The Chhattisgarh Governmnet, on Monday, has informed the State assembly that it does not have any scholarship scheme for Madrasa students. “There are 364 Madrasas in operation in the state, the teachers of these Madrasas are offered grant from the central government's Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrasas (SPQEM)”, said state education minister Brijmohan Agarwal to the state assembly. In reply to a congress member who wanted to know what the government was doing for Madrasa students, Brijmohan said that the state government has no scheme to provide scholarship to students studying in Madrasa schools. The National Monitoring Committee for Minorities Education (NMCME) has formed the Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrasas (SPQEM) to provide the quality education in Madrasa and for the improvement of the conditions for educational empowerments of minorities.
VIT University, India signs MOU with SUNY, USA
VIT University, Vellore, India has entered into a formal academic and research cooperation with State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton, USA during the Edge 2011 conference organised in New Delhi. VIT is proud to partner with SUNY, Binghamton, which is a 60 year old, institution having very strong research and academic programs. Through this co-operation both universities will work jointly on activities such as establishing joint research activities, joint supervision of Ph.D students, faculty exchanges, exchanging information of interest such as publications and project documents, student exchanges and collaborative delivery of degree programs. It has been signed for an initial validity period of 5 years with a provision for extension on mutual consent.
Posco
IT firm Posco ICT Company Ltd, has decided to wind up its Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) operations in Bhubanswar and relocate to the Delhi-NCR region. Orissa IT minister Ramesh Majhi said in the state Assembly, “The board of directors of Posco, based out of Korea, have decided to close the Bhubaneswar office and relocate the team and operations to Delhi-NCR region after it had applied for winding up of their operations in Bhubaneswar in January 2011.” It may be noted that Posco ICT is the IT arm of South Korean steel giant Posco, which proposed to set up a 12 million-tonne steel plant near Paradip. However, the company is unable to make any progress on its steel project even after six years of signing of MoU due to stiff resistance of the locals. The exit of Posco ICT also highlights the fading interest of IT firms in Bhubaneswar as an investment destination. The city was poised to drive the next phase of IT growth with the presence of the four IT bigwigs
India might be another BlackBerry manufacturer
Manufacturer of BlackBerry, Research in Motion which plans to develop India into a major export hub may set up a manufacturing facility in the country “The company has been building its resources in order to support the growing opportunities as part of its strategy in India cause the country is an important and strategic market for RIM,” RIM's spokesperson said. RIM's Chief Information Officer Robin Bienfait will be in India to meet major BlackBerry customers as well as a variety of current and prospective business partners, the company said. “RIM is always evaluating investment opportunities, including manufacturing and logistics, and Robin plans to further explore such possibilities in India during her visit,” it added. The company, however, declined to comment on how much investment will be made for setting a manufacturing facility and the volume of handsets to be manufactured. However, going by industry norms, setting such a plant may involve an investment of $150-250 million. Sources indicated that Robin will be visiting Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi to identify a location for setting the plant. If fructified, this would be RIM's first manufacturing facility in the Asia-Pacific region, comprising 18 countries in which BlackBerry has a presence and is growing significantly.
Ranking in specific subjects by QS
The Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings by Subject will is launching a new series of rankings by providing new insight into the strengths of the world's leading institutions in specific-subject areas in April. We have researched into the matter that in narrower subject disciplines, there has always been a clear need for ways to compare the effectiveness of higher education institutions. Prior to asking themselves where they want to study, the majority of likely international students know what they want to study, said Ben Sowter, head of research. The first series of the four-part release of the rankings will be engineering and IT disciplines; revealing the world's best universities for computer science, mechanical, chemical, electrical and civil engineering. Rankings by biomedicine and life sciences, natural sciences , arts and humanities and social sciences disciplines will be released as separate groups throughout 2011. QS World University Rankings by Subject will be available on www.topuniversities.com on April 2.
City students part of UIDAI project
The unique identification project started by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in 2006 finds home gems Samarth Bharadwaj and Himanshu Bhatt part of a team of students from IIIT-Delhi , who are working and contributing to it. Both second-year research students at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Delhi have been working hard on the project whichis an initiative to provide and uniqueness every individual to avoid duplicity and fake identities. Bharadwaj had begun working on the project last year and there are four research students from IIIT who are conducting a feasibility study on finger prints of labourers and farmers
True Indian entrepreneurs respect the religion of CRICKET
History has another chapter to disclose this Wednesday when the Men in Blue face the “Green Goblin” Pakistan in the semi finals of the World Cup in Mohali. Devoid of being multinationals or domestic, companies are considering half- or full-day leave for employees on 30th March, besides installing TV screens across office premises or made arrangements for special screening of the match to ensure employees get the pulse of the cricketing ties between the two big time cricketing giants that have fought three wars since independence. While refreshments have already started stocking up in the store at some office canteens, others have asked employees to come dressed in blue to cheer Dhoni's men. “In the second half of the day, we are putting up a giant screen and providing refreshments,” Anirudh Dhoot, director, Videocon, said adding in some of our offices, we have auditoriums where employees can also bring their families and enjoy the match. Kids-wear manufacturer Liliput has granted half-day leave to its employees, allowing them to rush back home in time for the match. “We have declared a half-day for the employees to watch the match,” said Sanjeev Narula, managing director, Lilliput Kidswear. Sports goods maker Reebok has put up around 25 giant screens in its Gurgaon office, besides providing 42-inch television sets. Reports also confirmed that work will take a backseat at India Inc on Wednesday. FMCG company Dabur India is weighing an “off” on Wednesday. “The only constraint is that it is yearend closing, so work pressure is quite high at the moment,” said Dabur India executive director A Sudhakar adding the company had declared a holiday on the day of the T20 final between India and Pakistan in 2007 too. Food and beverages major PepsiCo India may allow half-day leave for employees if it doesn't impact the organisation's functioning, said Samik Basu, vice-president (HR) and chief people officer for India Region. Some firms are also looking into work-from-home facility for that day. “If employees want to work from home or leave early to be able to watch the match, we are open to that,” said Ashish Kumar, chief HR officer at multiplex chain operator PVR Ltd, which is screening the match at some of its multiplexes. The firm is also considering an exclusive screening for its employees. Employees of the Future Group's Big Bazaar, the country's largest hypermarket retail chain, will be free to watch the match on large screens installed in stores, said its president, Rajan Malhotra. “The idea is to let employees enjoy the match while at work, because they tend to take leave during such crucial matches,” said S Varadarajan, executive vice-president (HR) at BPO firm Quatrro. The company has in-house contests surrounding the World Cup to give employees a sense of involvement in the sporting event. Salil Kapoor, COO of the country's largest DTH service company Dish TV, said, “We would have special screening of the match in high definition feed for our employees in office and have also tied up with some pubs and clubs with special discounts for our employees.”
Rahul Gandhi invites two PU students for meeting
On Tuesday, two students of the Panjab University (PU), from Chandigarh, were invited by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi to come to New Delhi Nov 5 for discussions on the issue of granting central status to this varsity. Gandhi interacted with over 350 students of PU on October 13. During the interaction, Shivani Negi and Barinder Dhillon raised the long-pending issue of granting central status to the PU, one of the oldest in the country.
During the interaction, Gandhi admitted he was not aware about the issue and promised the students that he would fix a meeting with Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal in New Delhi on the issue. Gandhi had also taken the mobile number and e-mail address of these two students. Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) is pressing for central status for the last many years. However, the Punjab government is against this proposal as it feels it would lose control over the PU if central status is granted to it. PU is also the alma mater of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He also taught here and reached the post of professor at the young age of 32 while teaching in Chandigarh.
India to counterpart French institute
Come April and French institute Lisaa School of Design will be launching its Indian counter. The institute will be offering three-year diploma courses in interior architecture, fashion design, graphic design, product design, and animation and 3D software.
Steve Jobs gets re-elected to Disney board
Despite concerns over his health and poor attendance at company board meetings, the Walt Disney Co shareholders re-elected its entire board including Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs. Due to his failed to attend 75 per cent of the board meetings in fiscal 2010, proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co had recommended voting against Jobs' re-election. After purchasing Pixar Animation Studios in 2006 for $7.4 billion in stock, Jobs became Disney's largest shareholder. Jobs, who bankrolled Pixar when it was a fledgling movie house, now holds a 7.3% stake in Disney. After the vote, Disney that it “considers itself fortunate to have Steve Jobs as a member of its board of directors.” The annual shareholders meeting finished early Wednesday in Salt Lake City.
