started re-using eppendorf tube which they have never done earlier. Instead of thrown in to dustbin, now they wash it and sterilise. This is because they are not getting sufficient fund from the corporate firms who were always in back of these research. If this continues for quite a long time they may have to stop research. That is true, research works in biotechnology requires a huge fund, that a research institution alone can not afford. So many firms and also government bodies sponsor these research as their corporate social responsibility. At this economic condition how can you expect funds?
While bio tech companies are still seems to be stable at stock market are also running short of research capital. The capital comes from investment companies and most of the investment firms are now at their worst condition. So now, the research in large bio tech firms have also lost support from capital investment firms.If research in bio tech loses support, it could be a worst hit to mankind.
Photo: part of affinity chromatography column; 2007©Akshay Bhagwat

We are affected by bad global cues

Most of the engineers who completed their graduation in May-June with a software job in their hand through campus placements are still waiting for call from companies. Some companies have given the tentative dates that fall in second quarter of 2009. Some firms who came to campus for placement in the early 2007 have not yet given even tentative dates for joining.

I heard of comparing the situation to those in 1997-99. But experts tell it is wrong because now Indian economy is completely globalised, where every small change in world economy has its own effect on Indian corporate.

As we already know US economy is facing very bad time that has ever seen after 1929. In USA alone about 85,000 has lost their job in August. Running in loss and bankruptcy of the investment corporations could affect the IT companies, because they have invested huge amount in IT firms. AIG experienced a 90% fall in its share value this year. Stock price of GE went down to 11 years low. IT stocks in Indian market are also going low reflecting the situation

In US these developments are given political importance for the coming presidential election. US House of Representatives voted against the proposal of government intervention in economy which was $700-billion bailout plan. Obama, democratic presidential candidate said in his one of the campaign that he shall remove the tax holydays for the companies which are outsourcing their works, to increase the employment rates there. If so, what would be the fate of the Indian software firms which are mainly focusing n the outsourced works? Still we can expect smoothening of the situation after the US election.

Exchange rate of the USD against Indian Rupee is improving. It is now about 47Rs/USD where it was about 39Rs/USD beginning of the year. It seems good news for the software firms because their revenue comes from exporting the IT products. By telling so we want to run over the reality, but we can’t hide the fact why Rupee is going down. It is because the foreign investors are removing their investments from Indian firms. Is it good news?

As per the information, even the middle level HR managers do not know when they are going to issue joining date for fresher. Higher authorities of the companies have instructed them to suspend recruitment till next instruction. So fresher may have to wait for some more time without minding news in the air.

City bank helped a company for acquisition of another bigger company. City bank is showing loss in recent days. Person who does not reveal his identity responded that the company faced a hard time in the last financial year and now it is under recovery. This is the time when it needs help of investment banks. So nobody can tell when the company will call fresher without knowing the present status of relation between the company and the bank.

Do they require all those who got placed? We can not answer this question unaware of strategies of individual companies. But one should accept that IT firms are not running as they have forecasted two years back.