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It's
India Calling for American Students
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If
the professional courses pull more Indian
students to the United States, the Indian
languages and its rich culture have emerged
as favoured areas of studies for the Americans.
The trend of American students coming
to India for studying Indian languages
is on the rise, academicians say. It is
evident from the increase in the number
of students enrolling for language studies,
they say. There are 208 American students
for this academic year pursuing studies
in 12 Indian languages. These languages
are Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam,
Punjabi, Oriya, Sanskrit, Marathi, Gujarati,
Bengali and Kannada, says Pradeep Mehendiratta
of American Institute of Indian Studies
(AIIS) at Gurgaon. "American students
take interest to study Indian languages.
They use the language for doing research
work in India or teach the languages in
the US. Many want to do foreign service
in US, while a sizable number of students
are interested in doing journalism in
South Asian countries," Mehendiratta says.
The AIIS, which has been offering language
studies since 1962, has been witnessing
a steady increase in the students flow.
From 50 students in language studies in
2001-02 the number increased to 84 in
2003-04 and to 64 in 2004-05. Another
reason for Americans coming to India for
study is the growing Indian economy and
India's position as a global power, he
says. "Most of the students, after their
language studies, pursue research work
which pertains to Indian culture, heritage,
archaeology, social sciences and humanities,"
he says. Noted linguist Prof Omkar N Kaul,
also the editor of South Asian Language
Review, attributes the trend to the academic
requirement and the fascination of the
people of Indian origin to learn their
own languages. "As per the academic requirements,
American students need to pursue studies
in two foreign languages. They come here
to fulfil their academic requirement,"
he says. "There are a lot of NRIs, who
want their kids to come to India and pursue
language studies," he says. Besides, the
Americans are looking for job opportunities
in South Asia for which the language studies
would be of immense help, he says.
Courtesy:
The Times of India, September 25, 2006
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$10
Laptops For Children?
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If
MIT's Nicholas Negroponte can try and
sell laptops to children at $100, Indians
are aspiring to better him many times
and sell similar laptops at an unbelievable
price of $10, or Rs 450 each. Having rejected
Negroponte's offer of $100 (the real price
was coming to $200) for children of less
developed countries, HRD and telecom ministry
officials and experts from IITs and Indian
Institute of Science met last week to
devise a roadmap for the indigenous laptop.
One official who attended the meeting
said: " No one had any doubt about the
feasibility of the project. Everyone is
enthusiastic and wants a quick rollout.
But we have given ourselves three years
before the first $10 laptop comes out."
When the $100/laptop proposal had come
in April, Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT, Chennai,
had not only pointed out various problems
relating to cost and technology but also
offered to devise a much cheaper but equally
advanced computer for schoolchildren.
As a first step, the meeting identified
critical challenge areas and set up six
anchor groups which would be in touch
with experts in these critical areas and
remove bottlenecks. Institutions like
IITs/IISc have been identified as anchor
institutions for the project and entrusted
with the task of research and development
of cheap laptops. The critical area that
needs to be stressed is creating a low
cost device which works towards digital
literacy for all. Explaining digital literacy,
one official said: "We are working on
the premise that if illiterates can handle
television and other electronic equipment,
why not computers?" The other critical
area is training of mothers. "If the mother
is trained, the entire family can become
computer literate," the official said.
The final critical area relates to standardisation
of content and methods for vetting it.
Officials working on the project say cheap
laptops would mean nothing without a good
bandwidth connection.
Courtesy:
The Times of India, September 23, 2006
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XLRI
Looks to Tie up With Victoria, Shanghai
Universities
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XLRI
Jamshedpur has initialised talks with
Australia's Victoria University and the
Shanghai University to forge educational
partnerships. While the former tie-up
is expected to fall into place by January,
the latter is likely to be finalised by
October. Father N Casimir Raj, SJ, director,
XLRI, told ET, "The Shanghai University
has shown keenness to tie up with us,
especially for our input in the areas
of research and HR. They, on their part,
are strong in production, which we hope
to benefit from." Father Raj indicated
that the partnership with the Victoria
University would be at different levels,
though exact modalities are yet to be
finalised. Victoria University has over
a hundred academic exchange agreements
with overseas institutes. "Many companies
want us to conduct courses for their employees,
especially in terms of global management
programmes, and Victoria University and
XLRI will be collaborating in this regard.
We are trying to work out the possibilities
of these students getting industry exposure
in both the countries," said the director.
As of now, XLRI has existing tie-ups with
the Asian Institute of Management, Manila,
Malarden University, Sweden and the Asian
University, Bangkok. "We hope to benefit
from more such tie-ups in the future,"
said Father Raj. In fact, such educational
partnerships with overseas institutes
have by now become par for the course
at most of India's leading B-schools,
in particular the IIMs. The faculty and
student exchanges, field trips and internships
overseas facilitated through these tie-ups
give students the required exposure to
forge international careers, and even
get first-hand global perspective.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, September 23, 2006
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Satyam
Inks MoU With Melbourne University
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Satyam
Computer Services and The University of
Melbourne signed a memorandum of understanding
(MoU) that will increase opportunities
for students of Melbourne Information
and Communication Technology and Satyam's
businesses. The MoU was signed by Rama
Raju, Satyam's CEO and co-founder, and
Professor Vijoleta Breach-Maksvytis, Deputy
Vice-Chancellor of The University of Melbourne.
"The alliance will enable up to 10 students
to undertake a software development internship
with Satyam each year," Virender Aggarwal
of Satyam. "Satyam will also recruit 20
software engineers from the university
every year." Participants will undergo
a three-month training course in India
and China, Raju added. Upon completion
of the programme, the company will place
them on projects in Australia or one of
its other 55 global locations.
Courtesy:
www.business-standard.com, September 18,
2006
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Kiwis
Trying to Attract More Indian Students
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India
is among the top four education source
markets for New Zealand's international
education sector and is valued at over
$60 million a year. From a mere 164 students
in 1998, the number of Indian students
in New Zealand touched 1,300 in 2005,
while this year, the New Zealand government
is hoping to attract at least 20-30 %
more. The funds used for promoting education
internationally will now be used in four
markets instead of the dozen we used to
concentrate on earlier. China, Vietnam
and India figure on that list, said Mr
Paul Vaughan, New Zealand's trade commissioner
to India. He was speaking at the inauguration
of the New Zealand Education Fair 2006
in Kolkata, which is being attended by
representatives from more than 20 educational
institutes across New Zealand. Students
from India mainly tend to go in for post-graduates
studies in New Zealand though there are
a sizeable number of undergraduates as
well. Many seek long-term employment options,
said Mr Vaughn. The New Zealand government
is very keen on attracting more PhD students
for research in universities. It has decided
to subsidise all international research
PhDs while the spouse accompanying the
student is allowed to work full-time.
This has resulted in a significant increase
in the number of PhDs, he said. According
to Mr Vaughan, while Indian students have
traditionally gone in primarily for business,
IT and engineering studies, they are now
opting for a variety of other subjects
including catering, hotel management,
film studies and biotechnology. Education,
in fact, is one of the main areas of activity
for the New Zealand government in India,
along with forestry and IT. With regard
to the forestry sector, a delegation from
New Zealand is in Mumbai, looking into
the prospects of supplying timber to India.
On the trade front, in 2005-06, New Zealand's
exports to India amounted to NZ$350 million
while India's exports to the country totalled
NZ$250 million. The former increased by
70% over 2004-05, while the latter was
up by approximately 50%. India exports
mainly jewellery and diamonds, while New
Zealand exports mainly coal, wool, timber.
_We are also diversifying into machinery,
electronics and IT products. However,
some of our key export commodities like
dairy products and meat are not allowed
into India. We are trying to sort this
out, said Mr Vaughn. Mr Vaugh also said
that they would shortly be opening another
small trade office in Mumbai, its second
in India after Delhi.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, September 15, 2006
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India
Among NZ's Top Four Education Markets
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India
is among the top four education source
markets for New Zealand's international
education sector and is valued at over
$60m a year. From a mere 164 students
in 1998, the number of Indian students
in New Zealand touched 1,300 in '05, while
this year, the New Zealand government
is hoping to attract at least 20-30% more.
"The funds used for promoting education
internationally will now be used in four
markets instead of the dozen we used to
concentrate on earlier. China, Vietnam
and India figure on that list," said Paul
Vaughan, New Zealand's trade commissioner
to India. He was speaking at the inauguration
of the New Zealand Education Fair '06
in Kolkata, which is being attended by
representatives from more than 20 educational
institutes across New Zealand. Students
from India mainly tend to go in for post-graduates
studies in New Zealand, though there are
a sizeable number of undergraduates as
well. Many seek long-term employment options,
said Mr Vaughan. "The New Zealand government
is very keen on attracting more PhD students
for research in universities. It has decided
to subsidise all international research
PhDs, while the spouse accompanying the
student is allowed to work full-time.
This has resulted in a significant increase
in the number of PhDs," he said. According
to Mr Vaughan, while Indian students have
traditionally gone for primarily for business,
IT and engineering studies, they are now
opting for a variety of other subjects
including catering, hotel management,
film studies and biotechnology. Education,
in fact, is one of the main areas of activity
for the New Zealand government in India,
along with forestry and IT.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, September 14, 2006
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Four
NRI Students Are 'Davidson Fellows'
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Four
Indian-American teenagers have been named
as this year's Fellows of nonprofit organisation
Davidson Institute for Talent Development,
an honour for "prodigiously gifted" students
under the age of 18 years. The "Davidson
Fellows" -- Shivani Sud, Sheela Krishnan,
Varun Kumar and Anarghya Vardhana -- have
also won scholarships ranging from USD
10,000 to 50,000 for their projects in
the fields of science, medicine and mathematics.
They will be recognised in Washington
on September 27 along with 16 other fellows
from across the country. "The Davidson
fellows are success stories because they've
nurtured their genius by seeking out mentors,
relying on strong family support and working
diligently to achieve their goals," said
Bob Davidson, the co-founder of the Reno-based
institute which was established in 1999
to support profoundly gifted students.
Shivani, 16, of Durham, has won USD 50,000
scholarship for her project in science.
She developed a technology to deliver
chemotherapeutic molecules to cancerous
cells with increased efficiency. Her findings
can assist with more efficient drug delivery
by overcoming cell membrane barriers,
one of the greatest challenges facing
conventional chemotherapy. Through protein
transduction, Shivani developed a drug
delivery system focused on an amino acid
region of the HIV-1 Tat protein that allows
larger medicinal molecules to pass into
the cell.
Courtesy:
The Times of India, September 13, 2006
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NIIT
Enters Management Education
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NIIT
announced its foray into management education
with the launch of its new institute 'NIIT
Imperia', under which it would offer certificate
programmes from three IIMs to working
executives, via synchronous learning technology.
NIIT Imperia would offer long term and
short term programmes in general and functional
management to executives, through Centres
for Advanced Learning across six locations,
initially. While the content, teaching
and certification would be from the Indian
Institutes of Management (IIMs) at Ahmedabad,
Calcutta and Indore, NIIT would be responsible
for technology, synchronous classrooms
and the management of distributed education
system."Through this alliance, we are
bringing the strengths of the best management
schools and NIIT's capability of delivery
education on a mass scale. The initiative
will enable middle level executives who
could not go for a formal management training
to now improve their managerial productivity,"
NIIT Chairman Rajendra S Pawar said.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, September 13, 2006
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Vande
Mataram e-Magazine Launched
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Students
from Chennai and their Indian counterparts
in the US simultaneously launched an e-magazine
on Thursday named Vande Mataram, coinciding
with the centenary celebrations of India's
national song. "This e-magazine (ezine)
is aimed at students and youth, in order
to create India Vision awareness," the
publisher K Srinivasan said in Chennai.
"This is a project by India Vision e-group,
where we have more than 800 youngsters
from all over India and abroad. Eminent
people in this group guide the youngsters,"
Srinivasan, who is also the moderator
of the e-group, India Vision 2020, said
in Chennai. "This ezine will be edited
by India Vision Club of Bangalore and
will contain interesting success stories
of unsung heroes and social workers from
the entire country," he added. "We want
to motivate youngsters to build our nation.
The entire editorial work will be managed
by young people below 30 years of age,"
said Siva Narayanan, editor of the newly
launched online magazine. The magazine
is available on www.indiavision2020.org.
Courtesy:
Hindustan Times, September 09, 2006
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Saluting
India's Unsung Teachers, The Anganwadis
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As
the nation celebrates Teachers' Day, it
would be appropriate to spare a thought
for our most precious teachers: the anganwadi
workers who help to ensure the healthy
growth of young children and prepare them
for school. The first six years of life
have a decisive and lasting influence
on a child's health, well being, aptitudes
and opportunities. Yet this age group
gets little attention in public policy
& democratic politics. If the right to
education means anything, far-reaching
action is urgently required to ensure
that all children reach the age of six
years in a state of good health and adequate
preparedness for schooling. This involves
giving basic health and nutrition services
as well as pre-school education facilities.
The best means of doing so is to universalise
the Integrated Child Development Services
(ICDS), the only major national programme
addressed to this age group. ICDS is a
relatively well-designed programme, but
its reach is limited and the quality of
services is also well below potential,
because the well being of children is
not a political priority. Financial allocations
for ICDS, are meagre: barely one tenth
of 1% of India's GDP, for an age group
that accounts for 15% of the population.
The universalisation of ICDS is one of
the core commitments of the CMP. It is
needed for compliance with the SC orders.
Yet little has been done to redeem these
pledges and obligations. The Approach
Paper of the 11th Plan, says nothing on
ICDS, beyond the grandiose announcement
that "development of children is at the
centre of the 11th Plan". The real challenge
is not just universalisation, but also
improving the quality of ICDS services
- "universalisation with quality". This
is where anganwadi workers have a crucial
role to play. Indeed, the success of an
anganwadi depends first on the skill and
motivation of the workers, and on the
support they get from the administration
and the community. A recent study of ICDS
in six states (Chhattisgarh, HP, Maharashtra,
Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan & UP), initiated
by the Centre for Equity Studies, sheds
some light on this issue. In all sample
states, anganwadi workers generally came
across as able women who could do a great
deal to enhance the levels of nutrition
and health in their community, with the
necessary support and facilities.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, September 09, 2006
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Off
to Geneva as India's Ambassadors
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You
are never too 'young' to make a difference.
And that is what nine-and-a-half year
old Archana Bisht and 12 year old Laxman
Singh Negi did - made a difference to
the lives of people in the village where
they lived. The two are representing India
as child journalists at the "Annual Day
of General Declaration" of United Nations
Committee on the Rights of the Child.
The youngsters from Naini (Khansar) and
Mehalchauri Villages respectively in district
Chamoli in Uttaranchal will be a part
of this meeting to be held in Geneva,
Switzerland on September 15. About 30
children from across the world are participating
along with representatives of various
governments, UN Human Rights Mechanisms,
UN bodies and NGOs, in this initiative
by the UN Committee on Rights of the Child.
The theme for this year is 'Speak, Participate
and Decide---the child's right to be heard.'
Archana and Laxman have been selected
on the basis of their participation and
performance at the Child Media project
organised by Plan India in various villages
in India. Their spontaneity, maturity
and the difference that their contribution
made to the development of society were
also taken into account. Highlighting
the relevance of the theme, the excited
children said, "It is important for our
voice to be heard because we have the
right to express our thoughts." Laxman's
cartoon strip depicting the adverse effects
of drinking snowballed into a huge movement
against drinking in his village and nearby
areas. Archana on the other hand, has
involved herself with rallies in her village
to create awareness about environment
conservation. The youngsters will be a
part of weeklong interactions and sightseeing
at the UN Headquarters in Geneva. So what
are they expecting there? "It's going
to be very cold out there," they replied
with innocence.
Courtesy:
Hindustan Times, September 09, 2006
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`Educational
Sector Must be Opened up'
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Educational
institutions will need to rise up to global
standards to take advantage of the emerging
job opportunities in the IT sector and
other fields in the country in the globalised
scenario, said Mr S. Gopalakrihnan, Chairman,
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII),
Karnataka and President, Joint Managing
Director and COO, Infosys Technologies
Ltd, here. Addressing an interactive session
organised by the CII, Madurai zone, he
said at the current growth rate of 30
per cent in the IT Sector, 50-60 lakh
job opportunities will be created in the
next five years in IT and other fields.
The country will need to hurry to take
advantage of the emerging opportunities.
Endowed with a sizable young population,
India has the opportunity to become a
real hub of the world. Multinational companies
have started locating their R & D activities
in the country and cutting edge technologies
are being developed. Having opened up
the economy, the educational sector also
will need to be opened up and there will
be global competition, he pointed out.
The District Collector, Mr T. Udhaya Chandran,
pointed out that e-governance held a huge
potential for jobs as government departments
and public sector undertakings are taking
to computing their activities.
Courtesy:
www.thehindubusinessline.com, September
08, 2006
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IBA
Announces Themes For Bhabha Scholarship
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The
Indian Banks' Association (IBA) has announced
four dissertation themes for the C. H.
Bhabha Research Scholarship and Award
Scheme 2007: role of urban cooperative
banks in the emerging competitive environment
(dissertation in Hindi), human resources
as a business deliverable, impact of technology
on payment systems and business process
re-engineering in core banking solution
environment in public sector banks. Details
can be accessed at www.iba.org.in
Courtesy:
The Hindu, September 08, 2006
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TCS
Announces Teachers Award
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Tata
Consultancy Services in conjunction with
Education World - the human development
magazine, has opened nominations for teachers
award. The award is instituted to honour
teachers and to encourage departments
and institutions to value teachers. The
award is open to all primary, secondary
and junior college teachers across the
country who have exhibited innovative
techniques. Students, parents, principals,
school boards as well as fellow teachers
can nominate teachers on or before September
30. Entry forms can be downloaded from
www.tcs.com/teachersaward.
Courtesy:
www.thehindubusinessline.com, September
08, 2006
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NIIT
Tech May Announce Swiss Tie-up -Source
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NIIT
Technologies Ltd, a mid-sized software
services provider, is likely to announce
a memorandum of understanding with Swiss
staffing firm Adecco, a source told the
media on Thursday. No other details were
immediately available. NIIT Technologies
offered no comments and officials at Adecco
could not be reached.
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, September 07, 2006
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ISRO,
National Institute of Open Schooling Sign
MoU
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In
order to boost distance education for
persons with disabilities, their parents
and trainers, the Rehabilitation Council
of India (RCI) on Tuesday signed a memorandum
of understanding with the Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) for setting
up an EDUSAT up-linking station and studio
within the Institute's premises. Another
agreement was signed by the RCI with the
National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS)
for facilitating children with disabilities
in acquiring knowledge and skills apart
from qualification at their own pace.
As a tie up with ISRO, about 100 study
centres of the RCI across the country
will be connected to its Delhi studio
via satellite. Students of special education,
persons with disability, their parents
and other individuals involved with the
disabled will be able to avail of free
informative lectures at these study centres.
The new EDUSAT studio at the RCI will
host regular teleconferences on various
disability related topics. In the first
phase, 100 study centres will be linked
while the second phase would see all the
237 recognised training centres providing
this facility, and for the final phase,
it has been proposed that all the 3,000
non-governmental organisations working
in the field of disability rehabilitation
will be up-linked with the EDUSAT facility.
Under the agreement with the National
Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), provision
of skill-based training in Braille and
sign language to parents, teachers and
anyone wanting to assist persons with
disability effectively are envisaged.
The NIOS has a mandate to offer academic,
technical and vocational courses through
open and distance learning modes. Certificate/diploma
courses in Basic Sign Language, Basic
Braille Language, Orientation and Mobility
through the network of institutions accredited
by both the organisations will be on offer.
Courtesy:
The Hindu, September 06, 2006
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AIIMS
to Set up 10 Centres of Excellence
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With
an aim of reducing patient load in its
main hospital, the prestigious All India
Institute of Medical Sciences is setting
up ten new super-speciality, self-sufficient
centres. "In principle approval by the
government has been given for all the
centres," Dr Shakti Gupta, AIIMS spokesperson,
told The Statesman today. The centres
are being financed completely by the government
While three of these facilities ~ centres
for trauma care, dental procedures, and
cardio and neurosciences (CN) ~ are expected
to be commissioned in the next three months,
the centres for mother and child care,
liver diseases, spinal injuries, genetic
and molecular biology, haematology, surgical
sciences and gastroenterology are expected
to come up in the next five years, he
said. "Each of these would be a centre
of excellence and a self-sufficient hospital
with 300 beds and all support facilities
such as diagnostics, blood bank and X-ray
machines," Dr Gupta said. Stating that
the aim was to reduce patient load at
the main hospital and cut down waiting
time for critical procedures, he said
the hospital treats about 2.3 million
patients year and carries out 120,000
operations. Patients coming on their own
would first come to general OPD and then
be referred to different centres depending
on their needs.
Courtesy:
The Statesman, September 06, 2006
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At
85, IIT-Kgp Founder-Teacher is Still a
Favourite
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For
52 years IIT-Kharagpur has been his home,
and it will continue to be so. Forty-nine
of the 50 teachers whom the government
chose to build the country's first IIT
have departed, but at 85, G S Sanyal shows
no sign of aging. He is not even tired,
he wakes up every morning to help take
the institute to a newer heights. Right
from the director of the institute to
the guard, Sanyal is 'sir' to everyone.
And whatever the official teachers' day
programme at the institute may be, the
campus community unfailingly drops by
to wish him on September 5. Sanyal graduated
from the department of applied physics
of the Calcutta University (CU) in 1943.
He then joined the All India Radio and
worked for it in Kolkata, Delhi and Dhaka.
Thereafter, he got selected by the government
for a scholarship to study electronics,
radars and radios in UK, where he stayed
till 1950. However, he never wanted to
settle abroad and returned to join CU
as a lecturer in its Institute of Radio
Physics and Electronics. It was from here
that he was picked up by the Jawaharlal
Nehru government to join the newly-formed
IIT-Kharagpur, from where he retired in
1987 as its director. But the institute
was in no mood to let him go because by
then Sanyal had helped his department
of electronics and electrical communication
engineering attain global acclaim.
Courtesy:
The Times of India, September 05, 2006
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Ramjas
College, Lahore University Sign MoU For
Academic Exchange
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xRamjas
College, one of the oldest and most prestigious
educational institution in the capital
has signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) with the Lahore University of Management
Sciences (LUMS), one of the apex educational
institutions in Pakistan. In fact, it
is the first college in Delhi University
to do so. "The MoU envisions an exchange
programme for students and the faculty
for a certain period of time. Students
from Ramjas will be able to do courses
at the School of Arts and Sciences in
Pakistan while students from LUMS will
enrol for social sciences and humanities
courses at Ramjas College," explained
Mihir Pandey, director, Centre for International
Education (CIE), Ramjas College. The idea
behind this programme started three years
ago when the South Asian Economics Students'
Meet was held in Ramjas College and proved
to be a success. Students from Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka participated
in it. "Two more conferences were subsequently
held in Lahore and Dhaka. The next conference
will be held in Colombo next year. Nepal
has also joined the students' meet. With
the excellent response, the MoU was signed
this year and we are sorting out things
for the exchange to take place," Pandey
added. "The faculty members from LUMS
will visit our college in September this
year and discuss details like lodging
and the security of students. After formulating
certain well-prepared plans, the exchange
programme will take place soon after,"
he further added. The government of Pakistan
granted a charter to LUMS in 1985 and
since then, it is one of the top most
educational institutes in the country.
It has a school of business, arts and
sciences and engineering that is expected
to be fully functional by the end of this
year. The exchange programme will broaden
the horizon of Indian students, academically
as well as culturally, feels Pandey. The
two institutions will collaborate in the
fields of teaching as well as research.
Rajendra Prasad, principal, Ramjas College
said, "The students of both the countries
would be able to interact in a better
manner. It would help in enriching their
knowledge about each other and thus enable
them to erase any misconception and prejudice.
The MoU will add a new dimension to the
ongoing peace process between the two
countries."
Courtesy:
The Asian Age, September 05, 2006
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The
total enrolment in higher education has
increased from about 3.3 million in 1983-84
to about 9.2 million in 2002-03 There
is a steady decline in the proportion
of students enrolling in Science stream
from about 33% in 1971 to 23% in 1983
to just about 20% in 2003-04. Out of the
37.67 million graduates and post graduates
in the country only 3.98% are from the
teaching stream. A sample study indicates
that about 28% of villages in India have
a private school. This figure is as high
as 68% for Haryana on one hand and a low
1% or less in Maharashtra and Gujarat
on the other. There is a positive correlation
between absence of teachers from government
schools and prevalence of private schools
in the village. 25% of teachers were absent
from school, and only about half were
teaching, during unannounced visits to
a nationally representative sample of
government primary schools in India.The
teacher absence rate varied from 15% in
Maharashtra to 42% in Jharkhand. The total
governmental expenditure (both central
and state) on elementary education (classes
1 through 8) is about Rs 21,850 crore
per annum. Over 95% of this money is used
for teachers' salaries. The estimated
cost of additional financial resources
needed for universalisation of elementary
education is Rs 140,000 crore over the
next 10 years. Each year of extra schooling
enhances men's productivity by 8% and
women's productivity by 10% The direct
economic returns to society from investment
in primary education in India are estimated
to be above 20%
Courtesy:
The Economic Times, September 05, 2006
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Varsity
Will do Research For DRDO
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The
University of Hyderabad has been roped
in by the Defence Research and Development
Organisation for critical research into
high-energy materials used in rockets,
missiles and ammunition. It is for the
first time that an academic institution
has been selected for this type of strategic
research. "We are not going to make any
explosives here," Prof. Surya P. Tewari,
director of the Advanced Centre of Research
in High Energy Materials (ACRHEM) at the
university, said. "Our work will be mostly
theoretical," he claimed. The research
will involve discovering and perfecting
fuels with give greater thrust and developing
new theoretical models for combustion
and detonation. It will also focus on
how to improve propelling power even while
reducing the quantity of the fuel used.
Researchers have informally started work
on the project a few months ago. According
to experts, the base high-energy material
used could be petrol, liquid gas and even
nuclear fuel. Prof. Tewari further said
that high-energy materials had important
uses in the defence sector. Also, the
research will help defence experts calibrate
their response to such materials. "There
is also a need for ordinary people to
understand how such materials function
in order to protect themselves," he added.
Former Vice-Chancellor of the University,
Dr Kota Harinarayana, said that unless
researchers succeeded in generating high
energy by burning small quantities of
fuel, energy efficiency cannot be achieved.
Prof. Tewari will be heading a team of
about 25 academicians from different departments
and 35 post-graduate students and research
scholars. ACRHEM will be working in collaboration
with the High Energy Materials Lab in
Pune. Vice-Chancellor Syed Ehtesham Hasnain
disclosed that DRDO would give Rs 34.79
crore to the university in five years
to set up a centre and for carrying out
the research. Sophisticated equipment
necessary for research will reach the
university shortly.
Courtesy:
The Asian Age, September 04, 2006
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IBM
India today kicked off its operations
in Kochi, Kerala, expanding its reach
to 41 cities in the country. The development
is another step the company has taken
towards catering to small and medium enterprises
(SME) spread across the country's smaller
cities. "Mid-market companies have distinct
needs that are often ignored by most service
providers. IBM's technologies and solutions
for Indian small and mid-market businesses
provide a competitive edge in this era
of globalisation," said Lingraju Sawkar,
vice-president (small & medium business),
IBM India. "Understanding these needs,
we want to expand our reach to be closer
to our clients, enabling us to serve them
better. Our new operation in Kochi is
a step in that direction," he added. IBM's
portfolio of clients in Kerala includes
the state government, JRG Securities,
IIM Calicut, Dhanalaksmi Bank, Catholic
Syrian Bank, Malabar Institution of Medical
Sciences among others.
Courtesy:
Business Standard: September 01, 2006
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