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Let’s Talk Education

Dr Ravi Gupta
Dr Ravi Gupta

At a time when governments across the globe are making all-out efforts to strengthen the enterprise of education, especially through Skill Development in the Higher Education domain, the various state governments in India are also working to that end in a steadfast manner.

In the present digital age, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has revolutionised every sphere of our life, and so has been its impact on the domain of Education. This impact is all the more visible in states like Karnataka, where the rate of literacy is signifi cantly higher compared to other states.

In this backdrop, the Department of Higher Education, Government of Karnataka, along with Elets Technomedia, has organised “Jnana Sangama” (Convergence of Knowledge) conference, where participants will discuss the past and present trends in education and refl ect on the way forward.

This Special Issue of digitalLEARNING is dedicated to the event. In an interview, Bharat Lal Meena, Additional Chief Secretary – Education, Government of Karnataka, and one of the major initiators of ICT in the State, briefs about the “whats” and “whys” that culminated into the Jnana Sangam. This issue also carries views of the Vice Chancellors of some of the leading universities of Karnataka.

The ongoing trend of digitisation drive in the fi eld of education has also propped up activities in the eduPERIPHERAL segment. We have also profi led some of the most prominent players in the segment, and present here their views, in addition to the outlook of top eduPERIPHERAL stakeholders, about the growth prospects and future of this fast emerging industry.

Creating a trustworthy brand name in the domain of Education has always been a diffi cult task, and listing those in a credible manner a herculean one. But, in line with the promise made in our last issue, we have come up with a ranking of the “Most Trusted Engineering Brands of India” based on their Social and Online presence. The purpose of this ranking exercise is to project the TOP 50 Engineering institutions of India.

Besides, ERP is one software that has made the education system virtually dependent on it. All educational institutions, whether big or small, use ERP for systematic fl ow and escalation and easy accessibility of information. That being the reason, we bring to you a special feature on eduERP, which presents a 360-degree view of the tool, both from the user as well as the industry perspective.

digitalLEARNING.in, our website has undergone a major overhaul over the last few months. Do visit the website and enrol yourself in one of the forums there to stay informed about the latest happenings and participate in lively discussions taking place there.

We look forward to your sustained patronage and support in boosting the enterprise of education.

Byndr’s Mission ultimate accessibility in education

Education has surely become the foremost frontiers for social entrepreneurship and innovation in the digitally developing world of today. Byndr with its roots, both in the U.S. and India, has a global mission to provide students the ultimate accessibility in educational resources. Satish Kumar Nampally, Co-Founder, Byndr speaks to T. Radhakrishna and Sudheer Goutham  of Elets News Network (ENN) about the brand’s aim to provide easy-to-use, fast and mobile-first products for all stakeholders in Higher Education

What motivated you to launch Byndr, an Educational Technological company?

Byndr is a US based startup company, with its Corporate Office at Philadelphia and its subsidiary in India. Majorly, there are 5 Co-Founders of this company. Three of them are in the US and two (including me) are here in India. One of the Founders, being in the teaching profession, is working in a business school. We realized the need for this platform, when she told us that she needed to connect with her students after the 60 minutes of physical class. From there we saw an opportunity and all of us collaborated to bring this out. At first, we made the beta version, then we went to University of Pennsylvania, to participate in their yearly event on education Start-ups. For our venture biz idea, we received an award of cash prize worth $20,000. This is how Byndr came into existence.

How does Byndr help in the education sector?

In developing countries like India and Indonesia, where there are not only a lot of Smartphone users, but they usually have to deal with bandwidth issues, due to network etc. Under such circumstances, we thought of creating a technological platform, which can perform in this kind of environment for the education sector. Byndr can connect the two most important parties in the education system the teachers and students on one platform through technology. Therefore, we are a cloud-based, Learning Management System (LMS).

What makes Byndr unique from other companies in the segment?

There are many software companies, which are providing solutions for educational institutions. However, through research we found that out of these, not many cater specifically to academics.

They either cater to the content, or the administration of the college or the transportation and library management. They basically are ERP based solutions. Moreover, the companies which are into academics also, are dealing only into content based solutions. In content based solutions, the teacher gets the ready-made content. It binds the teacher to teach with the content, which she does not own or she has not made. On the other hand, our product makes the teacher manage her own content and teach in her own way.

In what ways are you trying to empower the teacher?

Our product empowers both the teacher, student and college. By now I have visited more than 250 colleges with our software. I have found that, it is the teachers who make the content, deliver lectures in whichever way they want to. Our platform gives ability to teacher to administrator their class, share learning resources in meaningful way to engage their classes and empowering them, we plan to work on Content Curation to help students with additional content and resources.

Where do you see the company in the next five years?

In the next five years, we want to expand to other emerging markets like Indonesia, Brazil etc. We want to create a platform which both, students and teachers can fall in love with. Creating such a platform is a very fulfilling idea. Our main aim is that if a college wants to adopt an innovative technology, they should not think beyond Byndr.

Alliance between Tata Motors and ASDC sure to boost the Automotive sector

Illustration depicting a highway gantry sign with a new skills and training concept. Blue sky background.

The Automotive sector is sure to take a big leap due to the alliance of Tata Motors, a leader in Indian Automobile manufacturing, with  Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC) for a joint skill development programme in the automotive sector. The main objective of the partnership is to impart and enhance industry-ready occupational skills to Indian youth.

Tata Motors has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of India recognised skill council for helping the former to open skill development centres across its six plants in India. The company’s skill centres will comply with competency levels of the NSQF (National Skills Qualification Framework).

The corporate partnership of Tata Motors with ASDC is a step towards reaping India’s demographic dividend by enhancing employability within India as well as in other countries and also contribute to Government’s aggressive plans under the Skill India Mission, towards ‘Kaushal Bharat- Kushal Bharat’.

The expectation through this collaboration would be to propagate the ASDC certification among the youth who wish to make a career in the exciting field of automobiles. The programme will comprise modules based on the skills for design, engineering, manufacturing, automobile production, sales and service as well in various support functions with a focus on quality, productivity, dexterity, discipline and safety.

AICTE reproached by the Supreme Court for delaying approval to Technical Colleges

In a recent happening, the Supreme Court of India reproached the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for slowing up the process of granting approvals to technical colleges as well as violating the schedule fixed by it for the purpose.

This issue was brought to light when the counsel for Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University (a nodal university of technical colleges in UP)  referred to the violation by AICTE of schedule fixed by the Supreme Court in 2012.

Due to the delay, UP University has been forced to postpone the counselling session for students as the verification process of the colleges had not been completed. Verification is must before the university gives affiliation to the colleges ,once AICTE gives its approval.

However, in this case when the university started verifying the colleges it learnt there were about 20,000 fake teachers in 612 colleges. Therefore, the affiliation of these colleges from the University was stalled and it asked the SC for more time to complete the verification process.

According to the SC 2012 verdict, Universities had to complete the verification by May 15 for grant of affiliation, which has been delayed.

Hence, now the SC has demanded explanation from the AICTE as to the delay in communicating approval to 612 engineering colleges in Uttar Pradesh.

‘Skill India Mission’ on the rise with 1.04 crore youth already Skilled

The Central Government’s Skill India Mission is slowly but steadily being realised. More than 1.04 Crore youth have been trained under this programme in the year 2015-16, which is 36.8 percent higher than the previous year’s recorded data. This statement has been made by Rajiv Pratap Rudy, the Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge).  

In the current arrangement, 60 percent of the trainings are directly under Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship while 40 percent are across other Central Ministries.

The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), launched on July 15, 2015 has witnessed more than 20 lakh people, being trained, of which 40 percent are women candidates.

The Minister said a slew of policy level changes have been introduced with the launch of National Skill Development Policy and Mission as well. Today there are more than 1500 courses that have been aligned to National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF).

Further, the Minister also stated that the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is aiming extensive modernisation of the existing ITI ecosystem and establishment of new ITIs and Multi Skill Training Institutes (MSTIs), so that more and more people get skills of recognised standards which will help them become more employable for the industries.

HRDM stalls UGC’s decision of higher working hours for University teachers

In lieu of the complaints and strikes from teachers of Central Universities, the Human Resource Development Ministry (HRDM) has ordered the University Grants Commission (UGC) to cancel its recently revised regulations for higher working hours for the teachers.

With the intervention of the HRDM, the overall workload of Assistant Professors and Associate Professors/ professors in full employment will remain unchanged. Therefore, the direct teaching-learning hours per week for Assistant Professors remains 16 hours and for Associate Professors it is 14 hours, as before.

Sometimes, last week the UGC had issued new guidelines which had increased the teaching time of teachers by two hours. According to the new guidelines, an Assistant Professor had to teach  for 18 hours a week, while an Associate Professor was required to put in 16 hours.

NIIT University introduces Prof VS Rao as its future President

The not-for-profit, NIIT University (NU) has announced the appointment of Prof VS Rao, a renowned education administrator, as the next President for NU. The NU has been established with a vision to bring about innovation in higher education and learning in emerging areas of the knowledge society. Currently, the acting Vice Chancellor of BITS Pilani (overseeing the campuses in Pilani, Hyderabad, Goa and Dubai), Prof VS Rao will be joining NU in July this year.

With a distinguished career spanning over three decades, Prof Rao  has been the Founding Director for BITS Pilani (Hyderabad campus) since 2006. He is sure to bring forth rich expertise of over three decades of institution building and experience of developing work-integrated programs, to promote strong industry linkages at NU. Being a PhD in Chemistry, with a specialisation in the field of Green Chemistry, he is deeply involved in promoting innovation in higher education.

Recently, NU has entered into strategic alliances with leading organisations like ICICI, ESRI, IBM, WNS, PwC and Federal Bank, for offering pioneering Masters level programs.

Niti Aayog encourages development of tinkering labs in Schools under AIM

Niti Aayog, in an effort to encourage innovation and promote scientific temper, will be providing Rs 10 crore to 100 new incubators and Rs 20 lakh to 500 tinkering labs in schools,  under the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM).  

For this, Niti Aayog has invited applications from eligible schools, organisations and individuals to apply for the three major schemes under Atal Innovation Mission, which includes:

  • Establishing tinkering laboratories in schools
  • Establishing new incubation centres
  • Scaling-up established incubation centres.

Under the AIM,  one-time establishment grant-in-aid of Rs 10 lakh for establishing Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATL) in schools for VI to XII across India and another Rs 10 lakh for each lab over a period of five years for operational expenses would be given.  Therefore,  each school will receive Rs 20 lakh for tinkering labs.

The tinkering labs will be equipped with ‘do it yourself’ kits and instruments related to science, electronics, robotics, open source microcontroller boards, sensors, 3D printers and computers, along with infrastructures such as meeting rooms and video conferencing facility.

UGC language portal ‘Bharatvani’ goes live

The University Grants Commission’s (UGC)  pet project ‘Bharatvani’ that has multilingual dictionary which searches from among 171 dictionaries of different languages goes live.

The plan to launch ‘Bharatvani’ was announced November last year, where it was said that the portal would feature content from Indian writers, Government, and non-Government organizations, boards of education, textbook corporations, universities, publication houses, and academies etc.

In order to access the dictionaries, the user needs to log in and download certain files. The portal lists 29 languages including English, Hindi, Marathi, Tulu, Nepali, Kashmiri, etc as searchable. The website is also available in all these languages, in addition to sporting a default Hindi/English interface.

Currently, Bharatvani is only capable of providing definitions of English words in other languages. However,  this is currently incomplete. A search for the word ‘great’ returned results in Assamese and Kannada, and there was simply no way for us to say filter to check for the Hindi or Marathi definitions.

KPIT in association with College of Engineering, Pune launches ‘KPIT Sparkle 2017’

KPIT, a global technology company specialising in product engineering and IT consulting, in association with College of Engineering, Pune has launched the third edition of its annual national design and development innovation contest ‘KPIT Sparkle 2017. This contest would be focussing on creating a culture of innovation and disruptive thinking among engineering and science students.

Through this contest, KPIT invites students from across Indian colleges to come up with cutting-edge solutions within the theme, ‘Smart Cities’ and win prizes worth over 20 lakhs.

The event will focus on creating solutions for Smart Transportation and Smart Infrastructure within the scope of Smart Cities. Apart from being advanced in technology, the matter of cost-effectiveness should also be kept in mind. Finalists will also be invited for job & internship opportunities with KPIT.

The Smart Cities initiative by the Indian government is vital to the development of our country and provides many opportunities to create groundbreaking solutions to solve real world challenges.

 Last year’s edition of the contest, KPIT Sparkle 2016, received more than 1,700 innovative ideas on Green Energy, Alternate Fuels & Materials, Autonomous Vehicles and Intelligent Traffic Management from over 10,000 students across 500 colleges in India.

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