Super Cop quits Super-30, says experiment is over

Senior IPS officer Abhayanand has decided to dissociate himself with the 'Super-30', which he founded along with maths wizard Anand Kumar, to coach 30 economically backward students crack IITJEE every year.

The decision of Abhayanand, who taught physics to the aspirants, comes only days after JEE results were announced this year and all the Super-30 aspirants made it.

"It is a conscious decision,” the IPS officer told TOI . Asked about the reason, he said Super-30, started in 2003, was never an institution for him.

"It was like an experiment where we showed path to 30 students coming from deprived sections of the society every year," he said and added having achieved the desired cent per cent results in the sixth year, the experiment phase is over.

"Any further association with Super-30 would belittle my perspective of doing something for the deprived sections on a larger level," he said.

He said he would be available for IIT aspirants seeking his help. "It would be like taking the experiment from the lab to the society," he said and added he is open to use his expertise, whatsoever it is, in other fields as well.

Abhayanand said Anand is a professional teacher while he is professional cop and teaching is his passion.

"I would continue to pursue this passion whenever I can take time off my other commitments," he said.

Anand sounded upset. "Abhayanand's decision has left me shocked," he said, adding, however, that Super-30 classes would continue.

Patna`s Super 30 fulfills IIT dreams of poor students

British filmmaker traces the 'Super 30' journey

New Delhi, Nov 20 - A new documentary by a British filmmaker traces the journey of 30 students from impoverished homes to the elite Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and highlights the success of a unique educational programme that is helping such students utilize their potential and fulfil their dreams.

Directed by Christopher Mitchell, 'Super 30' follows the lives of the 30 students from the time they were chosen from among 4,000-5,000 applicants in 2006 by the Ramanujan School of Mathematics in Patna for seven months of free-of-cost training, to the moment when the IIT results were announced in May this year.

The film, which was screened here for the first time Monday, also looks into the lives of the two men -- Abhyanand, additional director general of police (ADGP) in Bihar and Anand Kumar, a mathematics teacher -- who help poor students crack the IIT-JEE, one of the toughest competitive exams in the country.

For Mitchell, the idea of making 'Super 30' came when his producer Veronica Hall showed him an article about it in a British daily.'My producer brought it to my attention and the next thing I know, we were in Patna shooting our film,' he said.
When asked what was the one thing about these 30 young students that fascinated him the most, Mitchell said: 'They are true geniuses. Their extraordinary mathematical ability and relentlessness makes them stand out from the crowd.'

A self confessed mathematics-buff, Christopher was amazed to see the exceptionally high level of mathematics the students enjoyed doing. Sadly, for him it is a practice that has only a few takers in Britain.

'In Britain, there is a significant drop in students studying mathematics, physics and chemistry. A cynic would say Britons don't like hard work but it's just that Britons consider science as a bad thing, something contaminated, which will do no good to society,' he told IANS.

Abhyanand, who in his free time teaches physics to the Super 30, was also present for the screening of the documentary. The police officer seemed content with Super 30 being a 'state-centric' affair, saying that Bihar has lots of talent, which is yet to be found and nurtured.

Abhyanand, who is also a co-founder of the Ramanujan School of Mathematics, added that this time students from other states had also applied for Super 30.
This year, the Super 30 educational programme had 29 of the students getting admissions into IITs all over the country.

So far, the Ramanujan School of Mathematics has got 10,000 applications for the selection of Super 30 next year.

National Geographic, Al-Jazeera to telecast film on Super-30

A film depicting the making of Super-30 will be telecast in the National Geographic Channel sometimes in December and by Al-Jazeera English later. This film has been produced by ORTV International, London, in association with Teamwork Films. The film will be screened at the main auditorium of the India International Centre in New Delhi on November 19.

The 75-minute film would cover right from the selection stage in the coaching for the IIT to seven months of study and examinations to the moment of joy after the publication of results. The Super-30 is run by Ramanujan School and students from underprivileged class are coached free of cost for India’s premier engineering entrance examination.

The assistant producer of ORTV in India, Rahul Sen, said the team had been following the Super-30 since 2005 when he saw a feature in British daily the Guardian. Sen said that the exact date of telecast was yet to be finalized.

Now Super 30 founders, DIG Abhayanad and Anand Kumar Inspire many...here is A report

Nobody likes sober messages when the Sensex is hurtling from one high to another, and an eager crowd cheerily goads the index on for the ascent to the next K.

But Mohnish Pabrai, Managing Partner of the US-based Pabrai Investment Funds (www.pabraifunds.com), is different. He sombrely observes, “Currently the Indian market is overridden with greed and there isn’t much fear. The Sensex is up over 5x in four years.”

Pabrai is the author of ‘The Dhandho Investor’ (Wiley, 2007), a book that distils ‘the Dhandho capital allocation framework of the business savvy Patels from India’ and guides the intelligent individual investor in applying the framework successfully to the stock market. For starters, ‘dhandho’ (pronounced dhun-doe), literally translated, means ‘endeavours that create wealth,’ says Pabrai. The Hindi word ‘dhanda’, as you may know, means ‘business’.

In his line of business as an investor, Pabrai has been more than successful. Since inception in 1999 with $1 million, Pabrai Investment Funds has grown to over $400 million in assets under management, as a page on www.valueinvestingcongress.com informs. If $1,00,000 had been invested at inception, it would have been worth $7,88,100 as of June 30, 2007 – an annualised return of 29.4 per cent net to investors, versus just a little more than 4 per cent for the Dow.

“According to Smith Barney data that is derived from Lipper’s mutual fund database, the fund’s overall performance ranks No. 3 out of some 4,000 mutual funds, behind only the BlackRock Global Resources Fund, at 29.5 per cent, and the ING Russia Fund, at 38.4 per cent,” writes Sham Gad in an article dated October 4 on www.fool.com.

“Taking out Pabrai’s fees -- average fund expenses are a small 8 basis points -- and his performance cut, his fund would have been No. 2 on the list.” Gad’s story opens with how in Chicago, “a big crowd -- perhaps the largest yet -- came out to hear value investor and Warren Buffett disciple Mohnish Pabrai” at his company’s annual shareholders’ meeting.

An ardent disciple, he definitely is. In July this year, Pabrai bid $6,50,100 on eBay to have lunch with Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Buffett. “My guru is Mr Buffett and I have only taken from him so far and have never given back. This lunch is the only meaningful way that I can give back to Mr Buffett,” Pabrai commented.

“The guru dakshana remains mostly unpaid, but I’m excited about having made a dent in the right direction. Having 2-3 hours of Mr Buffett’s undivided attention is priceless and I can hardly wait to break bread with the messiah.” All the auction proceeds were for the Glide Foundation (www.glide.org), a non-profit group in San Francisco's that helps serve poor and homeless people.

The spirit of ‘giving back’ is what Pabrai and his wife Harina Kapoor gave form to by starting The Dakshana Foundation (www.dakshana.org) not long ago. Its primary focus is “on funding gifted, rural and impoverished kids to undergo 2-years of world-class coaching before taking the entrance test for admission to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).”

We do not believe we can solve the problems of the world, says a pragmatic Pabrai. “We do, however, believe that we can make a small dent if we approach charitable giveback with a laser-focus and a business mindset.”

His inspiration is Ramanujan School of Mathematics in Patna, Bihar, founded in 2003 by “Anand Kumar, 33, a local mathematician, and Abhayanand, 52, Patna’s deputy director general of police and a lover of physics,” as www.businessweek.com reported in an August 2006 article.

The school scours ‘Bihar’s least privileged communities for 30 bright students’; provides them with free lessons and housing; and the students, called ‘Super 30’ appear for the intensely competitive IIT entrance exam. “In the first year, 16 of the group made it into the IITs. The next year, 22 made it…”

The ROI (return on invested capital) of the Ramanujan School of Mathematics is simply off the charts, commends Pabrai in his January 2007 letter on www.dakshana.org. “If you take a kid who might not even go to college and instead get him accepted to attend India’s elite IITs, his value to society rises exponentially,” he argues. “During the months that Ramanujan tutors him or her, they likely spend under $1,000 on this student. The income enhancement over that individual’s lifetime is likely several million dollars. Investing $1,000 and getting a payback of several million over 50+ years is a very compelling proposition.”

Alas, such healthy returns may seem too remote to look for in the Indian stock markets, which are currently turbo-charged. But Pabrai reassures. “Even in overvalued markets, there is value to be found,” he says, interacting recently with Business Line over the e-mail. “Look for the hated, the unloved and the distressed business.”

Excerpts from the interview.

What prompted you to write a book on Dhandho techniques?

I wrote the book mainly to crystallise the Dhandho investing framework in my own mind. Putting it in book form was very useful. Plus I thought individual investors could benefit from reading it as well.

What was the response you got from readers, especially in the West, to ‘Dhandho’?

The book has done vastly better than I would have predicted. US sales have been very good. My editors were deeply sceptical about a non-English word being the core of the title. And it’s a word even most Indians have never heard of. I liked the title and pushed them to take a chance and go with it. It seems to have resonated well with mainstream value investors in the west.

What was surprising to me was the book’s appeal to readers in a variety of Asian countries. ‘The Dhandho Investor’ is being translated into a number of languages and will soon be available in Chinese, Korean and Thai. No Gujarati edition planned yet.

And, how did the Patels receive the idea?

I have heard from a number of Patels and the general feedback has been that they have all enjoyed the book. The book probably does not teach the typical Patel much. It is all so obvious to them.

How long does it normally take for an average person to master these techniques?

The “techniques” are painfully obvious. The only proven way to beat the markets long term is to do value investing. And yet, less than 5 per cent of the universe of investors are value investors. So, for some folks, it all makes sense and they get it in a few minutes. However, the vast majority either never gets it or choose not to follow it.

Most of the principles in your Dhandho framework involve mainly contrarian approach, like investing in a ‘distressed business’ and ‘simple business with ultra-slow growth rate’. The reality is quite contradictory, isn’t it? Also, what is your view about the current rush for acquisitions?

One cannot beat the market by following the herd. One has to think independently. That’s reality with investing. And ‘The Dhandho Investor’ does encourage the reader to buy what others are discarding and sell what others are craving.

Regarding the current rush for acquisitions, it is obviously driven by greed and a lack of fear. Best to get involved when there is extreme fear and a lack of greed. So, in general, this would not be the time to join the acquisitions binge.

How has been your experience in convincing the readers on “investing in low-risk, high-uncertainty business” and “investing in copycat businesses”?

I don’t know. Too soon to tell if people were merely entertained by reading the book or if it caused definitive behaviour change. Getting humans to change their habits and behaviour is very hard to do.

Are you conducting any workshops or seminars to popularise the Dhandho techniques?

I have spoken a few times to different groups on Dhandho over the years and I continue to speak periodically – typically 3 to 4 times a year. But I’m mainly focused on running Pabrai Funds, and secondarily on our foundation.

Can one apply the Dhandho tips in the Indian stock market?

The Dhandho framework is universal. It can (and should be applied) in all markets.

What’s the next book you are working on?

I’m a reluctant author. There are no plans to write another book!

**

Tailpiece

At the end of the e-mail signature, Pabrai adds this quote: “I come home to eat and sleep, and that’s about it. I can’t wait until it gets daylight so I can get back to the business.” - Mrs Rose Blumkin a.k.a. ‘Mrs. B’ at age 91, Founder of the Nebraska Furniture Mart.

The super boys of a super coaching institute

The son of a watchman from Bihar who earns a paltry Rs.1,600 a month has cracked the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) exam this year. But the boy may never have made it without the Super 30 coaching institute.

Abhisek Anand has secured the 1,049th rank in the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). 'My son is hard working and intelligent but who would have imagined that he'd be selected for the IIT,' said his father Arvind Pandey.

Father and son live in a small one-room house in a lower middle class neighbourhood in Patna. The costly coaching, study material and the lack of an environment conducive to studying posed huge obstacles for Abhisek.

But Super 30 - located inside a small thatched house with fraying wooden benches and creaking tables in a densely populated lower middle class locality here - made his dream come true.

'They helped my son fulfil his dream,' said Pandey.

Abhishek is among 28 of 30 pupils at Super 30 to have passed the IIT this year. The results were declared last Wednesday.

The results have brought new hope to at least a dozen poor families from across Bihar where nearly half of the 83 million population cannot read or write and nearly 50 percent lives below the poverty line.

Take for instance Pranvav Prince, who secured 162nd rank in the IIT-JEE. His father is unemployed and his mother ekes out a living by tailoring clothes.

Another successful Super 30 boy Asutosh Kumar's father drives a road-roller.

Similarly Abhisek Tekriwal's father owns a small shop, Ashok Kumar's father is a salesman in a garment showroom, Shayam Ratan's mother is a nurse and his father died few years ago, while Abhisek Kumar's father is a middle school teacher and Rahul Kashyap's father is an insurance agent.

The average private institute that trains students for the IIT-JEE demands anything between Rs.40,000 and 50,000. And this doesn't include the cost of study material.

But not so with Super 30. Most of the successful 28 are not from any elite English medium school but from Hindi medium institutions or little-known English medium ones.

Nearly five years ago, when Super 30 took shape, it was housed in a ramshackle yard. But in its very first year in 2003, 18 of the 30 students cracked the IIT entrance tests. The number rose to 22 in 2004 and 26 in 2005 and has been steadily increasing over the years.

Last year too 28 students of the Super 30 had made it to the IITs. In the last five years, 122 students of the Super 30 have cracked the IIT. Among them were the children of landless labourers, auto-rickshaw drivers, watch mechanics and construction workers.

'This year, it is like a hundred percent result. It is a big thing for us, our students made it. This year 28 cracked the IIT and two others were selected for the preparatory,' Anand Kumar, 35, the brain behind Super 30, told IANS.

Incidentally, Anand Kumar has never been to an IIT himself, but has won praise for his work in mathematics.

Every year, Super 30 selects a group of 30 IIT aspirants from poor families and provides them free coaching, food and accommodation.

'We provide them facility minus luxury or comfort to live and study, nothing more. The get simple food prepared at the mess and they are strictly told to keep away from friends and family,' said Anand Kumar's brother Parnav Kumar who looks after the management of Super 30.

'Roughly speaking, around 4,000 to 5,000 students aspiring for the IIT-JEE turn up from all over Bihar for a place in Super 30. It is not an easy task as we go through difficult assessment tests about subjects, family background, education, intelligence and above all confidence level,' Anand Kumar said.

In the first round, some 200 are selected before finally picking 30 pupils.

'The handpicked 30 students are coached rigorously for nearly eight months. We conduct about 100 tests and IIT-JEE is the 101st test for them. It becomes easy for them in the process,' he said.

In view of the high demand and pressure to turn Super 30 into Super 100, Anand Kumar has hinted at plans to increase the number of students. 'We may increase it to 50 and more in the coming years because of the impressive success of the experiment and demand,' he said.

Bihar's Additional Director-General of Police Abhyanand, who teaches physics at the institute said, 'The success of Super 30 lies in hard labour and proper guidance for excellent results.'

Anand Kumar, who also runs the Ramanujan School of Mathematics, said Super 30 is supported by income generated from the mathematics school, which has students from affluent families who can afford to pay up.

'We started Super 30 with a clear cut mission to provide the poor and under-privileged an opportunity to excel in education,' said Anand Kumar.

He said he decided to begin Super 30 as he himself had been unable to cough up the money needed to finance his higher education when he received admission to Cambridge University in the 1990s. He funded his studies by delivering poppadums made by his mother to shops and homes as his father had died of illness.