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Heal the World
The history of the world is one of conflict and resolution. As we see more of both, international relations experts will be
increasingly plugging breaches and resolving differences
THESE are indeed interesting times. The most powerful democracy in the world is in the process of electing its chief executive. The largest democracy is preparing its 1 billion people for an impending election. Elsewhere, there is violence, financial panic, border disputes, famine and hunger, a smorgasbord of events and activities sending ripples throughout the entire world. India’s recent nuclear deal has involved many in the international community, leaving some happy and others dissatisfied. It is a fascinating period for any student of international relations, as we truly live in a global world. The Academy winning film Babel vividly portrayed how one gunshot fired in Afghanistan can touch the lives of disparate people in the US, Mexico, Japan and even Africa. International relations is a study of foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system. International relations is a branch of political science and opens up avenues to a range of careers affecting the roles of political states, international organisations, inter-governmental organisations (IGOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and multinational corporations (MNCs). It is both an academic and public policy field, which seeks to analyse as well as formulate the foreign policy of countries and institutions. International relations is closely linked to political science and provides students with an understanding of the complex and changing issues that underlie world affairs and an appreciation of the issues which link governments, businesses, NGOs and pressure groups. It involves a study of a diverse range of issues, including globalisation, state sovereignty, ecological sustainability, nuclear proliferation, nationalism, economic development, terrorism, organised crime, human security, foreign interventionism and human rights. Along with political science, international relations examines ideologies such as colonisation and socialism, explores systems of ideas like religious fundamentalism, and postmodernism. The study of international relations also includes an analysis of social movements, and issues of power, conflict, diplomacy, arms control, developmental politics, civil society, foreign policy, humanitarian aid, and the international political economy. Apart from political science, it draws upon such diverse fields as economics, history, law, philosophy, geography, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and cultural studies. International relations also exposes you to an understanding of different cultural realities, different points of view and value systems, including those which are emergent properties of different political regimes. The ability to move
International relations also involves dealing with the media and the management of public perceptions, and damage control techniques, for dealing with a range of social and political issues, particularly where public accountability is a requirement.
Getting In
THE study of international relations is so vast that you can come into this field from any course of study. Most students prefer to take up a master’s degree in after a first degree in political science, economics, history, law, philosophy, geography, sociology, anthropology or business studies. There are a few universities in India which offer the course at postgraduate level.
Job prospects
AS the world becomes ever smaller and ever more interconnected, the work of international relations specialists grows in importance. We are all connected, now more than ever, and those who understand the ways in which people and countries all over the world interact and affect one another are some of the most in-demand and important professionals on the marketplace today. A degree in international relations can therefore open up a range of careers in areas such as the civil services, particularly the foreign and diplomatic services, with public sector organisations — both national and international — multilateral and intergovernmental organisations, in the international office of universities and colleges, manufacturing and commercial companies, financial institutions, law firms, publishing companies and media organisations. International relations graduates can also work with international organisations such as the United Nations, and its agencies, and voluntary, charitable and campaigning organisations such as Amnesty International, Oxfam, Greenpeace and others. Most will normally require relevant work experience, and sometimes, other relevant professional qualifications, too. As the study of international relations develops skills in researching and analysing information from a variety of sources, and skills in problem-solving — qualities much valued by employers — graduates can also look at jobs in a number of commercial and administrative organisations. In addition, your understanding of complex political and cultural issues — often in changing environments — can also be highly relevant to MNCs, marketing and export companies, and banking and financial organisations handling the raising of capital, mergers and acquisitions, and so on. Intelligence
agencies, market research analysts and demographers, immigration specialists also employ graduates of international relations. With the world becoming ever more intertwined, those with specialised knowledge in international relations will be of ever- increasing use. So if you are looking at an international career, this is where you start. (The writer is a career counsellor)
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School of International Studies, New Delhi (110067)
Selection: A graduate in any discipline with at least 50 per sent marks. Entrance test is held by JNU in May. Website: www.jnu.ac.in Pondicherry University, R.V. Nagar, Pondicherry (605014) Course: MA in politics & international relations Selection: Entrance test held in June Website: www.pondiuni.org Jadavpur University, Kolkata (700032) Course: MA in international relations Website: www.jadavpur.edu Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar University, Agra (282004) Course: MA in international affairs Website: www.brauagra.com Institute of International Studies, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi (284128) Course: MA in international studies Website: www.bundelkhand university.org Jiwaji University, Vidyavihar, Gwalior (474011) Course: MA in international relations. Mahatma Gandhi University, School of International Relations P.O., Kottayam (686560) Course: MA in politics & international relations, and M.Phil. in international relations. University of Kerala, Department of Politics, Karyavattom (695581) Course: MA in politics with international relations as one of the papers
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For starters, enroll in LLB Pervin Malhotra Q. I am student of BA final year. I want to establish myself as a government advocate. What do I have to do for it? Please tell me the complete process. — Ranjit Chaddha
Selection is done through a written exam conducted by the respective State Subordinate Selection Board. The exam consists of several papers but, again, there is no uniformity as different states follow different criteria. However, they usually have two languages in addition to the law papers. The Delhi High Court, for example, conducts the exam in two stages: the Delhi Judicial Service Preliminary Exam (objective type with 25 per cent negative marking) for selection of candidates for the main exam and the Delhi Judicial Service Main Exam (written) for selection of candidates for the viva voce In a country still obsessed with government jobs, you will be inducted a gazetted officer at a pay scale on par with other government jobs. Besides the innumerable salaams that will fuel your sense of ‘power’, you will be entitled to sarkari perks like government accommodation, telephone etc. The job prospects are excellent as this is a well-recognised and respected field. As you move up your career graph you will be required to take judicial decisions on high-profile cases of national significance. Also, as a government servant you are entitled to all the relevant emoluments. Bright candidates with a good grasp of the subject also opt for joining the sessions court. And now for the bad news: Judicial service exams are not held with any discernible regularity; only as and when the vacancies arise. However, the government is now keen to bring about uniformity in the selection process by introducing an All India Judicial Service (AIJS) on the lines of the All India Civil Services exam. Good luck!
Get ready to set sail!
Q. I have passed Class 12 with physics, chemistry and math. My dream is to become an engineer in the Indian Navy but I could not secure the essential marks required in Class 12. How can I fulfil my dream? Despite my low marks, is it possible to make my dream come true? — Jitin Srivastava A. Don’t worry, you can join the Indian Navy even after completing B.Sc via the following routes:
Height no bar
— Gopika Chawla A. Height may not be such an important factor for non-combatant roles in the Indian Army like logistics, law, education etc. Moreover, women can now get a permanent commission in the armed forces now. Do check out the specific requirements which are listed in detail on the Indian Army’s website (www.joinindianarmy.nic.in). Working graduates who are medically fit can also sign up as officers in the Territorial Army.
Go ahead, you have it in you
— Ajit Kumar Singh A. As a health or sanitary inspector, you will survey, prepare reports, do field work and research on various aspects of health environment, conditions and the norms to be followed. The core job remains to ensure that people and companies abide by health standards. Many opportunities exist in the government sector. You can do a health sanitary inspector course (one year) from any institution or polytechnic recognised by your state directorate of technical education and industrial training. Admission is on the basis of marks in Class 12. Here are some more:
However, when it comes to jobs, many government bodies give preference to those who have passed Class XII in the science stream or have higher qualifications i.e. a BSc degree. For instance, the Railway Recruitment Board requires a B.Sc. with chemistry plus one-year diploma in health/sanitary inspector for the post of health inspector or malaria inspector.
Unleash your creativity
Q. I could not get into a good engineering college because I am not very good in studies. What is the scope of multimedia and animation? Could you please tell me something about these fields? I am reasonably creative and enjoy working on the computer. — Alok Kothary For hardcore programming jobs, companies prefer those with a B.Tech or MCA degree but for multimedia and web designing jobs, these degrees are not so important. Any student who has completed a multimedia course and has a thorough knowledge can easily get a job. Besides this, you can also start your own DTP, multimedia or web designing business with a small investment. Several private and some government institutions offer courses in web-page designing and multimedia. But all these courses must be weighed for their worthiness with a pinch (if not a handful) of salt. Make sure you select one that focuses on the fundamentals of web-page designing and production processes besides relevant languages like HTML, XTML, Java, etc. A good six-twelve month course should familiarise you with
getting onto the Net and working with these languages, using the various multimedia software used for animation, moving images, colouring text, etc. which go on to make a web page. After that, the next step is to team up with a website-designer or developer to get the necessary hands-on exposure. You could even work as an assistant to a web-master initially. Also, it makes a lot of sense to invest in your own computer. This work requires a lot of practice and self-learning. While reading and practice will sharpen your skills, finally it’s your talent and speed that will take you places. According to Nasscom, animation and gaming are set to register a CAGR of 35 per cent and 78 per cent respectively to reach $950 million and $300 million by 2009. Large companies like Sony Entertainment are looking at India as a market as well as a resource base for technology partnerships. By 2009-end, there will be a need for more than 30,000 animation professionals – give or take some, thanks to the slowdown.
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Each to their own
I too dreamt of landing up in an IIM one day. That was my sole driving force when I went to take the CAT. Hard work coupled with a little bit of luck is what is needed to be there at the IIMs. At least, that was what was needed for me to reach where I am today, IIM Lucknow. My journey started around a year back. Cracking CAT is not just luck. That’s just a very small part of it. What matters most is hard work, perseverance and the zeal to ace CAT. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to succeed — you need to work hard and practice harder if you want to be able to score well. Coming to the point: How do we prepare for CAT? According to me, there is no set way or methodology. Preparation is very subjective: It differs from one individual to the other. So, there is no standard framework or rule that should be followed while preparing. I will only discuss the way I approached CAT, my strategies to crack it and some mistakes I made that could have been avoided. The first and foremost thing is to identify your strengths and weakness amongst quantitative ability, verbal ability and data interpretation. Once that is done, the next thing is time allocation. One needs to devote more time to the section he or she feels is difficult. That does not mean that the other two sections should be neglected. On the contrary, they, too, should be given importance; in fact you should make sure that you get next to perfect in your strong section, so that it should be able to compensate for the not- so-strong section. Regular practice is what is needed. Last minute preparations will not help you bell the CAT. Those who spread out their preparation throughout the year rather than the last few months are the ones who will most probably crack it. Quantitative ability demands a lot of practice. You can never be perfect in this section. The more you practice and try out different types of sums, the lesser are the chances that you will mess up on the final day. It is advisable that you solve as many different types of sums from different class notes or some standard books. A word of caution: Please do not read the sums (as in first the sum and then its solution). It solves no purpose. It is only when you solve the sums yourself then you come to know where you went wrong or where you need to put in more attention. I personally concentrated a lot on this section. Initially, I too made the mistake of reading through the sums (all engineers have this habit, right?), but I very soon realised my mistake. I got down to practicing a lot of sums. I not only solved class sheets from my coaching institute but also solved class notes of other institutes. One more thing, the quantitative aptitude book by Arun Sharma is very helpful. The level two and three sums are really good. Now, let us look at data interpretation. I personally found this section very interesting. The sums in this section are very varied, ranging from data interpretation to logical reasoning. This section was always my strength. The best part of this section, I feel, is logical reasoning. I generally gave preference to all LR questions over mathematical DI questions. As I always felt confident while attempting DI questions, I tried to maximise my attempts in this section in the minimum time. The time I saved here, I generally gave to the verbal section. For example in CAT 2007, I just gave 20 minutes to DI section and still managed 99.7 percentile. The verbal section was my weak point. I was never comfortable in reading comprehensions (RC). Even while preparing at home, I would hardly practice any RCs. But as the mock CATs started, in the initial few I realised that I was struggling to clear the cut-offs in this section whereas I would comfortably clear the sectional cut offs in quant and DI. That’s when I started taking this section more seriously. I did a lot of RCs at home, but it was too late. I could just manage to clear the cut-offs but could never score in VA due to which my overall percentile suffered. It also caused me my IIM-A call as I failed to clear their verbal percentile by a mere 0.8 percentile. Practice is the only way you can ace the CAT. Last minute preparations do not help. Never neglect the section you find difficult or boring to solve. On the contrary, concentrate more on these sections. I was lucky to have scraped through without much damage by neglecting the verbal section. But everyone’s not that lucky. CAT is not rocket science. It’s just another exam. If I can crack it, why can’t you all? (The writer is a student of IIM, Lucknow, batch 2008-10)
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Know thy bubble Verbal skills OVER the years, English has become a benison for some and a major catastrophe for others. CAT has quietly shifted from speed-reading to logical thinking even in English. The reading comprehensions have become denser in terms of understanding and in terms of logical derivations that are needed from them. Students should be very particular about getting the underlying meanings before hitting an answer (easier said than done!). CAT has simply moved away from questions strictly related to vocabulary but believe me, good vocabulary can come in very handy during the pressure-packed two and a half hours.
Data interpretation skills PRACTICE, practice and more practice. Get a grasp of the inherent logic working behind each problem, keep your multiplication and division rules on your fingertips (though not very much required as per present CAT paper standards, but who knows). Since almost all the questions in DI are mainly in case-let form that requires quite a bit of time before one can answer any question, it is advisable that students provide enough time before deciding to skip any particular case-let (it has often happened that students find these leftover questions easier!)
Quantitative skills It’s tough but definitely doable. All you need is hard work, common sense, a calm head and a game plan. So, good luck! To be continued
(The writer is a student of IIM, Lucknow, batch 2008-10)
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Must see, must do
A few clichéd but useful tips:
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More than welcome!
As many as 19 new IHMs & 25 Food Craft Institutes will come up across the country IN a significant decision, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the proposals of the ministry of tourism seeking to enlarge the scope of its scheme that provides for creation of institutional infrastructure necessary for hospitality and tourism-specific education. This revision of the scheme had become necessary to meet the growing demand of the industry of trained manpower. As per the assessment of the ministry, the industry requires about 2.03 lakh trained persons annually as against the fractional supply of about 12,000 persons from all institutes in the country. The introduction of hospitality education through ITIs, polytechnic institutes, government colleges, universities, PSUs and vocational schools, as provided for in the scheme, now will be an important step ahead to bridge the gap in demand and supply of manpower. This approval would entail a plan out lay of Rs 495 crore that is over three times the actual expenditure of Rs 147.2 crore during the 10th plan. The approved scheme hitherto covers strengthening the existing Institutes of Hotel Management and Food Craft Institutes and setting up new ones. The central financial assistance for setting up of an IHM has been increased to Rs 12 crore from the earlier Rs 10 crore. An additional Rs 2 crore shall be for construction of boys/girls hostel as students are selected on all-India basis through a joint entrance examination. Under the enlarged dispensation, it will also allow funding of ITIs, polytechnic institutes, government colleges, universities and PSUs to the extent of Rs 2 crore in each case for starting hospitality courses. The funds will be utilised for creation of infrastructure and purchase of equipment. The revised scheme will also provide funds to the extent of Rs 25 lakhs to each vocational school for starting similar course(s). The scheme, as approved now, provides for the setting up of 19 new state IHMs and 25 Food Craft Institutes during the 11th Plan. The total supply of 12,000 trained manpower consists of 78 per cent at managerial level and 22 per cent at skill level whereas requirement is in the ratio of 34 and 66 per cent, respectively. To overcome the acute shortage of trained personnel at skill level, it has been stipulated that the state IHMs would also conduct craft courses besides the three-year degree course. The revised scheme emphasises the strengthening and upgradation of the existing central/state IHMs -- 28 in number. The idea is to turn them into the institutes of excellence to spur and stimulate similar efforts in the private sector. Through this step, the ministry of tourism would provide quality, trained manpower for the hospitality industry.
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COURSE CHAT
The retail industry is booming. Move ahead, jump on to the retail bandwagon
and the only direction in which your career graph grows will be skywards!
Do you have it in you?
Here are some personal attributes that can help you make it big in the field:
Institute Watch
Today, retail is perhaps the most vibrant and most rapidly growing segment of the world economy. To just give you an example, the biggest company in the world, Wal-Mart is a retailing company. Though developed organised retail has existed for long, in India it has come up in a big way in the last few years. Since it is a rapidly growing area, it offers numerous job opportunities. Realising the vast potential of organised retail, all major business houses have made a foray into this field with huge investments. Reliance Fresh, Ebony, Shopper's Stop, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar and Spencer's are some of the established names in this field. Careers in retail are not only fast-paced but quite stimulating also. Retail careers can be divided broadly into two main categories: those concerned with merchandising i.e purchasing the goods offered for sale and those that involve selling these goods to the public. Retail organisations need people in diverse area like sourcing, merchandising, product development, supply chain management, store operations, marketing, and finance, HR & IT to support service delivery. A majority of jobs are available in customer service and marketing. For entry-level jobs, even a Class XII pass with the requisite aptitude is fine but for managerial jobs, further studies are needed. Diploma courses are available after Class XII. BBA/BBS or MBA can also lead to retail jobs. Moreover, focused retail management and marketing courses are also available. Retail industry is booming right now and ample job opportunities are there. With the entry of multinationals, this sector would witness a huge jump in salaries also. There is a need for creative people, salesperson, showroom manager, marketing and finance professionals. (The writer is a career counsellor)
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Course:
Coming under Jawaharlal Nehru University, it provides facilities for pursuing
MA in politics with specialisation in international relations. JNU also offers
M.Phil. and Ph.D programmes in international politics, organisation,
disarmament and political geography, diplomatic studies, international legal
studies, international trade and development.
A. First of all, you need an LLB degree after you complete your graduation, as a base qualification. While all government departments recruit officers on the basis of an all-India competitive exam conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, the judiciary is unique in the sense that it doesn’t have an all-India selection process. Each state recruits law graduates with some work experience to serve as magistrates in the lower courts and as law officers or law advisors for various state bodies including municipalities. The age limit varies and of course the usual quota of seats is reserved for SC/ST/OBC candidates. 
Q. I have completed MA in sociology. My height is just 5 feet. I want to join the Indian Army. Tell me about the opportunities available for me.
Q. I want to become a malaria health inspector. I have already done B.Sc (bio); from where can I do a related course. Also, please tell me the process.
A.
So what if you couldn’t crack the engineering entrances, your creativity can take you places! Multimedia covers a number of areas like
animation, web design and CD authoring. Students who are not so comfortable with English can do the web designing and multimedia course easily. 
THE Common Admission Test, one of the most sought after tests in the country, and IIMs one of the most sought after B-Schools in the country and world. The word CAT reminds me of lakhs of students who set out to crack this test in order to be able to fulfill their dream of being a part of one of the seven IIMs.
WITH CAT just round the corner, it is of immense importance for students to consolidate all the hard work that they have put in the past few months. Though people may differ on this, CAT is undoubtedly tough. Not largely because of the amount of problem solving or grammarian skills that is required, but because of the huge competition (read total number of candidates appearing) that has been growing over the years. Candidates need to be very particular about each and every bubble that they shade.
THE quantitative section is no doubt more of an advantage for engineering students, but clearing the cut-off should not be difficult for non-science students. CAT 2007 saw a bulk of questions appearing from what I call a mixture of real life scenarios punched with mathematical reasoning. Tackling these questions required applying common sense to twisted problems. 
ARE you young, motivated and enjoy working with people? If yes, then retail is just the career for you. It is not like other jobs up for grabs in this fast-growing sector. No other career option could possibly offer you the same opportunity to zoom up the corporate ladder as fast as retail can. After all, retail has historically been proved to be the biggest job creator in the US, and talking of wealth-creation, nothing better exemplifies the great power of retail than the fact that the Walton family, founders of Wal-Mart, consistently figure in the list of the richest people worldwide.