FTII, Canon India ink MoU to promote film education

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March 16, 2017

Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and Canon India Pvt Ltd have signed an MoU to promote film education across the country. through short term courses.

Several skill oriented short term courses have been proposed under FTII’s initiative Skilling India in Film and Television (SKIFT). These short term courses are likely to be held in collaboration with state governments, universities and educational institutions.

According to an official release, the ‘technology partner’ of SKIFT, Canon, would be providing high-end cameras and accessories free of cost for the courses, an official release said.

Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, said that the initiative would ensure the perfect blend of technology and young talent through the platform of FTII.

The release said that the move would be a “major contributing factor in keeping the course fees affordable while offering an opportunity to course participants to use cutting-edge equipment”.

The places where courses are proposed to be held initially include Guwahati, Jaipur, Vishakhapatnam, Raipur, Chandigarh, Raipur, Bhopal, Leh and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

To begin with, SKIFT would conduct courses such as Digital Cinematography, Documentary Film Making, Screenplay Writing, Acting, Film Criticism & Journalism and Film Appreciation.

IIT Madras to increase industry-funded research, hire foreign faculty

Higher Education

By

Akash

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March 16, 2017

IIT Madras to increase industry-funded research, hire foreign faculty

Indian Institute of Technology – Madras (IIT-M) will be hiring 100 foreign faculties over the next three years to boost industry-funded research. Initially, the institute is planning to hire 25 foreign nationals as faculty, said an IIT Madras official.

The official also added that the institute is focusing majorly on improving the industry-institute research partnerships, on enhancing the donations from former students, and boosting the placements via drawing more and more corporates.

According to an official statement, one of the major goals of the institute is to nurture entrepreneurial skills among the students of IIT Madras.

According to the official, union government has sanctioned Rs 750 crore as IIT Madras’ budget for the next fiscal. The institute is expected to get first portion of sanctioned amount soon.

Pawan Goenka, Chairman, Governing Board of IIT-M and Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, told reporters, “IIT-M plans to have around 100 foreign nationals as its faculty over the next three years. To start with, the institute plans to hire around 25 foreign nationals as faculty members”.

IIT Madras Director Bhasker Ramamurthi hoped that appointing foreign faculty members will help in conceptualising diverse ideas since not all nationalities think alike.

Cabinet approves bill to declare 15 IIITs as institute of national importance

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Akash

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March 16, 2017

The Union Cabinet has approved a bill declaring 15 Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) set up under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode as Institutions of National Importance. The bill granted the IIITs degree awarding power.

The Cabinet passed the Indian Institute of Information Technology Public Private Partnership (IIIT-PPP) Bill, 2017 to “grant statutory status to 15 IIITs set up under the PPP mode and declare them as Institutions of National Importance, to enable them to grant degrees to the students in the academic courses conducted by them”.

The Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) had announced to set up 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) across the country under PPP mode, out of which 15 are already functional at Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh), Guwahati, Vadodara, Kota, Srirangam (Tamil Nadu), Una (Himachal Pradesh), Sonepat (Haryana), Kalyani (West Bengal), Lucknow, Nagpur, Pune, Ranchi, Kottayam, Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh) and Dharwad (Karnataka).

It cost Rs 128 crore to set up an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) which is contributed by the Centre, state government and the industry in the ratio of 50:35:15.

When Education Overwhelmed A Nation of Islands — Bahrain

News

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Akash

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March 16, 2017

Bahrain witnessed a grand congregation of thought leaders, stake holders and entrepreneurs of the education sector recently during the 8^thElets World Education Summit 2017 organised from 8-9 March.

Organised at the Bahrain Bayan School, Bahrain, the special summit included various discussion segments related to demographics, geo-politics, societal aspirations and technological trends and practices.

Parameters influencing and driving investment flows in the field of education across MENA region was also one of the major key discussion points during the event.

Eminent speakers laid stress on the need for formal and informal methods to teach or learn to develop an approach of life-long learning, along with strategies employed in creating policies and structures to encourage and support direct Industry collaborations for robust institutions.

On this occasion speakers such as Dr Riad Hamza, President, University of Bahrain; Paul Fear, Chief Executive Officer, British Accreditation Council; Dr. Khaled Saeed Tabbara, Vice President, Arabian Gulf University; Prof Abdul Sattar Ahmad Al-Alusi, President and Chief Executive Officer, Emirates College for Management and Information Technology, Dubai, UAE; Professor Mazin M.A. Jumaah, President, Royal University for Women, Bahrain etc shared their pearls of wisdom.

In an endeavour to recognise and encourage organisations, projects, and programme initiatives in the field of education, notable eduleaders were presented awards in the varying categories like Edupreneurship, Introducing Innovations in Teaching Pedagogy Global Collaborative Learning Environments, Innovative Interventions in Pre-School Teaching & Learning.

Education to touch new heights with Great Lakes Institute’s campus in Andhra Pradesh

By

Akash

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March 15, 2017

Great Lakes, a Chennai and Gurgaon based institute in management studies has launched the Great Lakes International University (GLIU) in Andhra Pradesh, which is among one of the first few private universities being set up in the state.

The first academic session of the university will commence in August 2017 with two undergraduate courses — a BBA and a BTech in computer science. The intake will be 120 students for each course. Specialisations in business analytics, ecommerce and supply chain management, fintech and digital marketing will be offered under the undergraduate business degree. The technical degree will focus on new age specializations such as cyber security, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, Internet of Things and cloud computing.

“The university aims to nurture future leaders who are armed with intellectual curiosity, critical thinking and confidence derived from strong values and a global perspective,” Mohan Lakhamraju, co-founder of the university told to a leading newspaper.

“We’ve designed the educational experience at GLIU with a multidisciplinary approach in mind — drawing inspiration from top global schools like The Wharton School and Singapore Management University, and focusing not just on core competencies like business and technology, but also building a broadbased intellectual foundation through studying the liberal arts,” said Lakhamraju, co-founder of GLIU.

GLIU already has academic collaborations in place with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Bordeaux University in Europe, and Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

Amazon emerged as top recruiter at IIM-A, offered 18 jobs

By

Akash

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March 15, 2017

E-commerce giant Amazon has emerged as the top recruiter at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A). The e-commerce company has offered 18 jobs for the class of 2017 at India’s top B-school.

A little more than 100 firms took part in the final round of placements at IIM-A. Sector-wise, consulting firms, such as Accenture Strategy, Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company and The Boston Consulting Group, made the highest number of offers.

Among global banks, Goldman Sachs was the largest recruiter among global banks which picked up nine students. Hindustan Unilever has offered seven jobs, highest in the sales and marketing domain followed by Procter & Gamble, SC Johnson and Samsung, with six offers each.

Tata Administrative Service was the largest recruiter in the general management area with 10 offers whereas consumer tech cohort, Sprinklr made nine offers.

Among the Banking, Financial Services & Insurance recruiters, American Express, FinIQ, Fullerton and RBL were some of them who extended offers.

Sales and marketing roles were offered by regular recruiters like Airtel, Asian Paints, HUL, ITC, Nestle, P&G and Reckitt Benckiser, among others.

IIIT-Delhi joins hands with IBM, Federal Bank for interactive online hackathon

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Akash

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March 15, 2017

Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi ((IIIT-Delhi) has announced an interactive online hackathon, “IBM Challenge” in collaboration with IBM and Federal Bank. In 2016, the event attracted over 500 students.

Through the hackathon, students will get an opportunity to learn new cognitive computing skills. The hackathon will also enable students to solve reallife business problems using IBM Watson API’s on the IBM Cloud platform.

An official communique in this regard revealed that the hackathon is a part of Research Showcase 2017. It is an annual event exhibiting the research and development work from premier educational institutions in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) region.

“The IBM Challenge is designed to blend handson learning with relevant market skill development. The participants will be asked to solve a realworld banking industry business problem and develop relevant technology solutions as part of the challenge,” said A.V. Subramanyam, Chair, Research Showcase 2017, IIIT-Delhi.

The theme of the hackathon is online customer engagement. Here students will be able to develop solutions to help banks for providing their customers better banking experience.

“Our association with IIIT-Delhi and Federal Bank will help arm the developers of tomorrow with the latest capabilities and foster the necessary skills to join the workforce and create enterprise class applications at consumer scale.” said Devkant Aggarwal, Manager, University Relations, IBM India.

The participants will be mentored by IIIT-Delhi and IBM and the winner will be adjudged jointly by IIIT-Delhi, Federal Bank and IBM.

Andhra government allocates over Rs 20,000 crore for education

By

Akash

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March 15, 2017

The Andhra Pradesh government has announced that it will increase the share of funds for education in the state’s budget. The state government has also announced to make special provisions for assistance to unemployed youth in the state.

According to State Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Rs 500 crore has been allocated for assistance to unemployed youth.

In the budget, Rs 20,384 crore has been allocated for general education and Rs 765 crore for technical education whereas Rs 398 crore were allotted for Skill Development schemes.

In comparison to the last financial year, total allocation to education sector has increased by more than 20% by the AP government. It is also noteworthy that the AP government has set aside a separate fund for technical education.

Elaborating on the idea behind allocating the “gender budget”, Ramakrishnudu said, “Gender budgeting is a process of incorporating a gender perspective at all levels of the budgetary process, assessing the needs of target groups and allocating resources. The government will undertake a comprehensive set of actions to improve the lives of women across all human development indicators.”

Andhra Pradesh is not the only state to focus on education for the financial year 2017-18; Delhi Government had also announced special focus on education in its annual budget presentation.

St Xavier’s college is set to reach new heights as a university

By

Akash

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March 11, 2017

Kolkata campus of St. Xavier’s University is expected to be inaugurated in July, 2017. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Lakshmi Niwas Mittal would inaugurate the university. It is expected that initially the university will offer four postgraduate courses.

The new campus of the university will spread over 17 acres of land. The campus would include two hostels for both boys and girls with a capacity of 1,000 students in each. The university campus would also house a football field, a sports academy, a swimming pool, a 3500 sq ft food court and a law institute and, St Xavier’s University and its Rajarhat will be.

“We are thinking of a scenario 50100 years down the line. We will need more space to start new age courses and accommodate more students,” said vice chancellor Father Felix Raj.

In its first academic session, the university will offer six courses. Around 650 students will be enrolled in these courses in the first year.

IIT-Kanpur to become cashless, partnered with Paytm

By

Akash

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March 11, 2017

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur) has entered in a partnership with digital payment company Paytm under the company’s ‘Cashless Campus’ initiative, official statement said.

In a statement shared by Paytm, the company said that QR code-based cashless payment solution has been enabled by the company within IIT-Kanpur. Offline touch-points are available across the campus including hostel canteens, medical store, tea stalls, book stalls and cycle repairing shops.

According to the company, the partnership will help students and teachers to make quick and easy payments without the worries of carrying loose change.

“Our ‘Cashless Campus’ initiative has proven to be a great success with the country’s youth. This is a clear reflection of the younger generation’s eagerness to choose digital payments over the hassles of cash”.

“IIT Kanpur would be a great addition to our extensive portfolio of premium institutions including IIM Ahmedabad, IIT Madras and Sree Ram College of Commerce among others that have gone cashless with Paytm. We strongly believe these cashless campuses would add a huge positive impetus to our vision of a cashless India,” Kiran Vasireddy, sr. vice president – Paytm said.

This move is in line with Paytm’s strategy of targeting major campus areas for cashless transactions, the company added further.