Chapter 1: Professions and Professionalism
Professions are those form of works, which involves advanced expertise, self-regulation and
concerted service to the public good – Bayles
Characteristics:
i. Professionals deal with vast and complex knowledge.
ii. Professionals continue to create new knowledge in their profession
iii. Professionals deal with high stake(important) activities
iv. Professionals work based on trust with clients.
v. Professionals are self-regulating (maintaining good standards and self checking it)
Chapter 2: Technical Teacher as Professionals
The Gurukul system was founded on Experiential Learning.
there is no saturation point in education- T J Watson
Every technical teacher needs to be fully aware of the requirements of the industry. The term
‘industry’ here means ‘any enterprise in the community or corporate sector (wage employed or
self-employed), which helps to earn one’s livelihood’ [Earnest, 2016].
It is the duty of the teacher that the student which s/he is grooming develops the following
capabilities:
a) Acquisitive i.e. the capability to acquire the relevant knowledge by different means, in other
words ‘learns to learn’
b) Adaptive i.e. the capability to adapt to different situations so that s/he is not a failure in the
new jobs, tasks or projects that s/he will be required to take up during his/her career)
c) Innovative i.e. the capability to bring out changes which may be at the micro, minor or major
levels related to the processes and/or products on which s/he may working.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE TECHNICAL TEACHER

Instruction Related Roles
This requires that the teachers to provide the right type of guidance so that
the students do all the micro-projects on their own and not get them done from external
sources to get high grades/marks. It is not the quality of the project report that is important, but
the process of doing the project work which is more important so that the various competencies
and skills are demonstrated in the process of doing the project. Therefore, progressive
assessment has to be given greater weightage in project work.
Research and Documentation Role
Therefore, after teaching, the first major role, of a technical teacher is to undertake small and
large researches. Therefore, proper documentation both in hard copy and digital form (which
can be done better now due to the technology advancements) is necessary for all types of
projects – big or small. Therefore, technical teachers need to continuously scan and identify new
and emerging areas to undertake small and large researches, which could also form part of
M.E./M.Tech. or Ph.D. projects.
 Management and institution development related .
Therefore, the managing the various other activities for institutional development is also a role
that you have to play and it can be done in several ways. In today’s scenario, the first and fore
most priority of the engineering institute is to get NBA and NAAC accreditation for survival
whereby the corporate reputation of the institute is enhanced.
 Consultancy related.
Consultancy and industry-institute interaction go together. The interaction with the industry will
be effective, when it is a win-win situation. The industry will be benefitted when the institute
will take up its small and large problems as consultancy to undertake researches to find
solutions to these problems.
Chapter 3: Professional Excellence
Donald Schon, the MIT professor, in his pioneering book, ‘Reflective Practitioner’ states that a
‘professional is one who is able to excel in his/her profession’.
Similarly, for overall professional excellence it is essential to excel in all the above five
professional characteristics. If
EXCEL IN DOMAIN SPECIFIC COMPLEX KNOWLEDGE
Eg:
A graduate civil engineer, who does not have enough knowledge about structural design, will
use more steel in the structure, although the actual steel requirement may be much less. The
client will never come to know in his lifetime, that s/he has spent more money due to excess use
of steel. Thus, the engineer did not act ethically, because of incomplete or insufficient
knowledge and such engineers would continue such unethical practices throughout their career,
affecting many clients and in turn harming ecology and economy of the country due to
inefficient or excess use of materials and other resources.
EXCEL IN CREATING NEW KNOWLEDGE
Eg:
Therefore, it is the ethical duty of every professional to continue to learn in his/her entire
lifetime about the developments taking place in his/her field of specialisation or domain
EXCEL IN DEALING WITH HIGH-STAKE ACTIVITIES
Eg:
A student does not know the type of courses that should form part of a state-of-the-art
curriculum and the topics and sub-topics in each course and the proper methods of teaching
and assessment of the course. In this situation, students trust the university/institute and its
teachers with the hope that they will do their best to enhance their employability. This situation
puts more responsibility on the shoulders of the professional teacher to continue to update
their knowledge, which means that professionals need to be experts in their work so that they
provide the best services.
EXCEL IN SELF-REGULATION
he professionals are generally at the top rung of their profession (seen in Lesson 1). The power
relations and equations are such that their subordinates dare not point out their Unit 1: Technical
Teachers as Professionals L3: Professional Excellence
AICTE–NITTT Module 2: Professional Ethics and Sustainability NITTTR, Bhopal Page 9
mistakes. Similarly, the nature of work of professionals is so complex that, it is difficult for their
clients to detect their mistakes. In this situation, it becomes imperative for the professionals to
self-regulate themselves. In
reflecting on different types of professional experiences as possible and meditating on them to
learn from mistakes/shortfalls is the only way upward for becoming an expert professional from
a level of competent professional.
Chapter 4: Mentoring and Counselling of University Students
For university students, Gupta (2009) defines counselling as a process of enabling the students
to identify, chart and recognize their needs, potential, ambitions, aspirations and vision and
articulate the same in terms of professional life.
Gupta (2009) defines mentoring as a process of development of individuals and teams to their
full potential level using collective, collaborative and cooperative learning methods.
PURPOSES OF COUNSELLING AND MENTORING
Identify Potential:
Diagnose the Problems
Craft Vision The counselors and mentors encourage the students to develop strategies to achieve the vision
with minimum barriers and in joyful way
Develop Self-image
Learn the Secrets of Success They internalize the secretes of the success using variety of modes recommended by the
counselors and mentors such as selecting and imitating the role model, designing and observing
systematic and scientific approach, dealing with emotions, following principle centered habits
and values, taking initiatives, being proactive and the like.
Observe Norms of the university: Students are encouraged to observe the norms of the
university in order to promote healthy academic culture. The counselors and
mentors take proactive approach to shape the behaviour of the students right from the
beginning of their university life to prevent behavioural problems and promote self-discipline.
Adjust with Culture and New Situations
Solve Academic Problems
Observe Exceptionally Undesirable Behaviour: Students are at the threshold of the turbulent
life in the university. The institution is expected to observe the behaviour of the students and
identify the students indulged in undesirable, unsocial, unlawful and unethical activities.
Opportunities of development:
CHARACTERISTICS OF COUNSELLING
To be effective, the counseling and mentoring process should be interactive, natural, supported
by scientific tools and techniques, continuous, unbiased, and empower the students.
PRINCIPLES OF COUNSELLING
a) Create adequate opportunities for empowering the students for learning
b) Promote team learning and collaborative learning
c) Respect the potential of young students
d) Unbiased approach in teaching learning and assessment
e) Encourage best practices
f) Create learning organization.
TYPES OF COUNSELLING.
The counselling and mentoring for students, faculty members and staff members can be
classified in two categories viz reactive and proactive. Reactive counselling is further classified as
solving behavioural and career related problems. Mentoring is further classified as exploring the
potential, crafting the vision, modifying behaviour to achieve vision, developing life skills and
achieving vision for the self and institution
LEVELS OF COUNSELLING
The university requires three types of counselors to provide proactive and reactive counselling
to students. The types of counselors are professional counselor, teacher counselor and trained
counselors.
Chapter 5: Social Responsibility
ACCOUNTABILITY OF THE TEACHER
The teacher’s main role is to make the student realize that the world keeps changing, knowledge
is ever-changing or dynamic and process of learning and unlearning are a lifelong activity
The key social responsibility principles are accountability and transparency, which is the
responsibility of every professional in his conduct.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is one of the Government of India mandated activities that
every organisation is bound to do.
IT tools such as web portal, websites facilitate open access to student’s performance and (T–L)
process in an educational institution will help maintain accountability and transparency in
society.
SENSITISING STUDENTS FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE
Community service is one of the effective tools towards the effort to develop good values,
attitudes and other aspects with respect to the ‘Affective Domain’ of learning
Chapter 6: Human Aspirations: Sustainable Happiness and
Prosperity
everyone should first know what s/he really wants to be and based on his/her own strengths
and weaknesses, choose the relevant occupation. The mismatch between what you really want
to be (according to your choice) and what you are forced to be (due to your greed or social
pressure or lack of opportunity) is the root cause of most problems of ‘unhappiness’
So, it is the mindset, which decides the ways of getting happiness. But the intrinsic desire
remains the same i.e. to be happy.
Argyris, C. (1974) has given the concept of ‘Espoused Theories‘ and ‘Theories in Use’. He
expounds that the real problem with most of the professionals is that they unknowingly or
subconsciously oscillate between these two types of theories. One is idealistic theory according
to which all actions should be based on moral values and ethics so that they should serve the
larger good and general interest of the mankind, and are called ‘Espoused Theories’. In other
words, these theories are held in high esteem by professionals and they glorify and promote
these theories in social and academic circles.
However, when it comes to real life practices, some professionals take decisions based on
practical considerations and justify their ethically wrong decisions based on excuses such as: ‘it
has to be done for survival in the present system’, ‘one professional alone cannot reform the
whole system’, ‘you cannot grow, if you do not follow the ‘tricks of the trade’ and so on. All
these reasons or justifications can be said to emerge from the ‘Theories in Use’.
you feel happy when you are in a situation of your liking or state of your liking. o happiness is
the most basic desire which everyone longs for.
It is also defined as ‘happiness is due to the happenings around you’, and the happenings
around you is dynamic. This means that whenever, the happenings around you change, your
happiness also changes.
you can re-define ‘joy’ (Sustainable Happiness) is, ‘Being in harmony with oneself, family/society
and nature’.
PROSPERITY (SAMRUDDHEE) FOR THE PROFESSIONAL
This includes basic things such as food, clothing, and shelter. In these modern times, it also
includes: resources for education, medical treatment, communication, transportation and
entertainment.
‘Prosperity’ may also be defined as ‘a feeling of possessing required physical resources in
abundance’.
Thus, to experience joy (sustained happiness) or sadanand in your personal and professional
life, you need to have the right values and set the right priorities.
Chapter 7: Harmony with Oneself
The most common reason for lack of harmony within oneself is that your focus often remains
only on the needs of the body.
Dalai Lama said “People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason
why the world is in chaos, is because things are being loved and people are being used”.
The problem with some professionals is that they try to satisfy the needs of the mind by
additionally attaching the quality features to the physical things, with the hope that real needs
of the mind such as respect, love, recognition will be achieved through this.
It should be understood that professionals can gain respect only by providing good and quality
services
Thus, the needs of the mind are associated with feelings, while that of body is associated with
physiological aspect of the body. In other words, body is mainly a physiological entity and mind
is mainly a psychological entity or consciousness.
Based on the basic features of the jobs/occupations, all the jobs can be clubbed in four major
categories:
a) Knowledge based jobs
b) Power/position based jobs
c) Capital or money based jobs
d) Skill based jobs.
So earning money/reputation/fame alone should not be the criteria of choosing the job, the
criterion for choosing the job should be liking of the job.
The choice of a profession should be based on two basic criteria; first based on the liking
(interests) and secondly, based on your capability. If
Gaur et al. (2016) defines ‘Realization’ as the ability to see the reality ‘as it is’.
The term ‘Understanding’ means to understand the ‘self-organization’ in all entities of
nature/existence and their ‘inter-connected’ organization ‘as it is’.
Gaur et al. [2016] suggests that to overcome this problem, you should identify your own natural
acceptance i.e. you should continue to observe yourselves and keep asking yourselves the
question, “Whether this is naturally acceptable to me”? If you keep asking this question to
yourselves, you will be able to access your natural acceptance and this will lead you to the right
realization and understanding. If you are able to appreciate your natural acceptance, then it will
lead to the right realisation (ability to see the reality or the world as it is) and understanding i.e.
your interconnectedness, with the reality.
Thus, for harmony you have to activate your thinking for realisation (appreciation of reality) and
understanding (
Chapter 8: Harmony with Family, Society and Nature for Coexistence
The present day definition of healthy person is ‘when that person is physically, mentally and
socially fit’
For removing misunderstandings between family members, you have to consciously work to
mitigate it and everyone has to start with oneself
As the saying goes trust begets trust, the only condition is that it requires patience and time,
which should be continually nurtured. Thus, if a family member shows trust for a long time
towards every other member, then every other family member also develops the trust towards
others and sustainable peace and harmony will set-in/prevail in the family.
It is now obvious that the basis of a harmonious relationship between any two individuals is
trust
If you analyse the reasons of not developing trust by one individual or group of individuals, then
the conflict of interest emerges as most common cause.
If you try to find out the root cause of the conflict of interest in all of the above viz. company
secretary, lawyer, doctor and professor, then the root cause of the problem seems to be the
desire for excess money. This ‘desire for excessive money’ is the root cause of trust deficit.
Despite all scientific developments you still basically depend on nature which is made of five
tatvas i.e. basic elements viz. earth, water, air, fire (energy) and space.
If you analyse this world, it can be classified in four orders, the most fundamental order is
‘material order’ (i.e. land, soil, mountains, rivers, seas, minerals, gases and such others) which is
made of these five traditional elements or tatvas mentioned above. This material order supports
‘plant order’ on earth grow all type of plants, fruits, vegetables, cereals and others with the help
of space, water, air, and energy. This plant order in turn supports ‘animal order’ ‘since all kind of
bacteria, insects, land animals, birds, fishes and other sea animals require food from plants.
The most outer order is that of ‘human beings’ who are using their knowledge to harness all
three orders i.e. material order, plant order and animal order for their own pleasures
If you analyse closely, it becomes clearly visible that plant order is dependent on material order,
but plant order has not disturbed the material order, similarly animal order is dependent on
plant and material order, but animal order has not disturbed either plant order or material
order. It is because all the three orders behave according to the basic principle of nature i.e. to
maintain the balance by following the cycle of taking and giving.
Chapter 9: Understanding of Values, Attitudes and Ethics
Values, attitudes and ethics are like the lubricant that is instrumental in running the mechanism
of human social life smoothly.
Values refer to the beliefs for which a person has an enduring(ever existing) preference. Values
are defined as the principles and ideals, which helps a person in making the judgment of what is
more important. Values exist in the mind and are independent of public affirmation. Following
are some examples.
a) Respect to parents
b) Helping the needy
c) Simplicity
d) Charity
e) Integrity
f) Rejecting bribe
g) Respecting purity of material and thoughts
h) Respect Purity of Environment
i) Use of only handmade clothes such as Khadi.
Values are the principles and ideals that help a person in making judgment of what is more
important in one’s life.
Values are not feelings, but they are preferences
Values are stimuli for thinking.
b) They differ from person to person
Advise/ guide what we wish to achieve
d) Determine or discriminate between choices based on level of importance.
e) Motivate people to do better in life
f) Some values are inborn; some are inculcated later in life.
g) Values are taught by a teacher only through demonstration. A student learns the most by
teacher's actions rather than lectures alone
Basic or most fundamental attribute of a good teacher is abundance of universal and selfless
‘love’ towards his/her students, fellow teachers and his institution.
Attitudes are often the result of experience or upbringing, and they can have a powerful
influence over behaviours. In simple terms, ‘attitude’ is a way of looking at a particular object,
person, thing, or event. It indicates the approach taken by the observer to deal with a situation,
person or object.
The Krathwohl’s taxonomy of affective domain describes five levels of attitude developmentReceiving, Responding, Valuing, Organization and Characterization.
"Attitude is a small thing that makes a big difference."
-Winston Churchill, Former British leader & PM
Attitudes are the ‘glasses’ through which one sees oneself, others, events, experiences, the
future, and the world around him.
Attitude comprises basically of mind-set, viewpoint, beliefs, preferences and such others
Persons with positive attitude generally don’t care about the hurdles in life.
Four important positive attitudes are
Confidence
Happiness:
Sincerity:
Determination:
important negative attitudes
Anger:
Doubt:
Frustration
In a neutral attitude person, there is neither any doubt nor there is any kind of hope. Such a
person generally tends to ignore the problems in life and waits for some other individual to take
care of their problems.
A person with Sikken attitude tends to destroy every image that comes in connection with a
positive image
‘Ethics’ is a branch of moral philosophy – which depicts a sense of rightness or wrongness of
actions. Ethics are well-defined standards that a person should comply with, concerning rights,
obligations, fairness, and benefits to society and so on. Ethics refer to the guidelines for
conduct, that address question about morality. In other words, it is a discipline that identifies
human conduct about, good or evil, just or unjust, fair or unfair practices. The ethical standard
puts a reasonable obligation to stop crime like stealing, assault, rape, murder, fraud and so on.
Ethics is a system of moral principles decided by a group of persons, an organization, culture or
society and every member of that profession is expected to abide by those. The ethics control
and govern the behaviour of a person according to the norms set by others
Chapter 10: Value Education: Need for Self-Exploration
The subject which enables you to understand ‘What is Valuable` for human happiness is called
Value Education.
It can be said that Value Education enables one to:
a) Rationalise one’s needs and priorities
b) Visualize one’s life goals correctly and
c) Indicate right direction for making efforts to fulfill them.
The process of self-exploration helps the teacher to be in harmony within oneself and in
harmony with everything around. It is the process of finding out ‘what is valuable to me’ by
investigating within oneself.
The purposes of self-exploration can be described as:
a) A dialogue between ‘what you are’ and ‘what you really like to be.’
The end-result or outcome of the process of self-exploration is the ‘Realisation’ and
‘Understanding’ of what are the strengths that are truly within you that you should harness.
.
Value education teaches him/her to regulate the flow of energy by advising him/her:
i. Where to apply?
ii. When to apply?
iii. How much to apply? and
iv. When to stop?
The process of self-exploration begins with a tiny step and it can be listed as
Step 1 Examine the stated (given) proposal
Step 2 Use your Natural Acceptance to verify the proposal
Step 3 Live according to the proposal to validate it experientially
Chapter 11: Professional Values and Ethics for Technical Teachers
Since the learning about all desired values may be a long and tedious process, but the learning
path may be broken down into simple sub-groups as:
Values related to daily practice
Values related to important activities
Values pertaining to teacher's character building and
Ethics are set by government agencies, society, culture, professional bodies, teacher
associations and college organizations
The code of conduct to be followed by netizens is called by the term netiquette from two words
‘Internet etiquette’.
Four characteristics are necessary netiquettes for all netizens.
 Plagiarism
 Intellectual property and Copyright
 Legal use of Software
 Code of conduct on Internet.
The regulatory body ‘All India Council of Technical Education’ (AICTE) and ‘University Grant
Commission’ (UGC) have seriously taken up this issue in higher education and have provided
guidelines.
The Open Education program with Creative Commons Licensing works to minimize these
barriers, supporting the CC mission through education, advocacy and outreach on using the
right licenses and open policies to maximize the benefits of open educational resources (OER)
and the return on investment in publicly funded education resources.
Chapter 13: Code of Conduct: Academic Ethics and Its
Implementation
Teachers’ Conduct with Administration
Discharge their professional responsibilities according to the existing rules and adhere to
procedures and methods consistent with their profession in initiating steps through their own
institutional bodies and/or professional organizations for change of any such rule detrimental to
the professional interest (ee sentencente meaning enkarnjudaa)
b) Refrain from undertaking any other employment and commitment including private tuitions
and coaching classes which are likely to interfere with their professional responsibilities.
c) Co-operate in the formulation of policies or the institution by accepting various offices and
discharge responsibilities which such offices may demand.
d) Co-operate through their organizations in the formulation of policies of the other institutions
and accept offices.
e) Co-operate with the authorities for the betterment of the institutions keeping in view the
interest and in conformity with dignity of the profession.
f) Should adhere to the conditions of contract.
g) Refrain from availing themselves of leave except on unavoidable grounds and as far as
practicable with prior intimation, keeping in view their particular responsibility for completion of
academic schedule.
Teachers’ Conduct with the Community/Society
Keep the public informed of the educational programmes which are being offered
b) Work to improve education in the community and strengthen the community’s moral and
intellectual life.
c) Address the social problems conducive to the progress of society and hence the country as a
whole.
d) Participate in community activities and shoulder responsibilities of public offices as the duties
of a citizen.
e) Refrain from taking part in or subscribing to or assisting in activities which tend to promote
feeling or hatred or enmity among different communities, religions or linguistic groups, but
actively work for National Integration.
Code of Conduct Governing Body Members of the Institute
Decisions and resolutions made by the Governing Body, Executive Body and all the Trust Units
are obligatory.
b) The members of Governing Body shall maintain their character, transparency, mannerisms
and good image.
c) No property of Trust will be used for personal benefits.
d) The members of the Governing Body can obtain service from the Trust employee as and
when required.
e) Any member of Governing Body will not express non-satisfaction with any decision made by
the Executive Body. It will be discussed or expressed in the meeting only. One must respect
majority taking the decisions.
f) If any member of Governing Body needs any primary information from the Institute, s/he will
communicate to the Principal and will not have any oral or written communication with the
employee.
g) If any misbehavior and action by the employee defames the Institute, it will be communicated
to the Secretary orally or in writing.
h) All shall mind that no person is greater than the Institute.
i) The Governing Body will receive all communication in writing only from the Principal. In the
same way the Governing Body will reciprocate their decision through principal.
j) Respect other member’s opinion and give them a chance to express, if necessary permit to
register their differences of opinion.
Chapter 14: Role of Professional Societies
A professional society (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional
association) seeks to further the cause of that particular profession, the interests of individuals
engaged in that profession and the public interest.
Following are some of the attributes of professional societies
The Science Council, UK defines a professional society as 'an organization with individual
members practicing a profession or occupation in which the organisation maintains an oversight
(supervision or control) of the knowledge, skills, conduct and practice of that profession or
occupation'.
The mission of the professional societies is primarily educational and informational.
ETHICS FOR DOCTORS
In India the ethics for doctor's code of conduct was prepared or enforced by Medical Council of
India (MCI) which is likely to be replaced by National Medical Commission (NMC), soon.
Its priciples are
Autonomy:
In order for a patient to make a fully informed decision, she/he must understand all risks and
benefits of the procedure and the likelihood of success.
Justice: The idea is that the burdens and benefits of new or experimental treatments must be
distributed equally among all groups in society.
Beneficence: Doctor must undertake a procedure with the intent of doing good for the patient
involved.
Non-malfeasance: Doctor must ensure that a procedure does not harm the patient involved or
others in society.
ETHICS FOR LAWYERS
The Bar Council of India is a statutory body that has been set-up to perform several disciplinary,
reformative and regulatory functions in the field of law and other related fields.
It recognizes Universities that award law degrees that act as a relevant qualification for the
registration of an advocate. It also safeguards the privileges, rights as well as interests of the
lawyer.
The Advocates Act, 1961 was enacted to govern the law profession in India by making
provisions that regulate their registration, admission, methods of practice and education,
standardize the ethics of legal provision in India.
Each lawyer who is a member of the State Bar Council and Bar Council of India has to follow the
provisions of this Act. In India, advocate is a sub-set of lawyer but the act only applies to the
Advocates as the Advocates are the ones who are allowed to practice in the court because of
their membership in the Bar Council of India and State Bar Council whereas, lawyers are the
persons who have completed their bachelor’s degree in law. Thus, Bar Council code of conduct
is applicable only to the member lawyers i.e., advocates.
Here are a few ethical conducts expected by lawyer member:
a) A lawyer must accept bribes from their client in order to stand for them in the court.
d) A lawyer has to always protect and defend the well-being of his client. It is an ethical
responsibility of a lawyer to put his client’s interest before anyone else’s.
e) It is unethical for a lawyer to hide or conceal any material evidence or information if that may
lead to the unfair sentencing of a person who is innocent.
A lawyer cannot misuse or mis-arrange any of client’s funds without informing them, like
converting them into loans or any other wrongful means. A lawyer has to be
accountable to his client for any amount of money delivered by the client i.e. details of the
money spent, records of information gathered by that money, and others.
If a lawyer is representing one of the parties in a legal proceeding, he cannot represent any
other party in that suit.
ETHICS FOR ENGINEERS
Perform services only in the areas of their competence
Present information to the competent authority for actions of others who are guilty of unethical
or illegal practice.
ETHICS FOR TEACHERS
Indian Society for Technical education (ISTE) lists a few codes of ethical conduct for technical
teachers as follows:
Recognise the differences among students and seek to meet their individual needs.
Never use students to solve his/her personal problems.
Chapter 15:Development and Poverty Alleviation(solving)
Development means ‘improvement in country’s economic and social conditions’.
Amartya Sen, the Nobel Laureate, looked development from ‘capability approach ’and defines it
as a tool enabling people to reach the highest level of their ability, through granting freedom of
action in terms of economic, social and other factors.Using this approach, development is
measured by the HDI (Human Development Index).It measures based on 3 factors viz. life
expectancy, literacy/education, and standard of living. To measure the standard of living, per
capita gross domestic product (GDP) is used.
To assess the extent to which a country has developed may be assessed by considering a range
of narrow and broad indicators, including per capita income, life expectancy, education, and the
extent of poverty.
Economic Indicators (Change in Real GDP)
The economic development is measured by Gross National Product (GNP) per capita.
The national income is commonly measured as Gross domestic product (GDP). It is the value of
expenditures on final goods and services at market prices produced by domestic factors of
production (labor, capital, materials) during a year.
National income is the total market value of production of an economy during a year. It can be
measured alternatively and equivalently in three ways:
i. Value of expenditures method
ii. Value of inputs used in production method
iii. Sum of value added at each level of production method.
Poverty is defined as a lack of income to acquire minimum necessities of life; per capita income,
per capita consumption expenditure, per capita calorie intake and availability of the size of land
holding, are the main indicators of poverty in different definitions (Sinha & Sen, 2000)
Definitions by United Nations (Gordon, 2005) and The World Bank, (2001)
UNITED NATIONS
“Fundamentally, poverty is denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It
means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to
feed and clothe to family, not having a school or clinic to go to not having the land on which to
grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, and not having access to credit. It means
insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means
susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without
access to clean water or sanitation.”
WORLD BANK
“Poverty is pronounced as deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It
includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for
survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access
to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice and insufficient
capacity and opportunity to better one’s life”
Many methods of measurements exist, but broadly following three approaches of poverty
measurement are used (The World Bank, 2002):
a) Headcount index: the percentage of the population living in households with a consumption
per capita less than the poverty line, i.e. share of population living below poverty line and is also
known as incidence of poverty.
b) Poverty gap index: the mean distance below the poverty line expressed as a proportion of
that line, where the mean is formed over the entire population, counting the non-poor as having
zero poverty gap, i.e. how far off households are from the poverty line and known as depth of
poverty.
c) Squared poverty gap index: it is similar to poverty gap index except that it is the mean of the
squared proportionate poverty gaps, such that the resulting measure penalizes inequality
amongst the poor, i.e. it takes into account the distance separating poor from the poverty line
and also the inequality amongst them.
Human Poverty Index (HPI)
It encapsulates the factors such as short life expectancy, low literacy rates and overall living
conditions.
a new poverty index HPI-2 has been introduced to measures poverty in industrial countries. This
has been done to better reflect socio-economic differences and also addressing widely different
measures of deprivation in two groups of countries.
This is borne out by a decomposition analysis of the total decline in poverty into three
components representing the contributions of:
a) rural growth
b) urban growth
c) a distributional component representing changes in inequality and the shift of population
from rural to urban areas.
Absolute poverty, is measured in terms of the ability of the population to afford a minimum
standard of living typically specified as a minimum level of per capita consumption or income for
the household and the level varies from country to country depending on their economic
conditions.
Relative poverty is described as ‘relative deprivation’ because the people in this category are not
living in total poverty but are not able to get the same standard of life as everyone else in the
country.
In September 2000, at the UN Millennium Summit, the UN General Assembly adopted the
United Nations Millennium Declaration. The Declaration, which called for a global partnership to
reduce extreme poverty, was the first ever global strategy with quantifiable targets to be agreed
upon by all UN member states and the world’s leading development institutions. These
objectives (listed below in Table 1) were set with a deadline of 2015 and became known as the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (Nations, 2011).
In the post-2015 development agenda, overcoming the MDGs focus, the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) were uniformly made applicable to all countries of the world. And
while there are similarities in regard to the format of the MDGs and the SDGs – e.g. each framed
the international development agenda for a 15-year period. The SDGs focuses on a global
development with an understanding that the environment is not an add-on and is not against
sustainable development. SDGs were structured as foundations of all goals. This resulted in the
SDGs included new themes which reflect an approach that sees the environment, economy and
society as embedded systems rather than separate competing ‘pillars’ in comparison to the
MDGs which maintained a retrospectively narrow focus on poverty reduction. In the SDGs, the
urban areas, water and sanitation, energy, and climate change are all prominent. The 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development consists of 17 SDGs (SDGs, 2015)
Sustainable Development: Concept and Environmental Ethics
‘Sustainable development is that which meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’.
To summarise what has been discussed so far, it is essential that for Sustainable Development in
any sector of economy These are economic growth, social inclusion and environmental
protection
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Activity - 1
A suggestive list of topics that has potential to address issue of sustainable development in
engineering education is given. Prepare a write up of maximum 600 words (on 3 topics) covering
economic, social and environment aspects for inclusion of these in the course curriculum. You
may even add new topics of your choice.
a) Sector specific design solutions
b) Ethical considerations
c) Transportation
d) Construction
e) Energy solutions
f) Recycling
g) Waste Management
h) Rainwater conservation.
means system of morality that apply only to humans and such ethical systems are
Anthropocentric.
If you consider that only humans have intrinsic value, then it is known as anthropocentric
environmental ethics.
Sustainability: Cradle to Cradle Approach
When a designer opts for cradle-to-grave approach, then the life span of material or product
starts with its birth/creation and ends up to the point of disposal. The problem faced with this
design is if the product is not biodegradable then heaps of disposable products are created.
In contrast to this, cradle-to-cradle approach ensures environment sustainability. ‘cradle-tocradle’ design ensures that material flows cyclically in appropriate, continuous biological or
technical nutrient cycles. All waste materials are productively re-incorporated into new
production cycle, fulfilling the concept “waste = food”