Home Blog Page 1150

National Monitoring Committee to Support Nalanda University

The planning commission of India has formed National Monitoring Committee to support Nalanda University in developing basic infrastructure, facilities and timely flow of funds to the university. This newly formed committee consists of eleven members and will be headed by the Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahulwalia. The members of the committee include, National Security Adviser, Foreign Secretary, Vice-Chancellor of Nalanda University, Finance Secretary and Secretary of Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Government Approves Defense Varsity in Gurgaon, Haryana

The decision came in a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wherein the body approved the proposal of setting up Indian National Defense University (INDU). The proposed university will undertake long-term defense and strategic studies and create synergy between the academics and government functionaries.

In this regard, the cabinet has approved the proposal of purchasing 205 acres of land in Gurgaon, Haryana at a whopping cost of Rs 162 crore. The INDU aims to educate national security leaders on aspects of national security strategy, national military strategy, national information strategy and national technology strategy through teaching and research.

Nokia Introduces Asha 202 with Free Internet

Nokia has launched Asha 202 mobile phone in India. It is a dual SIM, touch and type phone designed for enhanced and cost effective web browsing, social networking, gaming and entertainment. The phone has some exciting features and services that includes EA games-pack and Nimbuzz chat client for young and social consumers.

Asha 202 has 2.4-inch touch screen with a traditional keypad. The phone features Dual SIM Easy Swap technology with dedicated SIM manager to personalize the phone and save up to five SIM cards with unique information. The device comes with a 2-megapixel camera, music player, FM radio, Nokia Browser, and Bluetooth connectivity, and has expandable memory of up to 32 GB.

Major telecom operators including Aircel, Airtel, Reliance Communication, Tata Docomo and Vodafone are offering 100 MB of data (each) per month for a period of six months free.

In addition, the Nokia Asha 202 will be the first Series 40 device to offer exclusive EA games in India. As a 60-day promotion at Nokia Store, the consumers can enjoy 40 EA game pack worth Rs 4,000 free. The offer includes popular and classic titles like Tetris, Need for Speed, The Run and Bejeweled.

Viral Oza, Director Marketing, Nokia India comments, “Nokia Asha 202 is the first mobile phone to come bundled with data offers from five leading operators of the country. Nokia Asha 202 is the new face of smarter feature phones that comes packed with compelling, innovative services and entertainment options.”

The phone is available in four colors – black and gold, silver white, dark grey and dark red and is priced at Rs 4,149.

UPTU Announces high quality e-contents for Technical Education

UPTU has announced a project “Virtualization of Technical Education”. The project was sanctioned in the year 2009 at Gautam Buddh Technical University, Lucknow (Formerly Uttar Pradesh Technical University, Lucknow) to provide e-contents of the technical courses through their high quality recording at various identified 14 nodal centers, across the state of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and disseminating facilities over the high speed internet.

The project aims to set up high quality recording centers at the 14 nodal centers. The e-contents will be disseminated through audio-video centers at each academic department in the nodal centers. Also, the contents will be available in the public domain, for access, through Internet using two high end IBM and HCL web servers. The details and content can be accessed through www.uptu-ptel.ac.in

The Government of India has sanctioned an amount of approximately 3 crore for the purpose. Further approximately 98 Lakhs has been granted by the Government of Uttar Pradesh to set up recording and disseminating center at various Government aided technical institutions of Uttar Pradesh. The live web casting of the lectures are also one of the objectives of this project. This facility will be of immense use to the weaker students particularly in the remote areas of both the states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand.

Epson Launches its First Portable Scanner

Epson has launched portable A4 scanner, the Epson WorkForce DS-30. It is targeted to mobile workers who require document scanning on-the-go as well as service staff that need to conserve desk space or maintain a neat counter appearance. The Epson WorkForce DS-30 scanner weighs only 325 grams, comes in a sleek form factor that can easily fit into most briefcases, and needs only a single USB connection to a notebook or PC to operate.

The Epson DS-30 is able to scan a variety of items typically used by mobile workers ranging from business cards to A4 and letter sized (8.5 x 11 inch) documents. Being a portable scanner, it is designed with an LED light source that has a low power consumption of up to only 500mA to conserve the battery power of its users’ notebooks.

Attitude Daksha: new competitor for Aakash tablet

Telmoco Development Labs Pvt has come out with a Tablet PC – Attitude Daksha – a 7-inch tablet variant for Rs 5,399 inclusive of all taxes.
Being touted as the most powerful 7-inch tablet, the Attitude Daksha boasts of Capacitive 5 point touch screen with 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor with 512 MB DDR3 RAM. It has a HDMI port, Micro SD slot, 3.5 mm audio out, Micro USB port and having OTG connector for 3G Dongle and RJ 45lAN cable.
Technopark Technology Business Incubator (T-TBIC) incubated Telmoco plans to compete in the low-cost tablet PC market where the government-launched Aakash tablet is prominent.
Daksha is capable of 1080p full HD video streaming and has dedicated 400 MHzGPU for advanced flash Apps, Interactive Apps and full HD videos. Daksha is powered by 3,800 mAh li-Pol battery which gives a back up of over 6 hours with Wi-Fi on.
At the launch ceremony C.R. Nijesh, chairman and executive director, Telmoco, said, “Even though the Indian media tablets market witnessed high decibel launches by the world’s leading vendors, the Tablet PC market in India is a niche market that is quickly picking up the pace in terms of adoption.”
Attitude Daksha is initially set off to launch at schools, professional institutions, and corporate houses and will be available in the market from May 15. It can be ordered online from Telmoco website.

Pearson Launches Stanford 10 India

Pearson has launched Stanford Achievement Test Series, Tenth Edition (India) – Stanford 10 India. This is the Indian adaptation and standardization of this gold standard for achievement testing. Devised to suit the needs of the Indian education system, it is a valid and a reliable tool needed for objective assessment of achievement.

Stanford 10 India enters India at an interesting juncture, when the country is slowly realizing that application of learning is more valuable than getting good marks by rote-learning. Stanford 10 India gives parents, teachers and the students a glimpse of where a child stands on a national percentile scale, unlike normal exams where the child is tested against her classmates alone. This test series measures student’s progress towards high academic standards. It includes a range of user friendly score-reports, designed with the inputs from administrators and teachers across the country and also supports teaching, learning and accountability requirements.

Speaking on the occasion, Naveen Rajlani, Senior Vice President, ELT and School, Pearson Education, said, “We, at Pearson, firmly believe that application-based learning fosters higher order of thinking skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity. In our endeavour to bring the best for the Indian education system, Stanford 10 India is yet another product, unmatched in its category. Given the varied needs and requirement of students, teachers and parents, Stanford 10 India is an ideal tool. It will help schools in India change the way they educate students by helping and encouraging application-based learning over rote-learning.”

He further added, “Incorporation of this type of testing will gradually have a bearing on the pedagogy followed by teachers at schools and parents at home, owing to a shift from traditional to experiential learning resulting in students with a stronger academic foundation.”

Commenting on the product, Sushil Eapen, Managing Director, Pearson Clinical and Talent Assessment, said, “Stanford Achievement Tests is one of the most established K-12 assessments in the world. The Indian edition, Stanford 10 India, is a scientifically designed skill-based assessment, incorporating the latest thinking in educational testing. It makes learning challenging subjects like Mathematics, Science and English interesting for students and motivates them to learn. Aiding in identifying the learning gaps for a student, Stanford 10 India facilitates development of a customized and structured learning plan to bridge this gap.”

Gujarat University colleges Receive Rs 2.67 crore Grant from UGC

Kathlal Government Arts College and Panchmahal affiliated with Gujarat University have received grant from UGC. Government Arts and Commerce College will be provided with Rs 2.67 grant by UGC to be developed as model colleges.
The colleges will receive Rs 1.33 crore as first installment for research and infrastructure development. The Gujarat University has also recommended 15 of its colleges to given grants to further research. This includes Bhavan’s College of Science, MG Science College, AG Teacher’s College and some colleges in rural areas.

NAT Scores to be accepted by more than 175 Educational Institutions

National Aptitude Test (NAT) 2012, an all India level common entrance test, is all set to take place on May 20th. The exam will be administered to meet the requirements of students seeking admissions in multiple Institutions through a Common Entrance Test (CET) to fill-in open quota seats for courses like MBA, MCA, PGDRP, and PGDGC for post graduation level and BBA, BCA, B.Com and Hotel Management for the under-graduation level.

However, under special condition; students applying through Kendriya Vidyalaya Samiti (KVS) and Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) can buy the form from SAHEI office. The result of the entrance exam will be declared on 31st May.

First held in 2005, NAT is conducted by SRDE’s Association of Higher Education Institutions (SAHEI), established under the aegis of Society for Research & Development in Education (SRDE) every year in an effort to facilitate a single window system for the students seeking admission in non-science streams such as management and other professional programmes.

Dr Mukesh Gupta, Secretary General, SRDE’s Association of Higher Education Institutions (SAHEI) said, “Our aim is to simplify the entrance test system in higher education for the students opting for non-science domains. The fact that there is no CET like AIEEE at the 10+2 level in non-science domain, we expect NAT to act as one of the major transit mechanisms for students from school education to higher education for non-science students.”

MHRD Reschedules CABE Meeting from April to June 2012

The 59th Meeting of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) which was schedule to be held on 23rd April 2012 has been rescheduled to 6th June 2012.

The Minister of Human Resource Development also proposes to hold Education Minister’s conference to have wide-ranging discussion on various issues concerning both sectors of education on 5th June 2012.

LATEST NEWS