Manipal University to build medical school in South Africa

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June 12, 2014

India’s Manipal University is all set to establish a medical school for the first time in South Africa.

Karnataka based Manipal University is holding talks with the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government. According to media reports the construction is likely start later this year in Newcastle, in north KwaZulu-Natal.

This is the third international campus being set up by Manipal University. Manipal University established its presence in Dubai, UAE in the year 2000 to cater to the growing demands from countries in Middle East. Following year the Melaka Manipal Medical College (MMMC) was established in Malaysia.

Ndabezinhle Sibiya, spokesman for KwaZulu-Nadal premier Senzo Mchunu said that the university would be aligned to the Manipal University of India.

Besides the South African campus would also feature an academic hospital to accommodate patients from the region and beyond.

Sibiya also mentioned that the KwaZulu-Natal government will provide land and other infrastructure to construct the university and hospital. There will be no racial quotas in selecting students for the medical school who are believed to improve the shortage of medical doctor and specialist in KwaZulu Nadal and in the country.

Hopes are high for Senzo Mchunu who believes that such facility would bring economic development and investment in Newcastle and would also create health experts in the region.

Mumbai may add 14 new colleges

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June 11, 2014

14 new colleges may open in Mumbai that will offer courses at the undergraduate level from the new academic year. The University of Mumbai went through 57 applications to set up new colleges and finally approved 14 applications which will begin their session after getting approval from state government. Earlier, existing colleges forwarded a total of 228 applications to offer new courses. The University of Mumbai forwarded 70 applications to the government.

Only few colleges will be allowed to set shop that would offer innovative courses. M A Khan, registrar, University of Mumbai, stated that each application was scrutinised carefully with inspection committees visiting colleges. Only innovative job-oriented courses were given a green signal. B. Com in financial management, transport management, investment management, interdisciplinary sciences and human science are some of the subjects that were considered as industry-oriented courses.

Buttermilk to pepper mid-day meals

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June 11, 2014

Newly appointed HRD Minister, Smriti Irani wants school to provide buttermilk to children as a part of the Mid-Day Meal scheme. Apart from including butter milk, Irani has proposed that separate model schools should be opened for outstanding boys and girls at the district level and Saturday should be declared as sports day in every school. The idea behind providing buttermilk is to cure rampant amoebiasis (intestinal illness) among children. She has directed the department of elementary education to calculate the cost of providing buttermilk to kids on a daily basis. 12 crore children across 12.64 lakh schools are benefitted via Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme. Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the two states providing milk to children under MDM. Several states give iron tablets to girls and additional health supplements.

Pawan Goenka is new IIT-M board chairman

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June 11, 2014

Pawan Goenka has taken over as the chairman of the board of government of India Institute of Technology- Madras.

Prior to this he was the executive director and president of Automotive and Farm Equipment Sectors, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. President Pranab Mukherjee as the ‘visitor of the institute’ appointed him on June 9 as the 12^th chairman of the board of governors of the institute.

Goenka has replaced M M Sharma and will serve as the chairman for the next three years. A tremendous value addition is expected from Pawan Goenka during his tenure as Chairman in IIT-M.

DU colleges plan to tackle documentation fraud with forensics

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June 5, 2014

Admission process in University of Delhi has commenced and with it several colleges are undertaking measures to keep a check on forged documents. Ramjas, Sri Venkateswara and Bhagat Singh are planning to seek help of forensic experts to combat the problem. St. Stephen has earlier warned students about agents who claim to secure seats for money. P K Khurana, principal, Bhagat Singh College stated that warnings on notice boards and website may deter potential fraudsters. Khurana added that instead of hiring an agency, their college is streamlining their own system. In case of doubt regarding any document, the college will send it to verification to the government agency that is liable for providing the certificates.

Ramjas College, who first started hiring forensic experts in 2011, may follow the similar concept of authorizing their own administrative officers to screen and scan the documents. VC Misra, who has been working as a forensic expert in Ramjas College commented that every certificate has some security features that can help in finding the authenticity of the certificates provided by the students

Girls outshine boys in CBSE Class 12 exam

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June 4, 2014

Girls have again outperformed boys in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) class 12 examination declare recently.

The pass percentage recorded for girls is 88.52 percent, while boys have pass percentage of 78.27 percent.

Rama Sharma, public relation officer of CBSE stated that the difference between the pass percentage of girls and boys is 10.25 percent with girls doing much better than their male counterparts.

The overall pass percentage recorded this year is 82.66 percent with a marginal increase of 0.5 percent over last year’s 82.10 per cent.

The highest pass percentage is 94.26 percent from Thiruvanantapuram. The pass percentage of Delhi is 86.78 percent.

Ludhiana teacher gets national honor

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June 3, 2014

Chemistry teacher, Anju Soni, from Jawahar Lal Nehru Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Jawahat Nagar has been awarded Malti Gyan Peeth Puraskar 2014 for Outstanding Teacher in Chemistry. The award was presented on May 29, 2014 by Vice President, Hamid Ansari at FICCI Auditorium in New Delhi. In addition to the award, Anju Soni also received certificate of excellence and Rs. 1 lakh as cash prize. Apart from awarding Anju Soni, Malti Gyan Peeth Puruskar 2014 was presented to 15 other teachers from the state, 3 each in English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Social Science. After the honor, Anju Soni stated that winning this award as a government school teacher would help change the perception of people toward teachers instructing in government schools.

Smriti Irani approves National Academic Depository scheme

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June 3, 2014

Smriti Irani has approved National Academic Depository (NAD) scheme. The scheme was brought forward during UPA-2 and it aims to create an online database of nationwide board and university certificates that is implemented by CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) on a pilot basis. After being explained about the NAD project, Smriti Irani wanted the scheme to be implemented as soon as possible. She has directed ministry to come up with the documents that have already been digitized or are in process. With the approval of NAD scheme, students will be able to track their records as well as use them in case they want duplicate certificates or attested copies the same. It would also assist employers as the database can be used for the verification of certificates. Schools, colleges, boards and universities will play their role as agents of the NAD office by registering students admitted to their institutions and linking their certificates.

The ministry has already sent an advisory to central universities, institutes and school boards to join NAD. Security has been built into the system so that certificates are not tampered with or downloaded. A student can only see the certificate without being able to edit it.At present; NAD Bill is in Parliament and is expected to be in action very soon.

HRD minister pushes hard for funds to set up 8 new IITs

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June 3, 2014

HRD minister, Smriti Irani is pushing hard for funds to set up at least eight new IITs as quickly as possible. She has also met the finance minister Arun Jaitley for fund.

Though the bureaucrats are of the view that it would be a huge challenge to find money, land and faculty. In order to implement the BJP’s poll promises, Irani wants speedy actions on it and is also seeking fund for other priority projects like Central University for Himalayan Technology and a national e-library.

States like Kerala, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Goa, Sikkim and Chhattisgarh would benefit from Irani’s proposals. Seemandhra has already been promised an IIT as part of the Andhra Pradesh bifurcation.

The number of IITs turned out to be 16 in 2009 but the new ones are facing challenges such as fund crunch. About Rs 12,500 crore were allotted for the IITs in the 12^th Five year Plan (2012-2017). Of this only Rs 6,000 crore is set aside for the eight IITs set up in 2009.

The HRD officials argued that in the current state of the economy, investing on an expensive project of setting up eight new IITs is not possible. They also pointed out at the problems that the new IITs are already facing and some of them are operating out of make-shift campuses as land is not available. Whereas in some cases construction and infrastructure development has also been delayed.

Restructuring UGC among top 100 priorities of Smriti Irani

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June 3, 2014

Transforming the University Grants Commission into higher education regulatory is HRD minister Smriti Irani’s top priority. She wants to restructure and refocus the UGC from a grant disbursing organization to one that maintains the standards and regulates the education sector. This is one among Irani’s top 100 day priorities.

Officials are of the view that with the growth in the sector with private players and entry of foreign education institutions has meant that the UGC would need to expand its regulatory functions. Since 1952, the function of allocating public funds to central universities and other universities was entrusted to UGC. Though there were changes in the higher education sector, the Commission’s emphasis has continued to be on its grant disbursal functions.

Irani’s focus is to keep the BJP’s poll promise of restructuring the UGC to transform it into a Higher Education Commission. The transformation will be effected by amending the UGC Act.

Ministry officials are already working on the amendments before it can be evaluated by the law minister and sent for inter-ministerial consultations, after which it will be taken up for the approval by the Cabinet and then introduced in Parliament.

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