All IITs have unanimously rejected the Government–backed proposal to reform Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Advanced at 52nd meeting of IIT Council.
According to IITS, the JEE has built a formidable brand over the years and any amendment may hamper the smooth operation of admission process.
Minister for Human Resource Development and Chairman of IIT Council Prakash Javadekar and officials from his ministry as well as IIT directors and chairpersons participated in the meeting.
Quoting the minister, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) stated in a press release, “Council did not consider any further changes in the JEE (Advanced) system”.
Doing away with the test was one of the crucial issues on the agenda for the Council’s meeting. The immensely tough entrance has been a pain point as it has lead to vacant seats during the past few seasons. In 2018, only 18,138 candidated cracked JEE-Advanced whereas in 2017, the number was 51,040. Following a directive from the ministry, IIT Kanpur, the convening institute for JEE-Advanced this year, released an extended merit list, after which 13,850 more aspirants got a chance at the premier institutes.
The HRD Ministry in its release said, “There will be no revision in tuition fee being charged from the undergraduate students in IITs.”
“I dream of an India that is prosperous, strong and caring, an India that regains a place of honour in the comity of great nations,” Late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is known to have stated once.
One of the most charismatic leaders of the country in independent India, Vajpayee was a strong proponent of empowering youths in the country.
As a Prime Minister, he always advocated for qualitative and universal education leading to introduction of Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) — one of the biggest educational reforms so far in the country.
Launched in 2000-2001, the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan aimed to provide free and compulsory education to children aged 6 to 14. The initiative was mandated by the 86th Amendment to the Constitution of India, making education to children a fundamental right.
It is significant to understand that the Vajpayee Government formulated the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan on the line of District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) that was taken during 1993-94 with the objective to improve the condition of primary education system in the country.
Gradually DPEP covered 18 states and 272 districts with 85 percent of the total expenditure provided by the Central government. The programme was also funded by the World Bank, Department for International Development (DFID) and the UNICEF.
The Vajpayee Government involved all the institutes in the country starting from Panchyati Raj Institutions, school management committees, village and urban slum level Education Committees, parent’s Teachers’ Associations, Mother-Teacher Associations, and Tribal Autonomous Councils to other grassroots level structures in the management of elementary schools to participate in the programme.
Due to the presence and success of SSA, the present Government under its aegis launched “Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat Mission”. The main objective of the mission is to improve the reading and writing skills of children in classes I and II, along with their mathematics skills.
In one of its statements released in 2013, the Central Government revealed that the school dropout has declined from 80 lakh in 2009 to 30 lakh in 2012 due to successful implementation of the SSA. The net enrolment ratio at the primary level also increased to 99.8 per cent since the launch of the scheme.
At present, there is 19.67 crore children enrolled in 14.5 lakh schools in the country, with 66.27 lakh teachers at the elementary level, according to statistics available on SSA’s official website.
He died on 16 August 2018 due to multiple health complications at Delhi’s AIIMS. Hundreds of thousands of people paid their last tribute to him along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi by participating in his last journey up to Smriti Sthal, the memorial site, for about 6 miles despite scorching heat.
RNTU’s focus is on the holistic learning and development of a student ensuring the effective application of knowledge for a secure future, says Santosh Kumar Choubey, Chancellor, Rabindranath Tagore University (RNTU), in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).
With the changing times and a maddening race to emulate competitors, what prominent challenges a private university like yours is faced with?
Santosh Kumar Choubey, Chancellor, Rabindranath Tagore University (RNTU)
Initially, people did not show much interest towards our private university due to their inclination towards government-run institutions. Gradually, we have developed a trust for us by adopting world-class practices at the campus. Now, we have gained credibility in the region by overcoming the challenges posed due to being located in rural area, as well as providing the best possible education at affordable fee structures.
Lack of research content is another major challenge in rural India that needs to be addressed. We, at Rabindranath Tagore University (RNTU), focus on research and skill-based learning. Unlike other private universities in the region, we have developed an effective research-based educational structure. It helps our students in research-based learning instead of conventional methods. We have ongoing research on internationally trending topics as well as locally-relevant topics, like sustainable agriculture and renewable energy.
As India is facing high rate of unemployablity due to lack of required skills, we have established a skill-based learning curriculum to fill the gap in education system. We are the country’s first university to incorporate necessary skill development courses across all its formal degree programmes. All the students at our university have to learn at least one skill every semester so that by the time they graduate, they are equipped with at least five to six industry relevant skills.
What are some of the innovations being introduced by the Rabindranath Tagore University for improved learning outcomes among students?
RNTU is constantly evolving to inculcate newer dimensions of learning. Some the notable additions to the faculty in the recent times include setting up a lab for Internet of Things (IoT), Simulator Lab for renewable energy, labs on robotics and setting up start-up and incubation cell.
We emphasise on research and patents, for which separate IPR Cell has been established. A separate wing has been started for skills. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra (PMKK) is supporting skill center of our university. For placement, CRT classes have been started for final year students along with coaching classes for GATE and other competitive examinations.
With placement of students becoming a yardstick to evaluate a university’s status, what has been your achievement level in the context? How significant is innovation to your university?
RNTU has been offering placement assistance and consultancy to all its students. The University’s Entrepreneurship Development Cell is also supports the students in achieving their dream of becoming an entrepreneur.
Our focus on skills, employability entrepreneurship and incubation in addition to the main curriculum has helped us transform our students into industry-ready professionals. We make sure that our students are professional enough for upcoming opportunities by the time they become graduates.
Along with it, the group has established interlinked Entrepreneurship Development Cells and Incubation cells in all its institutions. It is by far India’s only higher education group to receive the Phase-I permission for “Atal Incubation Center (AIC)” by the NITI Aayog.
Innovation lies at the forefront of our operations. Apart from research-oriented learning and embedding skills in formal curriculum, we keep on evolving our educational pedagogies to make them relevant and modernistic.
Almost every other university is enjoying the fruits of collaborations, what initiatives have been taken by your university on this front?
RNTU has partnered with the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and IITs. RNTU has also partnered with the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) to train NIELIT scholars with advanced joboriented skills and provide certificates to students after successful completion of the university courses and exams.
Apart from this, RNTU is a partner in water management research partnership with International Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Management (ICE WaRM), Australia. Under this partnership, the organisations jointly hosted an international conference with 20 countries coming out with a charter for reforms and a roadmap. RNTU students are researching extensively on Air Foil Wind Turbine and Solar Reflective Materials in partnership with Benaka Biotechnologies Inc, USA.
The University also holds research linkages with University of SIGEN (Germany), NCTU (Taiwan), Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA), KAIST (South Korea), KYIV University (Ukraine), Tribhuvan University (Nepal) and MoI University Eldoret (Kenya). Apart from this, RNTU jointly conducts post-graduate courses in partnership with BSNL and holds a forward-looking skill development partnership with Reliance Jio and Tata Group.
What steps have been undertaken for research-based learning by the university?
The rural areas of India lag far behind the metropolitan areas in terms of research and research – related literature. This has greatly hindered the development of rural areas. Therefore, an excellent research-oriented environment has been our first and foremost priority.
We have over 15 International and about 30 national level collaborations with organisations engaged in the field of research and education, focusing on cross-border recognition of experts, developing mechanics for innovative projects with quality assurance and forming research partnerships. The key research areas at RNTU are renewable energy, agriculture, biotechnology, literature, arts, material science, nano-technology and environmental science.
With an allocation of rupees one crore seed money and an equal amount of annual budget to promote research, we have established the CRG, which is autonomous body bringing research strength of five Universities of the AISECT Group of Universities, including the RNTU, on a single platform. Moreover, we have nine centers of excellence for research and skills in Energy, Material Science, Earth & Space Science, Agriculture, Arts & Literature, IoT and Cloud Computing, Science Communication, Entrepreneurship and Environmental science. These centers are known as Navratna Centers of Excellence meant to promote research in the university.
The rising popularity and spread of online education augurs a transformation in our near future that is sure to render it categorically different from traditional learning, writes Dr Sarika Lidoria, Vice President – Enterprise Technology ITM Group of Institutions, for Elets News Network (ENN).
The theorems of Pythagoras and Apollonius, the histories of the two Wars, the intricate details of the criss-crossing of the Danube and the Rhine, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra, the distance in lightyears that separates Jupiter and Mars – these constitute some of the bulk of the intake of a pupil as they enter the higher educational institutions of our country. These have their use and value, but it also bears noticing that an average student would never have seen a tax return, a voter’s ID, a balance sheet, or a corporate legal document as he or she prepares to join the workforce or enrol for further technical studies.
A large-scale change needs to take place in the educational sector to make both the content and method of our institutional learning vocational and market-oriented. Such a sector-wide change, at a cost that could make learning available to increasingly larger sections of the masses, could be engendered only by the rise of E-learning, accompanied by developments in information and communications technology. But so far, the promising advantages that lie at the hands of online education haven’t been reaped to full harvest. PPTs and E-books alone do not fully exhaust these latent possibilities. Mobile and tablet-based learning apps ensuring ‘learning on the go’, interactive boards, animation and video-based training, graphic user interface (GUI) programs allowing for critical and creative engagement of the student with the content, are coming together in recent times to help institutions cater to the unique potential and learning needs of the students. Here lies that unopened window of opportunity where this advanced form of education can join together learning and vocation so indelibly as to transform, in some degree, the classroom itself into a workplace. The rise and spread of Virtual Reality simulation technology allied to developments in Artificial Intelligence technology is sure to place the classroom, the work itself and the market, all on the student’s desk.
As online education is not dependent on a fixed number of employees with appointed tasks and fixed positions, the human material that drives its engine is crowd sourced. It can draw upon a vast network of resources from all over the world. Time and place constraints being here obviated, the ideals long dreamt of by John Dewey in his philosophy of education like one-to-one learning, personal pupil-teacher interaction, democratic participation of the student, experimental and practical nature of imparting knowledge, are closest met by an online education powered by virtual learning environments, video-streaming, webinars and e-conferencing, and other products of a burgeoning communications technology capable of connecting people at the farthest ends of the globe.
The Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai almost gave her life to defend the principle that education is a universal human right. The reach of education to the masses without any compromise to its quality, in terms of the teachers and the methods and means of delivery, can only be accomplished by a massive reduction in infrastructural costs. Recorded lectures, educational videos, electronic books and materials that can be repeatedly used and for as long as one wants, contribute in a unique way to a cumulative reduction in costs in the long run. Meaning, the more they are used, the more affordable they become; and the reduction in cost at this level alone can make possible the economizing of the cost that the student is to bear.
“Our books and our pens are the most powerful weapons”, said Malala in her address to the United Nations Youth Assembly. But the ‘pens’ and ‘books’ here stand as metaphors and symbols of technologies much more powerful, much more effective, and, in the long run, much more economical. These ‘Weapons of Mass Instruction’ are what the educational sector needs to arm itself with as it battles for a world in which education would have achieved the impossible trio of reaching the largest number, with the best quality, at the lowest price.
The Central Board of Secondary Education like all competitive exams – Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) or Common Admission Test (CAT) – will ban late entry in classes X and XII board exams.
According to a latest directive, all candidates have to be in the exam hall by 10:15 am in the board exams. Along with this, other measures like encrypted question papers are also to be tried to make the exams more secure revealed sources from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
Currently, the official entry time at the exam centres is 9:30 am but students are allowed to enter till 11 am and emergency entry till 11.15am, mostly at the discretion of the centre heads. At centres, question paper is distributed at 10:15 am and students are given additional 15 minutes to read the question paper thus the exam starts at 10:30 am.
“Exams like JEE or NEET and even CAT are secured for a number of reasons and one of them is strict entry timings. No student is allowed beyond the stipulated timing,” said the ministry source.
According to a senior ministry official, CBSE is going to issue a circular for strict compliance of the entry timing and the centre supervisors will be accountable for its strict implementation.
The Delhi Government has warned the schools in the national capital to withdrawal recognition and initiate strict disciplinary actions against principals if student safety guidelines are not complied with.
According to Delhi Government, there is no decline in the number of various types of physical, emotional and sexual assaults on students within the school boundaries.
An official order by the Directorate of Education (DoE) in this regard said, “Despite serious endeavours by the government, other agencies and by courts, the schools also respond with only half-hearted compliance.”
“In case of some schools, the status of compliance is even more worrisome. No wonder then, that there is no respite in the number of various types of physical, emotional and sexual assaults on school children-within the school boundaries and outside,” The order further said.
“In fact, such incidents are on the rise. In such a grim scenario, it is felt that half-hearted approach won’t work anymore. If our schools are serious about providing foolproof safety and security to the innocent children whose parents trust us and only, therefore, they entrust us with the responsibility of their wards), then they must ensure compliance of the directions,” the official order added.
The department in its order also said that it “shall initiate disciplinary proceedings against the heads of schools and estate managers if they fail to follow the tenets of student safety guidelines in word and spirit”.
“Further, this directorate will be constrained to initiate equally severe action against the schools, including withdrawal of recognition in cases of repeated and deliberate non-compliance to pre-empt any untoward incident endangering the safety of students and thus, inculcate a sense of confidence among the students and their parents,” the order stated.
The directive assumes significance in light of the recent case of alleged rape of a minor girl by an electrician in a NDMC school premises in the city.
Along with imparting education, it’s our responsibility to support underprivileged sections of the society. It will realise the motive of equity in education, says DrSP Singh, former Member of the Legislative Council, Uttar Pradesh, and Founder Manager, Lucknow Public Schools (LPS) and Colleges, in conversation with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN).
How are you contributing towards betterment of economically weaker and backward sections of the society?
S P Singh, former Member of the Legislative Council, Uttar Pradesh, and Founder Manager, Lucknow Public Schools (LPS) and Colleges
Nowadays, there is a huge demand of private schools as the government schools are lacking in required number of teachers, facilities and infrastructure. Such a situation brings a great responsibility on private schools to make the children of economically weaker sections educated. We teach such children in our schools after regular classes are over. It is a social responsibility of every teacher, school owner and school. I have started practice of teaching poor children under which the school staff motivates students’ parents to send their wards to get education in our school. We appointed teachers of four subjects: Hindi, English, Science and Mathematics and hundreds of poor students are getting benefitted under the initiative.
In addition to that, we provide these students books and sometimes snacks etc. The initiative is not funded by the Government or any other organisation. To carry out social responsibilities is my prime concern. It’s just like worship. In winters, I distribute blankets and sweaters in far-flung villages. I distribute sweaters in Government and private schools. I organise blood donation camps and eye check-up camps. These all initiatives are taken by me because human values must be lived. The career counselling sessions conducted by me are beneficial for job seekers.
You are also promoting cleanliness related activities in nearby slums. Please describe about them in brief.
The cleanliness initiative was firstly undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi. It is another aspect of social responsibility under which every citizen of the country should be healthy and their surroundings are clean and disinfected. To encourage people take part in this initiative, I distributed soaps in slums and told them about the benefits of the cleanliness. Soap distribution is our regular practice. The activities have been conducted across hundreds of villages.
How do you support the society during any natural disaster?
Natural disasters are a great threat to nature, humanity and other creatures on earth. It’s everyone’s responsibility to help the human beings whenever an area is affected by a calamity. Either it is earthquake in Bhuj, Gujarat or Kosi River’s tragedy in Bihar or Uttarakhand’s disaster, Lucknow Public School and its staff have supported the affected people in the best way possible. I encourage my staff to donate their one day salary and ask my students to donate clothes, edibles and their pocket money. In Uttarakhand, we donated Rs 21 lakh, of which the share of school students and staff was Rs 10 lakh and my share was Rs 11 lakh. In this way, we support any natural disaster affected area in the country.
What is the vision and mission of LPS?
Our vision is to empower and make our country prosperous by providing quality education to a large number of students. Our mission is to try to impart the best quality education to students with support from principals and teachers. It is with our combined efforts that we are producing the best results in the country.
What innovations are adopted in your school and what is the role of technology in improving the educational practices?
When we started the school, only blackboard used to be the tool of the teaching. Nowadays, the technology plays a vital role in education as the entire education sector is using digital tools and devices like tablets, i-pads, smart phones etc to get the knowledge. We also encourage our teachers and students to attend conferences and summit to remain updated about the latest and the best practices of the education segment. Technology is supporting the education fraternity well as the whole world is online and anyone can access unlimited knowledge with a click of mouse.
The group is into school education as well as in higher education, how has been the sync between the two fields?
We have a staff of more than 2,000 people and are teaching more than 28,000 students. We focus on commerce and science till secondary level. We have adopted the curriculum designed and developed by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) at pre-primary, primary, secondary and senior secondary levels.
At higher education level, we follow the norms decided by the University Grants Commission (UGC) as well as Lucknow University. The professional courses conducted in our institutions are as per the industry demand. These professional courses make the students job ready. We always try that the students pursuing degree courses in our institution get the campus placement and do not remain unemployed after completing their degree.
Recently, we conducted a national level Job Fest in which over 50 multinational companies participated and over 500 students received job offer letters. It is our efforts to provide quality education and job offers to as much candidates as possible.
In the recently announced board results, Lucknow Public School performed extremely well which ranked it among the top 10 schools of the country, what is your take on this?
For the first time, in the school’s history, the first and the second toppers of the ISC-2018 exams are from our college. It is a lifetime achievement for us. Some of our schools are affiliated to CISCE, which is spread across the world and scoring the top positions by students of LPS has established our brand’s name globally. I would like to congratulate students, teachers and their parents for achieving this landmark. Both the toppers have been studying in our school since childhood which clearly reflects that we help every student in achieving his/her dream.
You have opened a new branch of LPS in New Delhi, please elaborate on the infrastructure and other facilities it offers to students.
This is our first branch out of Uttar Pradesh. The Lucknow Public School branch is located at Asthal Mandir Marg, Sangam Vihar, New Delhi. It has been opened with the unique vision of value based quality education. The school with its world class infrastructure, best teaching practices, digital classrooms, vigilance, security, and surveillance system will help students to nurture in a friendly yet secure environment. Like New Delhi, my plan is to open schools in other metropolitan cities of India along with in United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Mauritius.
Experiential learning engages students in critical thinking, problem solving and decision-making in contexts that are personally relevant to them, writes Nellie Ahmed, Founder & Managing Trustee, Maria’s Public School, Guwahati, for Elets News Network (ENN).
Experiential learning does not happen within the classroom. It takes place through firsthand experience of students and helps develop skills and knowledge through engagement in experiences that connect classroom theory with civic engagement, travel, research and projects outside the confinement of class room.
It is a holistic approach to prepare students for life skills. The Experiential Learning model accents on measuring students’ performance through outcomes that comprises information, skills and approaches.
It is essential for schools to establish a learning environment that uses a practical yet appropriate methodology to develop and implement an action plan.
Experiential learning is the simplest way to get students working either individually or in groups. Curriculums are designed to give students a chance to absorb knowledge by acting on a specific part of content in an unequivocal manner. Unlike open class discussion, content is structured to give students a chance to learn by practicing. This engagement helps them grasp knowledge better and actively.
Experiential learning is mainly great because it aids students to raise queries rather than simply find answers. For example, a project that involves students in community-based initiatives as part of a class assignment is also known as Service Learning. This aspect of education combines learning goals by integrating meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. In this form of experiential education, learning proceeds through a cycle of action and reflection as students seek to observe real issues and find deeper understanding and skills for themselves. In the process, students link personal and social development with academic and cognitive development.
Typically, community engagement is designed via collaboration between faculty and community partners to gives students experiential opportunities to learn in real world amenity and develop skills while addressing community needs.
It is one of the most significant teaching methodologies that foster personal, educational, and practical value for students to engage in sustained and substantive learning. (Views expressed by the author are her personal opinion)
Nellie Ahmed, Founder & Managing Trustee, Maria’s Public School, Guwahati
Nellie Ahmed is an Education Futurist and Founder & Managing Trustee of Maria’s Public School, Guwahati with over 25 Years of work experience in Education Management and Small and Medium Enterprise. She loves to study and identify new and emerging trends in education. In 2015, she founded ‘The Maria’s Braveheart’ endeavour to promote Biodiversity and Environmental studies and bring learning beyond classrooms while guiding every student to stash advantageous information and build a strong foundation for righteous mind-set and broad perspective of life amongst student community.
The NRDC is actively promoting research and innovation across universities and the present innovation/startup eco-system in the country is offering a conducive environment for students to choose entrepreneurship as an ideal career option, says Dr H Purushothsm, Chairman and Managing Director, National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).
In terms of an emphasis on the research and development, how has the education system in India evolved in the recent times?
Dr H Purushothsm, Chairman and Managing Director, National Research Development Corporation (NRDC)
There are about 815 universities and more than 3,400 technical institutes in India and every year about 15 lakh students graduate in various engineering streams. However, except few universities and IITs, the research activities are very limited. Many of the universities are only teaching with little or no emphasis on R&D.
In addition, the boom in the IT industry has also caused a reduction of enrollments in higher education – which essentially leads to research. If we look at universities in the USA and other developed countries, these play a key role in bringing radical or disruptive innovations to the society through their strong basic and applied research. This is missing in many Indian universities. The proactive policies and huge investments in offering quality education in those countries make the universities innovation hubs. We are yet to implement any act or policy like Bay Dole Act in the USA to motivate researchers and professors to undertake R&D work and commercialise their R&D outcomes. But gradually we are changing our policies wherein we not only look at publications but also look for number of patents filed, number of technology(ies) transferred/ commercialised etc. In NIRF ranking of universities, research has been given adequate weightage now. This has resulted in a change in attitude of researchers across the country. We, at NRDC, have been endeavouring to encourage R&D and promote filing of patents and commercialisation of technologies/research outputs by opening UIFCs (University innovation Facilitation Centre) at various universities. We have so far opened such centres at AIl India Institute of Medical Sciences (New Delhi), Amity University (UP), National Institute of Technology (Silchar), Indian Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (West Bengal), IIT Kanpur, Gujarat Technical University (Ahmedabad).
NRDC has also been funding universities for value-addition of technologies/ research outputs to promote R&D/Innovations. For example, University of Delhi developed a technology for Targeted Gene Delivery System which required in-vivo study at Albert Einstein Research Institute, USA and NRDC have funded the said project. Similarly, NRDC has various schemes like Techno-Commercial Support, Patent filing assistance, Programme for Development of Technologies for Commercialisation (PDTC) for various value addition of technologies like preparation of market survey, techno-economic feasibility report, basic engineering design package, preparation of Knowhow documents, etc.
Along with educational institutions, how the country’s corporate sector can contribute in building a stronger research community?
The Corporate sector can contribute significantly in building a strong research community by way of sponsoring projects to universities, offering R&D fellowships and research chairs etc. In India, while corporate/private sector spends about 30 per cent, the Govt spends about 70 percent of the total R&D spent. The scenario is exactly opposite in developed countries. There is a need for enhanced R&D spends by the corporate sector. There are large numbers of corporate involved in carrying out research work and engaging students for the same. Some Corporate sectors have separate R&D set up for carrying out research. NRDC has been associated with many such Corporate R&Ds like NTPC, BEML, BHEL, IOCL, SAIL for patenting and commercialisation of the research outputs/ technologies.
What are the programmes conducted by NRDC to encourage research and technology transfer along with promoting innovations among the youth?
NRDC has been carrying out several promotional programmes for encouraging and inculcating the spirit of inventivity of the researchers, scientists, students, etc. through its structured schemes i.e., Programme for Inspiring Inventors and innovators (PIII) and Programme for Development of Technologies for Commercialisation (PDTC). Under this scheme, several value-added services are being provided by NRDC to researchers. Every year, NRDC awards Meritorious Invention Awards in three categories i.e., Innovations Awards – 2 awards (Rs 5 lakhs each), Societal Innovations Awards – 3 awards (Rs 3 lakhs each) and budding innovation awards for students – 5 awards (Rs 1 lakh each). In addition, NRDC has been helping the researchers in the filing of patents, international patent search, provide various techno-commercial supports for successful commercialisation of technologies. To support universities in capacity building in Intellectual property rights, World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) established a Technology and Innovation Support Centre (TISC) at NRDC-Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre (IPFC) at AP innovation Society, Visakhapatnam. TISC is promoting IPR Awareness and capacity building in universities on IPR and Innovation. NRDC has also opened its outreach IPFC office at University Agriculture Sciences, Bengaluru. Further, it has signed MoUs with a large number of universities and has conducted hundreds of IP and Technology Transfer Awareness Programmes across universities in last few years.
How NRDC supports technocommercial projects to promote and commercialise innovative technologies?
NRDC has several programmes for promotion, development and commercialisation of lab scale technologies emanating from various R&D organisations/universities in the country. The activities include the filing of patents, carrying out patent search, market survey, preparation of Basic Engineering Design Package, Techno-economic feasibility study, testing of the products, carrying out field trials/clinical trials, authentication of the products, obtaining third-party quality assessment certificates, etc.
After carrying out proper evaluation and value addition to the technologies, we bring it to industries for undertaking its commercialisation. For example, the Superabsorbent Hydrogel technology developed by Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) is a wonderful technology. One gram of the product can absorb 500ml-1000ml of water and thus offer great value to the agriculture sector, particularly where there is a shortage of water. But its effect on various crops at different agro-climatic conditions was not evaluated and the entrepreneurs were not able to gain confidence. NRDC sponsored about Rs 25 lakhs to IARI to conduct field trials on various crops to generate the efficacy data. Subsequently, NRDC prepared basic engineering design package, feasibility reports etc. and then approached industry for licensing. Like this, there are many success stories NRDC is currently part of.
Please tell us about various Entrepreneurship Development Programme carried out by NRDC in recent years.
NRDC carries Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) every year in several locations for promoting the entrepreneurship among the fresh graduates, local unemployed youths, etc. to educate them about the technological opportunities, various schemes of the Governments/ Ministries/departments, training and skill development programmes, to demonstrate working of some machines, etc.
In the last four years, NRDC has carried out 21 EDP and skill development programmes and about 2000 people were benefited from these programmes. Some of the EDP programmes carried out by NRDC in recent years include: EDP through skill training on brass melting furnace for production of brass artifacts, home decor items and ornaments at Jamshedpur, EDP on CSIR-NEERI Zar- Low cost water purification system at Rangpo, East Sikkim, EDP Training on Handmade paper at Jorhat, Assam, developing entrepreneurship for disinfection of silkworms rearing houses and silk cocoon harvesting at Mysore, Karnataka, Solar Energy Solution in Remote Tribal Areas by Tribal Youth, Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh, etc.
What message would you like to give to country’s youth?
NRDC has access to all the technologies developed by public funded research institutes under Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) universities and is recognised as a large repository of technologies in almost all sectors of industry including Agriculture, Agroprocessing, dairy, biotechnologies, electrical, electronics, chemical, drugs and pharmaceuticals, herbal medicines etc. There is a huge opportunity for young entrepreneurs/students to start their start-up ventures. The government of India has also opened up several schemes for start-ups. NRDC has also opened an incubation centre in its premises. In addition, NRDC also provides various value-added services to the inventors/researchers through its promotional programmes for encouraging the spirit of inventivity by awarding them cash and medals/certificates, assistance in filing patents, value addition to the technologies etc.
A big entrepreneurial movement is going on now in the country and it is the best time for students to take entrepreneurship/start-ups as a career. I urge all the aspiring student entrepreneurs to make use of the pro-active Govt policies/supporting innovation and start-up ecosystem unveiled by State and Central Governments. Students who would like to realise their entrepreneurial dreams may contact NRDC for the support, mentoring and hand-holdings.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is revising curriculum, reforming norms, emphasising on skill-based education and supporting the innovations by students to improve the higher education system in India and bring it at par with global standards, said Dr Manpreet Singh Manna, Director (PMSSS & SWAYAM), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), MHRD, Government of India in an interview with Gopi Krishna Arora and Akash Tomer of Elets News Network (ENN).
What are the various recent initiatives taken by the AICTE to improve the higher and technical education system in the country?
Dr Manpreet Singh Manna, Director (PMSSS & SWAYAM), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), MHRD, Government of India
Since its inception, AICTE is working with a mandate to check the quality of technical education imparted in India and maintaining its standards at par with global level. The viewpoint of recent Government, stakeholders and the council’s leadership has made the AICTE a facilitator more than a regulator. The AICTE has taken a number of student-centric and faculty empowerment initiatives.
In one of its initiatives, the AICTE is revising the curriculum and developing a model curriculum to be implemented in more than 10,000 universities across the country. If the curriculum is not revised as per the industry trends and requirements, the employability among students will decline. We are having one of the largest human resources of the world yet we have to hire employees from other countries of the world.
When the education system was started, student from around 70 countries across the world used to come to India where 2,000 teachers were available to teach around 10,000 students. However, nowadays, many of Indian students are going abroad to get higher education may be due to quality and for the future prospectives. We are asking the same set of questions in every end-semester exam. An effective assessment methodology helps teachers to know about their students’ learning traits and AICTE is also trying to improve the education system in the country including examination reforms in which outcome of the learner would be evaluated based on his understanding not by giving repetitive subjective question answers.
Along with aforementioned initiatives, we have started many other initiatives to nurture students holistically.
How the AICTE is planning to revise the curriculum and making it relevant to industry requirements?
The students after passing out 12th board exams have enough theoretical knowledge to clear the entrance exams for various courses but they lack practical knowledge, as only 40 per cent of our curriculum focuses on it. We have reversed the practice. Now, the higher education curriculum’s 60 per cent is about the practical implementation of knowledge. For this purpose, we have started industry-interactions in colleges which is helping students to get hands-on experience. Moreover, emphasis on the practical aspect of the learning is laid without compromising the standard of the curriculum.
AICTE being the major stakeholder to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and education sector of the country is contributing through National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to boost the country’s skill and vocational training ecosystem.
Skill India is one of the most important projects of the Government of India, how is AICTE contributing to it?
The present Government of the country is emphasising on skill development among the students. The Government has constituted a separate ministry for it and in line with the centre’s vision many amore universities with ocus on skill development are likely to come up soon.
AICTE being the major stakeholder to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and education sector of the country is contributing through National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to boost the country’s skill and vocational training ecosystem. The National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) was designed by the AICTE. Under NSQF there are level 1 to level 9, it helps a person who have never been pursued higher education courses to complete their masters. To achieve this, we have launched Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY), under which the infrastructure at engineering colleges can be utilized 24×7.
How is the AICTE with the help of other departments connecting with industries to provide relevant training to students?
We have initiated the concept of “Skill Knowledge Providers” and “National Employability Enhancement Mission (NEEM)”. Under these two schemes, we have linked institutes with industries. At the institute, the students will get theoretical training whereas the industries will be responsible for practical training of the students.
Under this umbrella, we have also initiated Startup Policy. Under the policy, we are helping the students to realise their innovative ideas into a final product through the seven research parks and 35 incubation centres. Another initiative that has received a great response is “Adjunct Faculty”. Under the scheme, higher education institutes can have the 20 per cent of its faculty members from the industry. Such faculties help students to know about the latest industry trends. It also helped the industries to understand their role in imparting quality technical education.
How has been the response for the Startup Policy since its launch?
The policy has given students the platform to submit their ideas or innovations and check its feasibility. We have organised Smart India Hackathon 2017, through which around 50+ students turn up as start-ups. The same scenario witnessed this year as well. Few of them could receive international funding like from Korea. We are going to identify some more start-ups and will help them in form of financial support and mentorship from the top industry leaders of the country.
What initiatives are likely to be taken by the AICTE in future to strengthen technical education in the country?
A 10-point agenda has been created to improve technical education sector of India after discussion with all the stakeholders and the national academic boards. By 2020, we have to get to get 50 per cent of AICTE approved institutions’ courses accreditated through National Board of Accreditation (NBA) to provide education at par with the global standards.
We also asked all the States to submit their prospective plans for the next 10 years including the demand and supply of engineers. The data will help us to decide that if any other engineering college is required in the State or not. \
We have also tightened the rules under which a State can only increase its seats or number of courses if it is NBA accredited. Moreover, if an institute has a National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) score of 3.5 out of 4, it will be given full autonomy and they will be free to design their curriculum, fees and nomenclature of courses within the framework provided by the UGC.
