Letter to Student Series : Volume 3 Issue 6

My Dear Student Friends,

Greetings!

This is Dr. Ravi Saripalle, Founder, Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement. Welcome to “Letter to Student Series- Volume 3 and Issue 6”. Hope you enjoyed reading my previous letter (they are available at http://i2itm.blogspot.in/). The goal of these letters is to inspire, educate, engage, entertain and empower students across the country and make them Future Ready.

Please listen to following important messages to you 

1.     Unemployability : The 5th Biggest Crisis on the Earth: You can listen to my proposal which is applicable to all students and professionals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j4W0onuSfg

2.     Examinations : My Message to all students who are appearing for Year End Examinations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyBjBH1-6z4

Yearend examinations are around the corner. Across the nation, students and professionals are working hard, few working smart but goal is to become successful in their respective lives. Having said that, "Success doesn't mean the absence of failures; it means the attainment of ultimate objectives. It means winning the war, not every battle (Edwin C. Bliss)". To prove this definition, you must hear the story of Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President which was published in a website called https://www.snopes.com/glurge/lincoln.asp: Abraham Lincoln embraced and engulfed into multiple challenges & constraints till the last leg of winning!! "1831: Failed in business; 1832: Ran for state legislature – lost;1832: Also lost his job – wanted to go to law school but couldn’t get in;1833: Borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the year he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt;1834: Ran for state legislature again – won;1835: Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died and his heart was broken;1836: Had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months;1838: Sought to become speaker of the state legislature – defeated;1840: Sought to become elector – defeated;1843: Ran for Congress – lost;1846: Ran for Congress again – this time he won – went to Washington and did a good job;1848: Ran for re-election to Congress – lost;1849 Sought the job of land officer in his home state – rejected;1854: Ran for Senate of the United States – lost;1856: Sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party’s national convention – got less than 100 votes;1858: Ran for U.S. Senate again – again he lost;1860: Elected president of the United States". After reading these facts, if someone feels nervous, pressurized and sensitive about failures, it is mere ignorance. Success and failures are twins and share space, time and context. Your ultimate goal is to work hard and leave results to God! If you can practice this great art, You are already successful! Believe me. This is the fact. Do not worry about exams, results and marks. They are sheer bi-products. You keep going!!

Bhanjibhai Mathukiya, the innovator who built more than 25 dams and tractors: I was reading about Bhanjibhai Mathukiya at Yourstory.com (https://yourstory.com/2018/01/bhanjibhai-mathukiya/). Bhanjibhai is hailing from agricultural family from a village in Gujarat. He invented 10 HP tractor for smaller farmers who are growing groundnut and orchards using diesel engine and the chassis of a jeep which is half priced than alternatives available in the market. He built a check dam on the river Dharfad for mere 10,000 rupees, with 1 mason, 4 labourers and in 4 days! He was asked to build  many more later seeing the initial success! He represented India at the Commonwealth Science Council in South Africa. Great effort Bhanjibhai! We need many more like him to solve our grassroots problems! Thank you yourstory for publishing such a great mission.

Subhasini Mistry, Founder of Humanity Hospital:  A poor lady from rural Bengal, who worked as housemaid, daily laborer for more than 20 years, singlehandedly built humanity hospital. Currently it is running with 45 beds, 10 ICU beds, treating thousands of poor for free of cost. Forced to marry a wage laborer at the age of 12, widowed at the age of 23, struggles and hardship are common friends to her. She kept her son in an orphanage and made him doctor. Amazingly, her son is  now helping in her mission in their own hospital. Hospital started in a small hut and grown this big. Finally Government of India announced  Padma Shri Award for her relentless effort towards this great cause. We wish many more good services from Subhasini Mistry. Thank you betterindia.com for publishing such an inspiring story. To read more, please do visit https://www.thebetterindia.com/129200/padma-shri-2018/? utm_source= The+Better+India+Newsletter&utm_ campaign=e79fe352d1-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cd579275a4-e79fe352d1-73776797

Bhajju Shyam, Gond Artist: The Gonds, are the largest Adivasi Community, generally found in Madhya Pradesh and in neighboring states. Traditionally used to paint on mud walls but contemporary artists from this community started new tradition of figurative and narrative visual art. Lot of their works use dots to create the painting. Bhajju Shyam, aged 46, hailing from Madhya Pradesh, internationally acclaimed Gond Artist, born in poor tribal family, worked as a night guard and electrician to support his family. He became famous for depicting life in Europe. He illustrated this work in 8 books. One of his books, The London Jungle book, was sold 30000 copies and published in 5 foreign languages.  Government of India announced  Padma Shri Award for his extraordinary talent. Thank you Better India for this remarkable story publication. To know more about Gond art, please do visit https://www.deccanfootprints.com/collections/gond-art 

Arvind Gupta, Expert in Toys from Trash, Scientist Toymaker: Born in 1953, Alumni of  Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, worked for two years at TELCO, resigned from the job to revitalize the science teaching through the discovery approach. Started developing multiple model toys to teach science. You can find hundreds of the toys designed by Arvind Gupta at http://arvindguptatoys.com. He used cheapest materials and household rubbish to develop these toys. Over a period of four decades, Arvind visited 3,000+ schools, made 6,200 short films on toy-making in 18 languages and provided free books on his website in 12 languages. Arvind Gupta has been conferred the Padma Shri award this year. To read more, please do visit https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/padma-shri-for-scientist-toymaker-arvind-gupta/articleshow/62657292.cms

Ingvar Kamprad: IKEA's frugal billionaire founder:  "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication", by  Leonardo da Vinci. Have you heard about IKEA? It is swedish-founded Dutch-based multinational group, which designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories. It has been the world's largest furniture retailer since 2008. Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA, started this company at the age of 17 in his own family farm. He is known for his ethic, frugality and down-to-earth style. His worth was approximately $60 billion when he died at the age of 91. He always drove modest Volvo and dressed simple. Before this venture, initially he used to sell matchboxes to neighbors from his bicycle. There is lot to learn from his principles. Thank you ET for publishing this inspiring story. To read more, please do visit https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/the-story-of-ingvar-kamprad-ikeas-frugal-billionaire-founder/starting-a-company-at-17/slideshow/62692460.cms

Dear Students, Hope you completed Future readiness assessment. This is to help you to plan your life better and make you relevant in the context of 4th Industrial revolution. Please take this assessment every month without fail. It acts like reminder to 5 important activities- Inspire yourself through positive stories, get mentored from your role model, develop your natural intelligence, manage academics and do physical activity. Request you to answer the following five questions and calculate your Future Readiness.

1.         I read / hear stories of amazing people           

(A) weekly once (10 marks)           (B) monthly once (5 marks)                   (C) Irregular reading (2 marks)        (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

2.         I write letter / mail to my mentor (other than parents) for guidance (professional / personal)

(A) every 6 months (10 marks)      (B) yearly once (5 marks)               

(C) Irregular writing (2 marks)       (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

3.         I practice my passion or natural intelligence (to know your intelligence https://goo.gl/vgyD54) 

(A) weekly 4 hours (10 marks)       (B) weekly 2 hours (5 marks)        

(C) Irregular practice (2 marks)      (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

4.         I manage my academics with consistent percentage or grade 

(A) A Grade and above  (10 marks)  (B) B Grade and above  (5 marks)

(C) C Grade or below (2 marks)       (D)Consistent Failure (0 marks)

5.         I do physical activity and maintain good health  

(A) weekly 4 hours (10 marks)       (B) weekly 2 hours (5 marks)        

(C) Irregular practice (2 marks)      (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

                                    Check Your Score and Title

I wish you should be either Performer (your score should be between 40-50) or Challenger (your score should be between 25-40). You should not give any scope to be  Lounger (relaxed) with 10-25 score or Laggard (slower than desired) with score less than 10.

My Dear Friends, Appreciate your valuable time. See you in my next letter. Thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity. You can also reach to me at sdindia2020@gmail.com. I am happy to respond to your letter.

With Best Wishes,

Dr. Ravi Saripalle

About Author:    Dr. Ravi Saripalle is Founder of Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement and Director, Center for Innovation, GVP College of Engineering (A), Vizag, AP, India. As part of Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement, Dr.Ravi is trying to instill inspiration through spreading positive stories of amazing people in the form of short stories, embedding them in the form of letters (epistolary form) and sending them to thousands of schools, colleges, universities districts administration across India. Also conducting Storytelling Workshops in select institutions. Providing customized mentoring to inspired students. Dr. Ravi is having 18 years of experience in Industry, Consultancy, Training, Mentoring and Research. Prior to this current mission, Ravi worked with Wipro Technologies for more than a decade.  Ravi can be reached at sdindia2020@gmail,com or http://i2itm.blogspot.in/ or https://www.facebook.com/RaviSaripalle

Previous letters are available at http://i2itm.blogspot.in/    Videos https://www.youtube.com/user/Indianrichtalent

Disclaimer: The goal of this i2iSM letter series campaign is to inspire students / youth through storytelling and develop innovative leaders to build strong nation. In this process, I have taken several data points from various websites, NEWS articles, books, videos etc. I sincerely thank all the editors for providing such an insightful stories and information. To the best of my knowledge, I tried to acknowledge all the sources. I sincerely apologize for any omissions, grammatical mistakes and hurting any reader’s sentiments. I request all the readers to understand the spirit behind this effort. This effort doesn’t involve any commercials. Letter series is for free distribution.

Letter to Student Series : Volume 3 Issue 5

My Dear Student Friends,

Greetings!

This is Dr. Ravi Saripalle, Founder, Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement. Welcome to “Letter to Student Series- Volume 3 and Issue 5”. Hope you enjoyed reading my previous letter (they are available at http://i2itm.blogspot.in/). The goal of these letters is to inspire, educate, engage, entertain and empower students across the country and make them Future Ready. Welcome to Year 2018!!!

Nirbhay Thacker, 15-Year-Old, completes 4-Year Engineering Degree in One Year: When I was 15 years old, I was studying 10^th class. That time, my only requirement was somehow complete 10^th, eat different foods and play during holidays and summer!! Beyond this, there was no consideration! Recently I was reading an article @ thebetterindia/Ahmedabad Mirror about Nirbhay Thacker who could manage to complete 4 year engineering degree in 1 year with 8.23 CGPA! Wow! It was a great accomplishment right? A student of GTU (Gujarat Technological University), Nirbhay has become youngest in GTU to complete and earn engineering degree in electrical engineering! He used to study for 6 hours, complete 4000 pages of various subjects in 50 days! What an Hercules task? He also completed 5 classes (8^th, 9 ^th, 10 ^th, 11 ^th and 12 ^th ) in 1 year itself! Currently he is working with IIT Gandhinagar to study on superconducting synchronous machine, which will be used in fighter plane or submarine. The core skills of Nirbhay were listening, visualizing, and applying the of concepts. Nirbhay is amazing child prodigy. Thank you Ahmedabad Mirror and The Better India for publishing such an inspiring article. If you want to read more about this article, please visit (http://ahmedabadmirror.indiatimes.com/ahmedabad/education/teen-wonder-completes-engg-degree-in-one-year/articleshow/62435041.cms or https://www.thebetterindia.com/127420/child-prodigy-gujarat-students-completes-engineering-degree-in-one-year/amp/)

Ministry of Loneliness, Govt. of UK, an innovative solution to the Global Problem: Government of UK recently established (Jan 2018) a new ministry called Ministry of Loneliness, which deals with social issues related to loneliness. It tries to implement the recommendations of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness. Helen Joanne Cox was a British Labour Party politician, Member of Parliament (MP), UK. Cox became a campaigner on issues relating civil wars. She was shot dead on 16 June 2016. Jo Cox studied in London school of Economics. She studied hard on various social issues related to loneliness and how these issues lead to extreme steps. Now Government has recognized her efforts and started this new Ministry. This Ministry is trying to help children, adults and old age people who are suffering with loneliness across the Nation.

Across the world, Loneliness has become acute social concern. Despite technological advancements and socially connected apps, incredible communication systems, still most people around the world are suffering with loneliness. It is not just social problem but it is also health and mental issue. More and more families are fragmenting and getting isolated. This is the major cause. An article by Kerby Anderson stated that, death, divorce and deferred marriage are playing major role in  creating loneliness. Few other reasons causing loneliness are frequent movements, apartment complexes, 24/7 shifts and fragmented families. Most important aspect of loneliness is anchoring for privacy and declining personal interaction. Few techniques like spirituality, yoga, smiling, greetings, firm handshake / Namaste and taking time to listen to others will help in reducing loneliness. Thank you Larry J. Mcelroy for your wonderful article.  

Dear Student Friends, Life is short. There are multiple things we need to do in this short period. Time given to us is short. We need to accomplish all defined goals in that stipulated time. Where is scope for loneliness? Please introspect. Love your circumstances and Be Happy. This is best solution for any conditions. Do you agree? Will you take oath for never be lonely? (psychologically! I am not expecting physically!). Yes you are committing. Thank you very much for your commitment. https://rcg.org/realtruth/articles/091207-002-society.html;                       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Minister_for_Loneliness; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Cox

22% Indians Suffer From Constipation!! Reasons and Solution? It looks odd to discuss this topic openly. People are embarrassed to talk about this but it is not a good sign! Constipation is most occurring problem after common cold and cough. Constipation is a digestive issue. It results in to infrequent bowel movement or people face terrific difficulty in passing stool. As per healthcare firm Abbott Gut Health Survey, 22% of the adult Indian population is facing this issue, within this, 13% are complaining of severe constipation! The main root cause for this problem is "sedentary lifestyle". Now a days, the amount of physical activity is getting low. On top of this, diet and lifestyle habits are causing constipation.  The solution for this problem is taking enough water, fibre and have good physical exercise! What a simple solution right? Are you taking enough water and fiber in your food? Try to avoid junk food and do 30 minutes of physical activity every day. You will be happy and healthy! Will You? I am sure you will. Thank you for listening to me. If you want to read more about this article, please visit https://www.ndtv.com/food/22-indians-suffer-from-constipation-4-foods-that-can-help-ease-bowel-movement-1803971.

A tool to detect bacteria in food and water : University of Massachusetts Team has developed a tool to detect bacteria in fresh food and water! Congratulations Team. Great Job. It is going to be wonderful innovation once it is commercially available in the market. Team is trying to make it affordable so that common men can buy it, use it before they consume fresh or raw food. The tool has reliable and sensitive bacteria-detecting chip. It uses light microscope for optical detection: 3-mercaptophenylboronic acid (3-MBPA) that attracts bacteria. We just need  samples of water, juice, mashed vegetable leaf  and place it on the chip for detection. Great work right. If you want to read more, please do visit this article at https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/health-and-wellbeing/240118/scientists-develop-affordable-tool-to-detect-bacteria-in-food-water.html.

World Economic Forum- 1 Million Workers Targeted globally in Tech-Reskilling Drive by Jan 2021: Amazing right? Did you check http://www.theskillset.org/? SkillSET:
Sustainable Education and Training for the Digital Economy! It is a project envisioned by World Economic Forum IT industry community in cooperation with the Forum’s Education, Gender and Work System Initiative. As per the estimate,  9% to 50% current jobs are at risk of automation. The skills covered are general business skills to basic digital literacy to entrepreneurship to more advanced skills like cyber-security, big data and IoT etc. TCS, Infosys, Accenture, CA Technologies, Cisco, Cognizant, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Pegasystems, PwC, Salesforce and SAP have joined hands to develop the training content and platform. Thank you for your great initiative. This helps in reducing employability issues. Klaus Schwab, founder of world economic forum says educational system should be redefined which brings lifelong learning and can prepare employee for future. Forth Industrial Revolution is arriving in big way. These are few initiatives helping working communities. Did you take assessment and find out where you stand? Do you require up skilling? Get prepared. If you want to read more about this article, please do visit https://www.ndtv.com/business/at-davos-infosys-tcs-join-global-reskilling-drive-for-1-million-workers-1803988

The world’s first vertical forest for low-income housing, Netherlands: Stefano Boeri, famous architect has designed and built vertical forests across the world. Boeri is starting a new project to counter the challenges of climate change and housing shortages in urban setting! What a idea right? It is the need of hour! His new project is going to have 19 storeys with 125 trees and 5,200 plants of various species.! In India, we require similar solutions. It is part of urban forestry movement. It is not just for environment safety but it greatly improves urban living conditions. Amazing job Stefano Boeri. Thank you positive news. If you want to read more, please visit https://www.positive.news/2018/society/30981/the-worlds-first-vertical-forest-for-low-income-housing-is-coming-to-the-netherlands/

Dear Students, Hope you completed Future readiness assessment. This is to help you to plan your life better and make you relevant in the context of 4th Industrial revolution. Please take this assessment every month without fail. It is not one time activity but it is a regular assessment process. It acts like reminder to 5 important activities- Inspire yourself through positive stories, get mentored from your role model, develop your natural intelligence, manage academics and do physical activity. If you can manage these 5, no one can stop your progress. Are you game? 

Request you to answer the following five questions and calculate your Future Readiness.

1.         I read / hear stories of amazing people           

 (A) weekly once (10 marks)           (B) monthly once (5 marks)                                                                                (C) Irregular reading (2 marks)    (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

2.         I write letter / mail to my mentor (other than parents) for guidance (professional / personal)

(A) every 6 months (10 marks)      (B) yearly once (5 marks)                                                                             (C) Irregular writing (2 marks)    (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

3.         I practice my passion or natural intelligence (to know your intelligence https://goo.gl/vgyD54) 

(A) weekly 4 hours (10 marks)       (B) weekly 2 hours (5 marks)                                                                      (C) Irregular practice (2 marks)    (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

4.         I manage my academics with consistent percentage or grade 

(A) A Grade and above  (10 marks)            (B) B Grade and above  (5 marks)                                            (C) C Grade or below (2 marks)                  (D)Consistent Failure (0 marks)

5.         I do physical activity and maintain good health  

(A) weekly 4 hours (10 marks)       (B) weekly 2 hours (5 marks)                                                                      (C) Irregular practice (2 marks)    (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

Check Your Score and Title

I wish you should be either Performer (your score should be between 40-50) or Challenger (your score should be between 25-40). You should not give any scope to be  Lounger (relaxed) with 10-25 score or Laggard (slower than desired) with score less than 10.

My Dear Friends, Appreciate your valuable time. Life is short. Life without purpose is no worth. Purpose without substance is no hope. Hope without you is not real progress. Hence you are the key and critical for our nation's growth. Hope you concur with me. You are carrying a message, a hope, a purpose. Hope you understand my anguish. See you in my next letter. Thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity. You can also reach to me at sdindia2020@gmail.com. I am happy to respond to your letter.

With Best Wishes,

Dr. Ravi Saripalle

About Author:    Dr. Ravi Saripalle is Founder of Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement and Director, Center for Innovation, GVP College of Engineering (A), Vizag, AP, India. As part of Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement, Dr.Ravi is trying to instill inspiration through spreading positive stories of amazing people in the form of short stories, embedding them in the form of letters (epistolary form) and sending them to thousands of schools, colleges, universities districts administration across India. Also conducting Storytelling Workshops in select institutions. Providing customized mentoring to inspired students. Dr. Ravi is having 18 years of experience in Industry, Consultancy, Training, Mentoring and Research. Prior to this current mission, Ravi worked with Wipro Technologies for more than a decade.  Ravi can be reached at sdindia2020@gmail,com or http://i2itm.blogspot.in/ or https://www.facebook.com/RaviSaripalle

Previous letters are available at http://i2itm.blogspot.in/

Disclaimer: The goal of this i2iSM letter series campaign is to inspire students / youth through storytelling and develop innovative leaders to build strong nation. In this process, I have taken several data points from various websites, NEWS articles, books, videos etc. I sincerely thank all the editors for providing such an insightful stories and information. To the best of my knowledge, I tried to acknowledge all the sources. I sincerely apologize for any omissions, grammatical mistakes and hurting any reader’s sentiments. I request all the readers to understand the spirit behind this effort. This effort doesn’t involve any commercials. Letter series is for free distribution. 

Letter to Student Series : Volume 3 Issue 4

My Dear Student Friends,

Greetings!

This is Dr. Ravi Saripalle, Founder, Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement. Welcome to “Letter to Student Series- Volume 3 and Issue 4”. Hope you enjoyed reading my previous letter (they are available at http://i2itm.blogspot.in/). The goal of these letters is to inspire, educate, engage, entertain and empower students across the country and make them Future Ready. Wish you happy New Year 2018

Acknowledgement: In this context, I would like to acknowledge the most valuable response of Hon'ble Deputy Commissioner, Mysuru to my previous letter. Hon'ble DC was suggesting to conduct pilot run to extract the required minerals and useful manure contents from the sewage water using low cost methods. This is wonderful business model also aids our Swachh Mission.

Education 4.0 for Industry 4.0 : Industry 4.0, often called as 4^th Industrial Revolution , sometimes referred as Smart Factory, is widely adopted by industry in the form of automation, data exchange in manufacturing technologies, cyber-physical systems, Internet of things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, ubiquitous computing and cognitive computing etc. 1^st Industrial Revolution is more towards mechanization, water power & steam power,2^nd Industrial Revolution is more towards mass production, assembly line, electricity, 3^rd Industrial Revolution is towards Computer and Automation and finally the 4^th Industrial Revolution is towards Cyber & Physical Systems. World economic forum's report warns Industry 4.0 may affect job market and millions of jobs might either displace or lost. It causes widespread disruptions in the way business operates. It poses new threats and creates new opportunities. As per The San Diego Union-Tribune, as many as 7.1 million jobs being lost in major countries (US, Germany, France, China, Brazil and other nations), mostly in white-collar office and administrative jobs, while 2.1 million jobs will be created in computer engineering and mathematics. AI/Machine Learning/Robots may better work than humans in some domains (e.g. dermatologists, insurance claims adjusters, lawyers, seismic testers in oil fields, sports journalists and financial reporters, crew members on guided-missile destroyers, hiring managers, psychological testers, retail salespeople, and border patrol agents etc. Another report claims, activities like cars and trucks driving, medical tests analysis,  middle management chores,  medicine dispense,  stocks trade and markets evaluation,  battlefields fight on,  government functions, and even creators of algorithms etc are done by machines). In such context, we need to derive answer to the following question: How do we manage transition and build a workforce with future proof skills? World Economic Forum suggests that there is a need for change in educational and learning environment so that students are employable. Education 4.0 is the prime solution!

Features of Education 4.0: Education 4.0 demands skills of 3 dimensions: Technical, Communication and Behavioral! Billionaire investor Mark Cuban says : "There's going to be a greater demand in 10 years for liberal Arts majors than for programming/engineering, because when the data is all being spit out for you, options are being spit out for you, you need a different perspective in order to have a different view of the data". At that time freer thinker become valuable. Soft skills like adaptability and communication, will have the advantage in an automated workforce. English, philosophy, and foreign language will have great future. Formal and informal learning structures will evolve to meet the changing needs of the learning. Creativity, collaborative learning, systems thinking, complex communication, and the ability to survive in diverse environments are key traits in education 4.0. New age skills include the ability to efficiently network, manage public relations, display intercultural sensitivity, marketing, nursing, caring, teaching, counseling, mentoring etc which are connected to ‘social’ and ‘emotional’ intelligence and creativity. Leadership, design thinking, human meta communication, deliberation, conflict resolution, and capacity to motivate, mobilize and innovate etc are essentials of future life. Storytelling using data, influencing and consensus building, journalistic skills, writing and speaking, understanding algorithms, grasping law and policy are key to progress. My dear student friends, Hope you understand how Education 4.0 is going to evolve over a period of time? How many traits you own? How much commitment you have to practice these qualities? Anyways, if you want to survive, you must possess maximum number of qualities stated. Are you game? http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs.pdf; http://www. sandiegouniontribune .com/military/sd-me-robots-military-20170130-story.html;https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-02-09/ machines-can-replace-millions-of-bureaucrats; https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201611/why-artificial-intelligence-will-replace-managers;http://www.businessinsider.com/ibms-watson-may-soon-be-the-best-doctor-in-the-world-2014-4; http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42183592/ns/business-careers/t/nine-jobs-humans-may-lose-robots/ #.WMBBgVXyu_4;https://www.businessinsider.in/CUBAN-Dont-go-to-school-for-finance-liberal-arts-is-the-future/ articleshow/57214655.cms)

Tara Iyer, once Professional Tennis Player, now a Star Economist: Recently I was reading an article in The Hindu about Ms.Tara Iyer. It was an amazing case study for an individual excelled in two different domains! Ms. Tara Iyer proved that it is quite possible when an individual determined and having extraordinary commitment. Tara Iyer is a professional tennis player from India (Hyderabad). She won 4 International Tennis Federation singles tennis titles and 1 doubles title. Ms.Iyer gave a hope that one day she would reach to Wimbledon. However, few issues like knee injury, surgeries, shattered her dreams. However, Ms.Iyer was not down. She went to Duke University (North Carolina)  to pursue her studies. She worked at International Monetary Fund in Washington and did her doctoral course in Economics at Oxford University. She worked hard for more than five years to complete her PhD. Ms. Iyer credits her family for extraordinary support during these UPs and downs! During PhD, she received multiple fellowship offers like Federal Reserve Board, the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and Harvard University etc. Thanks to her hard work and determination, recently Ms. Iyer joined the Council of Economic Advisers to the U.S. President, at the White House! Congratulations Ms.Iyer. You have inspired many individual students who are in dilemma or confused state that performer in one domain cannot reach pinnacle in another domain. You have set an example. http://www.thehindu.com/sport/tennis/tara-iyer-now-a-star-economist/article21261462.ece; https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Tara_Iyer

River Contamination, Appeal to Awake: On Dec 23, 2017, I read an article titled "Cauvery carries 600% more chemical toxins than Ganga". It is an eye opener! We all need to do something to save our rivers. We cannot just blame Government or industry or few individuals. It is the collective responsibility of all individuals to preserve our rivers for our next generation. If we all together fail, it will be great suffering to our next generation. We cannot stop blame from our children and grand children. As per Anna University study, river Cauvery is carrying the highest levels of chemicals despite lowest discharge of water into the sea. The amount of total dissolved solids (TDS) in the river Cauvery is almost 753mg per litre which is close to five times of Ganga TDS. Cauvery is discharging around 8 cubic KM per year in the sea which is lowest among 4 major rivers (Ganga 493, Krishna 30 and Godavari 105 KM per year).  TDS for other rivers (Ganga 130 mg/l, Krishna 320 mg/l, Godavri 200 mg/l). High levels of sodium can cause hypertension and reproductive toxicity. This is not good for our health. Ground water is getting contaminated across the banks. My Dear Students, think of some innovative solution without affecting industrial activity as well as agricultural activity. For more information, please read https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/cauvery-carries-600-more-chemical-toxins-than-ganga/articleshow/ 62216019.cms

Hydrogel, removes toxic dyes and metal ions (Developed in India): While we are talking about contamination as well as a proposal by Hon'ble Deputy Commissioner, Mysuru's (as stated in my acknowledgement section), there is a happy note to share with you. Indian Association for Cultivation of Sciences (IACS), Kolkata, have developed a gel that can remove toxic organic dyes and metal ions from waste water! It is make in India product. They developed a hydrogel which can absorb various commonly used dyes (malachite green, congo red, brilliant blue and rhodomine B.) within 15 minutes. It also absorbs commonly found metals like cobalt and nickel from industrial effluents in about 6 hours. The beauty of this gel is biodegradable.They used amino acids like leucine and phenylalanine to develop this gel. It is stable at room temperature and remained as gel for several months. This can be washed using sodium bicarbonate and ethyl acetate. We can reuse this. Amazing right? This has been developed under esteemed guidance of Prof. Arindam Banerjee, senior professor, Department of Biological Chemistry, IACS! For more information on this, request you to read The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/iacs-develops-hydrogel-to-remove-toxic-dyes-and-metal-ions/article22267068.ece.

Adolescence is the best time for learning new things, Study!: Research from the Leiden University in the Netherlands found that the adolescent brain is highly sensitive to feedback. Adolescence is  ideal time to acquire and retain new information! Very useful research right? This study was published in the journal called Nature Communications. To know more about this, please read the article published at https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/health-and-wellbeing/231217/adolescence-is-the-best-time-for-learning-new-things-study.html. My dear student friends, as most of you are in adolescence, request you to use this power gifted by God and fill your memory with lot of positive information.

Recycle Your Diesel Pollution,  IIT Delhi Alumni's Startup! Most of the people prefer diesel generator even when cheaper alternatives available! The reasons are simple: Easy to install and operate, low space requirements and easy availability (as per SHAKTI Sustainable Energy Foundation -a non-profit organization). Emissions from diesel are toxic ( carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NOx), unburned hydrocarbons (HC) etc). Delhi-based startup (started by IITD alumni) called Chakr Innovation developed a device which absorbs the soot emitted from diesel generators. They are using this to manufacture paint and ink! The product name is called Chakr Shield. If this model works out, it is going to be great health solution for multiple diseases like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchitis etc. Hats off Team. Thank you The better India for publishing this inspiring article! https://www.thebetterindia.com/125578/former-iit-recycle-diesel-pollution/

Dear Students, Hope you have taken following Future readiness assessment. The last question is "how much time you are spending on physical activity". Reduce your exposure to games and mobile apps. Automatically you are bound to do some or other physical activity. It saves your health, focus, determination and attitude. I request you to adhere to following formula and build yourself healthy and build your nation healthy.

Request you to answer the following five questions and calculate your Future Readiness.

1.         I read / hear stories of amazing people           

 (A) weekly once (10 marks)           (B) monthly once (5 marks)           

(C) Irregular reading (2 marks)       (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

2.         I write letter / mail to my mentor (other than parents) for guidance (professional / personal)

(A) every 6 months (10 marks)      (B) yearly once (5 marks)               

(C) Irregular writing (2 marks)       (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

3.         I practice my passion or natural intelligence (to know your intelligence https://goo.gl/vgyD54) 

(A) weekly 4 hours (10 marks)       (B) weekly 2 hours (5 marks)        

(C) Irregular practice (2 marks)      (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

4.         I manage my academics with consistent percentage or grade 

(A) A Grade and above  (10 marks) (B) B Grade and above  (5 marks)            (C) C Grade or below (2 marks)      (D)Consistent Failure (0 marks)

5.         I do physical activity and maintain good health  

(A) weekly 4 hours (10 marks)       (B) weekly 2 hours (5 marks)        

(C) Irregular practice (2 marks)     (D)Not Interested (0 marks)

Check Your Score and Title

I wish you should be either Performer (your score should be between 40-50) or Challenger (your score should be between 25-40). You should not give any scope to be  Lounger (relaxed) with 10-25 score or Laggard (slower than desired) with score less than 10.

My Dear Friends, Appreciate your valuable time. Life is short. Life without purpose is no worth. Purpose without substance is no hope. Hope without you is not real progress. Hence you are the key and critical for our nation's growth. Hope you concur with me. You are carrying a message, a hope, a purpose. Hope you understand my anguish. See you in my next letter. Thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity. You can also reach to me at sdindia2020@gmail.com. I am happy to respond to your letter.

With Best Wishes,

Dr. Ravi Saripalle

About Author:    Dr. Ravi Saripalle is Founder of Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement and Director, Center for Innovation, GVP College of Engineering (A), Vizag, AP, India. As part of Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling Movement, Dr.Ravi is trying to instill inspiration through spreading positive stories of amazing people in the form of short stories, embedding them in the form of letters (epistolary form) and sending them to thousands of schools, colleges, universities districts administration across India. Also conducting Storytelling Workshops in select institutions. Providing customized mentoring to inspired students. Dr. Ravi is having 18 years of experience in Industry, Consultancy, Training, Mentoring and Research. Prior to this current mission, Ravi worked with Wipro Technologies for more than a decade.  Ravi can be reached at sdindia2020@gmail,com or http://i2itm.blogspot.in/ or https://www.facebook.com/saripalle.ravi

Previous letters are available at http://i2itm.blogspot.in/

Disclaimer: The goal of this i2iSM letter series campaign is to inspire students / youth through storytelling and develop innovative leaders to build strong nation. In this process, I have taken several data points from various websites, NEWS articles, books, videos etc. I sincerely thank all the editors for providing such an insightful stories and information. To the best of my knowledge, I tried to acknowledge all the sources. I sincerely apologize for any omissions, grammatical mistakes and hurting any reader’s sentiments. I request all the readers to understand the spirit behind this effort. This effort doesn’t involve any commercials. Letter series is for free distribution.