President appreciates IIT Kanpur by buring Time Capsule

Higher Education

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March 10, 2010

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) campus saw President Pratibha Patil appreciation, recently, when she buried a 'Time Capsule' on the campus. The same was done on the occasion of its golden jubilee celebrations and also unveiled a nanosatellite developed by the institute. Made of a special metal and containing pen-drives, chips, images and several other documents related to the landmark achievements of the IIT-K, the capsule was buried by Patil. She mentioned at the occasion that the nanosatellite Jugnu's development team, indeed is entitled to appreciation for the complex nature of tasks that they were equipped to handle.

Congratulating IIT-K students and faculty, Patil said that the institute has come a long way in its 50 years of its existence, and also called upon the institute's students and faculty members to develop such devices that can harness energy in efficient ways with minimal negative impact on the environment. Developed by a team of 50 IIT students, will help in collection of information related to floods, drought and other natural calamities.

Training in Govt School for DU students enrolled in B.Ed.

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March 9, 2010

Delhi University's (DU) Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) students, to get hands-on training, will now teach in government schools for a year as part of their internship. This is the first of its kind tie-up of the university for B.Ed students. The government has already approved the proposal. The Directorate of Education in association with DU is preparing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as well as the modalities for the tie-up. Deepak Pental, Vice-Chancellor (VC), DU said, 'We want our B.Ed students to get hands-on training like students pursuing professional programmes go for industry training during their studies. In the same way B.Ed students need training and what better place than government schools as it would be the ideal place for a teacher to understand the complexities of the profession. Most students in these schools are from economically weaker sections (EWS) and are first-time learners.'

New educational institutes in Nagaland by IGNOU

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March 9, 2010

Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education and Development (MGIDE), is a new institute being set up by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in Nagaland. The institute is to offer an on-campus master's degree course on social work beginning July this year. The institute, which is to be spread over 20 acres of land donated by Village Council of Chuchuyimlang, is being set-up as part of a collaboration with Nagaland Gandhi Ashram (NGA) in Chuchuyimlang, Nagaland.

The proposed campus will consist of the School of Social Work, School of Agricultural Development, School of Teacher's Training, Community College, Cultural Resource and Training Centre, and Naga Arts and Crafts and Study Centre with Gandhi Museum. Envisaging an interdisciplinary approach of education and development, its major focus is to prepare professionals to promote social welfare at both micro and macro levels. It will include ICT enabled learning and full- fledged library support and regular faculty under the scheme called Educational Development of the North East (EDNERU). Virtual classrooms will also be used to broadcast lectures from Delhi, directly to students at the MGIDE campus.

MoU between IGNOU and IRT

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March 9, 2010

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Institute of Rail Transport have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to offer high quality educative programmes in rail transport management. The MoU was signed between U.S. Tolia, Registrar of IGNOU and A.P. Ramanan, Executive Director, IRT in the presence of IGNOU Vice-Chancellor (VC), V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai and Chairman of the Railway Board, S.S. Khurana. 'The aim is to develop rail transport-related vocational education training and skill development of the youths, ensuring better opportunities of employment. It might become a model for many other areas,' said Pillai.

IGNOU along with IRT will design the course, define criteria of admission, finalize the registration process, delivery of education and training, review mechanism and redesign IRT's existing courses for developing effective students support network using the IRT facilities across the Indian railways. The cost of the project would be borne by IRT.

Israel to display Manuscript by Einstein

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March 9, 2010

Physicist Albert Einstein's manuscript of the path-breaking theory of relativity has been put on display for the first time in Israel. The manuscript is a compilation of 46 pages on 'Theory of General Relativity', which was donated by the scientist to Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1925, has been put on display at the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The exhibition began on 7^th March 2010, as part of the institute's 50th anniversary celebration, and will go on till the end of March.

Einstein, who is regarded as the father of modern Physics, received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution. The physicist, one of the founders of the Hebrew University, bequeathed his personal papers and their intellectual copyrights to the institute. The Albert Einstein archives of the university, which contains some 55,000 items, has the largest collection of original Einstein manuscripts in the world. The Theory of General Relativity, which was published in 1915, led to a revolutionary understanding of the structure and development of the universe.

$40 million to be spent by HRD for the new CAT format for IIMs

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March 9, 2010

To create and maintain the new CAT format for IIMs, HRD will require to spend a whooping amount of $40 million. A leading provider of technology-enabled testing and assessment services, Prometric, has bagged the contract to computerise the test from this year. Nearly 2.5 lakh students take the test for a mere 1,500 seats in the seven IIMs. After following the paper-pencil format for 33 years, the Common Admission Test (CAT), touted as one of the toughest entrance tests for entry into IIMs, is said to be the most expensive test too. Unlike in the past, the test this year will not be a one-day affair. It'll be held over 10 days towards the end of November. Till 2008, CAT was held only on the third Sunday of November every year. Not surprisingly, the IIMs are possessive about CAT. Maintaining that the difficulty level and number of attempts for students will remain unchanged, Chandra said all IIMs are involved in the conduct of CAT. According to Prof Satish Deodhar of IIM-Ahmedabad, who is coordinating the conduct of CAT 2009, the fees has been fixed at INR 1,400 for general category students and INR 700 for SC/ST students.

Monash University selects BMC software to drive ICT share Programme

Higher Education

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March 9, 2010

The known internationalised university of Australia, Monash University, has selected BMC Software's Business Service Management (BSM) platform in order to aid a large scale Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Shared Services initiative. BMC and Monash are working in collaboration to provide with a single shared platform for the disparate service management environments. To manage IT services for more than 50,000 students, the platform is to serve across six Victorian campuses.

The BSM platform will enable Monash to manage its IT environment proactively based on core business needs and individual IT requirements. Once completed, Monash expects the consolidated platform to create significant cost savings, improve efficiencies and accelerate IT response times. Including the following are the BMC solutions in the University's ICT Shared Services Programme: BMC Atrium CMDB, BMC Atrium Discovery and Dependency Mapping, BMC Remedy IT, Service Management Suite, BMC Event and Impact Management, BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management, and Business runs on IT, IT runs on BMC Software.

‘Right To Education bill to make India a knowledge hub’

Policy Matters

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March 8, 2010

In order to make India a 'Knowledge hub' in future, a bill aiming to provide free and compulsory education to children in the age group of six to 14 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday. Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal explained after introducing the bill that the bill was extremely important because it talked about not only taking children to school but also about providing quality education. It is meant to create intellectual assets and encourage creativity of mind. The minister said that the the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Bill, after becoming law, will provide 'free education to students' and all states will compulsorily have to provide it.

Talking about the quality of education, the minister said an academic committee will be set up to evaluate the quality of teachers and if a teacher does not have adequate qualification, then he or she will have to acquire it within five years and failing to do so will mean losing the job. The minister said the idea of such a bill was mooted in 1993 and in 2001, the Constitution was amended to make education a fundamental right. But the amendment also had a rider that to make education free and compulsory, a separate bill has to be introduced. The minister said once this bill becomes a law, it will ensure 25 % reservation in private schools.

Education revolution from Solar powered ePOD

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March 8, 2010

Sakalvara is the site where an ambitious project was launched last month by the local Rotary Club by handing over 30 ePODs, each costing about INR 4,000 ($82), to the school's principal, reports the maiden issue of Technology Review, the 109-year old journal from MIT brought to India by CyberMedia. ePod is set to bring about a renaissance in the way education is administered and managed, especially in rural and government schools with inadequate infrastructure. The project aims to combine the fruits of the latest computing technology with the specific requirements of millions of young boys and girls, to give them a jump start in the learning process. The hand-held device, ePOD, manufactured by Tidaldata, a storage devices company, based in California, had become a rage with the students in the U.S. in 2008.

Now Indian students in rural schools are also in a position to reap the advantages of this exciting device. Tidaldata is working with other civil society groups and NGOs to reach out to thousands of school children in the country. Pothapragada plans to ensure distribution of at least 200,000 such devices within a year. The device retails for INR 22,000 ($450) in California. It uses the same chip set of Apple's iconic iPhone but with a larger screen. The device, manufactured by another Indian promoted company, MyFi Networks, based in San Diego, California, has been extensively redesigned for the Indian conditions. Pothapragada says a consortium of NGOs, Tidaldata, MyFi and philanthropic organizations are working together with education software providers to make available school curricula in local Indian languages. School lessons up to Class 8 in all subjects are available in five languages

A national level case study competition, Winners bagged INR 75, 000

Higher Education

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March 8, 2010

K.Balaji & Sabina Khan are the winners of the Vidyadeep, a national level case study competition conducted by Sikkim Manipal University – Distance Education (SMU-DE) at 'EDGE', the national forum focusing on 'Emerging Directions in Global Education'. They received a prize of INR 75,000 from the guest of honour Sri Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information, Infrastructure and Innovation. The contest was a culmination of more than six weeks of activity and enthusiastic participation from MBA students of SMU-DE, one of the largest providers of Distance Education in India. At this prestigious forum, the six zonal winner teams presented their solutions of a pre-distributed case, to distinguished academicians and marketing specialists from across industries.

The first runner up team of Ajay Maheshwari & Nishchint Gogia took home INR 50,000 & the second runner up team of Tasaduq Bhat & Pallavi Singh won INR 25,000. The other teams took home a consolation prize of INR 10,000. As part of the Vidyadeep scholarship programme, the Vidyadeep annual case study contest 'a pioneering initiative' was launched specifically for MBA students of SMU-DE, thus providing them a platform to showcase their superior problem solving skills and decision making abilities in a business environment. Over 250 teams from across the country participated. SMU-DE in December 2009, in an effort to recognise and reward meritorious and deserving students and help them in their quest for quality higher education, launched Vidyadeep a Nationwide Scholarship programme for 1500 meritorious and deserving students of SMU-DE programs across India. Out of these 1500 scholarships, 500 scholarships are earmarked for students from the North East alone. This scholarship is a 'first-of-its-kind pioneering initiative' in the field of distance education in the country!

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