News and views about the Education in India

Weekly news updates on trends and happenings in the Indian Education scene

The dream of a foreign degree remains the same; banks also tighten up in the guise of insurance cover to acquire loans to fulfil these dreams. On the other side, corporates emerge as key players in making education more accessible and diversified. The government determined not to be left behind joins the race to utilise technology in spreading and enhancing education.

- Chillibreeze Business Research Team

Education for all  

With the aim to provide useful and relevant education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years by 2010, CORE Projects and technologies Ltd. has developed a unique solution. This solution is for the “Education for all" project in India under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan launched by the government of India in partnership with the states. This solution will help track funds allocated by the central government for various segments including construction of schools.

The product offering in this space includes grants management, student assessment reporting, administration and reporting of services for children with disabilities, data warehousing and analysis of education data. In this context, CORE's Project & Technologies Ltd. and IBM will work together to innovate and provide IT solutions in multiple area of education and government space, including Sarv Shiksha Project. Through this initiative CORE's solution will henceforth be available on IBM platform and will embrace Service Open Architecture (SOA) with open standards that are truly interoperable and scaleable.

August 4, 2007
Central Chronicle

Education in USA beckons’

Pursuing higher education is no longer a distant dream for Indian students. This came from Mr Henry V Jardine, the US consul general at a seminar on “Education in US” at George Edcare, in Kolkata. Grading India among the top in terms of student exodus in the US, he said, “India is the largest source of the USA when it comes to students applying for visas for pursuing higher studies. Students get innumerable colleges to choose as 1,700 colleges provide post-graduate studies.”

August 3, 2007
Source: The Statesman, Kolkata Plus.

Now, life insurance must for education loans

A student planning to take up an education loan through a bank for a degree abroad has to have a life insurance cover to apply for these loans. Vijaya Bank CMD Prakash Mallaya confirms about this collateral insurance cover. The premium will be paid to the insurance company by the student's parents or the bank will pay the premium and the borrower can pay this amount to the bank later. Students can also opt for the policy with the lowest premium amount. This move is an attempt by the banks to protect their investments and many banks have already tied up with insurance companies to provide insurance facilities to education loan seekers.

August 3, 2007
Source: CNN IBN India

Plan panel meeting on education

A meeting of the full Planning Commission is likely to be held to consider the Plan panel's proposal to promote higher education with an investment of about Rs 1.31 lakh crore during 2007-2014.

The proposal, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, includes setting up of 30 Central universities (of which, 14 would be of international standards), 370 new colleges and upgrading physical and academic infrastructure of 6,000 existing colleges. It aims at increasing the Gross Enrolment Ratio from 10 per cent to 15 per cent by 2014. It also includes establishing seven IIMs, three IITs and 20 National Institutes of Technologies (NITs) in addition to expanding existing IITs, IIMs and NITs.

In July, the Commission in a presentation to the Prime Minister underlined the need for formulating a policy to encourage foreign universities to set up collaborative institutions in partnership with both public and private entities. The plan panel wanted the government to encourage collaboration between foreign and Indian universities to improve quality of higher education in India. It has also suggested revision of fee in several state universities and colleges. It wanted the government to periodically revise tuition fee for central universities on the basis of an index.

Currently, there are 361 universities of which 21 are run by the Centre and 219 by states. 110 are deemed universities and 11 are privately controlled.

August 2, 2007
Source: Chennai Online

Education delegation to Australia

A six-member delegation, headed by Tamil Nadu Higher Education minister, Dr K Ponmudi, will visit South Australia for a week to discuss an education action plan and exchange programme between the state and different Universities in Australia.

The visit, part of the 'International Educational Business week' would be from August 6 to August 10, in which higher education secretary, K Ganesan, Director Technical Education, R Sivakumar, Anna University vice-chancellor, Ramachandran, Tamil Nadu Open University Vice-chancellor Palanisamy and Bharathiar University vice-chancellor, Dr G Thiruvasagam, would be the members.

The delegation would discuss and explore the possibilities of a 'twining' programme, where students of six universities in Australia and the state would be allowed to study for a certain period, two years in Tamil Nadu and the third year in Australia or vice-versa.

An MOU would also be signed between some universities in the field of Biotechnology and Nanotechnology. The DRDO and Centre of Life Sciences in Bharathiar University would enter into a tripartite MOU with an organisation called the 'Cooperative Research centre Contamination Assessment Remediation of Environment'. This would result in mutual benefit for collaboration in the areas of remediation, contaminated sites and waste, and waste water management and environment.

July 31, 2007
Source: Chennai Online

RPG group to enter management education

RPG Enterprises is setting up a management college in Kolkata with an investment of Rs. 45 crores. The institute, spread over 5.5 acres, is scheduled to start from academic year 2009-2010.

This is the first initiative of the company to enter mainstream education. The company runs the RPG Institute of Retail Management in Chennai, which is a training institute for frontline staff and store managers.

“The construction has already started and the facilities will be ready by January 2009,” said RP Goenka, former chairman, RPG Enterprises. The institute plans to admit students through the Common Admission Test. It plans to apply for a CAT-affiliation in August 2008 so that the first batch of 120 students can be admitted in May 2009.

The institute plans to increase the capacity to 500 students. The group is on the lookout for a director for the management college and is also exploring foreign tie-ups.

The institute will also soon seek the approval of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the regulatory body for technical education.

Goenka said the state was very supportive and that affiliation from Kolkata University could come any time.

July 31, 2007
Source: Business Standard

Retail education at IIM-Indore

The Indian Institute of Management, Indore (IIM-Indore) and Retailer Association of India have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to set up a Centre for Retail Education and Management (Cream) at the institute to train quality manpower for the rapidly growing sector.

The MOU was inked recently by IIM-Indore Director S.P. Parashar and association CEO Gibson Vedamani.

The centre will be a source of research, training, consulting and executive education programmes for the retailers in India.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Parashar said a revolution was taking place in the retail industry and it will be successful only when it is backed up by trained quality manpower. Mr. Vedamani said there is a demand for 2.5 million strong manpower in the retail industry. He said the apprehension that small retailers would be wiped out due to the growing competition is not based on real assessment as there is enough scope for all types of retail formats to coexist in India. The institute plans to launch the long duration programme on retail management in September.

July 31, 2007
Source: The Hindu

The Digital route to NIOS

The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has launched an online admission facility to help thousands of students applying for its various programs. The digital route is now available for admission to senior and senior secondary courses equivalent to Classes X and XII.

Students can directly access NIOS website – www.nios.ac.in or www.nos.org – for admission. They can also select their study centre online. Students can also register themselves for the ensuing examination to be held in October-November.

V.S. Raveendran, Regional Head, NIOS, Ernakulam, said that candidates who could not pass Classes X and XII can save a year by registering for the examination to be held in October-November.

Online admission mode is also available for learners wanting to appear in the On Demand Examination System (ODES) for the secondary level. This stream for on-line admission would be open throughout the year for those learners who had appeared but could not clear a secondary level public examination from any recognised examination board and want to appear through the on demand examination system of NIOS for the secondary level only.

This would make the total system of examination independent of a timeframe and would facilitate the taking of the examination as per the students’ wish and state of preparedness. They could walk into the examination centre as and when they feel ready for the examination.

Under the system, a set of question papers having a defined number of items is generated randomly by the computer from the already developed question bank on the basis of question paper design and the blue print of the subject as and when demanded. All such generated question papers are different and with the same difficulty level.

The questions in the item bank, test learning objectives under knowledge, understanding, application and skill competencies of a student. For identification, all these items are given a code indicating the subject, the content area to which the items belong, the objective being tested, the type of question, the marks allocated to the item and the serial number of the item.

For the secondary and senior secondary courses, students can choose a minimum of five from 30 subjects. Out of this, they can select one or two languages. Two additional subjects can also be taken by each candidate.

NIOS also offers vocational courses in the fields of agriculture, business and commerce, engineering and technology, health and paramedical, home science, hospitality management and computer and IT related sectors.

More details can be had from Regional Centre, NIOS, Mamangalam, Kochi. Phone: 0484-2335714.

July 31, 2007
Source: The Hindu

Government to digitise expensive higher education books

The government is planning to make expensive textbooks available to students in a free digital format. The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has indicated that it is willing to share the cost with publishers of digitising study material for undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Under the proposed agreement, the Government would compensate the publishers for any losses they might incur. The Ministry is also considering setting up its own database, which would have top journals of the IITs and the Indian Institute of Science, and is even willing to pay half of what it would take to provide a computer to every teacher in the 18,000 colleges across the country.

In fact, the University Grants Commission would provide free Internet connections to institutes, which take up this offer. Also, teachers who provide online coaching to students would be remunerated for their services.

The HRD Ministry wants to incorporate the proposal in the 11th Five Year Plan. The planning commission also plans to meet in the first week of August to discuss ways to overhaul the higher education system.

July 30, 2007
Source: CNN IBN India, New Delhi