Bar Council disallows Osmania, Kakatiya University graduates

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October 8, 2014

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has asked the Telangana State Bar Association to not enroll the 2014-15 batch law graduates of Law University College, Kakatiya, and Osmania University Law College as advocates.

This move has caused uncertainty among law students who have been impacted by the BCI decision.

The Telangana-based universities have been penalised for not conforming to the Legal Education Rules 2008 Act requiring all colleges to pay Rs 1.5 lakh to the council as inspection fee, after which a team inspects the campus to check if the prescribed norms are not met.

Protesting the high inspection fee, the Osmania University Law College moved to the High Court of Andhra Pradesh last year. The court had put a stay on the payment of the fee.

As per the officials of the institute, the university collects Rs 350 from each student as annual fee. They say that it will be difficult for the university to pay Rs 1.5 lakh annually to the BCI.

Since the institute has acquired the courtâ??s stay against payment of fee, the officials say the directive to derecognise the institutes is not legal.

The BCI is a statutory body that regulates legal education in the country. It has been created by the Parliament of India to regulate and represent the Indian bar.

With the council derecognising the law courses of Delhi University recently, the Delhi high Court has issued a notice to the BCI and to the Delhi Bar Council in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed to nullify the BCI order.

1000 US academics to teach in Indian Universities

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digitalLEARNING Network

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October 8, 2014

In an attempt to enhance the quality of education, the Modi government has decided to rope in various American academicians to teach in different Indian universities across the nation. Earlier, it was made mandatory for CSIR scientists from CSIR to take classes in schools and colleges.

According to the latest plan, there would be around 1000 American academics who would be invited to teach in various centrally-recognized universities across the nation. The academics who would be mainly from the field of science and innovations would be visiting the universities at their own convenience. The programme got its nod during the recently concluded meeting of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and American President Barrack Obama in Washington.

The programme is supposed to establish a Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) where invitations would be made to American academics to visit India and teach its students so that they can prosper and innovate better. The US academics would be assigned specific Indian Universities where they would be appointed on a short-term basis to teach and share their experiences with the Indian students. The scheduling of the colleges and universities would be made by the Human Resource and Development Ministry in accordance with the Science and Technology Ministry of India.

Earlier the Science and Technology ministry along with HRD Ministry decided to make it mandatory for over 5000 scientists in the country to undertake 12 hours of lecture classes in a year at various public-funded schools and colleges across the nation.

This programme is expected to provide the students the perfect platform to enhance their knowledge by the experience and expertise of the US academicians and would help in expanding their activities in ‘innovative technology’ in the nation.

Keeping the vision of ‘Digital India’ in mind, the improvement of digital infrastructure, deployment of e-governance and e-services, promotion of industry collaboration and empowering Indian citizens digitally are on the cards for the leaders who committed mutual support in the recent meeting.

The United States has also agreed to become the partner of India’s Annual Technology Summit that is scheduled to take place next month, for the first time. For the overall benefit of the citizens, both the countries have committed to convene the ninth ‘High Technology Cooperation Group’ and are planning to launch new partnership to ‘source and scale innovation’ in both the countries.

Modi government to launch E-libraries

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digitalLEARNING Network

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October 8, 2014

The Modi government is set to change the way students study. Soon, they will be able to access study material from universities and other educational institutes through their laptops, computers, tablets or smart phones.

The ambitious National e-library project, which aims to create a e-library besides designing an audio-visual interactive platform for students and academic fraternity in the country, is set to become operational by next academic year. The project aims to provide academic content through the Internet and is part of Narendra Modi government’s initiative to promote education. Several nations like Norway, the UK, Israel have shown keenness to participate in the project with international partnership also likely to worked out with Unesco. In his Teachers’ Day interaction with students Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed his desire that students and teachers should utilise technology. It is learnt that the project has a strong backing of HRD minister Smriti Irani who is keen for the roll-out of the ambitious national e-library project in the academic year 2015.

This newspaper had first reported that the Union human resources development ministry is preparing to make the proposal a reality soon. A poll promise of the BJP, the proposal also came in for a mention in the Presidential address made to the joint sessions of Parliament.

Government invites ideas for education reforms

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digitalLEARNING Network

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October 8, 2014

Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani has invited people to come up with innovative ideas and projects to transform the education system.

With a slogan—“Dream, Design, Deliver; help us change the way we educate India”-the ministry has created a web page on its new website, appealing to people to submit their ideas and projects online in 500 words.

Everyone is free to make suggestions on the ministry’s website. The last date for submission of ideas and project proposals is October 29. People should come up with only those ideas or projects that could be implemented within 12 months, the ministry suggested.

Winners will be given a chance to implement their idea in the field over a period of 12 months. The move comes days after the announcement of the ministry’s new initiatives in first 100 days of the National Democratic Alliance government faced allegations that Irani was taking credit of the programmes, most of which were conceived during the United Progressive Alliance regime.

The HRD ministry has also launched a web page, “Interact with the HRM”, on its website where people can submit their grievances and suggestions.

“The idea behind introducing the two new web pages is to give people an opportunity to participate in policy making. Our education system needs to be transformed. Most probably, next year, a committee will be set up to review the education policy.

The committee will have many experts but we need more ideas, more innovations, to improve our colleges and schools,” sources in the ministry said.

States urge Centre to revise RTE

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digitalLEARNING Network

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October 8, 2014

The Union Human Resource Development Ministry is contemplating to revise the Right To Education (RTE) Act after several states have raised objections about existing rules and regulations under the legislation.

Ministry sources said that HRD minister Smriti Irani is soon likely to initiate a detailed consultation on the issue.

States like Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura have objected to RTI’s provision of no detention and no examination policy till class VIII.

Sources said that it was felt by many states that a complete ban on exams till Class VIII was not in the best interest of the students. It was felt that the provisions had failed to achieve its purpose and was hampering the quality of students reaching class X.

Another point flagged by several state governments was the closure of a large number of schools because they could not manage the RTE-mandated infrastructure requirement.

The states have pushed for Centre to focus more on “learning outcomes” of schools than on infrastructure.

Several states have also pushed for allowing private schools management to decide teachers’ salaries instead of fixing salaries according to governmental norms. The states have complained the HRD minister about these issues.

HRD Ministry promotes Clean India drive

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digitalLEARNING Network

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October 8, 2014

The Universities Grants Commission (UGC), in an effort to make PM Modi’s Swachh Bharat campaign a success, has allowed colleges and universities to use their general development funds for the campaign. The higher education institutes have also been asked to introduce subjects related to cleanliness in environment studies.

Sources said UGC has in a letter to colleges and universities allowed the use of this fund for ensuring cleanliness on the campuses. The HRD ministry has also asked colleges and educational institutions to ensure the programme is sustained in a “befitting” manner and the campuses are kept clean.

The communication stated that the educational institutes should take the help of seminars, debates and social media in helping generate awareness regarding cleanliness on the campuses. Another communiqué issued by the HRD ministry asked UGC to roll out schemes on national initiatives for fostering social responsibility in higher education and set guidelines for the establishment of a centre for fostering social responsibility and community engagement in universities during the 12th Plan Period.

“The centre would help to leverage on the mobilisation and interest that will be generated in the higher educational institutions during the launch of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan,” it said.

India may soon launch MOOCS with American Universities

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digitalLEARNING Network

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October 8, 2014

India and US are likely to enter into a partnership to launch Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) courses through an online platform. Titled Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), the web portal will offer online courses in multiple subjects.

An MoU regarding the partnership is expected to be signed in November.

India wants the video lectures of the American universities to be made available for the SWAYAM portal free so that Indian students can access them for a nominal fee.

Under the cooperation agreement, the SWAYAM server will be based in India while US universities will be invited to offer academic programmes on the platform.

Sources said the HRD ministry and the National Science Foundation (NSF), the federal agency of the US that promotes science and research, might initiate a programme called Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN).

Under this scheme, faculty members from US institutions would spend part of their time teaching in academic and research institutions across India.

Moulding Digital India Vision

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digitalLEARNING Network

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October 2, 2014

Riding ambitious ‘Digital India’ programme of the new government, the country seeks to break digital barriers in governance, education, health and financial inclusion. To help prepare ground for a truly digital nation and bring more clarity to the concept of Digital India programme, Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd is going to hold the 10th Annual eINDIA 2014 Summit (eindia.eletsonline.com) – India’s premiere ICT event – 14th to 16th November at The Leela, Kovalam, Kerala.

The Summit, being co-hosted by the Department of Information Technology, Government of Kerala, will be inaugurated by Shri Oomen Chandy, Chief Minister, Kerala.

The 10th Annual edition of eINDIA 2014 will bring together key leaders from Centre and State governments in the form of a three-day residential conference. It will provide not only a friendly and supportive environment to network with key decision makers, but will also present with an excellent opportunity to network and learn from other IT players, who are coming across similar opportunities and challenges in different parts of the country.

The eINDIA 2014 Summit, which will also feature conferences and exhibition, expects to bring together top representatives from the ICT industry, government, civil society, academia and the private sector from India and across the globe to share best practices and digital opportunities for development, and to discuss and exchange knowledge and ideas that will shape the future of the ICT landscape.

Why Kerala

Kerala has emerged as a frontline state in the implementation of e-Governance policies and Education projects, and setting up of key infrastructure for Healthcare. In this backdrop, Elets Technomedia saw the State of Kerala as the ideal platform to host this premier ICT event.

e-INDIA Summit

eINDIA 2014 Summit will comprise four parallel thematic tracks — e-Governance, Digital Learning, e-Health and Financial Inclusion. These specialised tracks will aim to explore the diverse opportunities of integrating ICT in different spheres of life and to share knowledge that would help create a technology-enabled society.

eGov Awards: The eGov awards will focus on the initiatives that will take India to the next level of efficiency in providing public services. The awards will be for Innovative Solutions for Smart Cities, ICT Implementation in Transportation, Cyber Security Solution Provider, Securing Cities, Cloud Services Initiatives, and Big data providers.

DigitalLEARNING Awards: would focus on the education sector and people contributing towards overcoming the challenges and availing opportunities in this field to use ICT in education for development. Different categories in DigitalLEARNING Award include Technology Solution Provider, Enterprise Resource Planning, Digital Lab Provider, Interactive Solution Provider, Testing and Assessment Vocational Education & Training.

eHealth Awards category will recognize technological transformation in hospitals. This award category recognises ICT initiatives in Health segment, HIS and HMIS Provider of the Year, mHealth Project of the Year PPP Initiative of the Year in Healthcare, Innovative Use of Technology by a Hospital, Health Insurance Initiative of the Year, Innovative Use of Technology by a Diagnostic Service Provider, Innovative use of ICT in health by government department and Preventive Healthcare Initiative.

Financial Inclusion Awards are a fresh endeavour to recognize concrete steps taken in the direction. The award categories are: Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Initiative, Access to banking and financial services, Financial Inclusion through business innovation, Use of Mobile Technology in Financial Services, Online Payments Solution, Mobile Payments Solution of the Year, Financial Services Institution of the Year, Best Prepaid Card Programme, Anti-Fraud/Security Solution of the Year.

Expo

The eINDIA 2014 Expo will attract delegates from various countries, fetching high returns to exhibitors from IT, e-Learning, e-Health, e-Gov solution providers, e-Content majors, education sector specialists, medical technologies, medical equipment and healthcare application companies, thus making it the largest ICT event in the entire South Asia region.

For details, please visit eindia.eletsonline.com

For queries, contact Seema Gupta, seema@elets.in M: +91-8860651643

J Alam replaces S S Jena as NIOS Chairman

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digitalLEARNING Network

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October 1, 2014

Jan E Alam, a 1991-batch IAS officer of Nagaland cadre, has been appointed as Chairman of the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). Prior to his appointment at NIOS, Alam served as Joint Secretary in the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Alam replaces S S Jena as the NIOS Chairman. Jena, who served as Chairman from September 2009, has been shifted as Director at the Regional Services Division of the Indira Gandhi National Open University IGNOU).

Jena served in this capacity before taking up his assignment at the NIOS.

HRD ministry to review mid-day meal scheme

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digitalLEARNING Network

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October 1, 2014

Worried about the increase in the number of cases of students taking sick after consuming food served through the mid-day meal programme, the Ministry of Human Resource Development is all set to review the government scheme. The review will be carried out at a two-day conference in Jodhpur with officers from all states starting October 30.

The conference will see secretaries and directors looking after the mid-Day meal scheme in states in attendance along with nodal officers from the 38 monitoring institutes. The HRD ministry will also review the status of the state of kitchen-cum-stores in schools meant for the scheme.

The conference will also look into the delay in release of funds to the implementing agencies, e-transfer of funds to the implementing agencies and the payment of honorarium to cook-cum-helpers in their bank accounts. The mid-day meal scheme provides hot meals in schools to about 11 crore children every day.

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