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Ranbaxy
Wins on Two Additional Patents in Norway
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In
yet another boost to India's biggest drug
maker Ranbaxy Laboratories, a Norwegian
court has ruled in its favour in the patent
litigation against Pfizer for cholesterol
lowering drug Atorvastatin (Lipitor).
The Oslo City Court sided with the company
by finding non-infringement of two of
Pfizer's Norwegian patents (No. 177,566
and No. 180,199) covering particular intermediate
compounds, Ranbaxy said in a statement
here. Earlier in November 2005, the Norwegian
Court had found the Ranbaxy's atorvastatin
product not infringing one of Pfizer's
process patents (No 309,322) but was found
violating the other one of Pfizer's patents
(No 177,706), covering a particular intermediate
compound. Commenting on the Norwegian
court's decision, RLL Senior Vice President,
Global Intellectual Property Jay Deshmukh
said it was the most important decision
for Ranbaxy, as "it significantly validates
our position regarding the atorvastatin
patents." "We will continue to actively
pursue all of our options in Norway and
other markets in order to bring affordable
atorvastsatin to patients around the world,"
he added. Ranbaxy's victory in Norway
comes close on the heels of the US Appeals
court giving it a partial win against
Pfizer for Lipitor by upholding one of
its patent while another was found to
infringe earlier this month. Following
the partial win, RLL said it would advance
the launch date to March 2010 from June
2011 with 180-day exclusivity in the US
market, subject to the appellate process
and market authorization by the USFDA.
The two companies have been locked in
pitched patent battle over Lipitor across
various markets.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, August 31, 2006
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What's
IITs Contribution to Indian Economy?
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In
the run-up to the IIT Alumni Global Conference
scheduled in Mumbai between December 23-25,
the Pan-IIT 2006 committee has taken the
initiative of entrusting a group of four
economists with the task of quantifying
the contribution of the IITs to the Indian
economy. This was stated by Mr Ashank
Desai, chairman, Mastek Ltd and also Chairman,
Pan-IIT 2006 committee in Kolkata on Wednesday,
when he was in the city to speak about
the conference. The group will be led
by Ajit Ranade, chief economist with the
Aditya Birla Group, said Mr Desai. We
expect the results to be showcased during
the global conference, he added. Mr Ranade,
incidentally, is a graduate of IIT, Bombay.
This initiative fits in well with the
IIT Alumni Global Conference theme Inspire
IITians to involve and transform India
with the objective of nation-building.
The conference is expected to draw 5,000
IITians from across the globe. The Advisory
Board of the event includes reputed IITans
such as Vindi Banga and Nandan Nilekani
Pan IIT is the global alumni association
having local chapters in the US, India,
EU, Japan, Canada, Australia and Singapore.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, August 31, 2006
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Indian
Teachers Tutor British Kids Online
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In
the latest example of growing online interaction
between Britain and India, students from
England are paying nearly £ 10 an hour
for online tuition on various subjects
from teachers based in India. More than
3,000 pupils have been receiving such
one-to-one tuition using internet telephony
from TutorVista, a company based in Bangalore.
It reportedly employs teachers who work
in shifts. While such services have been
welcomed by many pupils and their parents,
there is growing concern among British
education experts on university students
buying essays and course assignments from
online sites, some of them also based
in India. According to investigation by
Robert Clarke and Thomas Lancaster of
the University of Central England, internet
cheating and selling tailored essays has
assumed the dimensions of international
trade. They call the trend "contract cheating."
Many online sites outsource the essays
required to experts who are then paid
a portion of the fee paid to the site
by the students. Reports say that many
such experts are based in India, particularly
in the area of information technology.
According to the Times Higher Education
Supplement (THES), TutorVista will begin
trials in September with some state schools
in England which will pay to give pupils
extra help in preparing for national tests,
GCSEs and A-levels outside lesson time.
The report said that pupils book sessions
in advance, then log on to a website where
they share essays and other work with
their tutors. They are able to chat by
using voice-over-internet systems. The
students and teachers can also draw on
a simulated whiteboard or load up prepared
work and animations. The company reportedly
has around 6,000 pupil-subscribers in
the US. It has 60 tutors for the US and
20 for Britain, who are trained in the
differences between the countries' curriculum.
Mr Ganesh said,"The parents in America
are more direct about what they want,
while the parents in Britain are more
subdued. The British parents will be polite
even if they are not happy, so the teachers
have to ask questions and delve deeper
to make sure they are satisfied."
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, August 29, 2006
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B-Schools
to Polish up Babus
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Babus
are back to the classrooms. Six of world's
leading B-schools have come together to
teach officials in the government of India
lessons in latest rules and world-wide
trends in public management. Premier management
institutes IIM-A, IIM-B and TERI School
of Advanced Studies have joined hands
with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government,
Maxwell University and Duke University,
respectively to conduct short term courses
for senior officials of the central government.
The officials will be trained in the latest
global rules of public management. The
reputed management institutes, shortlisted
through global bidding, shall design and
conduct the short-term courses in management
for senior bureaucrats, who will be undergoing
the compulsory mid-career course linked
with their career advancement. While Duke-Teri
combine will conduct the programme for
bureaucrats with an experience of 7-9
years, Kennedy School of Government and
IIM-A will run the course for senior bureaucrats
with a minimum experience of 25 years.
IIM-B claims it has been running the programme
for some time now. Though Prof Prakash
Apte, Director of IIM-B did not confirm
about any new programme, he confirmed
that the B-school has been conducting
the training programme for bureaucrats
for the past four years now. Such global
tie-ups between reputed management schools
to conduct courses for bureaucrats have
not happened in a long time.The institutes
will be responsible for all aspects of
the course, including the delivery. "Given
the seniority of the officials, learning
from each other's experience would be
of prime importance," said a source at
IIM-A. The module jointly designed by
Kennedy School and IIM-A includes leadership,
energy security, subsidies, financial
contracts, public private partnerships
and fiscal management. "How can effective
leadership change institutions, rules,
laws and policy for the effectiveness
of public enterprises," said the source.
The programme aims to train around 100
babus a year, over the next three year.
The programme will be conducted at IIM-A
campus while the design of the programme
is being worked out by a team of faculty
from Kennedy. "We will be conducting short
term course for which we have tied up
with the Duke University. The module is
for bureaucrats with experience up to
9 years, said Rajiv Seth, registrar at
TERI School of Advanced Studies.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, August 29, 2006
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CIMA
Ties up With British Council
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The
Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
(CIMA), India Liaison office, has signed
a memorandum of understandingwith the
British Council. Under the agreement,
CIMA will provide more learning and technical
resources related to management accounting
for an increased number of British Council
libraries across India including CIMA
learning resources. CIMA will also be
holding a regular programme of advisory
sessions for CIMA students at principal
British Council centres. Ms Michelle Pots,
Head International Business Development,
CIMA, said through this venture, it would
expand its activities in India.
Courtesy:
www.thehindubusinessline.com, August 28,
2006
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Whizz-Kid
Gets Support From TCS
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Fifteen-year-old
M.Tech student at Madras-IIT, S. Chandra
Sekar, the youngest engineering graduate
in the country, will receive a package
of grants worth over Rs. 7 lakh from the
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for his
education. The global IT services and
consulting firm announced on Thursday
it would support the professional aspirations
of the boy. The grant covers tuition fees,
research activities, technology infrastructure
support, global project experience and
mentoring from senior executives at TCS.
Talking to The Hindu from Mumbai, where
Chandra Sekar had gone to receive the
cheque from TCS CEO S. Ramadorai, the
youngster said though he was looking for
financial support for his education, the
best part of the TCS package was the assistance
he would get for his research project
in information security. ``I am also happy
that I will be getting ideas from senior
people there, and have access to their
labs," he said. He will start his research
in the second year of his M.Tech. In addition
to his costs at IIT-Madras, TCS will also
support the student's research, travel
and project expenses that will allow him
to explore his ideas and interact with
the global academic and research community,
said a press release from the company.
The association between TCS and Chandra
Sekar also represents a new model for
collaboration to develop R&D talent in
the country. Chandra Sekar's research
interests in the areas of computer network
security and cryptology are in keeping
with TCS' own R&D efforts in these areas.
This will allow Chandra Sekar to work
on global projects.
Courtesy:
The Hindu, August 25, 2006
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Posco-India
Fellowship to 5 Students
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Five
Indian students have been selected by
Posco-India for fellowships for a Masters
programme at the Graduate School of International
Studies in Korea University. The fellowship
covers full tution fees, an annual stipend
of $12,530 and is renewable for the duration
of the student's study in the Master's
programme, a Posco-India release said.
The selected students are Ashok Poddar
and Jaya Agarwal from Jawaharlal Nehru
University, Nivedita Singh from Delhi
University and Aradhana Supkar and Rajesh
Kumar from Utkal University, Orissa. Posco-India
has also selected 65 students from various
institutes in Delhi and Orissa under the
regular scholarship scheme of Posco-TJ
Park Foundation. The students would receive
an annual grant of $500 under the scholarship
till the completion of the course. "Posco-India
is committed towards contributing to the
growth of Delhi and Orissa. It will promote
such initiatives and would also double
the number of these scholarships from
2007," Posco-India Chairman and Managing
Director Soung Sik Cho said.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, August 24, 2006
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Grid
Computing Growth Fastest in India: Oracle
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Oracle
India on Tuesday revealed that the rate
of growth of Indian enterprises adopting
grid computing technology is faster than
that of enterprises in the US, Europe
and in the Asia Pacific. According to
Oracle Grid Index IV report released here,
India witnessed one of the sharpest increases
in the grid adoption index globally. Grid
computing is an emerging computing model
that provides the ability to perform higher
throughput computing by taking advantage
of many networked computers to model a
virtual computer architecture that is
able to distribute process execution across
a parallel infrastructure. Grids use the
resources of many separate computers connected
by a network (usually the Internet) to
solve large-scale computation problems.
Grids allow one to perform computations
on large data sets by breaking them down
into many smaller ones or provide the
ability to perform many more computations
simultaneously than would be possible
on a single computer. It does so by modelling
a parallel division of labour between
processes. At a 38 per cent increase,
the high grid adoption rate implies the
readiness and maturity of Indian enterprises
to invest in modern, flexible and dynamic
information technology infrastructure
and commercial grid computing, said Oracle.
Conducted among leading enterprises in
India, the research findings showed that
45 per cent of the respondents believed
that grid-based IT infrastructure is inevitable.
An equal number envisaged that it will
be the future of IT infrastructure, which
will be able to support multiple lines
of businesses across an organisation.
"Indian organisations have become part
of a complex global supply chain. Their
profitability depends on an innovative
use of information technology," said S
P S Grover, VP, sales, Oracle India. "Oracle
Grid Index IV clearly reflects the increasing
use of technology such as grid computing
and service-oriented architecture by Indian
enterprises," he added. The Oracle Grid
Index charts the global adoption of grid
computing and analysis-related technological
issues and their implications for the
business world.
Courtesy:
Business Standard, August 23, 2006
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IIMs
Get Upbeat on Research Tie-Ups With Foreign
Univs
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With
an eye on a better international ranking,
the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs)
are today increasingly focusing on forging
research tie-ups with reputed foreign
universities. The IIMs - Ahmedabad, Bangalore
and Lucknow are in the process of entering
into research partnerships with global
B-schools. Close on the heels of a research
tie-up of IIM-Calcutta and the Yale School
of Management, IIM-A is in talks with
global B-schools for research collaboration.
IIM-Lucknow is also exploring possible
research tie-ups with five B-schools in
US, Europe and France. IIM-A is in talks
with the University of Amsterdam, Duke
University for research collaboration,
say sources. Currently, the institute
has exchanged agreements with around 45
reputed institutions world-wide. Sources
say apart from University of Amsterdam
and Duke, the institute is also open to
forge more research tie-ups globally.
"The research tie-ups are important for
cross-culture learning. We are focusing
on diverse research areas, mainly finance
and leadership," Devi Singh, director,
IIM-Lucknow told ET. The institute already
has close to 20 research tie-ups and may
collaborate with five universities, including
Sandiago college of business. With the
India Story catching the fancy of several
corporates from across the globe, the
IIMs are already witnessing a number of
international institutes queuing up for
joint programmes, exchange and research
tie-ups. Prakash Apte, director, IIM-B,
believes such research tie-ups would help
the institute at a time in the era of
globalisation. IIM-B is in talks with
four foreign B-schools for possible collaborations
in areas of marketing and finance. The
IIM-A has already launched a post graduate
programme for executives, which aims at
international executives. The institute
also recently tied-up with the Duke University
for corporate education, wherein the institutes
will provide customised programmes for
companies. IIM-A has already bagged its
first client for this programme.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, August 23, 2006
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IIM-C
in Alliance With NIIT
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After
IIM-Ahmedabad, it's IIM Calcutta's turn
to enter a strategic alliance with NIIT
to offer executive development programmes
using broadband technology. An MoU was
inked by IIM(C) director, Prof Sekhar
Chaudhuri and NIIT chairman Rajendra S.
Pawar at the institute on Tuesday. Under
the agreement, IIM(C) will handle the
content, course design, delivery and certification.
NIIT will provide the technical platform
by way of specially designed centres of
learning and the technology for delivering
these programmes. Such centres of learning
will be up at Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai,
Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. According
to Mr Pawar: "With our special synchronous
learning technology and learning management
systems, we hope to recreate the campus
experience at these centres." By virtue
of the tie-up, on offer are two 52-week
programmes, which are expected to be rolled
out this October. The first, on applied
finance for banking and financial services
professionals will be priced at around
Rs 1.8 lakh. The second programme on strategic
management, costing around Rs 2 lakh,
will be targeted at senior executives
with a minimum eight years work experience.
For IIM(C), the programme answers, to
a certain extent, the demand for its management
development programmes. "NIIT is looking
at this initiative as one of the emerging
businesses the company is focusing on,"
said Mr Smarajit Dey, president of NIIT
(strategic initiatives). "We will be investing
about Rs 20 crore over the next three
years in this business," Mr Arun Verma,
GM (emerging business) at NIIT, told ET.
According to Mr Dey, the company is also
in talks with various institutions across
the country regarding such initiatives,
but each tie-up will be unique in its
own way. "In some institutes, we will
be looking at the pedagogy; in others,
we will be focusing on diversity of the
courses," said Mr Dey. Incidentally, IIM(C)
has been offering general management programmes
for executives for the last two years
using the HughesNet Global Education platform
of Hughes Escorts Communications Ltd.
(HECL). That particular programme is in
its fifth batch, with an average strength
of 150 each.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, August 22, 2006
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I-Schools
to be The Next Big Thing
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Information
overload and a virtual absence of formal
training and infrastructure for information
managers are posing a big challenge for
companies globally. Most companies are
today willing to put a hefty premium on
qualified information managers who are
hard to come by. No wonder the education
fraternity has been quick to spot an opportunity
to churn out those much needed information
managers. I-schools began springing up
four-five years back and it got a formal
platform only last year. The US boasts
of institutions such as Berkeley School
of Information, School of Information
Science and Technology, Penn State, Michigan
School of Information and Pittsburg School
of Information have become the hub for
the information architects. India is getting
its first I-school - International School
of Information Management (ISIM) at the
University of Mysore. I-schools, or information
schools, are tipped to be the next big
thing in the knowledge economy, after
B-schools. The logic behind it is that
the country, which is witnessing an industrial
revolution of sorts, is in need of information
managers. A novel idea globally - I-schools
began springing up four-five years back
- and it got a formal platform only last
year, through the first ever I-conference
held in Pennsylvania State University.
Today, the US boasts of institutions such
as Berkeley School of Information, School
of Information Science and Technology,
Penn State, Michigan School of Information
and Pittsburg School of Information, which
have become the hub for the much needed
information architects. Not to be left
behind, India has made a quick plunge
into the movement and is getting its first
I-school - International School of Information
Management (ISIM) at the University of
Mysore. Being set up in collaboration
with, International Institute of Information
Technology, University of Pittsburgh and
Informatics India, it will train students
in all aspect of information handling
- internet technology, data mining and
data warehousing, natural language processing,
project planning, scheduling and management,
information management and security. Until
recently, the lack of dedicated institutions
in this area led domestic companies to
produce their own information experts.
"Till now data mining or engineering courses
(which are just a part of information
management) were being offered as electives
in some of the premier institutions of
the country, but with the setting up of
an I-school, we can have a much more focused
approach and quality information managers,"
says Prasad Ram, chief technology officer,
Yahoo! India.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, August 22, 2006
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Britain's
Poor English Good For India
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Workers
in Britain have such poor mastery over
the three 'Rs' (a widely used abbreviation
for reading, writing and arithmetic) that
an average of one in three bosses is forced
to send company staff for remedial training.
In a recent report, the most powerful
business lobby, the Confederation of British
Industry (CBI) has claimed that failures
in the UK school system have left a generation
without the basic skills they need to
do their jobs, according to Daily Mail.
Poor knowledge of basic English and Mathematics
is said to be costing the British economy
10 billion pounds a year and putting Britain
at risk of losing jobs to countries like
India and China. One in five employers
said they 'frequently' encountered literacy
and numeracy problems among recruits and
nearly half believed school-leavers nowadays
were worse at English than five years
ago. The CBI report also found the problems
were not confined to school-leavers. Even
university graduates produced written
work 'peppered with grammatical and spelling
errors'.
Courtesy:
Hindustan Times, August 21, 2006
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More
B-schools Line up Special Courses For
Business Scions
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The
SP Jain Institute of Management & Research
(SP Jain, Mumbai) pioneered the concept
in India about eight years ago followed
by the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management
and Higher Studies (NMIMS). But now, with
an increasing number of family-owned businesses
in India choosing to train their next
generation through Family Managed Business
(FMB) programmes, these courses are fast
gaining popularity. Already, top-line
B-schools like Management Development
Institute (MDI, Gurgaon) and TA Pai Management
Institute (TAPMI, Manipal) are gearing
up to offer these courses while the Welingkar
Institute of Management started its programme
a few months ago. Institutes like the
Indian School of Business (ISB, Hyderabad),
which currently offers it as an elective,
also have plans to siphon it off as a
separate programme in the future. Even
SP Jain plans to introduce a global exchange
component in its two-year FMB programme.
Almost all institutes attribute the sudden
surge in demand for FMB courses to a variety
of factors. These include exposure of
the younger generation to formal management
education, understanding the changing
dynamics of competition brought about
by globalisation and inculcating entrepreneurial
competencies and the ability to face challenges
while taking the family business forward.
Interestingly enough, quite a few of these
FMB courses are being targeted particularly
at the SME sector. Prof D Nagabrahmam,
director, TAPMI, told ET the institute
plans to start flexible FMB programmes
for the many small and medium-scale industries
in and around the area. V Patel, associate
dean, (finance), and head, FMB programme
at Welingkar also said they were looking
at the SME sector in a big way, since
it was contributing considerably to the
boom in the Indian economy. MDI, on its
part, will be offering a two-year Programme
For Family-Owned Business Houses, starting
next year, which will have students spending
about nine months abroad. "The Robert
H Smith School of Business at the University
of Maryland will be one of our partners
and we are in talks with the Babson College,
America besides other European institutes,"
said Pritam Singh, director MDI. "We are
working on a global exchange programme
for which we are in talks with some leading
B-Schools abroad," said Prof Advani, chairperson,
centre for FMB, SP Jain. S Mahajan, chairperson,
FMB, at NMIMS also said they had a tie-up
with the Athens University in Greece as
part of the FMB course's global exchange
programme. Welingkar too, has tie-ups
with universities and corporations in
Japan and Kenya. In the global context,
prominent foreign institutes like Kellogg's,
Wharton and Harvard have for long offered
its students the opportunity to study
these family-managed businesses.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, August 19, 2006
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New
Words Show What we are
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Perhaps
it is a sign of the times that 'war' is
49th on the list of the 100 commonest
words in English, but 'peace' is nowhere
in sight. 'Problems' enters the chart
at No. 24; 'solution' is not on the list.
'Work' is 16th, but 'play' and 'rest'
do not figure in the top 100, according
to the new revised eleventh edition of
the Concise Oxford English Dictionary
that will be published on August 21. The
concern with work - and problems - also
shows in some of the new words and phrases
that enter the Concise Oxford Dictionary
(first published in 1911) this year. There
is 'elevator pitch', a short sales pitch
intended to impress a senior manager during
a ride in a lift. There is 'pig in the
python', an expression used to describe
the demographic bulge caused by the baby
boom in 1945-65. Marketers find this lot
an attractive but difficult target, which
may explain the less than complimentary
imagery. This is, however, an improvement
on the acronym used for this group in
the 1990s: Dumpies, short for Destitute,
Unprepared, Mature People. Even the new
tech-related words relate to trouble.
Caught any 'shoulder-surfer' lately? That
will be someone trying to peer over your
shoulder as you enter your password on
your computer or your PIN at the ATM.
In the end, it is left to Paris Hilton
and Bikram Choudhury to bring us some
cheer. Hilton is not in the dictionary
yet, but there is a word to describe someone
who sounds very much like her - a 'celebutante',
a person who is rich and famous, and famous
only for being famous. Of course, it helps
Hilton's fame that she has an aerobicised
(meaning a body part toned by aerobics)
bahookie (backside), maintained, it is
said, by yoga - though not the Bikram
yoga, which also enters the Concise Oxford
Dictionary this year.
Courtesy:
Hindustan Times, August 18, 2006
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India
4th Among NZ's Education Source Mkts
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India
is ranked fourth among New Zealand's top
20 source markets for its education sector
with the Indian market valued at over
$60 million a year. Compared to just 164
Indian students in New Zealand in 1998,
there were over 3,000 approved applications
for student visas and permits from Indian
students in the financial year that just
ended, New Zealand's Economic Development
Minister Trevor Mallard said, adding that
it was a nine percent increase over the
previous year. Addressing a meeting of
the India-New Zealand Business Council
in Auckland Thursday, Mallard said that
only five years ago, the Indian market
was worth just $19.5 million and it did
not figure on the top 20 list. "This reflects
the efforts of our educational institutions
and the commitment of the government to
developing this sector," Mallard said.
He attributed the growth in numbers to
the revised and improved student visa
policy that was implemented last year
and which he had announced in India. "That
announcement generated so much interest
that the Education New Zealand website
was inundated and had to close temporarily,"
he said. Stating that India has been identified
as a key market in New Zealand's international
education sector, the minister said that,
while the numbers are currently small,
there is enormous potential for this to
increase. Lauding the role of Indian students,
Mallard said, "Indian students make an
ongoing contribution to New Zealand as
many choose to stay on after their studies
and help meet our talent and skills requirements.
This trend is more marked from India than
any other significant market." He said
that the New Zealand government has decided
to invest an additional $200,000 on a
second marketing campaign in India promoting
New Zealand as a destination of choice
for tertiary education. "We believe this
will further strengthen our educational
ties with India," he said.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, August 18, 2006
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Blind
Teacher Wins Students' Hearts
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When
a blind teacher joined a school in an
Orissa village, his appointment was opposed
by many guardians, but two years later
Suresh Biswal has won the villagers' trust
- and the children's hearts. Biswal, 37,
who was born blind, teaches at the Pranakrushna
Upper Primary School in Gagoei village,
45 km from this town. When he was appointed
to the school, many students and guardians
had represented to education department
authorities, saying they felt a blind
man might not be able to do justice to
the job. They are now glad to be proved
wrong. "He is our favourite teacher. He
is so polite and gentle and never beats
us. Rather he always tries to ensure that
we completely understand what he teaches,"
said Bablu Sahu, a student. "Biswal has
become the most popular teacher," said
Raghunath Parida, a guardian. The school
has three teachers for the 120 students
studying in Classes 1-5. The other two
teachers often take leave, providing Biswal
a chance to teach all the students. Biswal,
a postgraduate from Utkal University in
Bhubaneswar, got the job thanks to the
Disabilities Act, which provides for three
percent job quota to people with disabilities
- including one percent for the visually
challenged. "Though the act has far-reaching
provisions, not much has been done about
its effective implementation. Thus the
solution to the problem lies in educating
the blind about their rights," he said.
Teaching all subjects at all five levels,
he honed his teaching skills to a point
that most students have come to prefer
to learn from him. "I do not want to scare
the children with thick books and complicated
syllabus. I try to teach in a way that
helps the students retain knowledge,"
Biswal said. At a time when many government-run
schools in villages are marked by empty
classrooms, poor results and absent teachers,
Biswal has brought about an amazing turnaround
at the Gagoei school, a villager said.
Biswal reasoned: "I had been running from
pillar to post to get a job but my disability
was an impediment. Since I have been given
a chance to teach I must prove that I
am no less competent than others. I am
satisfied with my efforts." Sibacharna
Biswal, 62, is proud of his only son.
"We could not believe he will become so
popular," the father said.
Courtesy:
Hindustan Times, August 17, 2006
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A
Future Without Forests?
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MORE
THAN half of the world's major forests
will be lost if global temperatures rise
by an average of 3 degrees Centigrade
or more by the end of the century, it
was claimed on Monday. The prediction
comes from the most comprehensive analysis
yet of the potential effects of human-made
global warming. Extreme floods, forest
fires and droughts will also become more
common over the next 200 years as global
temperatures rise owing to climate change,
according to Marko Scholze of the University
of Bristol. Dr. Scholze took 52 simulations
of the world's climate over the next century,
based on 16 different climate models,
grouping the results according to varying
amounts of global warming they predicted
by 2100: less than 2 degrees C on average,
2 degrees C-3 degrees C and more than
3 degrees C. He then used the simulations
to work out how the world's plants would
be affected over the next few hundred
years. The results were published on Monday
in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences. Alan O'Neill, science director
for the National Centre for Earth Observation
said: "Some work in this area has been
done before looking at the meteorological
forecasts for climate change and feeding
those into vegetation models ... this
is a much more comprehensive study." Dr.
Scholze said the effects of a 2 degrees
C category were inevitable. This is the
temperature rise that will happen, on
average, even if the world immediately
stopped emitting greenhouse gases. This
scenario predicts that Europe, Asia, Canada,
central America, and Amazonia could lose
up to 30 per cent of its forests. A rise
of 2 degrees C-3 degrees C will mean less
fresh water available in parts of west
Africa, central America, southern Europe,
and the eastern United States, raising
the probability of drought in these areas.
In contrast, the tropical parts of Africa
and South America will be at greater risk
of flooding as trees are lost. Dr. Scholze
says a global temperature rise of more
than 3 degrees C will mean even less fresh
water. Loss of forest in Amazonia and
Europe, Asia, Canada, and central America
could reach 60 per cent. Dr. Scholze said
his work could help to define the concept
of dangerous climate change for policymakers.
"Dangerous is very objective. We tried
to define a dangerous level and see what
the risks are," he said. In his definition,
climate change becomes dangerous when
an event - such as extreme flooding or
heat waves - that only happened once every
100 years becomes one that happens every
10 years." -
Courtesy:
The Hindu, August 16, 2006
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India's
response to AIDS campaign encouraging,
says Richard Gere
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TORONTO:
It is celebrities galore at the XVI International
AIDS Conference with the world's most
rich and powerful pouring in to associate
themselves with the anti-AIDS campaign.
Be it the former U.S. President, Bill
Clinton, or Microsoft chief Bill Gates
or Hollywood star Richard Gere, they all
made their presence felt at the weeklong
conference. While Melinda and Bill Gates
of the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation
were the star attractions at the inaugural
function on Sunday, the two Bills - Clinton
and Gates - stole the show on Monday as
they jointly addressed a huge gathering.
"The urgent need to stem the tide of new
infections is being undermined by the
fact that few people know about their
HIV status and are unwittingly spreading
the disease," Mr. Clinton said. "I don't
see how we are going to catch up unless
people are at least aware that they could
be giving the virus to other people."
Mr. Gates said the scale up of programmes
to deliver urgently needed AIDS drugs
to poorer countries "does start to change
the dialogue." In his travels to affected
countries discussing behaviours that spread
of the virus - unprotected sex and injected
drug use - was an awkward encounter. "I
have not come to a country where injected
drug use, or men having sex with men or
commercial sex workers, is easily discussed,"
he said. Ms. Gates stressed on the need
for empowering women to protect themselves.
Talking about his Indian experience in
dealing with the AIDS campaign, Mr. Gere
said the response had been positive, particularly
from the celebrities who could connect
to the people. He spoke about the lead
that superstar Amitabh Bachchan had taken
in initiating the anti-AIDS campaign last
year under the aegis of Avahan and Kaiser
Foundation. Other popular actors such
as Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya
Rai and Chiranjeevi had also extended
support to the cause.
Courtesy:
The Hindu, August 16, 2006
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He
is Just 15 And Already in IIT
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S
Chandra Sekar is a Microsoft Certified
professional, youngest Microsoft Certified
Systems Engineer and a Cisco Certified
Network Associate. He has now joined the
prestigious Indian Institute of Technology,
Madras, for an MTech in computer science.
What is the big deal? He is only 15 years
old and enjoying the limelight. On August
4, this teenager from Tirunelveli in Tamil
Nadu became the youngest to join IIT-Madras
to do an M Tech. He scored 99.32% in the
graduate aptitude test in engineering,
required to join the course. "My goal
is to serve the nation. My area of study
would be information security and cryptography.
Network security has become important
because of increasing net transfers. Almost
all industries need it for safe transfer
of data that would reach only the intended
destination. I am working with my professors
to identify the specific aspects of information
security," Chandra Sekar, whose role model
is Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy,
told TOI.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, August 14, 2006
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Raftaar
Helps Local Users Surf The Internet
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One
of my favourite American magazines is
Foreign Policy, published bimonthly by
the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace. It costs quite a bit of change
to get it airmailed from Washington DC,
but the money is, I believe, well spent
(friends question the need to subscribe
to such magazines at all, but they usually
calm down when I point out that I could
have used that money to subscribe to the
National Review, or, worse, The Weekly
Standard!). Anyway, one of the things
that FP is known for it its lists. FP
had a recent one on seven "failed states".
The lists are obviously subjective. Before
we proceed, did you ever wonder that while
Google has emerged as the most popular,
there are millions upon millions of people
who don't know Google from Adam because
they don't speak English? How do people
with no knowledge of English access the
Internet and find what they are looking
for? With homegrown Internet search engines,
of course. The current issue of FP has
a list of such search engines designed
for local users. In the list is Raftaar
(which means "speed" in Urdu), a search
engine aimed at the millions of Hindi
speakers in India and around the world.
Raftaar is in its Beta version, and works
only with Microsoft Internet Explorer
5.0 or higher, and not on Mozilla Firefox.
"A poll last year found that 44 per cent
of Indians want to find content online
in Hindi. But India's national language
does not have a unified font structure
for display on the Internet, making searches
especially difficult. Raftaar is attempting
to fill that void by developing an easy-to-use
Hindi alphabet feature on its homepage,
allowing surfers to type in searches.
Since its launch in January, traffic has
been inconsistent, but as more Hindi speakers
log on, its popularity could explode,"
says FP. The downside for Raftaar? "India
is home to 16 official languages and hundreds
of different dialects, meaning that capitalising
on the country's many Internet users is
going to be difficult. Sites capable of
handling a variety of Indian languages
simultaneously are already on the rise
and could be the model for future Indian
Internet development. Because Raftaar's
searches are Hindi-only, it could be left
behind," the magazine says. The other
region-specific search engines, listed
by FP, includes Baidu in Chinese, Quaero,
based in the EU and promising, when it
launches, searches in French and German;
the yet-to-be-launched Sawafi in Arabic;
Yandex in Russia; and Web Wombat in Australia,
which searches 20 million web pages from
Australia and New Zealand. You can trust
the Aussies to do their own thing, mate.
Courtesy:
The Asian Age, August 11, 2006
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