News and views about the Education in India

A 10 year education plan is being rooted for, while NRIs are trying to do their bit to educate the poor. Culinary education, a flying training school, NIFT, a PGDIT program in open mode all got focus. Plans are afoot to open colleges cum commercial complexes. IGNOU wants to help promote distance education and Anna University is constructing its own satelitte.

-Chillibreeze Business Research Team

Punjab CM appeals for 10-year education plan

Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Prakash Singh Badal has appealed to the centre for creating special 10-year plan in the country to ensure 100 per cent literacy. Mr. Badal said this while laying the foundation stone of the University of Chief Khalsa Diwan at the concluding function of the 62nd All-India Sikh Educational Conference organised at Sri Guru Harkrishan International School here yesterday.

Mr. Badal also expressed his concerns over the status of school education in the state. He emphasized on setting up more schools for students from economically weaker sections of society, especially in the border areas of the state. In this regard, he appealed to educational organizations to help meritorious students get an opportunity to realise their true potential.

On the occasion, He also announced a grant of Rs 10 lakh for an upcoming university and an equal grant for the Chief Khalsa Diwan. Mr. Badal appealed to diwan members and the SGPC to set up more educational institutions in border areas.

November 5, 2007
Source: www.indiaedunews.com

Non-domicile students to get seats in HP private B.Ed colleges

It is now a relief for all non-Himachali students who want to take admission in BEd courses at various private colleges in the state. A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justices P.P. Naolekar and D.K. Jain yesterday directed the state government to admit these students under the provision of 15 per cent all-India quota.

The Himachal Pradesh High Court had earlier gave its verdict saying that the implementation of the 15 per cent Central quota would only start from 2008-09 academic session.

In Himachal Pradesh, the combined intake of students in 65 private colleges, Dharamsala's government college and HP University is 7,525. Hence about 1,128 students from outside Himachal Pradesh will be benefited by the order.

November 5, 2007
Source: www.indiaedunews.com

ANUSAT to help Anna University conduct leak-free exams

Anna University is constructing its own satellite ANUSAT to conduct not only leak-free exams but also to foster interest in Earth observation and space technology among students and faculty and to provide hands-on training for all aspects of spacecraft building and operations support.

With the development of this project, the varsity has become the first university in India to take up space technology with emphasis on micro-satellite development in its university engineering curriculum. The varsity will also be able to conduct the examinations in a fair manner. This (ANUSAT) would help Anna University to conduct leak-free examinations in all its affiliated colleges.

Once the satellite is operational, the question papers and information can be passed from one centre to the other under a highly secure line thus preventing the leak of examination papers. The question papers would be dispatched to the concerned centers within half an hour or an hour of the beginning of the examinations. Earlier this work had to be done manually over long distances. Besides serving this educational motive, the satellite will also be used by the Tamil Nadu Government to issue alerts during floods and fire calamities.

The micro satellite's engineering model has already been constructed in collaboration with Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The engineering model will now go for a testing at Indian Satellite Application Centre, Bangalore. Once the testing part is over, the flight construction will start. The flight model is expected to be ready by March 2008.

November 5, 2007
Source: www.indiaedunews.com

London School of Economics building India-centric network

The India Observatory of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has started fostering a research network that focuses on India.

The India Observatory is a partnership with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and State Bank of India (SBI) in honour of I.G. Patel, internationally renowned economist, former director of LSE and former governor of RBI.

The observatory, launched mid-October, hopes to become active by December. Nicholas Stern, also the first I.G. Patel Professor of Economics and Government at LSE, heads the observatory.The India Observatory is described as a centre that aims to foster research related to India and knowledge exchange.

'Its role will be to support and promote vibrant intellectual engagement between the UK, Europe and India, and to participate in wider international research works with partners in Asia and beyond, as well as facilitating research and training,' says an official introduction to the new venture.

The India Observatory also plans to 'play a vital role in sustaining and developing LSE's long standing partnership with India.'

November 6, 2007
Source: www.indiaenews.com

Delhi Govt. files guidelines for nursery admissions

The Delhi Government on Tuesday filed guidelines in the High Court for nursery admissions in schools across the capital for the year 2007.

As per the guidelines of the Government, schools will not be allowed to conduct interviews or interactions with the child. Also no schools can allot seats based on any lottery system.

However, schools will be allowed to adopt their own criteria for admissions — giving preference to neighborhood students or the economically weaker sections for example.

This system would be in place for a transition period of three years, within which the Delhi government will form a distinct admission policy.

November 7, 2007
Source: www.indiaedunews.com

IGNOU to help DU improve distance education system

Delhi University (DU) has joined hands with the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) for technical support in order to strengthen its distant education mode.

IGNOU, the largest open varsity in the world, has also started involving several other universities from across the country to strengthen their distance education system.

The collaboration will be a part of IGNOU's convergence scheme, which envisages bridging gap between the conventional mode of education and the distant mode.

November 7, 2007
Source: www.indiaedunews.com

Hooda for more culinary schools in Haryana

The Government of Haryana has shown a keen interest in opening more culinary schools and institutions for chefs to encourage the tourism industry and the profession of chefs in the state.

Chief Minister of state Mr. Bhupinder Singh Hooda said this while speaking at the Chefs Awards-2007 function, organized to mark the International Chefs Day celebrations here.

The Chief Minister said that schools and institutions for culinary art would encourage chefs as well as the young mass to take up the profession in tourism industry as there are tremendous employment opportunities available in the field.

While asserting that chefs are the backbone of the hospitality industry, Hooda said that chef is to tourism industry what soul is to the body.

November 8, 2007
Source: www.indiaedunews.com

Heat tolerant wheat variety top research priority for HAU

Haryana Agricultural University (HAU) will soon develop heat tolerant varieties of wheat in collaboration with scientists from China and Japan.

The varsity will also carry out research on minimizing post harvest losses of fruits and vegetables.

November 8, 2007
Source: www.indiaedunews.com

Sonia's constituency gets a full-fledged NIFT

The cabinet Thursday approved a full-fledged National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) at Rae Bareli, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

'The union cabinet today gave its approval to set up a centre of NIFT at Rae Bareli as a full fledged centre like seven other NIFTs already functioning in the country,' Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters.

Earlier this year, the government had set up an extension centre of the New Delhi NIFT at Rae Bareli.
According to Chidambaram, the Rae Bareli institute would ease pressure on the Delhi NIFT and 'minimise the regional mismatch between the number of seats available and the number of applicants based in present locations of NIFT Centres'.

He said it would also meet the requirement of additional seats as and when quotas for other backward classes (OBC) reservation were implemented.

November 8, 2007
Source: www.indiaedunews.com

National Flying Training Institute to come up in Maharashtra

In order to overcome the acute shortage of pilots in domestic airlines, the Government today decided to set up a flying and training institute in Maharashtra and modernize the existing Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udaan Akademi (IGRUA) in Rae Bareli with help from a known Canadian pilot training firm, CAE Inc.

An agreement between CAE and Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udaan Akademi (IGRUA) was approved in the Cabinet meeting held in the capital today.

As per the agreement, the CAE will enhance the IGRUA's capacity to churn out 100 pilots each year. At present IGRUA produces only 40 pilots every year.

November 8, 2007
Source: www.indiaedunews.com

College-cum-commercial complexes to come up in Rajasthan

The Rajasthan Government is all set to start colleges in various blocks based on public-private partnership (PPP). In its recent move, the state government decided to allow private parties to set-up college-cum-commercial complexes in the blocks that do not have a college.

The state education department while disclosing the move stated that the move is being justified as an attempt to impart quality education across the state.

"We will start colleges on a public-private partnership basis in 27 of 214 blocks that do not have a college. The private parties will also be allowed to set up commercial complexes in the college premises," said Mr. OP Gupta, Deputy Secretary, Higher Education Department.

The commercial activities, however, will be limited to book stalls, photocopy centres, Internet parlours and other outlets that would benefit the students.

"We can also have eateries, garment and footwear stalls, besides outlets that can be useful to students," an official said. The government will allot the land on lease and the institution will be managed by both the state and the private party concerned.

The Government has approved four such institutions including Amity and Jaipur National Universities in Jaipur, Singhania University in Jhunjhunu and Padampad Singhania University in Udaipur.

The government is also taking the primary and secondary education sector seriously.

November 9, 2007
Source: www.indiaedunews.com

Varsity creates huge corpus to help staff's pension

Madurai Kamraj University (MKU) has become one of the few universities in India to have a huge corpus in fixed deposit. The varsity has created a corpus of Rs.180 crore now deposited with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The university administration has been adopting various measures in the last few years to increase the corpus. The varsity had sought permission from the government for depositing the money with the RBI.

The sole aim of this corpus to make a permanent arrangement for staff's pension.

The Vice Chancellor said that pension fund was created by pooling in the money available under various heads in the university account.

November 10, 2007
Source: www.indiaedunews.com

IIITM-K to start PGDIT program in open mode

In an effort to offer quality IT education in the state, the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management - Kerala (IIITM-K) has decided to offer several of its classroom courses in the open mode. The subject areas range from IT, Programming to eco-informatics.

As per the plan, the institute will offer these specialized courses to professionals pursuing their career in and around the Technopark where they are in a position to spare a few hours every week for studies and upgrade their knowledge and skills in the field. Through this open mode of education, professionals will be able to complete adequate number of credits through different courses, complete relevant project or term paper work and obtain the Postgraduate Diploma in Information Technology (PGDIT). The institute is also upgrading its present PGDIT program to a full time M.Tech program. The open program will help a number of professionals working with the IT industry to increase their skills and capabilities further.

November 10, 2007
Source: www.indiaedunews.com

Trust helps widows to fight poverty, educate children

Their unskilled widowed mothers struggle to make ends meet. But their 200 children in slums in and around Chennai are able to dream of a better future - thanks to a global trust funding their studies.

The London-based Loomba Trust in collaboration with the local Shriram Social Welfare (SSW) Trust is helping the children to go to school by paying for their schooling and basic maintenance. The trust was set up in Britain in 1997 by Raj and Veena Loomba and has sister charities registered in India and the US.

The trust works to educate the children of poor widows throughout India and is supporting 3,600 such beneficiaries across the country. After the December 2004 tsunami, the trust stepped forward to educate 500 children at Nagapattinam who lost their fathers in the tragedy and had committed Rs.80 million over a period of five years towards this end.

In 2004, the trust started The Loomba Trust Partnership Initiative to enable corporations and individuals to educate the children of poor widows in India through the charity. The trust also marks the International Widows' Day each year June 23 to highlight the plight of widows and their children all over the world to promote effective action.

November 11, 2007
Source: www.indiaenews.com