DPE in Bhopal organises First Skill Development Programme

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June 28, 2012

The first Skill Development/Training programme conducted by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, Government of India for the Executives and the Employees of State Level Public Enterprises (SLPEs) has held in Bhopal.

It will be recalled that the Minister of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises Shri Praful Patel had written to the Chief Ministers of all States in May 2012 on the issue of sharing of experiences of public sector enterprises of both the Center as well as the State. As a follow of, the Department of Public Enterprises have develop the skill development/training programme for the executives and employees of SLPEs to help in improving/upgrading the skills of managers/executives/employees of State Level Public Enterprises (SLPEs) and consequently enhancing the overall productivity of these enterprises.

The scheme is to be implemented during the 12th Five Year Plan starting with the Annual Plan 2012-13. Under the Scheme, the fund will be given as grant-in-aid to institutes/bodies/CPSEs who will be responsible for organizing the training programme. In general, allocation of funds will depend on request from States/UTs. It is a modest intervention to supplement the efforts of the States/UTs.

While the focus of the training will be on upgrading the skills of key personnel, it will also include institution building. In the latter category, issues such as, corporate governance, raising resources from capital market and pricing policies will be dealt with. The combination of the two will help achieve excellence in the overall performance of SLPEs.

Indian MPs Study Global Economic Governance at Yale University

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June 28, 2012

A group of Indian MPs have done a crash course at the prestigious Yale University of the US. The course was specially tailored for them incorporating issues like global economic governance, counter-insurgency efforts in Afghanistan and political developments in the Middle East.

During the six-day course on the university campus, the 11-member Parliamentary delegation headed by BJD’s Baijayant “Jay” Panda participated in discussions with Yale faculty on global economic governance, US economy, corruption in government, counter-insurgency efforts in Afghanistan, Iran’s nuclear programme and political and economic developments in China.

Other topics that dominated the discussions were political developments in the Arab world, US Presidential elections, economic and political crises in the Eurozone and higher education in India.

There were also sessions on challenges of leadership, strategy, negotiation and applied game theory.

The India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership Programme was launched in 2007. In total, more than 70 members of India’s Parliament will have participated since it was created.

After completing the course which was organised by the university in collaboration with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the India-US Forum of Parliamentarians, the MPs arrived here yesterday and met Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, former US Ambassador Tim Roemer and ex-top American diplomat John Negroponte.

“I see a dramatic” change in mood in the US against Pakistan, Panda, Chairman of the India-US Forum of Parliamentarians, said following the day-long meetings with government officials and think tanks here.

“In the US there are lawmakers who are no longer willing to be as tolerant as the US has been in the past,” he said.

Over the next two days, the delegation is scheduled to meet lawmakers, and hold meetings at Pentagon and White House.

Expansion of Higher Education is needed in J&K says Ghulam Nabi Azad

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June 28, 2012

Expansion of higher education, healthcare institutions and roads is needed for socio-economic uplift of people in Jammu and Kashmir, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said. Basic amenities have to be provided to people living in far-flung regions of the state, he told a public meeting at Kilhotran in Gandoh tehsil of Doda district.

He said various roads are under execution in the erstwhile district Doda which need to be completed soon. The land compensation must be provided on priority to poor people whose land has been occupied for construction of government establishments or roads, he said. Azad said a 100 bedded hospital has been sanctioned for Bhalessa area in the district at an estimated cost of Rs 52 crore as people faced a lot of problem when any one fell ill. Besides, the 10-15 bedded PHC Gandoh will be upgraded to 50 bedded hospital, he said. Azad said the Union Health Ministry will launch a scheme under which 100 districts of the country, including erstwhile Doda district, will be covered in the first phase. Under the scheme, free check up and tests of diabetes will be conducted in males and females above the age of 30 years at the nearest PHC, while as for pregnant women there is no age bar for conduct of the test. He also announced free check up of cancer and heart diseases at each district hospital in the state.

Source: PTI

Microsoft Announces Office 365 for Education

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June 28, 2012

Microsoft has announced Office 365 for Education, providing the productivity, communications and collaboration experiences to educational institutes at no cost. Office 365 for Education is a cloud-based suite that includes the familiar Microsoft Office desktop applications, as well as Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online and Microsoft Lync Online. It provides educators with powerful tools to create anytime, anywhere learning opportunities across multiple devices in addition to email, calendars, Microsoft Office Web Apps (Online companions to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote), video and online meetings plus advanced document creation features for curriculum planning and student projects.

“Getting the world’s best technology in the hands of our students and teachers is critical to improving educational outcomes and making sure students are prepared for college and career,” said Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Education for Microsoft. “With schools’ ever-tightening budgets, Office 365 for Education enables them to deliver new and innovative technology in the cloud that will modernize teaching and learning practices, at no cost.”

Announced as part of the one-year anniversary of Office 365, prestigious K–12 and higher education institutions around the world are moving to Office 365 for Education. The largest worldwide adoption of Microsoft Office 365 for Education is by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). AICTE decided to move all of its 10,000+ colleges on Office 365 for Education earlier this year and the deployment is currently underway. “Microsoft Cloud Platform will make for a truly progressive ecosystem and contribute to the country’s technical education by providing a better communication and collaboration platform for institutes and students,” said Dr SS Mantha, Chairman, AICTE

“Office 365 has millions of subscribers worldwide and in India, and we are now excited to announce the availability of Office 365 for Education, bringing enterprise-class productivity to education institutions across the country,” said Sanjay Manchanda, Director – Microsoft Business Division, Microsoft India.
“We are also proud to see Office 365 for education being selected by India’s leading educational institutions such as – IIM Bangalore and AICTE, – as their choice for cloud services to empower students and faculty for enhanced productivity,” added Manchanda.

Upgraded and Second Version of Aakash tablet Has Been Launched

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June 28, 2012

The most sought after low cost access cum computing device Aakash 2 has been launched at IIT Mumbai recently.

This new and second upgraded version has a faster processor and new applications developed by teachers and students. “The Aakash tablet was launched in October 2011. Unfortunately, there were some delays. Three months ago, IIT Bombay took on the responsibility and now there has been a sea change in our confidence in the project and I symbolically launch Aakash 2 and hand it over to students. The specifications have been upgraded while maintaining the low cost. Aakash 2 is a step forward in fulfilling our dreams to supply tablets to millions of students,” said Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal.

The scaled up version of “training 1,000 teachers at one go” across 168 remote centres, to train 9,000 teachers and students across India via remote centres was also launched.

Four Aakash 2 tablets were handed over to principals of engineering colleges VJTI-Mumbai, College of Engineering-Pune, KJ Somaiya College of Engineering-Mumbai and MES Pillai’s College of Engineering-New Panvel.

The project was given to IIT Bombay after it ran into rough weather with IIT Jodhpur. The mandate given to IIT Bombay was to develop a tablet that will aid and empower teachers and students of engineering colleges across India. By December 2012, one lakh tablets are expected to roll out. Besides this project with engineering students, the government plans to procure five million more tablets to make it available to school and college students.

Fresh IIT Exam Pattern On the Unveil

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June 28, 2012

After much hullabaloo the IIT Council has come to a point to decide on the IIT exam pattern.

The Council on Wednesday struck a compromise with the human resource development ministry on the new pattern of entrance examinations. Here are its salient features:

* There will be two exams, the joint entrance examination (JEE) “main” followed by the JEE “advanced”.

* These combine the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and the IIT-JEE, with the “main” exam being equivalent to AIEEE, and “advanced” being equivalent to the IIT-JEE.

* There will be a “suitable” time gap between the two exams, though it was not clarified how much.

* Only top 150,000 candidates (including all categories) from the JEE “main” will be qualified to appear in the JEE “advanced” examination.

* Admission to IITs will be based on the rank in the “advanced” exam.

* However, only students who come in among the top 20 percent scorers in their respective board will be considered eligible for the IITs.

* The “advanced” exam will be held by the IITs, just like the IIT- JEE. It will be conducted by a Joint Admission Board (JAB) and Joint Implementation Committee of the IITs, the same which so far conducted the JEE.

* The JEE “main” will be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education ( CBSE), and it will coordinate with the IITs. It will be implemented from 2013.

* Admission to the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) will be based on the “main” exam score. A final decision on methodology of admission is pending. A meeting of representatives from the NITs is scheduled for July 4.

* Admission to several deemed universities will also be on the basis of scores in the “main” exam, which earlier took students on basis of AIEEE scores. A minimum percentage criteria will be fixed for these too.

NGO Launches School-on-Wheels for Delhi Slum Children

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June 28, 2012

If there can be Palace-on- Wheels, there can be a School-on-Wheels and that too for the slum children of the country’s capital, Delhi.

A non-governmental organisation (NGO) Wednesday launched a mobile learning centre for slum children in Delhi. The school-on-wheels was flagged off by east Delhi Mayor Annapoorna Mishra.

Launched by NGO ‘Save the Children’, in collaboration with Aviva Life Insurance Company, the centre comes equipped with trainers, teachers and counsellors. The Mobile Learning Centre (MLC) will work with underprivileged children in slum clusters in and around east Delhi’s Subhash Nagar.

According to the NGO, the mobile centre aims to reach a total of 2,000 street and slum children, aged between three and 14 years, in a span of two years.

“Almost 50 per cent of the street children in Delhi are not literate. With the RTE (Right to Education) Act in place, theauthorities cannot have an excuse if children are out of school,” said Thomas Chandy, chief executive officer at Save the Children.

“We hope that the government will ensure that underprivileged students are mainstreamed in formal private and government schools,” Chandy added.

Reaching out to the children at the critical age of 3 to 6 years, the mobile centre would aim at building a strong foundation for these children so that they are ready for mainstream schools in their lives, the NGO added.

iProf Intros XtraClass for Engineering and Medical Exams Preparation

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June 26, 2012

iProf Learning Solutions, Tablet PC based education content provider, has launched XtraClass – a solution combining School Curriculum with preparation for Engineering and Medical exams, with the best faculty of India. iProf offers this solution on tablet PCs, which are an ideal medium for anytime, anywhere learning without the constraints of computer, or broadband.

In a pre-launch drive over 25 schools across various cities like Jaipur, Patna, Agra, Bhilwara, Boondi, Jhalawar, Kasganj etc. have adopted the solution. Over 3000 students are expected to get the benefit of Smarter Learning by using iProf XtraClass. The schools will get high quality interactive study material for CEE (the new JEE pattern), AIPMT, (NEET), CA-CPT and 9th to 12th class curriculum.

“Proliferation of tablets and digitization of content enables us to take concept based learning beyond the class room. In a fast paced world, iProf is the smarter learning solutions which help students not only to revise their school curriculum but also study for entrance examinations.” said Anurag Agrawal, Business Head , iProf Learning Solutions.
“iProf offers students access to lessons by the best teachers in the world and makes students responsible for their own learning allowing them to pace it according to their needs,” said Suniti Sharma, Principal, Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls’ School, Jaipur.

“Our focus is on conceptual learning and to make students stay ahead of the rest of the world. With iProf, students will study themselves in their post school hours by having access to video lectures by India’s best faculties. It is a healthy approach to make students responsible for their own learning while allowing them to pace it according to their needs,” said J R Sharma, Director, May Flower School, Patna.

Students can choose any Android based 7” tablet PC for accessing the content comprising of video lectures, concept nuggets having 2D & 3D animations, vast library of digital notes and question bank. iProf will empower schools with wi-fi routers which will access iProf servers in Central Data Center over a secure connection. The deployment of latest technology will enable the students to access content additions and upgrades on real time basis. iProf has partnered with industry leaders like IBM, Wipro, Sify, etc. to implement an end to end solution for content management and delivery.

Classteacher Learning Systems Launch iPerform for Personalised Learning

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June 26, 2012

Classteacher Learning Systems has introduced a web based platform that works as an extension of the classroom and provides a personalised self learning environment for students- iPerform.

iPerform promotes self learning, engaging students in activities like homework, revision and evenpreparation of exams. The content is exciting, visually engaging, and interactive and promotes understanding of basic fundamentals and their application.

iPerform has been designed to meet the variety of learning styles and interests of all students. iPerform provides opportunity for students to connect from anywhere and at anytime for individualized learning.

iPerform offers quality assessments for students to test their knowledge of theoretical concepts. Tests contain questions from different difficulty levels to allow students to systematically hone their skill. The assessment reports generated highlight topic-wise, question-wise performance metrics allowing detailed performance analysis of the students.

According to Rita Kaul, VP, Product and Curriculum, Classteacher Learning Systems, “ the world of iPerform, is window to unlimited learning!iPerform enables students to explore the engaging and interactive learning modules at their own pace and develop a personalized study methodology, catering to individual’s specific needs. iPerform is also a boon to parents as they can now have access to their child’s weekly performance and progress reports, enabling them to guide their child through his / her academic journey.

Adding further, she says, “Even students have a reason to rejoice with iPoints , a unique system of iPerfom which allows them to earn points for every learning activity they perform in the application.” These points can be redeemed for exciting prizes as and when required.

Fresh Merit List from CBSE

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June 26, 2012

Following the fresh scheme of online counseling issued by Supreme Court the CBSE has updated the result of All India Pre-Medical/ Pre-Dental Entrance Final Examination, 2012.

According to the new scheme, total of five times of seats available for allotment or all qualified candidates, whichever is less, will be considered for counseling.

The CBSE has also prepared a fresh merit list and waiting list of candidates selected on the basis of their score at final stage examination.

The candidates can access their result on the websites — www.aipmt.nic.in, www.cbse.nic.in and www.cbseresults.nic.in.

On the basis of the new scheme for online counseling, the merit list for unreserved (UR) category comprises of candidates who obtained 470 to 375 marks in the AIPMT exam with ranking from 1 to 2,071.

Candidates in the waiting list in this category are those having 375-306 marks and ranking from 2,072 to 11,289.

For the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, the merit list will comprise of candidates who obtain 437 to 290 marks and category ranks from 1 to 407, while those in the waiting list will be ones getting 290 to 192 marks in the exam and category ranks from 408 to 2,032.

The CBSE has fixed the cut-off score for unreserved (UR) and Physically Handicapped (PH) categories at 216 marks in the AIPMT exam, while that for OBC and PH categories the cut-off is 192 marks.

In a statement, the CBSE has said that details of the online counseling are available on DGHS website and the allotment of seats in medical colleges will be made by the Directorate General of Health Services, Union Health Ministry, according to the counseling category rank.

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