PM lauds engineers’ role in nation building as extremely vital

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September 15, 2018

Lauding engineering fraternity for “several path breaking innovations”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday described their role in national building as “extremely vital”. He also paid rich tributes to India’s pioneer engineer Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya whose birthday is marked as the ‘Engineers Day’.

Extending his greetings on Engineers Day, the Prime Minister in a tweet said: “On #EngineersDay, best wishes to all engineers, whose intellect, dedication & curiosity have led to several path-breaking innovations.”

“On #EngineersDay, I congratulate our hardworking engineers and appreciate their dexterity as well as dedication. Their role in nation building is extremely vital. I also pay tributes to the noted engineer, Shri M Visvesvaraya, on his birth anniversary,” said the Prime Minister in another tweet.

Describing Visvesvarya as a pioneering engineer, the Prime Minister tweeted, “We salute with pride & joy Bharat Ratna M. Visvesvaraya on his birth anniversary. He is remembered & respected as a pioneering engineer.”

Every year the Engineers Day is celebrated on 15 September as a tribute to the first and one of the greatest Indian Engineers Visvesvaraya.

Fondly called Sir MV, he was literally the builder of India, the builder of dams and water systems. It not only boosted irrigation facilities but also saved a large number of people from floods.

He was an engineering pioneer of India whose genius reflected in harnessing of water resources and building and consolidation of dams across the country.

Born on 15 September in 1861 in Mysore, Karnataka, Visvesvaraya died on 12 April, 1962.

IIT Kharagpur partners Carleton University to boost research

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Akash

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September 13, 2018

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Carleton University of Canada to support research collaboration, capacity building and other forms of academic partnerships.

“We are happy to have the MoU signed with Carleton University. We look forward to a long and fruitful collaboration with different units of the university,” IIT Kharagpur Deputy Director Professor Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya.

Under the MoU signed on Tuesday at IIT Kharagpur extension campus, Kolkata, both the institutions will focus on opportunities in student exchange, faculty exchange and professional development programmes, said an IIT Kharagpur statement.

The two institutions will also explore possibilities of collaborative masters’ programmes.

The MoU will cover the scope of interaction among members of faculty relating to joint research projects, visits for such purposes and when necessary, joint applications for research funding from external funding agencies, the statement said.

“I am excited about this new partnership. This is the beginning of a long-term collaboration, having students from IIT KGP come to Canada and Carleton students coming to India and launching of exciting professional development programmes,” Associate Vice-President, Research and International at Carleton University, Dr. Karen Schwartz said.

Carleton University is among the best universities in Canada with high research focus and diverse academic programmes. The university has been recently focusing in areas such as autonomous vehicles (which can be guided without humans at the wheels) and technology enablers for smart cities.

IIT Kharagpur has been similarly carrying research on areas like intelligent transportation, future of cities, digital convergence and centre of excellence in artificial intelligence.

IIT Bombay, IBM team up to accelerate AI research in India

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Akash

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September 13, 2018

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and IBM have announced on Wednesday that the university will join the AI Horizons Network as part of a multi-year collaboration to advance research in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In an official statement available on the institute’s website, it is said, “The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay – one of the preeminent research institutions in the world, with a long history of leadership in data mining and information retrieval systems – will be collaborating with IBM as part of the deal.”

“By joining the AI Horizons Network, IIT Bombay will pair its world-class faculty and top graduate students with leading AI scientists from IBM Research – India to advance and accelerate the application of AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and related technologies to business and industry,” the statement added.

Teams will investigate new techniques for knowledge representation across documents, graphs, charts, and other forms of multi-media content. Research in AI will help the key industries to develop new applications in AI. The industries such as financial services, retail and healthcare rely heavily on rich, multi-modal content applications based on AI for their various processes.

The collaboration will also work to advance the field of training and building domain-specific AI agents (chatbots), which are designed to aid humans in complex decision making such as making trading and investment choices in financial services. Additionally, work is planned to explore new, domain-neutral training approaches which could enable faster, more efficient training of AI systems.

“Over its 20-year history, IBM Research – India has been at the forefront of research advances in technologies like AI and blockchain. We have always had strong collaborations with the leading academic institutions in India,” said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president, Hybrid Cloud and director, IBM Research.

Globally, eight leading universities – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Renesselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan, Universite de Montreal, University of Maryland at Baltimore County, UC San Diego and University of Massachusetts at Amherst – are working with IBM, in different areas.

Odisha Govt to upgrade schools for science education of SC/ST students

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September 13, 2018

To provide science education to SC/ST students in the State, the Odisha Government has decided to upgrade an additional 21 high schools to higher secondary schools.

Odisha’s minister for ST & SC Development and Minorities & Backward Classes Welfare Ramesh Chandra Majhi said, “The new upgraded higher secondary schools will come up in Gajapati, Kandhamal, Sundergarh, Nabarangpur, Koraput, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Kalahandi, Mayurbhanj and Balangir districts.”

The newly upgraded higher secondary schools will majorly focus on teaching science stream, Majhi stated.

“For the current academic session 2018-19, the Government has decided to upgrade 21 more high schools to higher secondary schools,” Majhi further said. It is expected that the Classes in these schools will commence from the current academic year for which the Government has appointed 154 junior lecturers.

Earlier, the State Government had upgraded 26 High Schools into higher secondary schools in the science stream till 2017-18. The schools were located in Mayurbhanj, Gajapati, Kalahandi, Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Rayagada, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur districts.

These schools are run by the SC/ST development department, officials said.

UP Govt to appoint retired professors to meet shortage of teachers

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September 12, 2018

The Government of Uttar Pradesh has given go ahead on Tuesday for appointment of retired professors of government medical colleges on contract basis to meet the shortage of senior teachers for upcoming super-specialty blocks in four hospitals.

The teachers will be appointed at the under construction paediatrics hospital at BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur and the Super Speciality Cancer Hospital in Lucknow on a monthly remuneration of Rs 2.30 lakh which is equivalent to that of AIIMS.

The super speciality blocks are to be established at four medical colleges in Gorakhpur, Meerut, Jhansi and Allahabad under the Prime Minister Swastha Suraksha Yojana. In addition to that an indoor patient facility is also proposed at the Super Speciality Cancer Hospital at CG City in Lucknow this year.

A 500-bed paediatric hospital is being established at the BRD Medical College to cater to encephalitis-affected regions of Purvanchal and Terai.

The proposal was made considering that medical teachers in Uttar Pradesh retire at the age of 65 while the Medical Council of India allows 70 years as the retirement age.

In an another significant decision, the proposal to implement 7th Pay Commission benefits for employees of Industrial Development Authorities in the state from January 1, 2016, was also cleared.

Aadhaar not mandatory to register for JEE Main: NTA

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September 12, 2018

The National Testing Agency (NTA) in one of its notification has instructed that Aadhaar number is not mandatory to register for JEE main 2019.

NTA, an agency under the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, has started the registration process for JEE Main and UGC NET recently and the process will end on September 30.

The JEE Main 2019 will be held from January 6 to January 20 next year.

The NTA has clarified about the 12 digit unique identification number issued by UIDAI about after receiving some queries about mandatory filling up of Aadhaar Number in the Application Forms of UGC-NET 2018 to be held in December.

A statement from NTA said, “it is hereby clarified that while filling in online Application Form and as per the ‘Replica of Application Form’ given in Annexure VIII (page 39-40) (UGC-NET Bulletin December 2018) in the drop down box regarding ‘Identification Type’ and as also given on page 11, the Aadhaar number is only one of the types of identification and is not mandatory”.

“The note on page 11 of UGC-NET Bulletin December, 2018 clearly provides that the candidates can also enter Passport number, Ration Card number, Bank Account number or any other valid Government identity number,” it added.

NTA also stated that the online Application forms which are being filled in currently have clear instructions to enter any valid government identity number.

The registration process for both JEE Main 2019 and UGC NET 2018 are going on the official website of NTA: nta.ac.in.

IITs, IIMs to help in Higher Educational Institutes’ accredition: Javadekar

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September 10, 2018

To fast track the assessment and accreditation of Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs), the IITs and IIMs along with National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and National Board of Accreditation (NBA) will be roped in, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar has said.

He said that the NAAC and NBA will be expanded and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) will all together form an accreditation agency to expedite the process.

Currently, only 15 percent of all the higher educational institutes across the country are accredited.

“We have asked IITs and IIMs to come together and create an agency which we can use to expedite the process of accreditation,” the minister said.

Describing about the deciding factors for any institute’s accreditation, Javadekar said, “From now onwards learning outcome and quality of education will be the key parameter for determining the standard of an institute. 80 percent of the weightage for accreditation will be given on learning outcome and peer reviews, while the physical verification of the campus and infrastructure could be done through the use of satellites.”

“An institute which maintains quality will only survive and those who fail to do so will be out of business,” he added.

In August, the University Grants Commission (UGC) cleared a proposal to allow more accreditation agencies to enhance the existing capacity.

Pranab Mukherjee to teach at IIM Ahmedabad

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September 10, 2018

Former President Pranab Mukherjee is all set to serve as the faculty for new courses at the JSW School of ‘Public Policy for Inclusive Development of India’ at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA).

The new course deals with a broad overview of the interrelation between the desired end of inclusive development and the system of parliamentary democracy in India.

Students pursuing Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGPM), Food and Agri-Business Management (FABM) and Post Graduate Program in Management for Executives (PGPX) at IIM Ahmedabad will be attending a course called “Public Policy for Inclusive Development of India”.

For the new course, the former president will be the faculty for at least 12 out of 22 sessions.

Other sessions of the course will be handled by Professor Vijaya Sherry Chand, Chairperson of JSW School of Public Policy and Professor Anil Gupta.

The pedagogy of the course is designed to use the experiences of former President to throw light on the importance of the theory and practice of public policy for the inclusive development of India.

“During the last five decades, Shri Mukherjee has not only had a ringside view of Indian politics and governance, but has shaped many public policies and triggered off institutional innovations to execute many of these. The course provides a unique opportunity for students to learn from the deep insights that Shri Mukherjee alone can share with complete authenticity and conviction,” a statement by IIM Ahmedabad stated.

The ex-president will be delivering lectures on themes like Constitutional Provisions for Socio-economic Inclusivity: Theory and Parliamentary Practice; Policy and Institutional Intervention for Financial Inclusion: A Legacy to be Built Upon and Articulating Policy and Institutional Agenda for Future Transformation of India.

“Listening to Shri Pranab Mukherjee, our students should develop a better understanding of the politics of inclusive development,” said Prof Chand about the course.

“In a complex democratic society such as ours, technically ideal solutions to public problems have to be balanced by the management of conflicts that are inevitable when there are multiple and contradictory pulls,” he added.

Rajsthan Govt’s new scheme aims to keeps students bag free

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September 10, 2018

The Rajasthan Government has launched a new scheme – Joyful Saturday under which students of government schools will need not to carry their bags instead various recreational and learning activities would be held in schools students on second and fourth Saturday of each month.

The activities will support the students from classes 1 to 12 to improve their communication skills, creativity, critical and logical thinking.

A circular from Rajasthan School Education Council has recently been issued to all the district education officers and district coordinators of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, informing them that the “Joyful Saturday” programme is approved.

Activities to be held in government schools will include debate, poetry recitation, storytelling, puzzle solving, display of scientific magic tricks, toy making, and arts and crafts. The activities will also improve communication skills of students by making them communicate with police, doctors, nurses, and bank staffers. Plantation works, road safety, child rights’ club activities, display of motivational videos, gender-based videos (good touch, bad touch), games, etc, will also be held under six segments of expression or communication skills — creativity, critical thinking and logic skills, community skills, social sensitivity skill and physical skills.

“Students will be divided into three batches from class 1 to 5, 6 to 8 and 9 to 12. Under the scheme, Rs 1,000 are also allocated to every school for the purchase of items required to organise the fun activities,” said the circular issued by Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan’s State Project Director Shivangi Swarnkar.

Students need to be encouraged into startup culture, says AICTE Chairman

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September 8, 2018

There is a need to bring students into startup culture and to provide them a platform where they can convert their bright ideas into innovation, said AICTE Chairman Prof Anil Sahasrabudhe while addressing a gathering at 51st annual day of the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) on Friday.

Explaining about the role of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Sahasrabudhe said that the AICTE is not just a regulator but also a facilitator committed to improving the quality of technical education. “We should create a support system for students, including more internship or skill programme, to hone their skills,” he added.

Referring unemployability as one of the major problems among students in present times, he also suggested that startups can be one of the solutions to the problem. He said, “The lack of resources and unemployment are the major challenges. We should focus on startups. The AICTE has made its own startup policy through which universities and colleges along with their normal courses will start entrepreneurship courses.”

To promote innovation among students, Sahasrabudhe said that lab and research centres should be opened for 24 hours for students so that they can do research and draw their ideas.

“The Indian students have a lot of potential, we just need to identify and channelise their ideas in the right direction,” he further added.

While sharing his views on the challenges faced by technical education in the country, he appreciated the new initiatives and innovations being undertaken by NITTTR for technical teacher training to improve the quality of technical education. He assured the support of the AICTE to the institute towards qualitative improvement of technical education in the country.

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