The Coded Reservation Formula (CRF) is a new improved model for a refined and highly logical se- lection method to fill-up reserved category vacant posts, for minority / SC / ST / OBC etc. in Higher Education Management (HEM).
First of all, it must be very clear to any reader that this new innovative idea is not proposed to reduce the number of existing quota for Minority/SC/ST/OBC etc. in jobs, admission, scholarships, or in selec- tion procedure wherever reservation system is applicable. Besides that, in our proposed CRF formula, all the reserved quota of SC will surely remain exclusively for the SC reserved candidates only (will not go to any other reserved or unreserved candidates), and the same philosophy is true for ST, for OBC, for minority communities, etc.
Although seats or jobs or scholarships are kept reserved for reserved candidates as per prescribed numerical percentage but still there are long queues, and hence the Govt of India needs to have an excellent selection procedure which can justify the beautiful philosophy of reservation policy in India in a more appropriate manner. India has reservation in Higher Education System: in admission in UG/
PG programmes of study; in admission in Ph.D. programmes; in recruitment of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor; in recruitment of Director, Principal, Secretary, etc.; in promotions to higher positions, etc.
The Coded Reservation Formula (CRF) is a new formula for proper allocation of reserved jobs or reserved seats (for admission) to the reserved candidates with appropriate distribution and allotment. The CRF can give a better justice to the philosophy of reservation policy (selection of reserved candidates in recruitments for jobs or for admissions in medical/engineering seats or for allocation of scholarships, etc) in India. The formula does not affect the total reserved quota, but allocates the reserved seats/jobs to the right candidates in a much fair and transparent way. A link with the UIDAI Aadhaar database of the Govt. of India may improve this new formula as an additional asset in its implementation for the national interest. The CRF introduced below is assumed to be a linear formula here, but in case of requirement (applying least square method) it could be made a non-linear too, provided the non-linear model performs better.
“Theory of IRE with (α,β,γ) Norm”
Philosophy Behind “Coded Reservation Formula” (CRF)
This is a study about “Reservation Policy” of India for the candidates of Minority/SC/ST/OBC etc. mainly in the method of selection procedure for recruitment (in jobs), for admissions in medical/engineering course, for allotment of scholarships, etc. The Coded Reservation Formula (CRF) is based on the real statistical data/information about the reserved candidates.
It must be very clear first of all to any reader that this article on CRF is not proposed to reduce the number of existing quota for Minority/SC/ST/OBC etc. in jobs, admission, scholarships, or in selection procedure wherever reservation system is applicable. It is fact that in many of the areas quota do not exist for religious-minorities, but our proposed CRF is applicable wherever a question of reservation arises, otherwise it is not applicable. Even the percentages of reservation, wherever exist, vary from state to state in India. In India a number of scholarships or student-aid is available for OBC, SC, ST, BC, Women, and Minorities. Some reservations are also made for:
• Terrorist victims from Kashmir, (e.g. in Punjab state)
• Single girl child (in Punjab state)
• Migrants from the state of Jammu and Kashmir
• Sons/daughters/grandsons/granddaughters of Freedom Fighters
• Physically handicapped
• Sports personalities
• Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) have a small percentage of reserved seats in educational institutions.
(Note: NRI reservations were removed from IIT in 2003)
• Candidates sponsored by various organizations
• Those who have served in the armed forces (‘ex-serviceman’ quota—because the age of super- annuation in the Military Service is much shorter than that in the Civil posts; more so, certain intakes are tenure-based, e.g. the contract for Short-Service Commission is merely 8 years)
• Dependents of armed forces personnel killed-in-action
• Repatriates
• Reservation in special schools of Government Undertakings/ PSUs, for the children of their own employees (e.g. Army schools, PSU schools, etc.)
• Paid pathway reservations in places of worship (e.g., Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, Tiruthani Murugan (Balaji) temple)
• Seat reservation for Senior citizens and Physically handicapped in public (bus) transport.
In our proposed CRF formula, all the reserved quota of SC will surely remain exclusively for the SC reserved candidates only, and the same philosophy is true for ST or OBC or minority communities, which is of course being followed in the existing policy too, be it in a state or in the centre. Our new theory of CRF will in fact assist our country to make proper use of ‘Reservation Policy”, and will provide more justice to this beautiful policy for further benefit of every reserved community. Although seats or jobs or scholarships are kept reserved for reserved candidates as per prescribed numerical percentage but still there are long queues, and hence the Govt of India needs to have an excellent selection procedure which will justify the beautiful philosophy of reservation policy in a more appropriate manner. In our CRF formula proposed here the gross quota is not getting disturbed numerically for any of Minority/
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more accurate. Many of the important real parameters/ points are not considered in the existing method of implementing the reservation policy (Laskar, 2010; Rao, 2010). This is a major error in the exist- ing method of implementation. We revisit the actual objective of ‘reservation policy’ of India and then we rethink on how to achieve this objective in a better way without affecting the numerical quota for any reserved category. The proposal is a huge improved version of the existing method both logically and scientifically. Before proceeding further into the depth of construction-mechanism for the Coded Reservation Formula (CRF), consider the following real issues/points which need to be incorporated in our logic and thoughts at the time of taking decision while making selection of reserved candidates for allocation of the reserved seats or for allocation of any reserved items.
For the sake of easy presentation, for clear understanding of the readers, few highly significant real points/issues are explained below with hypothetical names, hypothetical data and hypothetical informa- tion only, not with any real or exact data.
No.(i)
Suppose that in a UPSC Examination for filling up one vacant post, a ST candidate Mr. X of permanent resident of a village of Arunachal Pradesh got a score/mark (in total, out of all the Tests/Viva conducted) which has coincidently happened to be equal to that obtained by another ST candidate Mr. Y of permanent resident of Delhi. If there is only one post vacant under ST category, then only one of these two has to be selected for the post, not both. In order to make a better justification to the “beautiful philosophy of reservation policy”, we propose that in the merit-list of selected candidates the name Mr. X of Arunachal Pradesh should come ahead of Mr. Y of Delhi, by default. The justification is presented below in the next paragraph. The existing reservation policy does not ensure this important logic. This beautiful logic is missing in the existing method of implementation of the reservation policy. Our country has a huge facility of computerization and fast methods of computation by which we can easily implement this important logic into our reservation policy without causing any disturbance to the gross quota which are exclusively reserved for that particular community (in this example it is ST).
What is the Beautiful Hidden Philosophy behind this Logic in No.(i) Above?
Between the two ST candidates here: the boy X of Arunachal Pradesh and the boy Y of Delhi, the boy X was born and brought-up in a very tough and struggling environment. In Arunachal Pradesh there is hardly one good teacher in Mathematics available for every 1000 students of high schools whereas in Delhi there are abundant. In Arunachal Pradesh there is hardly one good teacher of English subject available for every 1000 students of high schools whereas in Delhi there are abundant. In Arunachal Pradesh there was no quality doctor or hospital available for the boy Mr. X in case of his illness causing him long stay on rest with less food and without sufficient medicines because of poor financial condi- tion of his father, whereas in Delhi for the ST boy Mr. Y there were no such daily life problem faced by him. In Arunachal Pradesh new books arrive too late for Mr. X which is no issue for Mr. Y in Delhi.
These are only few instances mentioned here, but in practical scenario there are infinite number of such situations faced by this ST boy Mr. X in his own state Arunachal Pradesh where he is born and brought- up. Despite so many real life constraints, Mr. X has obtained a good score/mark equal to that of Mr. Y of Delhi in this UPSC examination! Is it not logical to select Mr. X for the job in case there is only one vacant post? Can we not incorporate this logic with the help of the ground reality data of today’s India,
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even if it be a big data (Biswas, 2015a; 2015b) of any 4Vs? India is one of the leaders in the world in computerization and computations today! There cannot be any issue with India to handle any amount of dynamic big data.
No.(ii)
Suppose that two SC candidates Mr. X and Mr. Y from Arunachal Pradesh got equal score/mark. Sup- pose that Mr. X studied in the city ‘Itanagar’ since his nursery classes and Mr. Y studied in a village since his nursery classes. In order to make a better justification to the philosophy of reservation policy, we propose that in the merit-list of selected candidates the name Mr. Y should come ahead of Mr. X, by default. The existing reservation policy does not ensure this logic.
No.(iii)
Suppose that two OBC candidates Mr. X and Mr. Y from Arunachal Pradesh got equal score/mark.
Suppose that father of Mr. X earns a good amount of money as per ITR (submitted to the Income Tax department of India) whereas father of Mr. Y is having very poor earnings. We propose that in the merit-list of selected candidates, the name Mr. Y should come ahead of Mr. X, by default. The existing reservation policy does not ensure this logic.
No.(iv)
The children of IAS officers, Class-I Officers, Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Executives, Professors, Industrialists, etc. of a reserved category should be given low priority compared to the children of low paid/income employees like Clerks, Class-IV staff, Office Attendants of that reserved category while making allocation of reserved seats or reserved jobs or any such reserved items to that reserved category candidates. The philosophy is that if somebody in a reserved category is economically backward or born and brought-up from a undeveloped state or from a state (viz. North-East states: Tripura, Manipur, Na- galand, etc.) having poor infrastructures and facilities, he/she may be given higher priority to get a seat for further study or to get a job or to get a scholarship as per prescribed quota available in his reserved category.
The architecture of Coded Reservation Formula (CRF) is based philosophically as well as logically on all such important and real issues in order to make an excellent distribution of existing quota more appropriately to the Minority/SC/ST/OBC wherever quota system exists. For example, Maulana Azad Foundation Fund helps many children of minorities to grow up academically and in many other aspects, with a proper distribution of funds every year. There are many other such Trust/Foundation which func- tion for the growth of the future generation boys and girls of our country. In the next section we present the beautiful architecture of Coded Reservation Formula (CRF).
CRF: The Appropriate Model for India
The Coded Reservation Formula (CRF) is based on a number of important and highly significant at- tributes. The CRF does also depends on the year concerned. One important criterion is the objective of
“Theory of IRE with (α,β,γ) Norm”
the selection procedure (i.e. Is it for admission purpose in some medical/engineering college? Or is it for recruitment for a job? Or is it for awarding any merit/means scholarship? etc.).
Govt. of India (in particular, our Statistics Department, Finance Department, Income Tax department, HRD, IT, ICT, etc.) have databases containing details of every citizen, viz.
1. Literacy percentage of each state of India.
2. Literacy percentage of each district in a state.
3. ITR-Form details of every earning citizen.
4. UIDAI Aadhaar databases, etc.
With these rich databases, we now introduce the following seven (7) significant codes which are meant for each of the reserved category candidates:
STC, DC, FPC, BNC, TC, OC, and CC
We initially propose the theory of CRF here with these seven codes. But with time and having decade-long feedback from experts as well as stakeholders, more number of significant codes could be incorporated later to improve the CRF, i.e. the CRF can be further improved by incorporating more and more codes if happen to be highly relevant.
These seven codes are computed by Govt. of India on 1st January every year, and then fixed for that year and published in the UGC website by the Director of HEM Engineering Centre. However, values of these codes may change every year, depending upon the dynamics of the relevant data across the country.
STC (State Code)
It is a two-digit integer code. Let us arrange all the states of India in descending order of literacy per- centage as recorded in the year concerned, and make a table in which the state having highest literacy rate will carry its two-digit STC = 01. Obviously, the data (literacy rate) changes year to year and hence this code is dependent upon the year concerned.
A hypothetical example of STC is shown below (table 6):
Table 6.
Sr. No. State Literacy Percentage
of the state STC
1 Kerala 99.3 01
2 Delhi 99.1 02
3 Chandigarh 99.0 03
4 --- --- 04
--- --- --- 05
--- --- --- ……
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DC (District Code)
This is a three-digit integer code. Consider a state in our country. Arrange all the districts of this state in descending order of literacy percentage as recorded in the year concerned, and make a table in such a way that the districts having highest literacy rate will carry its three-digit DC = 001. Obviously, the data (literacy rate) changes year to year and hence this code too is dependent upon the year concerned.
A hypothetical example of DC is shown below:
Tripura state has three districts which are: North Tripura, South Tripura and West Tripura. All the districts of Tripura can be arranged in descending order of literacy rate as below (table 7):
FPC (Father/Parent Code)
It is a three-digit integer code. It is constructed from the information about father (or mother) of a re- served category citizen as mentioned below (Table 8):
BNC (Bonus Code)
If a reserve candidate is more qualified than his father on the date of consideration (while for selection for a job/seat), his bonus code is 2, else it is 0. This code is introduced in order to encourage the reserved category boys/girls to study more and more.
Table 7.
Sr. No. State District Literacy Percentage DC
1 Tripura West Tripura 65.7 001
2 Tripura North Tripura 43.2 002
3 Tripura South Tripura 40.5 003
Table 8.
Sr. No. If Condition then FPC =
1 If father of a reserved citizen is a Class-I officer or higher ranked officer or equivalent, or
a rich businessman (as per ITR Form data) 001
2 If father of a reserved citizen is a Class-II officer or of equivalent ranked officer or a good
businessman (as per ITR Form data) 002
3 If father of a reserved citizen is a Class-III employee or of equivalent ranked employee or
a medium businessman (as per ITR Form data) 003
4 If father of a reserved citizen is a Class-IV employee or of equivalent ranked employee 004
5 If father of a reserved citizen is an employee of fixed pay 005
6 If father of a reserved citizen is a rich farmer 006
7 If father of a reserved citizen is a poor farmer or a poor businessman (hawker) or a daily 007
“Theory of IRE with (α,β,γ) Norm”
TC (Test Code)
Suppose that the employment (or admission to some academic programme) will be through a competi- tive examination comprising of one or more number of tests T1, T2, T3, ……, Tn, which may include Viva-voce, Group-discussion, Seminar/Presentation, etc. in addition to written test (if any). Then the TC of the candidate will be the percentage of marks (rounded off) obtained in this test. In case of grading system, it may be converted to equivalent percentage of marks. Thus TC will be a three-digit number in the range of 000 to 100. In case there is no Test conducted then the percentage of marks obtained in the qualifying examination could be considered, or any other type of score as decided by the concerned Selection Board (or deciding authority).
OC (Other Code)
A Selection Board (or deciding authority) may consider some other parameters which are not included above depending upon the area of interest under consideration, and accordingly the Board may incor- porate one or more codes.
CC (Candidate Code)
This code is the final code on the basis of which a ranking (merit list) of the eligible candidates can be made, and selection may be recommended accordingly. The formula for computing CC of a candidate is given below:
CC = (W1 * STC + W2 * DC + W3 * FPC + W4 * BNC + W5 * TC + W6 * OC)
where Wi (for i = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) are six weights whose values will be non-negative real numbers of two decimal places in the closed interval [0,1], subject to the constraint that ∑Wi = 1.
Note:
The values of these six weights Wi (for i = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) are decided and fixed by the Selection Board (or deciding authority) on the basis of the individual significance of the criteria/parameters used for the purpose, i.e. decided on the basis of the issue: which code are more important and which are less for that particular selection. But all these weights must be a pre-concluded and prior-approved weights by the concerned authority.
Selection Procedure in CRF
Although seats or jobs or scholarships are kept reserved for reserved candidates as per prescribed numerical percentage but still there are long queues, and hence the Govt. of India needs to have an ex- cellent selection procedure which will justify the beautiful philosophy of reservation policy in a more appropriate manner.
1. For Admission
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The values of CC are most significant in CRF in the sense that the selection is made on the basis of CC values of the candidates in case of admission quota or scholarship quota. The final merit list is to be prepared with the candidate with highest value of CC as the top-most candidate, and the list of names will be in the descending order of magnitude of the values of CC.
2. For Recruitment in Universities/Institutes
In case of selection to the post of Assistant Professor (all levels), Associate Professor, Professor, Sr.
Professor, the Selection Score (SS) of a reserved Candidate is given by SS = (IRE + x + y + z) + CC
instead of the formula SS = (IRE + x + y + z) which is used for unreserved candidates as already mentioned earlier by a weightage table. The IRE to be used here is the IRE of Type-1. The (α,β,γ) Norm wherever applicable will be considered of Type-1 only.
However, for selection of Dean, Director, Principal, Vice Chancellor, etc. under reserved category, the IRE and the (α,β,γ) Norm both must be mandatorily of Type-2, not of Type-1. This formula is ap- plicable only for selection of reserved candidates under the respective reservation quota, not applicable for the general candidates.
Non-Linear CRF Model Instead
We have considered here a weighted-linear formula for CC. If all Wi are chosen to be equal, then CC becomes a simple linear function. However, if required to explore whether a non-linear function of several variables model CC = f (STC, DC, FPC, BNC, TC, OC) can produce more appropriate results, we offer it as an open problem to the university teachers of Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, etc. as a future Project for execution.
Since the Govt. of India now has taken a major step to bring all data/information of all the citizens in a database to issue UIDAI Aadhaar Card, a link with this database is expected to contribute a lot of real time inputs to compute the CC of any reserved candidate on the basis of all the component parameters of as on date. The Director of HEM ENGINEERING CENTRE in UGC will have this responsibility.