NIIT, the leading Global Talent Development Corporation and Asia's largest IT trainer, announced the launch of Viswanathan Anand IT Olympiad – the 1st ever IT Olympiad that will provide a student with a rating for his/her IT Aptitude. More than 1000 schools from 300 locations across India will participate in the first ever IT Olympiad. The campaign launched today will have over 75,000 students' taking the aptitude test in two groups
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will launch the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) today in Delhi. The launch programme of the NSDC will see the release of 12 skill gap reports concerning 12 industry sectors; launch of the NSDC Website and invitations or call for proposals. Mukherjee will present a few agreements on behalf of the NSDC to a few organizations who are starting skill projects. M V Subbiah, Chairman, NSDC, Government Officials, Captains of industry, NGOs, multilateral agencies and members of the Diplomatic Corps are expected to attend the launch. The NSDC is a unique Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Enterprise, which has been mandated to skill 30 % of the overall target of 500 million people by the year 2022. The NSDC will foster private sector industries to encourage skill training in 21 sectors. NSDC has been incorporated as a not-for-profit organization under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 by the Ministry of Finance. It has been formed as 51:49 shareholding of private and government. Besides Ministry of Finance, all prominent industry bodies have contributed to the initial capital of this venture. NSDC is one of its kind a Public Private Partnership.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has started training teachers from 1,055 CBSE schools in the National Capital Region (NCR) on its new grading system and Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) scheme. CBSE's six-day training programme will focus on helping teachers implement the new grading system, CCE and other related examination reforms. The nation-wide training programme, which flagged-off from Tuesday, will be over by November 6. The CBSE has made these workshops mandatory for the principal and two senior teachers from every school. The workshops will be held in six schools of Delhi and one each in Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Meerut.
Springdales Principal Ameeta Mulla Wattal and former principal of Ramjas School Meera Balchandran have already trained over 200 master trainers earlier on October 6 at Laxman Public School. This chain of training is then expected to multiply when these teachers would train their colleagues. Meanwhile, CBSE on Monday stated in a circular to all officials of CBSE and affiliated independent schools that the current academic session of class IX would follow the CCE scheme for the second term. The newly introduced nine-point scale grading system is a respite for students to be evaluated on the basis of grades rather than marks where their marksheets will not carry a pass or fail declaration. Their evaluation report will now carry grades ranging from A to E which will eliminate the need of showing raw scores.
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $2.7 million grant to an eight-state consortium of technology centers and community colleges that is working to block cyber attacks and stop the loss of high-tech jobs in the U.S., officials said on Wednesday. The three-year grant to the Cyber Security Education Consortium will help train a new generation of cyber warriors whose job it will be to prevent potentially crippling Internet-based attacks and stop the drain of knowledge and jobs to nations such as China and India, where 2 million technological workers have U.S.-related jobs, said the officials. Richard M. George, technical director for information assurance for the National Security Agency at Fort George G. Meade in Maryland, said cyber security experts fight to preserve national security and the nation's way of life.
Phil Berkenbile, director of the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, said the consortium was launched in Oklahoma in 2002 to build cyber security programs at technology centers and two-year colleges across the state. It has since expanded into seven other states and includes 32 institutions, including the University of Tulsa, with 105 instructors and more than 1,250 students. Besides Oklahoma, the consortium includes the states of Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas. Programs funded by the grant will offer cyber education security and work force development training at two-year institutions in the eight states. The consortium will also create centers of excellence in the strategic areas of secure coding, automation and control systems as well as mobile communications devices.
University of Madras vice chancellor G Thiruvasagam on Wednesday unveiled a slew of proposed social initiatives aimed at expanding access to higher education to the underprivileged and those living in rural areas. Taking into account that many rural students dropped out of higher education since they were unable to afford hostel fees in the city, the university has decided to encourage setting up of arts and science colleges in Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts by exempting them from paying the affiliation fee, inspection fee and other attendant charges. The vice chancellor would shortly meet administrators and principals of private colleges to urge them to provide free education including boarding and lodging for at least 10 students in an institutions. The university will offer a free seat to one student in each of its 60 postgraduate departments.
The university will establish a centre for basic sciences development named after doyen A Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar, the first post-Independence vice chancellor of the university who served in the capacity for 27 years. The centre, for which INR 10 lakh will be earmarked in the initial phase, will be administered by a team of five senior professors and five representatives each from the industry, colleges, and the student community. Every month a Young Scientist Award will be presented to an innovator at the centre. To attract students to basic sciences, the university will launch inter-disciplinary courses and create a separate board of studies for innovative and inter-disciplinary courses. The university will also set up two corpus funds one with INR 10 lakh to help poor research scholars go abroad for presenting papers and attending conferences and another with INR 50 lakh to launch an Earn While You Learn' scheme for students hailing from economically and socially weaker sections.
The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) commenced the first National ICT Industry Survey. Titled, National ICT Industry Survey 2009, it is executed under the guidance of the Monitoring and Evaluation (M & E) unit of ICTA and will be implemented by GreenTech Consultants (Pvt.) Ltd. ICTA has taken steps to conduct this first National ICT Industry Survey parallel to the ICT workforce survey 2009 which was also launched recently. The areas the National ICT Industry Survey will seek information on mainly are: (1) type of products, (2) what markets the industry serves, (3) present status and the growth of the industry in terms of sales volume and turnover, (4) investment in research and development, (5) growth strategies and (6) perception of industrialists on policy and development aspects of the industry.
While the workforce survey covers about 600 organisations this first National ICT Industry Survey sample covers about 350 organisations and a large number of Key Informant Interviews with the industry specialists. This National ICT Industry Survey will bridge the information gap in the industry and the successful completion of the survey will provide useful information for formulating policy and determining commitments in the future. ICTA encourages all selected survey respondents to contribute to the successful implementation of the survey by providing up-to-date and accurate information. Data collection will begin around the third week of October 2009 and the final report is expected in February 2010. The survey report will be made available at the ICTA website (www.icta.lk) for free download.
A vocational training institute for prisoners in Tihar Jail was launched today by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Setup under the Skill Initiative Incentive Scheme (SDIS) of the Ministry of Labour, the vocational training institute works with the assistance of the Directorate of Training and Technical Education (Government of Delhi). During her visit to the Tihar Jail, Sheila Dikshit added that telephone services will also be provided to the inmates. Furthermore, she inaugurated a visitation center and a cafeteria on the premises. At least 80 modular employable skill courses in 14 sectors can be identified in the Jail which include innovative programmes like beauty culture, hair dressing, fabrication, garment making, hospitality as well as core jobs like automotive repair, printing etc.
The nascent content management software market in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness a five-year compounded annual growth rate of 14 per cent to touch USD245.3 million before the end of the decade, with India set to post the strongest growth numbers during the forecast period.
The content management software market in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, is still a nascent market that accounts for a very small slice of the total software market in the region. Nonetheless, the market grew strongly by 25.1 per cent to reach USD127.6 million in 2005 on the back of rapidly increasing demand for digitised information, rising competitiveness, compliance issues, and favourable exchange rates. All the country markets registered positive growth in 2005, but the key contributors were Australia, Korea, India, and China. Australia and Korea are projected to remain the largest markets for content management software throughout the forecast period, while the strongest growth is expected from India.
IDC research indicates that e-forms, workflows, records management, document imaging, e-mail management, and Web content management, are gaining enormous traction in terms of investment consideration in Asia-Pacific region. The top five vendors in the region's content management software market collectively accounted for 43.6 per cent of the market in 2005.
Nottingham City Council's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme has been shortlisted for three categories in the annual Excellence in BSF awards. The awards celebrate achievement in all areas of the national programme to transform education. Expert judges have selected Nottingham to compete with top BSF projects for 'Best design for a new school', 'Best design for a re-modelled school' and 'Local Education Partnership of the Year'. The judges included national representatives from the design community, construction industry, educationalists, students and BSF delivery partners. Big Wood School, in Warren Hill, is being completely rebuilt as part of the council's multi-million pound BSF programme and is shortlisted for the 'Best design for a new school' award. Big Wood is the first new build BSF school to open in Nottingham. Last month, Vernon Coaker, Minister of State for Schools and Learners, officially opened the new 'English and expressive arts', 'science and world studies' and 'maths, IT and design' blocks. Each of the teaching blocks opens out onto a curriculum garden, outdoor learning spaces with unique features.
For example, the 'English and expressive arts' garden has an amphitheatre, the 'maths, IT and design' garden features a giant chess board and the 'science and world studies' garden features an area of natural habitat. In the centre of each block is a 'heart space' which can be used for learning or as social space for pupils. Work is now underway on the completion of the construction programme which involves building a new entrance and sports hall. This final phase is due to be completed in June 2010. Hadden Park High School in Bilborough is being completely remodelled as part of the council's BSF programme and is the school shortlisted for the 'Best design for a re-modelled school' award. Construction work started in July 2008 and the first phase of work was completed in February 2009 when teachers and pupils moved into the newly built Year 7 base. The second phase of work was completed in the summer of 2009 and last month, teachers and pupils started making use of re-modelled science, English and modern foreign languages areas. Work is now underway on the final phase of the construction programme that will re-model the humanities, business, ICT and main entrance areas.
In keeping with its objective to take the country to developed nation status by 2020, Government allocated US$274.2 million in fiscal year 2009 to the University of Trinidad and Tobago. The construction of the main campus of UTT at Tamana was advanced through the use of $172 million under the Inter-American Development Bank. Activities then continued on various campuses, with expenditure of US$105 million from an allocation of US$140 million which included works at the O'Meara Campus, where four offices were constructed in the HR Unit and a Skylight Canopy, along with furniture and equipment were acquired to support ICT programmes; works at the Centre for Maritime Studies in Chaguaramas, which included completion of the sound and lighting system for the Auditorium; upgrades to the Bio-Remediation Lab and installation of an elevator at the Point Lisas Campus; completion of upgrade works at the Corinth Campus; construction of Waste Water Treatment Plant at the Valsayn Campus; completion of construction of a New Green House for Research at the Centre for Bio-Sciences, Agriculture and Food Technology; continued upgrade of safety and security systems at the Eastern Caribbean Institute of Agriculture and Forestry (ECIAF).
At the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, a total of US$11 million was used to continue construction on the Teaching and Learning Complex and preliminary designs commenced for the Canada Hall Renovation and Extension Project. In fiscal year 2009, The College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago, COSTATT spent US$13.4 million from its allocation of US$16 million. The National Library and Information System (NALIS) utilized US$14.5 million from US$29.5 million on several activities aimed at improving library services. Tenders were also invited for construction of the new Chaguanas Public Library. These initiatives all form part of Government's Public Sector Investment Programme 2009 under the Vision 2020 pillar of Developing an Innovative People.
