YMCA University of Science and Technology signs MoU with Pratt and Whitney

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August 23, 2017

Chandigarh: With a view to provide an opportunity to the students for exploring their future option in growing aerospace and aviation sector, YMCA University of Science and Technology, Faridabad has signed an MoU with leading Aircraft Engine Manufacturing Company, Pratt and Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corporation.

The University became the first Institute in the State to introduce a programme in Aerospace and Aviation specialisation with Industrial Partnership. This partnership aims at facilitating the growth of an aviation ecosystem in India by helping in creation of an industry ready talent pool through a number of skill development programs and initiatives.

Present on the occasion were Vice Chancellor Prof. Dinesh Kumar, Dean (Institutions) Dr. Sandeep Grover, Chairman – Mechanical Engineering Dr. Tilak Raj, Palash Roy Chowdhury, Managing Director – India, Pratt and Whitney, Amit Pathak, General Manager, Customer Training Centre – India, Pratt and Whitney.

A two-day Industry Technical Workshop organised by Industrial Relations Cell of the University on ‘Introduction to Aircraft Engines and Systems’ was also inaugurated on this occasion which was coordinated by Dr Jyoti Verma, Director, Industrial Relations. Amit Pathak, General Manager, Pratt and Whitney India Training Centre (PWITC), Hyderabad was also present on this occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Vice-Chancellor Prof Dinesh Kumar appreciated the efforts made by the Industry Relations Cell for making such industrial tie-up for the promotion of excellence in higher studies and motivation of students. ‘The University acknowledges the support that Pratt and Whitney has offered towards augmenting the academic resources of the University in the area of aerospace and aviation and we encourage such kinds of collaboration for the benefit of our students.

“In alignment with the ‘Skill India’ initiative of the Government, this partnership shall enable a more practical learning experience for our students and make them industry ready for the exciting job opportunities opening up in the aerospace and aviation sectors,’’ he added. The Vice-Chancellor said that with this collaboration, the University would further explore the possibilities of developing and launching a BE/BTech course with Aerospace/Aviation specialization in the future.

Speaking about this announcement, Palash Roy Chowdhury, Managing Director – India, Pratt and Whitney said “India has emerged as the fastest growing aviation market globally today thanks to growth of low cost carriers as well as industry friendly policies of the government. In support of the Indian government’s initiative on ‘Skill India’ we are delighted to partner with YMCA University of Science and Technology, Faridabad to drive the skill development initiatives in the aviation and aerospace sector in the country.

Through this partnership, we aim to create a talent pool of highly skilled and trained technical professionals to support the significant growth projected in the aviation sector in the coming decade. This alliance will also help in bridging the gap in the availability of skilled manpower in the aerospace and aviation sectors”
Prof Sandeep Grover, Dean (Institutions) said that YMCA is known for its quality students and placement record. The University has achieved major milestones in a short span of time including accredited with Grade-A by NAAC and has ranked amongst the top Government Engineering Institutions in the state as per the latest ranking of NIRF-2017.

Dr Tilak Raj, Chairman of Mechanical Engineering Department said that the university has introduced an elective subject on ‘Aircraft Operations and Maintenance’ for B Tech students in 3rd semester from the current academic session. Under the faculty development programme, five faculty members from Mechanical Engineering Department would attend a week long training programme on basic skills in aircraft repair and maintenance at Pratt and Whitney India Training Centre (PWITC), Hyderabad.

This joint initiative will allow Pratt and Whitney and YMCA University of Science and Technology to explore short–term executive development programs aimed at developing skill and talent needs of the aviation ecosystem and thereby supporting “Make in India” initiatives of the Government of India. Further, the memorandum also aims at developing customised elective courses that will be offered alongside existing university curriculum to better prepare students for the opportunities in the aerospace and aviation sectors.

The partnership will also provide industry exposure to students and faculty through internships, industrial trainings; value added courses through Virtual Reality (VR) technology, guest lectures and workshops conducted by aerospace industry experts.

It may be noted that Pratt and Whitney has a worldwide large commercial engine maintenance, repair and overhaul network. The company supplies engines to the 25% of the world’s passenger Aircraft fleet. It has a long and distinguished record of providing top-of-the line military engines to 31 armed forces around the world which includes F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II, as well as the C-17 Globemaster III military transport and Boeing’s KC-46 Tanker. In 1960, when Air-India rolled-out its first Boeing 707 aircraft, it got powered by Pratt and Whitney’s JT-3D Engines.

Sri Lankan Government striving to improve the education sector: V S Radhakrishnan

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Akash

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August 23, 2017

Sri Lankan Minister of State for Education V S Radhakrishnan has said, ” The present government has put forward many things to improve the education sector of the country”.

Speaking at the 10th World Education Summit in New Delhi earlier this month, the minister shared about Sri Lankan government’s plan for the education sector of the country. He said that President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe are focussing on boosting the education sector.

He said, “The Sri Lankan government in its budget has allocated six percent of the country’s GDP towards bringing improvement in the education sector”, divided into school education and higher education.

The minister said, “The government has made 13 years of education compulsory for every student in the country. If they failed to clear General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (GCE O Level), they can opt for vocational training with their relevant subject or for training in Information Technology (IT).”

“There are about 4.5 million students studying in the Sri Lankan schools. There are about 2,11,000 teachers and about 10,100 schools in Sri Lanka. Out of these schools over 350 schools are under Central Government which are also known as “National Schools”. These National Schools are running as ‘Super Schools’ as they are provided with all the facilities by the government and are equipped with all the latest technologies and follow the best global practices. All the other schools are handled by the provincial councils,” he said

“We are also trying that the students after leaving the schools go for the jobs not the ordinary ones but the better ones i.e. the white collar jobs. To achieve this we have set up 42 vocational training institutes and in 2018 we would like to add 105 more such institutes to improve the job scenario in the country. It is government’s effort to not only create jobs but also develop entrepreneurial skills in the students,” he added.

Describing about the Sri Lanka, he said, “Sri Lanka is a small country. The biggest source of Sri Lanka’s revenue is tourism and tea and rubber export. There are around 22 million people living in Sri Lanka and to administer them the country has nine provincial councils.”

Centre plans 40% girls quota in proposed schools, higher education institutes

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Akash

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August 22, 2017

Girls-education — Women in India have two sides to them â they are worshipped in the form of Goddesses on one side, while on the other they face exploitation, discrimination, and even threat to their survival. Working towards their development and empowerment will give back in countless ways to improve the lives of their families, communities and nations at large. The âBecause I Am a Girlâ â BIAAG â campaign, initiated by Plan International, and being implemented by Plan India, is a step in this direction to prioritize girlsâ rights as the salient issue in the coming decades, and girlsâ education is foremost to achieve the campaign objectives.

Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs (I/C) and Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has said that the government is planning to offer 40% reservation to girls in proposed 100 Navodaya-type schools and five higher education institutes.

He said that the Central Government is planning to set up these institutions in minority concentrated areas of the country. “We want to empower the communities with dignity and, therefore, are focusing on the education sector. We will give 40% reservation to girls from the communities in the schools and also in the institutes. This is to ensure they complete their education,” Naqvi added.

A report by a high-level panel formed by the Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) recommended a three tier model to tackle educational backwardness among minorities, particularly the Muslims. MAEF is a government funded agency.

In the suggested model, 211 schools, 25 community colleges and five higher education institutes will be opened to create infrastructure for imparting quality education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. The proposed schools would work on the lines of Kendriya Vidayala or Navodaya Vidyalaya. They are also provided with food and lodging facilities.

According to Naqvi the schools are expected to be commissioned next year in buildings developed under the Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP).

The minister said that the governments in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have expressed interest in setting up the institutes for higher education.

ICSE schools’ association to aware students on misuse of social media

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Akash

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August 22, 2017

ICSE schools’ association in West Bengal is soon going to organise a workshop for the students of its member schools to make them aware about the misuse of social media and the risk of online games like ‘Blue Whale Challenge’.

“We will be holding the workshop by September 2017 where two student leaders from class 9 and 10 and one teacher from each school will be participating and speak on the ‘abuse and misuse of social media’ and online games like ‘Blue Whale Challenge’,” Association Secretary Nabarun De said.

During the workshop, cyber experts will inform the student leaders about the inherent dangers of social media addiction, how it affects their studies, personal lives and how online games like ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ can be fatal, De added.

“They will then communicate the message to their classmates in a more cogent manner. We will be inviting all schools affiliated to our association including those in the Hills. We are sure of the participation from schools located in the plains,” he said.

The move is followed by a workshop at Central Modern School where De is the Principal.

“We have already conducted this exercise in my institution where the students showed a lot of interest as resource persons interacted with them and their teachers,” he said.

De also said that the workshop also apprise the students that addiction of smart phones may distract them from other curricular and extracurricular activities.

Over 250 schools spread across West Bengal are expected to participate in it.

IITs and IIMs may evaluate and accredit other institutes`

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Akash

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August 22, 2017

The Centre may engage IITs and IIMs to evaluate and accredit other institutes to ensure transparency and to reduce the time taken for accreditation of higher education institutes.

Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar said that a meeting is proposed with eight IITs and eight IIMs to expand the base of evaluating agencies.

National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), an autonomous institution under the UGC, solely carries out the accreditation. Earlier this year, the government think-tank Niti Ayog recommended that the ministry should allow accreditation by reputed private institutions.

Javadekar said that the government was instead looking at using resources from within. “We have a huge talent pool of teachers and students who can use the entire exercise of evaluation as a learning tool,” he said.

Even though some IITs have shown their reservations towards participating as agencies citing faculty shortage.

NITI Aayog to launch “Mentor India” Campaign for students

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 22, 2017

The Government of India will engage leaders to guide and mentor students in order to foster innovation. NITI Aayog is all set to launch the Mentor India campaign for students at more than 900 Atal Tinkering Labs established across the country as a part of the Atal Innovation Mission.

The aim of Mentor India, a strategic nation building initiative, is to maximise the impact of Atal Tinkering Labs, possibly the biggest disruption in formal education globally.

“The campaign envisage to nurture and guide students in the Atal Tinkering Labs. These labs are non-prescriptive by nature, and mentors are expected to be enablers rather than instructors,” NITI Aayog stated in official statement.

The leaders are expected to spend between one to two hours every week in one or more such labs, helping students experience, learn and practice future skills such as design and computational thinking.

Atal Tinkering Labs are dedicated work spaces where students from Class 6th to Class 12th learn innovation skills. Laced with state-of-the-art equipment such as 3D printers, robotics & electronics development tools, Internet of things & sensors etc, the labs empower students to develop ideas required for transformation of India.

The government is in the process of setting up 900+ such labs across India and aims to have 2,000 such labs by end of 2017.

JEE Advanced to replace MCQs with short answer questions

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Akash

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August 22, 2017

JEE Advanced question paper will now have short answer type questions instead of multiple choice questions (MCQs), the Joint Admission Board (JAB) – conducting body of the entrance exam, has announced the same.

The announcement comes just a day after the board announced to conduct the IIT-JEE Advanced online from now onwards. So far, JEE Advanced only had MCQs for which the candidates need to mark correct answers on optical mark reading (OMR) sheets later evaluated by machines.

“The introduction of a computer-based test will give candidates access to keyboards. So, they will be able to provide correct answers through calculations, if necessary,” said a JAB official. “When the question pattern was multiple-choice, examinees often took refuge in the process of elimination to guess the answer. Now, such opportunities will be limited,” he added.

Explaining about the expected paper pattern, the official said, as there is no order about framing questions, question-setters are free to frame concept-based questions for examinees to not just rely on techniques or memorisation to crack the questions rather to apply their logic for solving the questions. The question pattern is set to change, the official added.

The decision to shift to a computerised testing system had been taken to eliminate printing errors and translation goof-ups that created problems for candidates and necessitated grace marks.

WBBSE to include ‘Kanyashree’ project in its curriculum soon

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Akash

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August 22, 2017

The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) is soon going to include the award winning project of the State Government – Kanyashree in its curriculum.

According to a senior WBBSE official, “The process to include ‘Kanyashree’ project in our curriculum is going on. We are awaiting for the final approval from the government.”

West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee earlier said, “Our government wants to let the future generation to be aware about the path breaking Kanayshree project and how it received award from the UN Assistant Secretary General at the World Forum, The Hague. We wish to suitably incorporate chapters of Kanyashree in the school curriculum at secondary level.”

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched the Kanyashree project in October 2013. It was implemented across the schools in West Bengal with an objective to empower the girls and to prevent dropouts.

Kendriya Vidyalaya to embrace technology for data capture & analytics

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 22, 2017

Aligning with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Digital India’ vision, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan is now embracing smart technology.

Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan is focusing on the use of technology for data capture and analytics. “The institution is also planning to make data accessible to schools, parents and teachers,” said a statement from the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

The use of technology is one the main objectives of “Swasth Bachche, Swasth Bharat’ Programme, an initiative of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan aiming to prepare a physical health and fitness profile card for more than 12 lakhs of its students.

Unveiling the profile card in a function held at Kendriya Vidyalaya at KV NAD, Aluva, Kerala, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar said, “Strengthening the education sector of the country through the empowerment of general education is the aim of Modi Government.”

“Ensuring quality education for all is also the aim of Government,” the minister added.

HRD Minister @PrakashJavdekar launches #SwasthBachcheSwasthBharat Programme: https://t.co/49nzHeF3l9 pic.twitter.com/zeJi4lOJ8z

— PIB India (@PIB_India) August 21, 2017

Swasth Bachche, Swasth Bharat programme

The programme will provide a comprehensive and inclusive report card for children covering all age groups and children of different abilities.

“Making students, teachers and parents aware about the importance of good health and fitness is an objective of the programme,” said the HRD Ministry, adding that encouraging 60 minutes of play each day is important to achieve this goal.

Swasth Bachche, Swasth Bharat programme also intends to imbibe values of Olympics and Paralympics amongst students.

IIT Kharagpur to launch India’s first Genomics lab facility

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Akash

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August 21, 2017

IIT Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) is soon going to start a first of its kind genomics laboratory facility for its students from all engineering branches.

The primary objective of the laboratory will be to teach the basic techniques of life sciences to the second year students. It will include microscopy-based observation, protein structure and function, molecular biology, and bioinformatics.

Under the mentorship of faculties from Biotechnology, Bioscience, Chemistry, Medical Science and Technology and Computer Science and Engineering, from third year onwards, students will be allowed to plan and execute experiments by their own.

The lab and its equipment for research in cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, sequencing facility, microscopy facility, etc will be available for the students for 24×7.

There are few similar kind of laboratories abroad, but in India, it is first of its kind said Sudip K Ghosh of the Biotechnology Department who will be heading this lab.

It is expected that in addition to the laboratory, IIT-KGP may collaborate with Tata Medical to promote interdisciplinary medical research.

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