Olympics and India: Half Glass Full or....

Indian contingent returned with six medals in recently concluded London Olympics. It has generated mixed reactions in India. There have been celebrations for best ever medal haul in Olympics, while there have been criticism for a handful of medals from a country of 1.2 Billion people.  Several reasons have been attributed for low performance in Olympics –lack of killer instinct or competitive spirit, pre-occupation with Cricket, social and economic reasons. These reasons have played considerable role in lack of Olympic medals in India’s show case, but off late India has been undergoing significant social and economic reforms. Economic factors, worldwide seem to have played significant impact upon a country’s performance  in Olympics.

Goldman Sachs (GS) “ The Olympics and Economics 2012” has been in the news recently. It predicted the medal haul by each country based on predominantly economic factors. It predicted 5 medals including 2 Gold medals for India. Its prediction has been even more accurate for host country Great Britain- a total of 65 medals. The list of predicted and actual medals for few top sporting countries in London Olympics is listed here. The prediction of overall medals for countries with double digit medals have been impressive. It is not my point to debate the accuracy of prediction here, but the correlation with economic health of the country seems to play a significant role in success in Olympics. Though money does not affect all sports equally but country’s capability to promote sports and its infrastructure does matter. Political stability, Democracy and country specific strengths & skills are other factors impacting success in sports, in general.

Source: Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research- The Olympics and Economics 2012, Dated July 2012

Goldman Sachs’ The Olympics and Economics 2012 discusses economical and other related factors in details. The case of few developing countries does show a good correlation with the economical factors. I have tabulated three developing countries and compared their performance in Olympics- India, Brazil and China.

Source: www.worldbank.org & www.olympic.org

The population of the country does not seem to play a major role, while economic parameters (such as GDP per capita) seem to relate with the medal haul more closely. Therefore, the two most populous countries, China and India, started to win medals in Olympics only after their economies looked northwards. Brazil won only 3 medals in 1992 and went on to win 15 medals the very next Olympics, though it had earlier won 6 medals in 1988 but the increase in medal tally is as phenomenal as its economic growth. In China, sports reforms and good administration propelled its success in Olympics, but it seems to have been ably supported  by its economic prowess.

 

India’s participation, performance and success in Olympics are summarised in below graph. India’s performance have been improving gradually synonymous to its economic growth. Since number of medals have been low over the years, one need to consider the potential medal winners at each Olympics. The “Among top 10 performance” column shows the number of participants who featured amongst the top 10 in finals (for sports like athletics) or qualified for at least quarterfinals in other events. The swelling of medal worthy performances in various disciplines/sports gives a glimmer of hope.

Any article on India at Olympics would be incomplete without mention of Hockey.  India’s traditional stronghold seems to have slipped away badly, reaching its nadir this Olympics with 12th and last position in the table. Hockey continues to defy economic growth and it is appropriate to mention that it is not only economics which can help you win medals. This is one of the sports where it takes time to build skills, and economy plays a little role. Also India have been on receiving end due to changes in the rules and regulations of Hockey, which went against its traditional skills and slow pace, which India had mastered. Even otherwise, the participation and performance of team sports by India, in general and Olympics, in particular have been traditionally poor except Hockey. Even in Hockey, there has been no medals for the last 40 years (except in 1980, when many top Hockey playing nations did not participate).

Despite political interference, poor & corrupt sports administration, skewed economic growth and more academically inclined mindset, India has been able to come out of its slumber and produced at least one medal consecutively in last five Olympics. More remarkable is its consistency in all round performance over multiple sports and also other sporting events such as Commonwealth Games and Asian games. Needless to mention- hard work, practise, skills and more importantly- hunger to win seem be paying off now.

Finally, India seems to have arrived at Olympics and the next Olympics at Rio could mark a watershed for the growing economic power.

- Sandeep

 

Triclour Image sourece: http://hadhhogayi.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/india-london-2012-olympics-600x450.jpg

Book Preview: "101 Myths & Realities @ the Office"

A very good hand book for a successful professional career

There has been a significant growth of service sector in last few decades. It is difficult to imagine the vast differences in work culture, employees' mindset and employers' expectations from earlier days. The all-round growth of technology has altered the social, economic and industrial landscape. In this fast changing environment, one has to adapt oneself to the environment quickly and keep pace with the growth. The personal growth, these days, is no longer controlled by traditional and hierarchical parameters. Therefore, it has not been easy to transform your personal ambitions and goals into a successful career, just going by the practices of previous generation. In this fast pace professional world, opportunities knock at every turn and it is for individuals to grab them.

"101 Myths & Realities @ the Office by Utkarsh Rai" is one such book, which helps you to keep one step ahead in professional environment. I had a chance to preview this book and I recommend it to every professional. It helps to successfully carve out your career and to ensure that your personal goals are aligned with that of the organization through "101" practical, day to days situations. This is a wonderful reference book for both managers and employees. One thing I like about this book the most is the way it suggests the way-forward to both managers and employees on each such situation. This is a condensation of vast global experience of the author. This book has been aptly fore-worded by Nandan Nilekani with comments from Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Som Mittal.

To book your own copy, please follow the link below. The book is available from August 15th but can be pre-booked now :

http://www.infibeam.com/Books/101-myths-realities-office-utkarsh-rai/9780143418627.html?utm_term=Utkarsh_1_5

http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/101-myths-realities-office-by-utkarsh-rai-books-9780143418627-22524113/

- Sandeep



My Journey, My Story: Pankhuri

Engineering Entrance Examination:A student's perspective on Making It Happen successfully

Well, every year thousands of lakhs of students appear for various competitive exams across the country; IIT, BITS and AIEEE being the main ones out of these. So, what exactly can a student do, to make sure they come out with flying colours? Well, this article highlights my journey; read it, learn from it, adapt it, but do not follow it blindly, for I have made my own share of mistakes!

So, there I was, fresh from my tenth grade board exams. Not really sure of how I was going to face the next two years. IIT, BITS or NIT-K was the goal, in that order of preference, but the journey was unknown. I started off by joining, rather continuing, coaching in FIITJEE. Here, however, I made a small, yet costly, mistake. I went off for a vacation, and missed the beginning month of classes in April. To put it simply, I have never understood Mechanics properly since then.

I took 11th grade lightly, not really studying that much for the competitive exams. Going to school and going to coaching. I studied for school, but not for coaching, unless tests were close by. This helped me in AIEEE, but was not so great for my IIT. The 11th grade portions are very important, in all three subjects, and often the trickiest questions of any competitive paper are set from these chapters. So it really helps to be thorough with them. Writing from experience, I’d like to say, PLEASE do not neglect your 11th grade topics in 11th grade. We often think that there will be enough time in the two years to catch up, but that really does not happen. Take it from someone who’s been there.

Now, 12th grade ends up being more of a chaos. There are forms to be filled, boards to be written, records to be completed, graduation to be attended, not to mention the pre-boards. In the midst of all this, one has to focus on their studies. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that bad also, but at the end of a week, you are tired.  12th is the one year when you have study. That’s it, study. And since almost everyone is studying around you, it won’t seem that bad a task actually! So yeah, studying should be the mantra for the year.

On another note, one should also look into reference books and use them for studying/practice. Many students have the tendencies to look at many books, however, I did not find this very helpful. I spoke to my teachers and classmates, and bought only two or maybe three references per subject, the ones that were most helpful. Exceptions, however, can be made if a particular book is better for a specific topic. This way, you have a better grasp on topics, because you maintain continuity. Of course, it also helps to have friends in your class, who might bring in problems from other books, which then helps you adapt your thinking to different types of question.

Solving previous years’ papers and guess papers is also a good idea. Though the IITJEE is known for not repeating questions, they do have some noticeable patterns, like how many questions shall appear from a particular topic, and having this knowledge is always helpful, even during the paper. Being part of a coaching class ensures that you have enough questions to solve and papers to do, but if you are studying on your own, many institutes do sell guess papers. That is sufficient practice for anyone.

Even appearing for Olympiads is a good idea. Competing at an all-India level gives you an idea of where you stand and it helps in knowing your weaknesses and strengths. However, writing these papers without any sort of preparation could work the other way around. Your performance could go down, maybe making you anxious and worried. Here comes another very important aspect of studying, strategizing and self-review.

One also needs to follow the idea of planning the calendar in advance. Giving due priorities to the Board and competitive exams is necessary. Decide before hand on what exams to appear for. Nowadays, many papers are held online and over a period of time. You need to plan your calendar appropriately so that you have enough time to change gears from one exam to other, concentrate and re-charge yourself. This also helps mentally, because you know how far apart your papers are. Since the calendar for online examination opens later, it is better to apply for as many exams as possible initially, and keep most options open. However, one can decide to skip few examinations later if examination schedule become too taxing or hectic. I, for one, applied for about ten admission tests, but ended up giving only six of them.

One more thing, and we may find this funny being the internet generation, but it is important to practice online tests. Though it seems simple, getting used to solving papers without having the questions next to your work-space is a different experience. Objective tests also give the choice to attempt questions sequentially or in preference of topics; this is one thing that needs to be practiced, as we tend to go with the order of the paper. These small things do matter and should be practised before-hand to maximise the performance. One, hence, needs to make a strategy as to how to approach the paper and practice accordingly. However, do not alter your strategy a few days before the final examination.

Another very important thing to do is get your body clock adjusted to the timing of your exams. I had many friends who were having problems writing papers in the afternoon because they used to get sleepy! It would be a shame to perform badly in a test only because one was sleepy. This usually happens because we tend to take papers at our convenience, and also take small breaks between three-hour papers. Ideally, one should start writing papers in their allotted timing at least two weeks before the actual one.

There is one more issue I would like to address in this article, as it will probably be the only one I shall write on this topic, and that concerns motivation. There might be papers that go bad, and you will start doubting your capabilities. The following days might seem like bad ones, there might be arguments at home and you might plan re-thinking your goals. All I would like to say is that everyone goes through these moments. Almost everyone feels low at some point in these two years, and I believe it is quite natural. In these moments, it is better to take a break for a day, maybe two; refresh yourself by doing something you like. You could listen to music, dance, read a book or, my personal favourite, watch a movie. You might find it contradictory to take a break when your performance is down, but trust me; the break will only help you cool down and mentally arm yourself for the next bout of drudgery.

Finally, I would say that even though there can be no substitute for studying and hard work, planning your studies and strategizing how you approach your paper does play an important role in your performance in competitive exams.

~Hopes up, always! Nothing does wonders to your performance better than the confidence of cracking the paper.

by Pankhuri

(This article has been written by Pankhuri Kumar as a guest author. Pankhuri has had first-hand experience of going through this journey herself. She passed her standard XII in 2012 and also qualified for IIT JEE 2012, BITSAT 2012, AIEEE 2012, K CET 2012 and  few other national engineering entrance examinations with good ranks. She is pursuing her studies at BITS-Pilani, Pilani Campus. Apart from studies, she is an astute writer, avid reader and prolific dancer.)

Image Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVOGNi-4t9nWv1WkntcTQNrgpzCkud9C-x2uFm_Szps_D7r_jr09MnhtGdJITK8NkXyiwG52EykxOL2ZCwLvqJneAmQK37zeH7HDa1SsiY0xYGJS40YwKKSD171391jjJ4bpnBMG89aN1M/s1600/0511-0906-2212-2315_Black_and_White_Cartoon_of_a_Boy_Cramming_for_a_Test_clipart_image.jpg