Ex Oracle MD Bhaskar Pramanik will now be leading software giant Microsoft as its chairman for India operations. Pramanik, ex MD for Oracle India and Sun Microsystems , came into power in less than two months after Ravi Venkatesan quit as Microsoft India's chairman and corporate vice-president. “As chairman, Pramanik will oversee Microsoft's sales, marketing and services subsidiary, provide overall leadership on all Microsoft assets in India and lead our citizenship agenda in close alignment with India's national priorities,” Microsoft said in a statement. Pramanik will report to Jean-Philippe Courtois, who is the President of Microsoft International. “I am excited to be part of a company that has such a wide play across industries, segments, products and services. I look forward to partnering with the business leaders and the entire Microsoft team to grow our business in India and enable the success of all our stakeholders,” Pramanik said
Nokia not dropping Symbian
Cell phone giant Nokia will maintain its association with Symbian software to sell smartphones for a long time after its first Microsoft's Windows enabled phones hit the market. In the next two years Microsoft's Windows is set to replace Symbian Symbian is due to be replaced by Microsoft's Windows Phone over the coming two years under a plan announced in February, raising concerns Nokia could drop Symbian phones — which have lost market share, but generate strong profits — too early. “We will be selling (Symbian) devices long after Windows Phone devices from Nokia have already started to appear,” Purnima Kochikar, head of developer relations at Nokia, said in an open letter developers, published late on Friday.
Cognizant litigated over employee rustling in US
Cognizant, the tech world leader has been sued over employee poaching. A business process outsourcing (BPO) firm in Chennai, working for Delaware, US, is alleging that Cognizant is trying to “cripple” HOV's business on a global scale and disturbed HOV's competitive advantage by “luring away” HOV employees in India, reported ComputerWorld. Cognizant has poached more than its 50 employees over the last several years, claimed HOV. According to the lawsuit that was filed in a New-Jersey court in January, Cognizant obtained a list of 450 HOV employees that includes their salary, bonuses, their “production efficiencies” and customer project names. HOV headcount stood at 9,000 in 2010. According to the news report, the lawsuit claims that the Cognizant “induced” then current HOV employees to email information about the 450 employees. It says that these now former HOV employees confessed to sending the information to Cognizant, “and as a result their HOV employment was terminated.” HOV Services recently entered into a pact to merge its unit HOV Services LLC with US-based Sourcecorp Inc Sourcecorp, a Texas-based provider of BPO and specialty consulting services, is a portfolio company of Apollo Management V, LP, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Andhra Pradesh govt gives English push at primary education level
With English increasingly becoming the preferred language of education even among the students hailing from poorer sections of the society and also rural areas, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to lay emphasis on English right from Class I in its schools. Accordingly, English will now be taught as the second language from Class I from 2011-12 academic year, minister for primary education Sake Sailajanath said. “The basic idea is to provide access to children from poorer sections as well as rural areas to English education right from Class I rather than Class III (the current policy), so that they compete with students of private schools,” Sailajanath told Press Trust of India. A report by the Regional Institute of English (RIE), (Bangalore) has established that the percentage of enrolment of students in government schools has drastically reduced from 84.48% to 55.72% in primary and upper primary schools, whereas admissions in the private residential schools increased from 17.52% to 44.28% in the period from 1995-96 to 2009-10 in Andhra Pradesh. In respect of Telugu medium, enrolment percentage in Class I to Class X for the period 2000-01 to 2009-10 in Government schools reduced from 83.47 per cent to 65.54 per cent, while English medium enrolment increased from 13.77% to 31.66%. “It was observed that most parents in rural areas are withdrawing their children from government Telugu medium schools due to lack of English teaching,” the report noted. RIE has recommended introduction of English from Class I without making it a burden for the children to learn it most effectively in the early years. The Andhra Pradesh government hopes that the introduction of English from Class I will help in increasing the enrolment of students and helping them at later stage of their education. The State Council of Educational Research and Training had also proposed the introduction of English as a second language from Class I in government schools and recommended development of effective textbooks from Class I to V reflecting constructive pedagogy as recommended by National Curriculum Framework 2005. It also recommended development of appropriate reading material and learning cards for effective English language acquisition and developing textbooks in coordination with the RIE.
Kerala
Kerala schools will now teach its students audio recording and video editing using textbooks developed by IT@School Project available from next academic year, an official said. The concept has been backed by the union ministry of human resource development and several other states, said K. Anvar Sadath, executive director of IT@School Project. The textbook will be made in English, Tamil and Kannada along with Malayalam, added he. The IT@School Project is the technology arm of the state education department. It aims to empower students by providing ICT-enabled education from the grass root level. Sadath said the new ICT text book includes topics on several free software packages such as Audacity, WinFF, which teach students to re-record a poem as needed, re-edit portions if necessary and even give a new background music to selected portions. “The textbook also teaches how to use handicams available at schools and also ways to create an educational documentary using the videos,” said Sadath. Last year class-eight students were provided with an ICT text book. “The new textbook for class-nine is designed completely in tune with the national curriculum framework. With a text book planned for class-10 also next year, the shift to ICT enabled education in the state's high schools will be complete,” added Sadath.
Malaysian textbooks customised for ethnic Indians
Certain inputs about the Hindu caste system have now been removed from a novel set for Malaysian students that offended the “ethnic Indian” community of Malaysia, declared Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. The government has agreed to make 19 amendments to the textbook, 'Interlok', replacing the most controversial phrase “kasta pariah” with “golongan yang sama” (the same group) along with some other detesting words and phrases, Yassin said. The term “orang berkulit hitam” (a dark-skinned race) would be dropped and the word “tuhan” (god) would be replaced with “dewa” (deity). The amendments were agreed upon by the independent panel set up by the cabinet in January to look into the matter. The panel included representatives of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), the country's largest Indian-based party that is also a constituent of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN). Yassin, who is also the education minister, said the other 87 proposed amendments reviewed by the panel were found to be irrelevant to the core issue. This included putting the name of the author on the cover and altering the spelling of a word. He said all members of the panel, including representatives of the Indian community, had agreed to insert “errata” in the textbook to correct or drop phrases that the Indian community found culturally or religiously offensive. The minister also said the panel had agreed that Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, as the publisher, would edit the novel accordingly for the new edition. At the same time, he said the ministry would prepare a glossary to explain phrases and concepts contained in the novel. The minister said with the amendments, the “Interlok” issue had been resolved. This showed “the spirit of unity, acceptance and mutual respect of Malaysians, who were willing to come to a compromise,” he added. He said “Interlok” was a creative work which attempted to depict a harmonious life in multi-racial Malaya before it gained independence. He thanked the novel's author Abdullah Hussein for allowing parts of his book to be amended, the New Straits Times reported. “Interlok” was written in 1971 in Bahasa Malaysia, the language of the majority Malays, and focused on the challenges faced by three deprived families
IGNOU organises
The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) along with the Distance Education Programme
DU teachers oppose St. Stephen
The Delhi University (DU) teachers have been offended with the recent proposal by the HRD ministry to declare St. Stephen's as an autonomous institution which can give its own degrees. Teachers have questioned whether the institution will be able to function well if made autonomous adding the move by the ministry might deprive the University of one of its best colleges that has earned the reputation for being a prestigious institution all over India. The concept of autonomous colleges had already been rejected by DU when it was first introduced in the country as its primary aim was to make institutions more self sufficient by increasing their resources as it creates a sense of diversity rather than unifying entities that are socially diverse. DU has already lost the Delhi College of Engineering and since St. Stephen's is one of the jewels of the university, making it autonomous will not be a wise move. DUTA members have also been urging the DU Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh to oppose any move by the HRD ministry to declare St. Stephen's an autonomous institution.
Higher education survey soon to launch: HRD ministry
Owing to the meagreness of information that is available about higher education in India, a huge survey has been decided to take place by the HRD ministry. National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) has been entrusted with this job by the Sibal ministry which will continue for one year. An official from the ministry said that the higher education sector in India has been marred with a lack of reliable data which has hindered the implementation of policy initiatives that are required. “The information on Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) does not get updated properly keeping in mind the increasing intervention of the private sector in higher education,” he said. The decision to carry out the huge task of conducting the survey was taken by a task force that was headed by a senior official from the HRD ministry. The collection of the data will begin in a short period and the NUEPA will be seeking assistance for the survey from educational institutions throughout the country. The main aim of the survey will be to collect and provide reliable information regarding higher education in the country. The survey would be covering all public and private institutions of higher education. The institutions to be surveyed would include universities, deemed universities, institutions of national importance and other institutes of university level, general and professional/technical such as medical, engineering, dental, veterinary, computer, management, agriculture, pharmacy, law, teacher training, etc.
Left, Congress blames BJP for blocking RTE bill
Important amendment in Right to Free and Compulsory Education Amendment Bill could not be taken up in Rajya Sabha on Friday. The Bill sought to treat children with disabilities as disadvantaged group under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. While the Left was keen on the Bill's passage, BJP said there was not enough time to discuss it. The party wanted a four-hour discussion on the Bill, whereas Left said it would be happy to pass it with even half-an-hour discussion. An upset HRD minister Kapil Sibal could be seen talking to BJP members, requesting them to let the Bill pass. Even Brinda Karat of CPM tried to convince BJP members but to no avail. Sibal said he had come prepared but was told minutes before the start of the proceedings that the Bill was not going to be taken up. Karat blamed both Congress and BJP, saying the Bill was “sacrificed because of the government managers and obduracy of BJP”. She said parliamentary affairs minister P K Bansal did not make effort for the passage of the Bill.
