Rahul Gandhi invites two PU students for meeting

Higher Education

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March 28, 2011

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

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March 28, 2011

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

Corporate Updates

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March 28, 2011

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.

Ex-Oracle MD now Microsoft India chairman

Corporate Updates

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March 28, 2011

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

Corporate Updates

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March 26, 2011

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

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March 26, 2011

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

K-12

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March 26, 2011

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

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March 26, 2011

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

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March 26, 2011

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