Educating Online: Interview with Ashwin Madhavan, Co-Founder, Enhelion Knowledge Venture Pvt. Ltd

For the Sake of Argument Correspondent P S Chandralekha catches up with Mr. Ashwin Madhavan, Co-Founder of Enhelion Knowledge Venture Private Ltd.

  Chandralekha (C): Tell us something about your college life.

Ashwin (A): Well, I graduated from Gujarat National Law University in 2010. It was a wonderful experience studying with the brightest minds in Gandhinagar. After completing my undergrads, I decided to pursue my master of laws from Dalhousie University, Canada. Subsequently, I decided to work as an intern in a law firm in Canada, I realized that it was very difficult and time consuming for a foreigner to break into the Canadian legal profession. The job opportunities that I got were not of my liking and expertise and so decided to come back and start up with something of my own i.e. Enhelion Pvt. Ltd. 

C: When did you conceive the idea of founding an online education company?

A: The idea of starting an online education company was shared with me by a very close friend and my guru Mr. Rodney D Ryder, while I was interning and working with him in Delhi back in 2007.  Mr. Ryder, myself and another friend  James Mukkattukavunkal, decided to start Enhelion in April 2013. The three of us love to teach and we found that there is a huge gap between what is taught in the law school and what is expected out of a young law graduate when he/she joins the profession. It is this gap that Enhelion would like to fill.

C: Tell us something about Enhelion Pvt. Ltd.

A: As of today, Enhelion is a full-fledged online education company, having trained more than 1500 professionals and students from across the length and breadth of the country. We began operations in April 2013 and it is a growing baby, which needs all the love and support of all its students and founding members.

C: What are the areas of law that is focused by Enhelion?

A: Enhelion began as a legal education company, but today has courses related to Big Data analytics, Project Management, Information Security, Intellectual Property and many other interesting areas.

C: Do you really feel online education is helping the students in gaining knowledge in true sense?

A: Yes, we [Mr Ryder, James and myself included], strongly believe that online education is helping students gain knowledge. Students from the length and breadth of the country have told us in person that they have gained immense knowledge from our courses. This is evident from the ever-growing number of students who join our courses.

C: What plans you have for Enehlion and what is its future?

A: We believe that Enhelion has a lot of potential across all areas of law, management and engineering education. Students and universities are looking for great content and want to learn more from the experts. This helps them in becoming more employable in the vast changing employment landscape in the country and the world.

C: You have recently got a book published, tell us something about it?

A: It was the year 2008, when Mr Ryder under whom I was interning shared the idea of writing a book with him. I was on cloud nine, when this offer was made to me. It was an honor for me to get an offer to write a book with a well-known author like Rodney D Ryder. Mr Ryder shared the first draft of the manuscript in November 2008. I completed the second draft in May 2009. We worked together on the manuscript for another 3 years, before completing the same in early June 2012. We sent it to a few publishers and I made it a point that we send the manuscript to non law publishers, because the target audience for the book was business managers and legal managers. SAGE Publications, a renowned international publishing house finally accepted the manuscript in the middle of 2013. We went through two review rounds and we got the final go ahead in September of 2013. It was a memorable experience. Writing a book is not a joke and I personally realized it only after going through the process. 

C: Do you have any plans to get into complete teaching since you seem to be quite into publications?

A: No I do not have plans to go into complete teaching. I am surprised when people ask me this question. I often wonder, is it only academics who write? May be in India that is the case, but if you look at other countries, people within the profession also write. 

C: What are you plans for future?

A: To make Enhelion a big success and start another venture very very soon.

C: Any message for the young new comers in the field? 

A: I am a huge fan of the former president of US – John F Kennedy who in his inaugural speech to the American public said the following words – Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. I am not John F Kennedy, but this message has stuck with me since the day I heard it, which was some 20 years ago. I want all of us including the people who are currently in universities to contribute to the growth of their respective institutions in every which way possible. You should contribute newer thoughts and ideas, think out of the box. This is the only way we can make our universities and educational institutions become world leaders. If you do good to your institution, you are bound to succeed. It is only a matter of time. And one last thing, do not follow the crowd while chasing your dreams. 

Read more »

CALL FOR PAPERS: RGNUL Student Law Review; Submit By March 20th.

The RGNUL Student Law Review (hereinafter “Law Review”) is a bi-annual, student run, peer reviewed journal based at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab.

It is the flagship journal managed by the students of the University.

It has been founded with the objective of facilitating arguments in black and white. Legal Research skills form the core of the learning process in any dimension of law. The primary function of the Law Review is to promote student research, deliberation and writing in the field of law.

The Law Review aims to publish comprehensive treatments of subjects (“articles”), preferably written by law students as well as shorter pieces, commonly called “notes” and “comments”.

Normative law articles form a major component of the Law Review. Legislative Bill Drafting is one of the novel and the primary areas which it aims to cover. Ambiguous provisions in the law are a cause of concern amongst the legal community.

We encourage articles from the students regarding the codification of public international law into their own domestic legislations and how this can be carried out. The Law Review aims to seek the opinion of student researchers and provides the option to DRAFT and/or AMEND the existing law.

THEME 

The theme for Volume 2 Issue 1 will focus on the theme: “Public International Law”. This is not limited to issues or themes pertinent to any particular country

CATEGORIES

The RGNUL Student Law Review will be peer-reviewed. The articles would undergo initial editorial screening followed by blind peer review. Articles are invited under the following categories:

Articles (5,000 to 8,000 words)

Short Notes (3,000-5,000 words)

Case Comments (3,000 to 4,000 words)

Normative Law Articles (3,000 to 5,000 words)

SUBMISSION CATEGORIES

Articles: A comprehensive and thorough analysis of issues related to the theme of the Journal. The word limit for articles is between 5,000 to 8,000 words.

Short Notes: These should contain brief, case and point arguments revolving around a specific, current issue or an issue of importance which may have not received due research.

Case Comments: An academic writing that analyses or is a critique of a recent case. The word limit for commentaries is between 3,000 to 4,000 words.

Normative Law Articles: The Law Review will explore the opinion of students relating to the specific Legislations involved in the theme of the Journal. It seeks to bring out a student’s view on how a particular Legislation or Legislative Provision should have been drafted to bring out clarity into the law.

The article must first state briefly about the Legislation/Legislative provision and then suggest what changes can be adopted in it. Should you have reason to believe that the particular legislation requires some amendments, you are welcome to DRAFT and/or AMEND the provisions or you can re-draft the entire law if so be the requirement.

Arguments must be logical and can take into account aspects such as Sociological, Political, and Economic implications of the law. Word Limit shall not exceed 5,000 words.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

All submissions must be in Garamond, font size 12, Spacing 1.5.

All footnotes should be in Garamond 10 single-spaced and should conform to the Standard Indian Legal Citation. (Get your free copy fromwww.silcmanual.org or mail at rslr@rgnul.ac.in).

Margins: Left 1.5 Inch and Right 1 Inch, Top 1 Inch and Bottom 1 Inch.

All the word limits are exclusive of footnotes.

All submissions must be accompanied with an abstract of not more than 10% of the word limit subject to a minimum of 200 words.

The manuscript should be accompanied with a covering letter specifying the author’s name, designation, institute, contact number and e-mail for future reference.

All entries should be submitted in .doc or .docx formats alongwith a pdf copy of the same.

The Manuscripts must be e-mailed to submissionsrslr@rgnul.ac.in

The author(s) bear sole responsibility for the accuracy of facts, opinions or view stated in the submitted Manuscript. In case of any gross plagiarism found in the contents of submitted manuscript, the Manuscript shall be subject to rejection.

Submission Deadline

The Last Date for submissions is 20th March 2015 by 11:00 P.M (Indian Standard Time)

ELIGIBILITY

Students pursuing their Undergraduate and Masters Course can send their submissions for the Law Review.

COPYRIGHT

The Journal shall retain all copyright arising out of any publications and only the moral rights will vest with the author.

CONTACT

For more details about the Law Review, visit www.rslr.in

For any further queries, you can contact the Editorial Board atrslr@rgnul.ac.in

Read more »

A Peek Into Crisis Policymaking

      The Great Recession of 2008 and the following sovereign debt crisis in Europe have radically altered the response that government agencies adopt against financial crises.

The primary responsibility to combat a financial crisis lies with the central bank. A central bank monitors the general economic health of a nation and is usually mandated to maintain stable prices and employment level. They also undertake the surveillance of—most of—the financial sector.

It is important to know that there are only a finite number of tools by which a central bank may fulfil its above mentioned duties. And, in the pre-crisis era those tools were commonly two: Policy rates (Basically, interest rates that a central bank sets) and word of mouth. Central banks would lower policy rates when the economy fell into a recession, thereby dropping all market rates of interest, boosting lending and thus the economic activity. They would also announce to all the players in the financial arena the thinking behind lowering policy rates and the goals the policy move seeks to achieve, thus guiding the economy towards that goal.

When crisis struck in 2008, central banks—mainly the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England—very naturally started lowering their policy rates. Over time, they continued to lower rates to near zero levels—while reassuring the markets via their press offices that the rates will remain at ultra-low levels for an extended period—to keep the economic activity afloat. This policy was dubbed ZIRP: Zero Interest Rate Policy.

But with the passage of time, ZIRP proved to be ineffective: Unfortunately, interest rates could not be lowered below zero [1] and all the reassurances by central banks failed to inspire confidence in the economy. This meant that the conventional tools at the disposal of central banks were exhausted—with no apparent improvement in the health of the economy.

With the situation deteriorating, central banks adopted bold policies that were never before considered, and some of them were even taboo amongst central bankers. The flagship of these policies was dubbed ‘Quantitative Easing’ or ‘QE’. Under QE, central banks directly intervened in the markets to purchase securities—which were primarily government bonds—by creating new money to fund these purchases. This move appeared similar to ‘monetizing of government debt’ which had resulted in hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic and Zimbabwe [2]. Under various QE programmes, central banks infused an unprecedented amount of liquidity into the system which lead their assets to soar—to levels north of USD 20 trillion!

Unlike other heads of government and government agencies, central bankers share a close bond (some of them address each other on a first-name basis!). They make contact with each other numerable times a year which helps them furnish a cordial rapport. This espirit de corps granted central bankers with yet another tool to combat the economic downturn: If the major central banks of the world took policy decisions toward the same direction in tandem, there would be a much severe impact on the world markets [3]. And, it did!

Not only were central bankers coordinating their policy moves, they also conjured up a mechanism to boost the requisite kind liquidity called ‘Central Bank Liquidity Swaps’ or merely ‘swap lines’. Through swap lines, central banks in need of a particular currency could swap it for their own currency. For example, at the peak of the crisis, the European Central Bank was in desperate need of dollars to keep their banks afloat. The ECB could exchange their Euros for Dollars with the Federal Reserve via the swap lines, and meet with the liquidity requirement in Europe [4].

In addition to fulfilling its ‘lender of the last resort’ operations, central banks also engineered bailouts of a few firms, most famous of them being the American International Group and Bear Stearns. Central Banks and the Federal Reserve in particular took a lot of flak for this move [5]. It hit the moral wall of dichotomy of using tax-payer money to fund the seven figure bonuses of executives of firms that brought the economy crashing down into a recession.

Though some of these policies may seem unfair, it is because of the nerve that central bankers exhibited at the hour of need—via their bold policymaking—that the worst economic depression in history remains the one in the 1930’s. They have shown great character to make unpopular decisions (some decisions against their own long cherished principles and tradition) even in the face of mounting adversity to preserve the economic system.

In this article, I made an attempt to broach the seemingly ‘reckless’ policies made to combat the crisis beginning in 2008 without going into much of the complexities that have evolved to become a part and soul of the financial system. While I have tried not to take a position with regard to these policies through the course of this article, I would like to conclude on a note of commendation. And, even though problems remain in Europe and Japan, and some rise in China, the new breed of policymakers—who are willing to do whatever it takes to protect the economy—should inspire confidence of its successful conclusion.

NOTES:

1) Nominal interest rates below zero would mean you would have to pay the     borrower for lending out money. Now that doesn’t make sense, does it?

2) Monetizing government debt means intervening in the primary market (the market where securities are first issued) to buy government bonds. Under QE, the central bank intervened in the secondary market to purchase bonds. There is one other technicality, as told by former Fed-chairman Ben Bernanke, cash is not printed immediately, but an electronic transfer is made to the banks, and cash is printed only when withdrawals are made at the banks.

3) The first of these coordinated moves came on October 8^th, 2008.

4) The swap lines were opened for the first time (with respect to the crisis) on December 12^th 2007: The Fed, The Bank of England, The European Central Bank, The Swiss National Bank and Canadian Central Bank provided for it up to $24 billion. This was extended on 18^th of September 2008 by $180 billion and the Bank of Japan was included. Another expansion by $330 billion came on the 29^th of September. And, on the 29^th of October, the central banks of South Korea, Mexico, Brazil and Singapore were included in this group.

5) The Federal Reserve took a lot of heat for bailing out big financial firms and to certain extent buying up government debt. It was a popular opinion that it was time that the Fed’s wings be clipped. A lot of stuff went down, but in the end the Fed soared higher than before.

About The Author:

Abhishek Anirudhan is currently a student of economics at Fergusson College, Pune. His interests include international relations, monetary economics and finance.

Read more »

1ST NATIONAL CHALLENGE ESSAY COMPETITION- 2015

The Corporate Law Research Group at Faculty of Law in collaboration with Dr. Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University, Lucknow proudly announces the inaugural version of ‘National Challenge Essay Competition- 2015′. Organising a first national challenge essay competition can be broad enough to inspire creativity and enhance the talent hidden within a young professional. This first national challenge essay competition can give the writers a certain starting direction or initiatives in their lives.

Deviating from the traditional approach of conducting essay competitions in the country, the Corporate Law Research Group has formulated a scheme of conducting the national challenge essay competition. The challenge essay competition is directed towards minimizing the plagiarized content publishing, uplifting standards of innovative research, integrating skills of advocacy in legal writing and towards enriching intellectual wealth among the students of law. Bringing out the first of its kinds in India, the competition has been divided into two phases i.e. essay evaluation round and challenge round.

The students are invited to conduct in-depth analysis on the themes of the essay competition, attract their strong research skills and write their observations with a harmonized approach. The basic objectives behind conducting the challenge rounds are: promoting innovative research, developing sharp research skills and advocacy skills among the students of law. The final result shall declare the First, Second and Third Prize for the entire competition.

Titles of the Essay Competition

The participants to the 1st National Challenge Essay Competition- 2015 are instructed to forward entries on any one of the topics listed below:
1. Regulation of Micro-finance Institutions in India: Resolving the Policy Debate
or
2. Consolidation of Indian Banking Industry: Developing a Balanced Approach
or
3. Foreign Private Equity Investments in India Inc.: Addressing the Issues

for more visit: National Challenge Essay Competition | Welcome to CLRG

Read more »