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Home Blog Page 626

Are Schools Safe For Children?

Article
Magazine

November 1, 2017

While admitting our child in a school, most of us get disillusioned by the high reputation or artificial facilities of that fascinating edifice of learning. But it’s time we viewed the schools from the prism of safety and security as well, observes Akash Tomer of Elets News Network (ENN).

Beyond the realm of school’s popularity, today we need our kids to remain safe in the school environs. A spate of incidents recently in schools have triggered a debate on schools’ safety scenario.

It seems there is an urgent need for effective policies that could ensure fool-proof security of the kids in schools.

The brutal murder of a seven-year-old boy at a reputed school in Haryana’s Gurugram city in September left the entire nation bewildered. Following close on the heels came to light the rape of a five-year-old girl child in a prominent school of Delhi.

The two incidents, as many other such tragedies in the past, underscored the poor state of student security in the so-called ‘upscale’ schools of our country, forcing the parents to ask themselves: are our children really safe at schools?

Worried as they are, parents have since then been asking the government and school managements to ensure the prescribed safety and security norms are strictly followed by all schools, government as well as private.

The Gurugram incident was not a one-off incident that brought to fore the student safety issue. In fact, there have been many incidents in the public memory, like the 2013 rape case of a minor girl inside the toilet of a Goa school, that still send chills down the parents’ spine. However, what is more alarming is that over the past few years, such incidents have increased considerably.

“It is very important for schools to have a foolproof security system to secure the campus not only from external threats but also from internal ones. Schools cannot afford to ignore any suspicious activity by the staff members.”

Earlier in May this year, a six-year-old was found dead in the water tank of a reputed school. The list of such incidents is too long to be covered in its entirety. Moreover, given the attitude of school managements in handling such a sensitive issue as student safety our thought goes to those students who suffer silently and have nowhere to go to report the culprits to authorities for appropriate action.

Therefore, it is very important for schools to have a foolproof security system to secure the campus not only from external threats but also from internal ones. Schools cannot afford to ignore any suspicious activity by the staff members.

Many private schools in the country promise air-conditioning in classrooms, CCTVs in their campus and a robust security system comprising security guards within the premises as well as during the transportation of kids to and from the schools. The schools often advertise these ‘services’ as their unique selling points, charging a hefty amount from the parents for the same. Parents, too, are willing to pay as safety of their children is of utmost importance to them.

But increasing attacks on students in school campuses highlight some major loopholes in the promises made by schools. Moreover, after paying a hefty amount as fee, parents leave it to the school management to decide on the safety measures and often fail to notice or question the lapses.

What can be done?

Securing a school premises requires a complex multi-layered screening process with the help of technical gadgetry, manned by skilled security personnel, to keep all potentially lethal objects and persons out. An outer perimeter wall and fencing is not enough to keep the premises secure, as in most of the cases school personnel are seen to be at fault. A way to overcome this is to partner with a parent association for regular inspection of security facilities, and provide inputs for improvement of services.

In order to avoid child abuse, a special counselling team should be constituted by the schools to address these issues and to teach children about “bad and good touch”. Along with the police verification of both teaching and non-teaching staff, schools must establish child protection cells and policies should be drafted to ensure the same within the premises.

Other than the above measures, there are certain other security measures that must be adopted by various schools to avoid any accident.

Self-defence Lessons: Students need to be safe even outside the school premises. Schools need to ensure that students can take care of themselves and tackle situations like abductions, abuse, etc. Lessons in self-defence come as a boon during unprecedented events. Self-defence lessons should include recognising unwanted advances, being alert in case a child is being watched, knowing how to throw off a physical attack, etc..

Emergency Drills: With the rise in emergency situations in schools around the world, institutions need to be better prepared to handle cases of terrorist attacks, shootings, fire, etc. Emergency exit plans, appointing senior students as floor wardens, preparing students to remain calm in case of attacks are some ways in which schools can ensure student safety in any such situation..

Bully-free Schools: Ragging and bullying along with MMS scandals are another major cause for concern among parents these days. Schools need to ensure the mental health of students by addressing cases of bullying or ragging on school premises. Schools should also appoint counsellors or psychologists to help students address issues of trauma, rage, depression, etc.

Health Inspections: Children tend to pick up bacteria and viruses mainly because of the food they consume. A safety measure is not just limited to an emergency. Schools need to ensure that the food consumed by children within school premises (at the cafeteria or in a school mess) follow stringent measures and guidelines to maintain hygiene. Food served at schools must undergo regular quality checks to ensure that the food is fit for consumption.

Besides food safety measures, institutions must also conduct regular medical health check-ups in order to avoid any kind of mass infections.

Government Guidelines: The Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) have issued a set of guidelines to all its affiliated schools on the safety of children.

Ensure support staff are employed by authorised agencies and maintain proper records of them as well.
Police verification and psychometric evaluation must be conducted of all staff employees, emphasising this be done meticulously for nonteaching staff as well like bus conductors, drivers, peon, and other support staff.
Constitute parent-teacher-students committee to address security and safety needs of students while taking regular feedback from parents as well.
Provide training and development to staff to protect children from any form of abuse.
Closely monitor access to school buildings by outsiders and visitors.
Install CCTV cameras at all vulnerable points in the school premises and ensure it is functional at all times.
Schools will need to conduct safety/security audits of their premises and employees from the respective local police station within the next two months.
Schools shall also constitute a separate committee for redressal of public, staff, students, and parents grievances, internal complaint committee on sexual harassment and committee under Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act. Details of all these committees along with the contact details must be displayed prominently on the school notice board and conspicuously on the school website as well.
Safety and security of children is the collective responsibility of the society. Along with the courts and governments, parents and schools should also come together and think of ways of keeping children safe.

Nurturing innovation encouraging Startups: The Gujarat Way :: October 2017

Article
Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

October 31, 2017

Editorial Gujarat – Set To Scale New Heights with Students’ Startups Leaders Perspective ‘Gujarat Developing Education World of Global Standard’ Cover Story SSIP: An idea that became a policy Policymakers Perspective DTE Creating Sustainable Start-Up Ecosystem Playschool Perspective Nurturing Stimulated Learning Among Children Technical Education Perspective AICTE: Igniting Innovation for new India Smart Education Smart Education for anganwadi children in vadodara Startup Councils Perspective GUSEC: Zero-Day Zero-Cost startup support system University Perspective GTU: Bringing innovation in professional education MSU: Instituting needs based studies Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University— Building ecosystem for students Ganpat University being mentor to student Startups Higher Educatiom Perspective IITE: Taking Teachers’ education to the next level IIIT Vadodara: An institution of innovators Industry Perspective Edugorilla collaborative platform to guide individuals Gujarat Hackathon event report Smart Gujarat for new India Hackathon Startup Perspective Startup Perspective of Gujarat

Edugorilla Collaborative Platform To Guide Individuals

Article
Corporate Updates
Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

October 31, 2017

EduGorilla is an online one-stop education community that helps students find the right institute, answers to their queries, read reviews and download study material for them, says Rohit Manglik, Chief Executive Officer, EduGorilla, in an interview with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN).

Though Ed-Tech has only 1.8 per cent contribution in $100 billion worth of education sector in India, it is gradually expanding its wings and students are gradually adopting the trend.

Being a one-stop community for students, EduGorilla has partnered with colleges, universities and corporates across the globe, how do you think it will benefit the Indian learners?

In 21st Century, growth cannot be measured in isolation, but how well an entity can integrate with existing products. It’s the same case with EduGorilla. We are fostering a dialogue between stakeholders of Indian education landscape by bringing them on a common platform. We also offer a range of products that aid students to choose a career, college or course they should pursue. Through our portal, learners will be able to get a wide range of choices and can use their cognitive abilities to make informed decisions regarding their career.

Which education segments does EduGorilla majorly focus on and what are your product offerings in these segments?

EduGorilla is a one-stop solution for students from Class Six to Ph.D level. Our product offerings include:

Free study material: EduGorilla currently offers around 30,000 free study materials to the students preparing for entrance examinations (a total of 195) of CAT, UPSC,CA, IIT JEE, GRE and the likes.

Directory Listing: Over 56,000 coaching institutes across 52 cities of India are included in the directory listing which is the largest in India. It covers educational preparation centres in almost every corner of the country.

Questions and Answers: EduGorilla hosts a diverse community of students, subject matter experts, professionals, counsellors, and faculty from schools, colleges, and universities. . It helps individuals with their career needs and queries. A “Reputation” feature has been embedded so that those seeking answers to their career–related queries can be helped to decide with confidence.

Articles: EduGorilla portal currently hosts over 5,000 articles on various courses, coaching institutes, competitive examinations and trends in the education sector to help students make informed decisions.

How does the technology make a positive impact on education and how it can enhance the level of education in rural areas?

Though EdTech has only 1.8 per cent contribution in $100 billion worth of education sector in India, it is gradually expanding and students are adopting the trend. One of the major advantages of adoption of technology in education is that knowledge can be acquired with just a click of the mouse, even by a student living in remote areas of the country. E-learning creates extended classroom communities for discussions and virtual classrooms for interaction between students and teachers. The evolution of Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) technology with its benefits such as competitive cost, multi-cast capability, universal coverage and low-cost and simple installation, can play an instrumental role in bridging the education gap in rural areas. Technology can be used to enable e-learning which also ensures a unique personalised experience to all students. In a conventional education model, this is only possible when a highly skilled tutor offers one-to-one tutorials. Thus technology offers tremendous scope especially in underdeveloped and developing countries, as it has the potential to raise a level of education, literacy and economic development.

What are the challenges that EduGorilla faces when it comes to aligning modern-day technology and meeting student expectations?

One of the major challenges faced by EduGorilla is the slow adaptability of technology among stakeholders in the education sector. Though the stakeholders in the education sector are technology literate, they are reluctant to adopt technology. Another challenge is to reach out to students in rural areas, who face problems like erratic power supply and low Internet penetration.

E-learning creates extended classroom communities for discussions and virtual classrooms for interaction between students and teachers.

Digital India and Skill India are the two most ambitious projects of the Government of India, what are your plans to skill the students and digitise the education system?

EduGorilla doesn’t skill the students directly but acts as a bridge between knowledge seekers and providers. We firmly believe that classroom and e-learning should complement each other rather than replace each other to improve the whole ecosystem.

What are EduGorilla’s plans for upcoming years in the education space?

Currently, we are working to launch a set of free psychometric tests on our portal. It will be a big change in the education sector as conventional players charge hefty amount for such offerings. In the long run , we foresee ourselves impacting the careers of over 10 lakh students in India through our product offerings.

GANPAT University being mentor to student startups

Article
Higher Education
Magazine
University Perspective

digitalLEARNING Network

October 31, 2017

Prof Mahendra Sharma, Director General, Ganpat University

Ganpat University is one the state private universities to adopt “Student Startup & Innovation Policy” (SSIP) introduced by the Government of Gujarat. How is this university ensuring student startups receive right mentorship, infrastructure along with funding for their innovation, reveals Prof Mahendra Sharma, Director General, Ganpat University, in a conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

Ganpat University is one the state private university to adopt “Student Startup & Innovation Policy” (SSIP) introduced by the Government of Gujarat. How is the Ganpat University helping student startups receive right mentorship, infrastructure along with funding for their innovation?

Incubations at Ganpat University; (henceforth referred to as Ganpat University Incubation Centre) is set up to promote innovative ideas, enhancement of existing processes and entrepreneurship. It is done by converting and translating technology ideas and innovation in various disciplines of different faculties under GNU into products, processes and services for commercial exploitation and for the benefit of society to accomplish its goal. Ganpat University Incubation Centre provides support to enterprises that can be classified as:

Level I: Idea Accelerator (Shishu) Anyone with innovative idea, which is initiated by an individual or group member including employees, students, local entrepreneur and/or alumni of the Ganpat University.

Level II: Business Acceleration (Kishor) One who have started their business and are yet to be established to take it to the next level. This can be initiated by individual or group member including employees, students, local entrepreneur and/or alumni of the Ganpat University.

Level III: Growth Acceleration (Tarun) Any business, which is already set up and established and generating early stage of revenue, can be initiated by an individual or group member including employees, students, local entrepreneur and/or alumni of the Ganpat University.

We as a universiry, run many activities to generate ideas from students and have a variety of workshops to validate ideas at very early stage.

Objective of the GNUIC:

Key objective of GNUIC is to create a holistic ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship.
Create a support structure to handhold and encourage first line enterpriser.
Provide continuous mentorship to the incubates or enterprises enrolled with GNUIC.

We have a pool of skilled professors, industry linkages and a researcher associated with us. This set of resource pool will help students in getting right set of mentorship for their idea to convert it into PoC. We have a dedicated 5,000 sq ft infrastructure, operating 16 hours a day, to support startups at different stages. We are also government approved nodal institute for startups and innovation scheme, which allows our students to convert their ideas to PoC with initial funding. The university also has reserved fund to support student startups.

What initiatives have been taken by Ganpat University to foster Student Startup ecosystem within the university? What are the processes for students to be eligible to receive grants and mentoring to their innovation?

Ganpat University has started The World of Startup – a quarterly talk series on startups. This is the Association’s most exciting event of the year, as we are now an authorised nodal institution for incubation through Government of Gujarat and having in-house incubation center too. This year our team has worked to ensure a varied programme for students, incubates, professional venture capitalist etc. to provide networking platform and opportunities to explore the startup ecosystem. The main aim of this series is to showcasing the possibilities and path to get fund based on theme “Finding the Funding” for the start-ups, delineating and deliberating on start-ups, creating a networking platform for the startup community.

We have our strong social media presence which will help us reach many local and global aspirants to join incubation at Ganpat University. We have an audit course on student startup and entrepreneurship and every year many students opt it to learn the basic aspects of startup and entrepreneurship through it.

We have our own alumni network of more than 19,000 students and also have applications on mobile play store of Google and App Store of iOS to connect with them day-to-day and help fostering this culture among the students.

We have a pre-incubation process to validate and improve the idea before they join our incubation centre, which results into more qualifying startup under the process.

We have an innovation club in place for students currently studying to discuss idea and validate them.

Entrepreneurship café is an initiative to promote the startup culture around the university and invite mentors, investors, motivators to guide the startups under various incubators.

Campaigning through various talk series, workshops, innovation camps, ideation camps etc are the pipeline for efforts to promote incubation among students.

The authorities of Ganpat University and all the staff members working in university and constituent colleges are constantly engaged in the development of sustainable student community development.

Not every idea can be an innovation. How is the university refining students’ idea so that it can be converted into a prototype or a product? What assistance does the university provide to the student startups during the pre-incubation phase?

We, as a university, run many activities to generate ideas from students and have a variety of workshops to validate ideas at very early stage. Not every idea is worth developing. We focus on what problems they are addressing. How it will have an overall impact on particular sector of area. Our design thinking and ideation workshops will help student develop problemsolving skills and refine their ideas at a better sustainable level.

At Pre-Incubation level, we assist students on idea validation, surveying, and improving innovation through research. We provide them common working infrastructure with 16 hours daily operating capacity. Our inter-discipline mentorship programme helps in refining student ideas and convert into the PoC and building the right team. Cross institute faculty collaboration & research in Startup, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, MOOC Courses for Students and Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship Development Cell at each constituent department/institutes will help students in extending proper support system for their startup.

IIIT Vadodara: An Institution of Innovators

Article
Higher Education
Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

October 31, 2017

Prof Sarat Kumar Patra, Director, IIIT Vadodara

IIIT Vadodara has introduced policies to promote innovation, which is covered under the institute’s intellectual property rights (IPR) policies. The innovation cell conducts seminars from time to time to create awareness regarding the activities of the cell, says Prof Sarat Kumar Patra, Director, IIIT Vadodara, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

How the Student Startup & Innovation Policy (SSIP) of Gujarat Government is contributing to students’ innovation?

This is a welcome step taken by the Government of Gujarat to promote startups in the State as well in the country. Through SSIP students will get platform to showcase their ideas globally and the opportunities to interact with investors from financial point of view.

Having right skills and guidance plays a pivotal role for any startup. How IIIT Vadodara is helping student startups to get right mentorship, infrastructure along with funding for their innovation?

This year, we have initiated the innovation cell at IIIT Vadodara to facilitate the conversion of innovative ideas of our students into viable product. IIIT Vadodara is committed to provide amenities such as infrastructure, IT resources and funding for basic modules under the banner of innovation cell.

What are the initiatives taken by IIIT Vadodara to foster Student Startup ecosystem within the institute? What are the processes involved for the student to be eligible to receive grants and mentoring for their innovation?

Students send their ideas to the innovation cell. Based on the committee recommendation, students are eligible to get Institute funding for the same. The innovation cell committee monitors the progress and provides the proper guidance from time to time.

IIIT Vadodara is promoting student startup and innovation in a broader way. At IIIT Vadodara, we actively promote the culture of research and innovation. Although we are in a nascent stage, we are fully committed to make IIIT Vadodara an institution of innovators.

How is the IIIT Vadodara refining students’ ideas so that it can be converted into a prototype or a product? What assistance does the government provide to the student startups during the pre-incubation phase?

At IIIT Vadodara, we have innovation cell for the same. We ask students to send their ideas to the innovation cell in a proper format. A committee examines the ideas based on its novelty and gives its recommendation to the innovation cell incharge. Regarding the government assistance for the students’ startups, we are in the process of establishing the mechanism.

How many student startups have graduated from your institute? How IIT is planning to involve more students to take the advantage of its policies and facilities?

In the present scenario, students are working on some ideas including fully-formed startups to launch, while others are in line. We have introduced policies for the same which is covered under the institute’s intellectual property rights (IPR) policies. The innovation cell conducts seminars from time to time to create awareness regarding the activities of the cell.

What message would you give to our readers about the Student Startup & Innovation Policy adopted by the institute?

IIIT Vadodara is promoting student startup and innovation in a broader way. At IIIT Vadodara, we actively promote the culture of research and innovation. Although we are in a nascent stage, we are fully committed to make IIIT Vadodara an institution of innovators.

Smart Gujarat for new India Hackathon

Article
Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

October 31, 2017

Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Education Minister, Government of Gujarat

EMPOWERING CITIZENS THROUGH STUDENTS’ INNOVATIVE IDEAS
To create and promote the innovation culture and develop the innovation ecosystem across affiliated colleges and universities under the Education Department of Gujarat, the Government of Gujarat recently organiset “Smart Gujarat for New India Hackathon”.
On the occasion, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani inaugurated the “Smart Gujarat for New India
Hackathon” as well as the “New Avenues of Modern Education —NAMO” through Wi-Fi in 23 of the 110 universities.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani Launching Namo Wi-Fi

During the event, the Chief Minister also distributed grant-in- aid cheque of worth Rs 440 lakh to 23 organisations including 11 universities and also awarded the winning students of summer innovation challenge under the Student Start-Up Innovation Policy (SSIP).

He also launched a book titled “SSIP Guidelines”. Gujarat launched the SSIP policy on January 2017.

“This young generation has the power to challenge. We gave opportunities to the youth who have not been encouraged since years by increasing seats in 55 different universities, and increasing about 1.25 lakh seats in engineering colleges. Youth of Gujarat are

The Chief Minister giving cheque to one of the participants in Hackathon

the communicator of this transformation and through their innovative ideas, social and humanitarian measures Gujarat will prosper,” Rupani said. Under the SSIP mandate, various innovative interventions have been suggested to all universities. New efforts at various levels like institutional, pedagogical and community level have been suggested to engage and leverage students across the innovation value chain.

Present at the event, Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama called on the youth to become a pioneer of developmental change. He

announced that the State Government has decided to distribute tablets to three lakh students at a token cost of Rs 1,000.

KK Nirala, Director Technical Education, Government of Gujarat

“If we want development, there is no relaxation without adopting science and technology. It is the state government’s motive to encourage youth to take action to identify the problem and to try to solve it with the help of technology. Today, to solve problems, we need innovative ideas and technology has given the world in the hands of youth,” the minister said.

Giving an outline of the programme, Anju Sharma, Principal Secretary of Higher and Technical Education said:

“First one of its kind state sponsored Hackathon involves 16 Departments who have shared 206 problem definitions to be solved by 1,100 teams comprising more than 8,000 students from 202 colleges affiliated to 35 universities under the guidance of 500 unique faculty mentors making it the highest in such open innovation experiment”.

Hiranmay Mahanta, Executive Member, AICTE Sttarup Commiitee

Addressing the audience, KK Nirala, Director, Technical Education, said: “The objective of this Hackathon is to motivate colleges, universities to develop own ways or pedagogies to launch such programmes and utilise summer holidays as a source of harnessing creativity. It also aims to sensitise young minds about various century old challenges which our country and Gujarat, in particular, is facing and how long lasting impact can be achieved if they get solved”.

Minister of State for Education Department Nanubhai Vanani, Chief Secretary JN Singh, vice chancellors and professors of various universities, researchers and students in majority attended the event.

Anju Sharma, Principal Secretary, Higher & Technical Education, Government of Gujarat

Two startups were especially praised by the dignitaries present at the Hackthon event: Vaibhav Amit Patel, a student of DA-IICT, who developed an app for ‘Finding disease from an image of a crop’ and Jil Sheth, CEPT University, who designed a low cost housing and toilet designs “Universal Accessibility”.

SSIU: Enriching Entrepreneurship Among Students

Article
Higher Education
Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

October 31, 2017

Creativity is in the blood of students, but to identify it is very important and crucial. We are developing that type of ecosystem here, says Rishabh Jain, President, Swarnim Startup and Innovation University, in a conversation with Divakar Mukherjee of Elets News Network (ENN).

How do you perceive the Gujarat Government’s “Student Startup & Innovation Policy” (SSIP) introduced by the Government of Gujarat. Is it contributing to students’ ideas?

Under the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendrabhai Modi “Startup India, Stand-up India, Make in India and Digital India” the Gujarat Government has approved India’s first university for startup in Gandhinagar, the capital city of Gujarat. The Gujarat government has taken many initiatives for startup India by intruding 1st Student startup policy in India.

At Swarnim Startup & Innovation University (SSIU), we aim to build startup and entrepreneur Eco-system with state of the art technology infrastructure and skill-based education to our youths. We, at SSIU, have created a self propelling engine that creates the nation’s most skilled and competent entrepreneurs. We develop the youth to address society’s basic necessity via innovative ideas and make it a viable business model.

SSIU is on the roadmap of realising Make in India dream by producing entrepreneurs and enterapreneurs through unique pedagogy. SSIU is in a process of creating mindset and culture which produce degree holder with skills and mindset which make India a hub of global entrepreneurship center by coming out with innovative business model. First time in India, SSIU will go in differnt campus and teach startup and entrepreneurship rather than asking students to come to SSIU campus.

The university is helping the students by providing them fund and mentoring. We have our own incubation centre and we are in the process of attaining a nodal centre of incubation.

Swarnim Startup & Innovation University (SSIU) proffers Innovation, Startup and Entrepreneurship programmes through conventional education by imparting technical wisdom. SSIU works as a hub-and-spoke model where disciplines like Engineering, Architecture, Science, Management, Medical and Pharmacy will get its value enhancement through Innovation, startup and entrepreneurship.

How is Swarnim Startup and Innovation University helping student startups get funding for their innovation?

University is helping the students by providing them fund and mentoring. We have our own incubation centre and we are in the process of attaining a nodal centre of incubation. In this journey, we have already provided funds to student startups. The university has allocated Rs one crore investment for student startups. As per university mission, we are in the process of generating an ecosystem for the startups. SSIU courses and programmes have been designed for holistic development so that the aspirants become skilled, creative and confident simultaneously.

SSIU makes them intellectually adept; socially and technically sound through initiatives like regular brainstorming sessions, seminars, group discussions, case studies, project presentations and thought provoking events. SSIU promises to not just strengthen their knowledge base but make them proficient enough to confront organisational challenges.

How the Swarnim Startup and Innovation University is fostering Student Startup ecosystem in the affiliated colleges and university?

In the ever evolving global market, we need intellectuals who are dynamic, far-sighted and most importantly, innovative. The demand is of innovative thinkers who are ready to take up challenges and overcome them. At Swarnim Startup and Innovation University, the entire programme is developed for fostering startup culture among students, bringing practiceorientation into education, permeating all of the syllabi with design thinking. At SSIU, skill development programme is our holistic vision. SSIU will work on hub and spoke model to deliver skill base practical education. School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship will act as hub to other schools under SSIU namely, School of Engineering, School of Design, School of Paramedical and School of Science. In each and every semester of all the courses under SSIU, one compulsory subject related to core skill development will be added. We aim to create students market ready within the course duration.

What infrastructure has the Swarnim Startup and Innovation University installed to help technology startups harness their ideas and innovation?

SSIU Incubation provides inspiring workspaces that is accessible 24×7. It provides access to companies on data resources, domain experts and mentor. Our incubation centre has fullfurnished office with R&D facility, internet connectivity, board meeting space, conference room, intercom, library, along with photocopying, fax and scanning machines. We also provide business and technical support for product building and business plan assistance. We also provide mentoring support for raising funds, availing government schemes funds. Our IT support includes access to professionals with legal expertise, financial expertise, accounting expertise, IP expertise, industry expertise. Events and exhibition to showcase their products and solutions are held along with providing networking events to facilitate interaction with investors and industries, training programs and seminars relevant to entrepreneurs.

What methodologies have been adopted by the university in the teaching-learning process?

We have a 3-tier Employability Structure. Firstly, we make students ready with their startup/business concept. Secondly, the startup track is bifurcated along-side 4-year of Graduation course:
Startup Track First Year: We train students with their business model concept by igniting idea, motivating them and mentoring.
Startup Track Second Year: We prepare students for setting up finance and infrastructure for establishment along with protecting concepts with Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and expanding horizons by collaborating with various industries.
Startup Track Third Year: For fetching market funding and setting-up a venture capital followed by product development life cycle.
Startup Track Fourth year: For sales and marketing resulting into scalabilities and growth.

What makes students eligible to receive grants and mentoring fortheir innovation? What role is the university playing to involve more students and colleges to take advantage of the policy?

If any startup which is not working successfully then first and most important thing required is identifying problem. We are doing problem identification activity and ideation activity. We are also focusing on “Sodh Yatra” by which student can identify social problem by which it can be solved. At Swarnim Incubation powered by SSIU, 11 startups are currently in the progress stage. We have “Swarnim Incubation” where every field of students are involved. We are conducting awareness programme by which students can come to know about startup and innovation. Creativity is in a blood of the students but how to make it out their creativity is very important and crucial. We are developing that type of ecosystem here.

SSIU, skill development programme is our holistic vision. SSIU will work on hub and spoke model to deliver skill base practical education. School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship will act as hub to other schools under SSIU.

Startup Perspective of Gujarat

Article
Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

October 30, 2017

VINSPIRE AGROTEC: FELICITATING ECONOMICAL FARMING
At Vinspire Agrotec, a low cost technology has been developed to help farmers reduce their labouring hours. For example, if a conventional method requires 8-10 hours for planting 10,000 seeds in an acre, using the latest technology of Vinspire may take 3-4 hours to complete the same task. The technology can be used in planting seeds, fertilizer, harvesting crops, etc. There are many high technological machines available in the market but are expensive for small farmers to afford. The technology has started getting positive responses from the farmers. Recently, the company has received a letter from Himachal Pradesh Crop Diversification Promotion Project, Himachal Pradesh, requesting to pitch the product for the project. The company has received genius achiever award from the Chief Minister of Gujarat and Innovation to Impact (i2i) Award on its agriculture implementation from the Gujarat Technical University (GTU) this year. So far, the company has manufactured 8-10 different agro-products. The Innovation Council of the Gujarat Technological University, as a Nodal institute, helped the oganisation by providing an overall support for the required infrastructure, mentoring and seed funds.

MYPREBOO – ENSURING KIDS’ SAFETY DIGITALLY

Kushal along with his wife Shweta – graduates and alumni of the a college affiliated to Gujarat University, have launched a mobilebased application “MyPreBoo” for both Android and ios users. The application provides a real-time communication between teachers and parents with terse details about the activities of their kids in a primary school. Teachers of preschools, kindergartens and daycares through this app can record activities of children and send it to their parents with notes attached. The application is currently being used by more than 1800 users across Gujarat, Delhi-NCR, Maharashtra, Bihar and has clients like Kidzee and Bachpan. The company is also planning to launch the application in primary schools based in Zimbabwe. With support from Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC), the entrepreneurs are currently working to upgrade the application for many regional languages of the country.

PRINTING PERCEPTIONS IN 3D WAY

How was the idea converted into a prototype?

When I was working in an MNC, I got uncomfortable with the comfortable life. Since college time, I wanted to do something in future-tech. When I saw 3D printers in action for the first time, I got so fascinated by it that I couldn’t stop thinking about the sheer possibilities this technology have for mankind. That’s when I decided I will be dedicating myself to this field. – Keyur Punjani

I first saw a 3D printer in a college fair. I got stuck with the idea of building a 3D printer by my own and thus I started working on it in my last year engineering project. It won me the 1st prize in project competition in my college. And then I met Keyur and we started working together to build a sellable product. – Ishan Padaliya

What kind of support the university provided the startup?

GTU Innovation Council has helped us to get the GoG funds and provided us a working place in the city. Current stage of the startup/innovation, including launch?

Currently we’re at early revenue stage with 18-20 clients using our services and products.

We were in product development stage since last one and half years. We currently have three desktop 3D printer models which are targeted for different segments like schools, colleges, startups, product designing firms, industries, etc. We took job works of various companies while we were testing our machines and started generating revenues from that as well. So we cater both type of clients, one who directly need a 3D printer in-house and second the startups/SME/students who want prototypes without the need to own a printer. We have 3D print farm running in our facility 24×7 which caters the second type of customers.

MOCKTALE: FROM IDEA TO PROTOTYPE

In its long journey of converting the idea to prototype at Mocktale – The startup has tried to ensure better health alternative along with taste through regular meal.

During the market research it is found that nowadays, youth is highly stressed due to competitive market, being ambitious, family responsibilities and Expectations, corporate jobs and career challenges and can’t be joyous. Mocktale has found Beverage would be the best alternative to fulfill the gap, one would just need to open it and drink it. A drink which is refreshing, nutritional and witty.

The market research revealed that the Beverage market in India is still not updated. Growing consumer health awareness guided us to come up with the idea to make a drink where health meets taste. Special thanks to NDRI, KARNAl and CFTRI, Mysore, where a group of five scientists helped us to convert the idea into the prototype. For over a year an exclusive research has been conducted in this regard. We have studied Science of flavours, role of nutrition in human body, sensory science, packaging science, stability and commercialisation of the products. Support from University: The university has provided us facilities in every respect like office space along with the grant under the Startup Gujarat Scheme (Government of Gujarat) through Gujarat Technical University (GTU) incubator. Current Stage: The company is now into rebranding stage where we are doing concept testing, packing innovation, and branding and communication strategy. The company is going to launch its products by end of 2017.

CMP INDUSTRIES — DEVELOPING A TOOL FOR ALL

Anand Mundhava and Yashomati Mundhava have founded CPM Industries. Government of Gujarat has played a vitol role to develop the prototype by providing a monetary support of Rs 10 lakh at the development stage. The company has developed a kit with integration of 56 different types of tools like hexagon keys, knife, pliers, wire, rod cutter, etc. The tool can come handy in the areas like aerospace engineering, aviation, automotive, household, boating, gardening and other special jobs for manual operation which combines pliers and automatic adjustable wrench to quickly clamp objects. CPM Industries is the inventor and manufacturer of awards winner Innovative hand tools that are introduced for the first time in world for operating nuts/bolts, hex head bolts, screws, etc. We are using high quality alloy steel as raw material in manufacturing of the tool to maintain its quality standards for “Limited Life Time warranty”.

STUDENT STARTUPS TO LAUNCH ‘PATHBREAKING’ TECHNOLOGY IN CRICKET

Raja K and Rajkumar Mishra along with seven interns are currently developing a technology named “Bemrr”. The technology will monitor various performances related to cricket. The Gujarat University Student Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC) is providing all the infrastructure to the startup for developing the technology. There are no such inventions yet in this popular game. The team is being working on this technology for past 18 months. In order to attract venture capitalists, incubators, facilitators for investment, the team has visited Bengaluru and Hyderabad. With the help of GUSEC the team is able to focus on developing the technology. Although the GUSEC ecosystem is at developmental phase, yet the facilities here is at par with the incubation centers and IT hubs in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. GUSEC is a place where students can get a space to work from by just putting their idea. Beta version of this technology is soon going to be launched.

WIZTRIT: A GLIMPSE INTO THE BEST BOOKS

Wiztrit is a first of its kind mobile platform for reading interesting excerpts from popular books. Through these excerpts, readers form a first hand opinion of an author’s work, which helps them decide whether they would like to read the entire book. The founders are getting mentorship and incubation at Ganpat University Incubation Centre, speaks about their product – Wiztrit is a platform which not only helps the readers discover new books, but also serves as a daily entertainment and knowledge source. In addition, publishers and authors will use this platform to promote their books. The concept is novel and novelty has great value. There is always a chance of exceeding expectations. Novelty can be a gamble but we have a positive outlook. Also, we have seen acceptance from current users. Reading is addictive if you know what kind of writing suits you. Wiztrit will help grow this wonderful addiction. Problems and their Solutions: l Lack of globally qualified and reputed content: Content in long form is rising in popularity eg. quora, medium, etc. However, at social platforms most of their content lacks quality. At Wiztrit, excerpts from the books are extracted with text-analytics algorithms and are then perused manually to ensure quality content. l Lack of a proper book discovery platform: Goodreads recommends books on user’s reading history. We let the user judge the book after they’ve read an excerpt. Sampling the content of the books is much reliable method than what an algorithm tells you.

TRAZO: BRIDGING THE EMPLOYABILITY GAP

AnTrazo is an Ed-tech venture created with a clear intention of serving education industry to help students grow and choose their career in right direction. Trazo is an acronym of 2 words Training + Zone, company’s entire world of business is in this two words. In each of the product or services offered at Trazo, the motive is to train people to make informed career choices. Core business idea is to provide trainings to students on the required skills which is highly acceptable by the industry and technology has a huge role to play in the concept. Along with the training, Trazo is creating a product to assess skills of an individual and based on the same tailor made training modules can be deployed. The company is more inclined towards long term learning programme which are technology driven and curriculum integrated which gives more structured learning to the students. The organisation started its operation in July 2015 with 3 partners working into different domains to do strong primary research of the industry before we get started delivering. Initial 6 months, the team was completely focused on the research of the education industry and understanding student’s behaviour for the adoption of training programmes and technology.

THE TECHNIFICATION: HELPING PEOPLE DIGITALLY

This company is based on electrical and electronics background as the partners of this firm are electrical engineers and have been working on many projects from some time so they made those projects into something that can be helpful for people and which could help us to start up our business. The basic area is of electrical gadgets, Artificial Intelligence system and devices. Jay D Patel is an electrical engineer and has done his M.Tech (electronics) from Nirma Institute of Technology. He is the founder of “The Technification”. He has experience of working with projects based on electronics. Jay has presented two international and three national research papers in well-known journal. “The Technification” was awarded by best startup in Pharma Vision -2017 by Honorable CM of Gujarat Shri Vijay Rupani sir. Mr. Ujwal Sikriwal, (B.E. – Electrical, Student of Swarnim Startup and innovation University CEO of “The Technification”) Mr. Shivanshu Pandya B.E. – Electrical, Student Of Swarnim Startup and innovation University CEO of “The Technification”) were working on this concept since last two years in the incubation center. A good support was received from “Swarnim Incubation” and from SSIU (Swarnim Startup and Innovation University) to enhance the startup on large scale.

BBT: DESIGNING AUTOMATED SERVICES AND SOLUTIONS

Founded in July 2016 and based in Gandhinagar, Bits and Board Technologies (BBT) is a new venture started by experienced researchers and academicians. BBT proffers technology solutions and services along with the exceptional business values. BBT supports enterprises, technology providers, and startup products in the domains of consumer devices-electronics, industrial automation, sensor networking, healthcare, IoT, electronics R&D, electronics product realisation, security, surveillance, education & annual system maintenance businesses.

A sophisticated autonomous controlling approach has been adopted to reduce energy consumption with the same legacy and comfort in Auto Power pro. Product functioning is based on high-tech computer vision, deep learning algorithm and sensor fusion. It has decisive capabilities for monitoring persons and their actions. Currently the concept controls doors, shutter windows, curtains, AC, Fan, TV-channels and lightings that too without any human interface like touch screen or mobile applications. Prototyping analysis shows 16% average energy saving upon a home with smart home automation system pre-installed summing up to minimum 20% energy saving.

The product is being mentored by Swarnim Incubation. Among many facilities, we are using 3D modeling lab, prototype development lab, mentoring and networking sectors at Swarnim Incubation. They have a strong mentor pool with very experienced experts from the domain of technology, business development, marketing and international entrepreneurship experts. Swarnim Incubation helped us setting up a good relationship with government authorities, which gave us an opportunity to pitch our concept in front of investors and help introducing it into the cutting edge competitive market.

TECHOITE: DIGITAL CONTENT PROVIDER

Techoite is a startup from the students of Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara which was idealised and developed by Parth Jaiswal (founder) from and Poojan Rathod (Co-founder). It began with the sole aim of giving the best material to junior students by their senior students in the most organised format. It will be segmented into colleges, departments, years, subjects, topics and more. it will also consist of news feed where news of all the engineering innovations, exams, events ,videos of experts on personality building, aptitude tests, future planning will be available for free of cost.

The startup was a great success and won the TIECON Vadodara competition in the prototype phase and selected for nodal plane funding after a month. Basically this is the youngest startup experienced 200+ downloads in a span of 12 hours and made a business of over Rs 10,000 on the first day itself. The team is now getting bigger and spreading its roots in all the colleges of Gujarat.

AAHAR – YOUR DAILY RECIPES FINDER

The major problem in our day-to-day life is “what we want to cook in daily routine?” It is observed that women are so confused to cook food in breakfast, lunch, dinner. AAHAR has come up with a creative idea for solving this problem digitally. To solve this problem, the company plans to launch a mobile application. The name they have come up with the app for android-based mobiles is “AAHAR – YOUR DAILY RECIPES FINDER”. Using this app, the company hopes to solve most of the problems faced by women while planning to cook. To be available on Google Play Store with the requirement for users to register themselves, one would be able to select at least 4-5 food items from the digital MENU. Once the selection is made, the recipes for food would pop up on the screen. The user would also have the choice to purchase any food item available on this application. Through this idea for app, the company believes it would be able to address the problem it has set out to solve. The main aim for creating this application is that the user need not ask others before cooking and yet be able to create yummy recipes. The company is currently conducting in-depth surveys in different parts of the world to get the taste of the recipies right. Currently, the start-up is doing our all activity in Swarnim Incubation Centre of the Swarnim Startup and Innovation University and is feeling very confident and energetic under the mentorship of Jay D Patel and Bhargav Makodia.

AUTOMATIC MULTI POINT SPANNER

We are working in a startup which is about “Automatic Multi Point Spanner. The spanners are generally used to loosen or tighten screws in vehicles. It is a small and handy tool used for assembly of vehicles. Generally, the spanner is useful in automobile industry, garages and service stations, etc. The components used in the project include gear arrangements, nut fitting arrangement, motor, shafts, pinion, cam, follower arrangements, etc. The main aim of the start-up is to fix all nuts in a vehicle at once and remove them at once. The main concept of the project is nut fitting and removing them without human help. The heart of the project and implementation is motor. The purpose of the project is to design a tool, which can be applied to all the mechanisms and in all types of vehicles for removing and fixing nuts. Various types of wrenches are used to assemble or disassemble the vehicle parts. This process is time consuming. We require torque spanners to save mechanics energy as well as time, so we are going to design a multi-tasking tool which is easy to use and easy to carry. We are working in Swarnim Incubation, where all kinds of facilities for startups are available. Here, the mentoring guidance is given by Chintan A Prajapati. Our Swarnim Startup and Innovation University is helping us in all our activities within the campus.

MECHANICAL SPY HAWK

MECHANICAL SPY HAWK, as the name suggests, is useful to military for surveillance and spying. This product can also be called a modified drone. A mechanical spy hawk is a light weight and powerful mechanical hawk which is fully designed on the basis of FLAPPING WINGS MECHANISM with a battery connection that can provide sufficient power to the flapping wing. In the design of hawk there is a pair of high resolution cameras which is used to capture as well as record the circular movements. The main aim of this product is to help BSF (Border Security Force) soldiers in surveillance. The main problem arise in drones is the recognition of drone by the enemies. Hence, this problem has been solved by introduction of our product. The movement and design of our product is the same as natural hawk. The SSIU and faculties are helping us to achieve the desired goal. They help us by providing sufficient knowledge about the product and procedure to make the product successful. Faculty is also helping us by providing the information of components and availability of components in the market. The collaboration between the faculty and students is great as they are always willing to help the students to overcome their problems.

HEALTHCARE THE DIGITAL WAY

With the advancement of technology and development of more robust and dynamic ready-to-use microcontrollers, digital applications are increasing in all the domains — ranging from consumer electronics to healthcare. With an added advantage of entry level to high-end ready to interface electronics sensors, a complex, sophisticated and advanced digital application can be deployed in the physical world. Designing a new digital application is a challenging task due to its wide range of parameters affecting the system performance. Designer and developer follows a common practice of prototype development for verification and performance check. USDB is designed to target a 10th standard hobbyist as well as an industry expert, as a complete solution for all the sensor-level application prototyping and development. USDB is compatible enough to implement a fast processing algorithm application with a remarkable capacity of one million instructions per seven nano seconds. USDB comes with a unique feature of developing your own system with current support of more than 50+ sensors. It has backward as well as forward compatibility, which makes it a one-point solution for all the application development needs with multiple numbers of sensors. USDB will be of plug and play type with the minimum need of external hardware interfacing. An internally loaded programme makes it userfriendly to work with, especially for hobbyist with less or fewer technical knowledge. Instead of loading programme here user have to just press selection keys for activating corresponding sensor and its output will be displayed on LCD. Due to its forward and backward compatibility developers can design their own complex application. We are a new bee at Swarnim Incubation powered by Swarnim Startup and Innovation University. Mentors here are experienced and experts in their domains.

SMART CART – THE FUTURE OF SHOPPING

In today’s world, everything is getting smarter with the advancement in technology. But for a long time we haven’t seen any significant advancement in the shopping experience from malls and supermarkets. It is still the same way as it was in the 90’s — carting the items and waiting in the queue for checkout. This process in this modern world seems time consuming and boring. The experience goes even worse during sales and festive holiday shopping offers when everyone tries to grab the deals. What if we introduce a system with quick checkout and no queuing? Keeping this in view, we decided to introduce a smart cart. This is an automated and time saving system for the world of retail which can enhance one’s shopping experience, is customer friendly and secure. The proposed product is capable of generating bill from the cart itself which will end the traditional process of waiting in a long queue for checkout and, as an add-on feature, the tagged items will be monitored live on the backhand. The designed cart will make the best use of available storage space and also includes theft control mechanism. The smart cart uses NFC technology for shopping and payment. We, the students of Swarnim Startup and Innovation University, are powered by an experienced faculty at the Swarnim Incubation Centre who are available for support with live mentoring on campus and also with online support via social networking. Facilities of high profile lab with all modern electronics equipment, that too at no cost, is a kick start, provoking us to move further for building the product more efficiently.

OROTONS

QualiMed discovers, develops, manufactures, and delivers innovative human therapeutics. It is bringing safe, effective medicines from lab to manufacturing plant and then to patients. It is committed to advancing science to dramatically improve people’s lives. QualiMed focuses on innovative therapeutics with convenient application. OroTons is a non-aerosol technology, specially designed for oromucosal diseases. It is fastest, most effective and convenient way to get instant pain relief from oromucosal diseases. OroTons is easy, simple and advance medical device so it is highly compliance for pediatric and geriatric patients. This OROMUCOSAL SPRAY developed under guidance with team of of Arihant School of Pharmacy. Qualimed pharma was established to address unmet needs for oromucosal diseases and we have successfully developed proven and recommended India’s first instant pain relief from traumatic oromucosal diseases.

BOEKART

Three students of Swarnim Startup and Innovation University (SSIU) have organised a startup under the guidance of SSIU, with a motive to serve the youth generation in field of education by providing them books at low price, so that everyone can get a chance to enhance their knowledge by pursuing books. SSIU has provided a foundation platform for our startup by providing best facilities with a highly featured incubation center and under the guidance of experts that are helping us at every beginning step of the startup. We are working under the guidance of Jay Patel sir and Bhargav Makodia sir, the two experts of startup. Our startup is based on online selling and buying of books. We have mainly targeted academic books. We provide all kind of academic books (old / new), the main aid that we provide to our customers is by providing them old books at almost half price of the book, by which anyone can afford to buy costly books. We have targeted to provide an E-market of books to everyone, where anyone can sell or buy at profitable price just by sitting at home. Our business is basically an E-commerce based service which includes home to home service. We provide books in good condition and at best offers for our buyers and sellers. Hence, our basic motive is to save customers’ time and money by providing them ease in book shopping.

PINUTRION, A BEVERAGE WITH LESS CALORIE MORE VITAMINS

Kishore Kapadia and Sumit Salia both an alumni of LM College, previously affiliated to Gujarat University and later merged with Gujarat Technological University, launched ‘Pi Sport’, a sport drink in the market a quarterback in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in May 2017. The drink said to be developed along the scientific lines provides healthier nutritious beverages containing less calories and more vitamins and mineral-based drink, making it unique from all other sport drinks. It took six months from conceptualization to launching of Pi Sport. Kapadia and Salia are the founders of Pi Nutrition, a startup developing health and wellness drinks based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The product was already launched before they started incubation at GUSEC for support on marketing strategy. It provided Pi Nutrition assistance in two ways: Getting better markets and build contacts required for proper marketing and; build proper entrepreneurship. It has also helped the entrepreneurs reach potential people having network links with investors and venture capitalists. The product has been launched in Ahmedabad, Delhi and Mumbai.

LI-FI: SURFING INTERNET IN A FASTER WAY

A few years ago, the Internet could be used only with the help of the Local Area Network (LAN) cable. This type of technique was only feasible in personal computers (PCs) not with the mobile phones or tablets. The solution for the problem is Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity). Through radio signals, a certain amount of data is transferred through the technology. The Wi-Fi system can easily get connected with appliances like laptop, computer, mobile phone, printer, tablet, etc. Growing uses of Internet, now requires high speed of data transfer. Connected device’s configuration and the server at service provider’s end is the deciding factor of Internet. Number of users connected to a Wi-Fi network is also a deciding factor for the speed of Internet. More the number of users, lesser will be the speed, which is a drawback of this technology. Li-Fi (light fidelity) is the solution to this problem. The speed in a Li-Fi network is higher than a Wi-Fi network. This technology uses light to transfer the data from one end to other. “Swarnim Incubation” helped in developing the prototype for Li-Fi. The company is getting all facility related startup and mentoring support from the faculty members of the incubation centre.

Now, MHRD to rank Kendriya Vidyalayas

News

Akash

October 30, 2017

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), in first of its kind initiative, is going to rank over 1,000 Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs).

The objective of the government’s initiative is to improve the institutes through holding a competition among them, sources said. The process for the same has been started and the outcome is expected to be declared in June 2018. The move is followed by the instructions of Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar to improve Kendriya Vidyalayas, the source added.

According to sources, inspection of schools would be done twice for the ranking which would be an annual exercise from next year.

With maximum 1,000 points, the KVs will be graded under four categories. KVs with 80 per cent and above will be under A category (excellent), KVs with 60-79.9 per cent will be under B category (very good), 40-59.9 per cent in C (Good) category, and below 40 per cent will be under D (average) category.

To assess over 1,000 KVs, there would be seven parameters including academic performance which will carry the highest weightage of 500 points. The other categories will be school infrastructure (150 points) and school administration (120 points). Other heads under which schools would be marked include finance (70 points), community participation (60 points), grace points (90 points) and overall observation by the inspectors (10 points).

This would be the first official ranking of Kendriya Vidyalayas in the country.

Government since last two years is also conducting the ranking through National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). NAAC – an autonomous body funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC) assess higher education institutes.

The Kendriya Vidyalayas are central government schools in the country instituted under the aegis of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). Its one of the main objectives includes catering to the educational needs of children of transferable Central government staff including defence and para-military personnel by providing a common programme of education.

Delhi’s corporation schools to become English medium from next academic session

News

Akash

October 30, 2017

Schools under municipal corporations of East Delhi and North Delhi will adopt English as the medium of teaching for all subjects from the next academic session.

East Delhi Municipal Corporation’s (EDMC) Education Committee chairman Himanshi Pandey said, “All 365 schools under the purview of EDMC will introduce English as the compulsory medium of instruction for students of nursery and Class I, and optional for other classes”.

“It might be be difficult for students already learning in Hindi to switch. So we will have the option of Hindi for classes other than nursery,” she said, adding, “The idea is to gradually make it completely English medium.” According to her, the decision will help the students in their higher studies.

The North civic body of national capital has 765 schools, EDMC has 365 and SDMC has 581 schools under their jurisdiction — till Class V. After Class V, those studying in MCD schools migrate to schools under the Delhi government.

South Delhi Municipal Corporation has already announced that all schools under its purview will have one section each in nursery and Class I, which would use English as the medium of instructions. Students in over 1,700 government schools across the city will now have the option to learn in English medium.

North Delhi mayor Preety Aggarwal said, “We already have some schools where we are teaching in English but our target is to make English the medium of instruction in at least one section in all schools.”

The North civic body introduced English as the medium of instruction in one section each in around 30 schools in 2013 that gradually been increased to one section each in around 100 more schools.

A senior official of East Corporation said one of the main reasons behind the high dropout rate in municipal schools is also that they do not have English medium. “If the financial condition of a parent improves, he/she generally prefers to send the child to a private school,” he said.

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