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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Varanasi/Indias-support-needed-in-Nepal/articleshow/4766905.cms
VARANASI: Nepal is passing through a transition phase and it needs the constant support of India to build its Constitution and restructure its politics and economy. The view was expressed by KN Shrestha, the acting ambassador and Charge d' Affairs of Nepal in India, during a special lecture on 'Indo-Nepal relations', organised at the centre for the study of Nepal, Banaras Hindu University, on Saturday.
Emphasising upon the role of BHU in consolidation of democracy and developmental initiative in Nepal, he also added the great hub of learning (BHU) had always remained the naturally preferred destination for Nepalese scholars, symbolising the three-generation of academic emotional affinity.
Presiding over the lecture session, BHU V-C DP Singh stressed on the need to operationalise the recent MoU signed between Tribhuwan University, Kathmandu, and BHU. He also emphasised on the need to explore new avenues and areas of mutual concern between the two universities on the occasion.
Similarly, addressing the session, dean, faculty of Social Sciences, BHU, Prof AK Jain stressed on the need of inclusive policy and direct investment in Nepal, adding that normalcy and stability could assure developmental activities in the country.
Dhan Bahadur Oli, first secretary of Nepalese Embassy, was the special guest on the occasion. A host of faculty members including Prof Anjoo S Upadhyaya, coordinator, centre for the study of Nepal, BHU, and Prof Mallikarjun Joshi, chairperson, University International Cell, were also present on the occasion.
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http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=50177
The overall plan budget for higher education for 2009-10 is proposed to be increased by Rs. 2000 crore over the interim B.E. This was announced by the Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee while presenting the Budget in Parliament on 6th July, 2009. Towards taking forward the government’s intent of having one Central University in each uncovered state, the Finance Minister allocated Rs.827 crore in the Budget. He also allocated Rs.2,113 crore for IITs and NITs, which includes a provision of Rs. 450 crore for new IITs and NITs.
Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) at Kharagpur, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati and Roorkee have been established as ‘Institutions of National Importance under the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961. Their main objective is to impart world-class training in engineering and technology; to conduct research in the relevant fields and for advancement of learning and dissemination of knowledge. Looking to the demands of professionals in engineering sector, eight new Indian Institutes of Technology have been approved, six of which, namely, IITs at Hyderabad, Bhuvaneshwar, Gandhinagar, Patna and IITs for Rajasthan and Punjab have commenced their academic sessions from the year 2008-09. Remaining two IITs at Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) are likely to commence the academic programmes from 2009-2010.
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a) IIT-Kgp ties up with US varsity for hospital
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/iit-kgp-ties-upus-varsity-for-hospital/367048/
b) Judges different, IIT cutoffs too
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090812/jsp/nation/story_11351387.jsp
c) 1400 awarded degrees at IIT-Delhi convocation
d) IITs to create quality faculty
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4872018.cms
e) IIT Kharagpur to increase number of seats
f) IIT-B in expansion mode
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/iit-b-in-expansion-mode/70246/on
g) Golden jubilee programme of IIT-K to start from today (August 8)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4869166.cms
h) Bill Clinton to speak at pan-IIT Chicago conference (Oct 9-11)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/world/us/Bill-Clinton-to-speak-at-pan-IIT-Chicago-conference/articleshow/4858235.cms
i) IIT cutoff falls to 18% for SC/ST students
j) OBCs bust quality myth
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090802/jsp/nation/story_11311599.jsp
k) IIT-Ropar finding its feet in academic world
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/City/Varanasi/IT-BHU-awaits-IIT-status-to-lure-top-rankers/articleshow/4822777.cms
TNN 26 July 2009, 08:56pm IST
VARANASI: The Institute of Technology (IT), Banaras Hindu University, may be the ultimate dream for some students but for many others, the IIT status is much more important.
"The IIT tag would definitely help in attracting more funds from the Central government (Union HRD ministry) for development of the institute," admitted SP Singh, a fresher who got admission in computer science at the institute. It would also help improve the existing infrastructural facilities including hostels besides improving the overall ranking and image of the institute, he added.
Even as IT-BHU has already witnessed admissions of over 600 students (under B. Tech programme) in the current academic session (2009-2010), top-ranked students are missing from the list, as the fate of IIT status to the institute still hangs in balance.
As per reports of IT office, students securing over 1,800 All-India Rank (AIR) in the general category have opted for the institute after qualifying the IIT-JEE test this year. Similarly, the top rankers in other categories, including OBC and SC, have also opted for other IITs in the country with IT attracting students low on the merit index.
It may be mentioned here that some of the top ranking students placed within 1,000 AIR had opted for IT-BHU, hoping that the institute would get IIT status in 2008.
Even, Prof SN Upadhyaya, director, IT-BHU said that the delay in grant of IIT status has kept some of bright students away from the institute, as some of them have opted for new IITs that have not yet witnessed development of infrastructural facilities. "Efforts for the grant of IIT status is going on and the university has also approved the proposal in its recent executive council meeting," he informed.
It is also worth mentioning that the recent EC meeting had passed the proposal for IIT-BHU with representation of BHU in its academic and executive council and the vice-chancellor as the co-chairman of the governing body.
What is ragging?
As per UGC norms, any act or use of words, signs, symbols or expressions that may cause or imply to cause harm especially to freshers or juniors by the seniors is called ragging. The Supreme Court has already made ragging a cognizable offence in educational institutions including hostels.
Punishment for indulgence in ragging
# Expulsion from Institute/Hostel
# Barring from taking admission in any course
# Seizure or withholding of degree
# Imprisonment
Facilities at IT-BHU
# Departments: 16 including three schools
# Teaching staff: Over 250
# Non-teaching staff: Over 100
# Hostels: 11 including two girl hostels
(Source: PRO office, BHU)
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Varanasi/Black-carbon-major-cause-of-global-warming/articleshow/4758575.cms
VARANASI: It is an alarming situation. The black carbon (BC) in Indo-Gangetic (IG) basin, especially in the East UP region, is fast becoming a major contributor to global warming, even threatening to equal the impact of carbon dioxide (CO2) on melting snowpack and glaciers in the Himalayan region.
This startling revelation has come to light after initial studies by a group of senior scientists in the department of chemical engineering, Institute of Technology (IT), Banaras Hindu University, under a five-year project of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that started in 2007 at the University/
It may be mentioned here that ISRO has sanctioned Rs 42 lakh for five years to study the impact of black carbon (mainly formed due to incomplete burning of fossil fuels) on global warming in the IG basin.
Similarly, apart from IT-BHU, study is also going on at IIT-Kanpur and IIT- Kharagpur and ISRO has also set up 22 observatories in different parts of the country for carrying out scientific measurements on aerosols and other particulate matter contributing to global warming in the country.
"The results of one-year study in this region has shown that the concentration of BC is significantly higher (about 1.5 times higher) than Kanpur, which is the main industrial belt in the state," informed Dr RS Singh, one of the senior scientists in the project and reader in the department of chemical engineering, BHU, while talking to TOI on Thursday. "The studies have also indicated that high BC concentration is due to presence of a number of thermal power plants (coal-based plants) and rampant use of fossil fuel in the region," he added.
As per reports of the department, the BC stays in the atmosphere for only several days to weeks and efforts to reduce its concentration can contribute significantly to control global warming.
"Recent international reports and studies have shown that the warmer air resulting from the presence of BC (albedo effect) in South and East Asia over the Himalayas contributes to a warming of approximately 0.6 degrees Celsius," said Dr Singh. This warming trend due to high BC concentration is fast becoming the proposed causal factor for accelerating retreat of Himalayan glaciers which is all set to threaten fresh water supplies and food security in India and China.
While the studies are in the initial stage involving the senior scientists of the department, like Prof SN Upadhyaya, director, IT, Prof KK Srivastava, head of department and Dr BN Rai of the department, the department has already procured and installed athelometer, an instrument used for continuous monitoring and storage of black carbon.
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4881488.cms
VARANASI: Can the current Bachelor programme in civil engineering in India address the problems created by major earthquake as felt in Andman and Nicobar islands on Tuesday?
"Current Bachelor programme in civil engineering taught in India does not address this in detail, leaving budding civil engineers ignorant about sustainable development of modern India in terms of infrastructure," said Dr S Chandrasekaran, reader in structural engineering, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU). Chandrasekaran has specialised in earthquake engineering and structural dynamics.
A major quake of magnitude 7.6 struck in the Indian Ocean off Andaman islands early on Tuesday, leaving inhabitants scared. According to him, all buildings, which do not comply with the latest revised Indian code on earthquake resistant design shall attract severe damage under such conditions. "In this regard, seismic assessment of existing buildings becomes an important subject of study and domain of practice for structural engineers in our country," he told TOI on Tuesday.
"I recently visited Italy under European Union Invitation (Ministry of University Research and Development) for about two years (2007-2009) for conducting extensive research on seismic assessment and rehabilitation of different types of buildings like schools and hospitals," he said and added that his experience in research and experimental investigations carried out listed simple and detailed procedures to assess seismic vulnerability of existing and old buildings. "Based on these assessment tools, one can also predict the future life of the building and probability of collapse failure, apart from identifying buildings that are at risk in their locality," he claimed.
"It is high time that educational institutions with industrial collaboration promote such programmes, conduct short courses to engineers and train them for this task and edit the civil engineering
to suit society demands," said Chandrasekaran, who along with his three European colleagues, authored a book on seismic design aids for nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete structures.
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Dr. S. Chandrasekaran
http://www.itbhu.ac.in/civ/index.php/faculty.html
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Anubhuti Vishnoi Posted: Saturday , Aug 15, 2009 at 0400 hrs New Delhi:
The Government is set to announce a residential coaching scheme for minority students towards effecting a radical improvement in their employment and representation in government and industry — one of the objectives laid down in the Sachar Committee report on improving the state of minorities.
The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry will soon roll out an ambitious scheme that envisages coaching for all government examinations — from Civil Services to state-level examinations — for minority students selected after an all-India merit test.
The scheme will be announced soon and sources said efforts are on to have it included in the Prime Minister’s speech on Independence Day.
“The idea is to train students to crack every major exam from IAS to IIT. While Phase I will see five universities starting the coaching programmes, Phase II will extend it to 10 other universities. While the coaching will be free, there may be a nominal charge for residential facilities,”said an official.
Keen to get the scheme launched, the HRD Ministry will open Academies of Minority Coaching in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Uttar Pradesh, Jamia Hamdard University in Delhi, Maulana Azad Urdu University in Hyderabad and the Ambedkar University this year itself. As many as 200 students will be enrolled. The coaching programmes will run from five weeks to a year depending on the examination.
The scheme, mooted by Kapil Sibal, was taken up on priority basis by HRD Secretary for Higher Education R P Agarwal who has already held discussions with the Vice Chancellors of these universities.
The HRD Ministry plans to expand the ambit of this scheme to include SC/STs and women among those eligible. In fact, the 10 other universities will be women universities. An estimated 40 per cent of those enrolled for this coaching should be women, as per the Ministry’s plans.
The residential coaching programme takes off from the Scheme of Coaching for SC/ST Students and Minority Community Candidates for National Education Testing (NET). While the UGC scheme was quite a non-starter, this scheme will be a far improved version. Universities which will conduct this coaching will be provided some seed money and the freedom to employ their staff for the coaching classes besides inviting experts.
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TNN 7 August 2009, 02:55am IST
NEW DELHI: In a bid to attract and retain quality teachers and staff in centrally funded technical institutions, including IITs and IIMs, the government on Thursday revised their pay with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006.
The Union cabinet on Thursday approved the revision of pay scales of faculty, design and scientific staff and other academic staff of the over 50 centrally funded institutions.
The government also gave the go-ahead for financial assistance to states for implementing the revised scales, an official statement said.
The government had set up a committee under the chairmanship of Prof Govardhan Mehta to recommend revised pay scale for faculty of centrally funded technical institutions and the report was considered by an inter-ministerial group.
The Govardhan Mehta Pay Review Committee had suggested that the pay scale of assistant professors in these institutions will be in the pay band of Rs 15,600 to Rs 39,100 with academic grade pay (AGP) of Rs 8,000.
While the committee recommended the salary of associate professor in the band of Rs 37,400-Rs 67,000 with AGP of Rs 10,000, the pay band for professors was suggested as Rs 37,400-Rs 67,000 with AGP of Rs 11,000.
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http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/challenges-that-union-hrd-minister-faces/363019/
Bs Reporter / New Delhi July 06, 2009, 0:08 IST |
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT: Kapil Sibal categorically asserted that the Foreign Education Bill makes sense (with certain regulations). The Foreign Education Bill, if passed, will allow 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in universities. As Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal told this paper earlier that "...foreign institutions should also be entitled to invest in education within a regulated framework. (However), these should not be for profit enterprises to subsidise education abroad".
Sibal made a valid point but the challenge is to get a consensus and get the Bill passed. Incidentally, not only will the move bring in foreign exchange but it will also entice more Indian students to stay back in India for higher education. Even 50,000 foreign students charged fees at an average rate of $10,000 per annum would yield $500 million (around Rs 2,800 crore) per annum, according to National Knowledge Commission (NKC).
There’s another lucrative side to the story too which is, perhaps, more significant. It’s estimated that around 160,000 students from India are studying abroad. If their average expenditure on fees and maintenance is $25,000 per student per year, Indian students are spending around $4 billion per annum. Many of these students may want to study in India since the costs would be lower.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP: He’s convinced that the private public partnership (PPP) model in higher education is the way to go. Now he has to ensure that his plans are executed.
DEEMED VARSITIES: He has undertaken to stem malpractices in ‘deemed universities’ by already freezing new applications. The challenge is to ensure that the issue is not swept under the carpet simply because some 'deemed universities' are run by politicians and their relatives.
REVISE IITs/IIMs CURRICULUM: He has suggested that the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) should revise their curriculum. He must take the IIT/IIM directors into confidence so that the exercise improves the quality of education.
ABOLISH UGC/AICTE: He believes that regulatory bodies (read bureaucratic bottlenecks which lead to corruption) like the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) should be — as recommended by the NKC and Yashpal Committee reports — abolished and replaced by an Independent Regulatory Authority for Higher Education (IRAHE). The challenge lies in getting Parliament to pass this.
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Hemali Chhapia, TNN 10 July 2009, 05:06am IST
MUMBAI: At the turn of the century, diversifying from the plain vanilla Bachelor of Science (BSc) into ``market-driven'' courses like biotechnology, computer science and a slew of similar fancy-sounding streams was seen as the ideal road to the future. Now, academicians feel they got it all wrong.
The top three science institutes of the country that chart the course for science and technology in India - The National Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and Indian Academy of Sciences - sent a joint letter to new HRD minister Kapil Sibal last week, asking him to wind up all these specialization courses currently offered at the school and undergraduate levels.
Ironically, soon after taking charge, Sibal had reflected on the poor research coming out of India. Now, he will have to decide if these courses should be withdrawn. If he accedes to the recommendation, students will have to go back to the old days of a composite BSc course. Among several other courses, forensic science, information technology, bioinformatics, nanotechnology and polymer sciences will be wound up.
In a report titled Re-structuring Post-School Science Teaching Programmes, the three science academies stated: ``Courses in highly specialised subjects like bio-technology, bioinformatics, computer applications, nanotechnology, nanobiotechnology, etc should not be allowed at school and undergraduate levels.'' The docket handed over a week ago to Sibal was drawn up after top scientists and educationists met to discuss the issue and concluded that ``BSc in narrow disciplines is detrimental''.
N Mukunda, chairman of the science education unit at the Indian Academy of Sciences, said that the three academies are of the opinion that students at school and undergraduate levels need a strong grounding in basic sciences before they can take up specialized courses. ``If people specialize too early without the foundations of the subject, then their understanding remains very shallow. You cannot study genetics without understanding the basic concepts of biology and life sciences,'' Mukunda added.
Echoing his thoughts, S C Lakhotia, head of the department of molecular and human genetics at the Banaras Hindu University, said that basic education must be broad enough and include a mix of classic knowledge and cutting-edge developments. ``There's so much hype created around these courses. Parents spend a fortune getting these degrees. But then the student ends up having neither a good knowledge of basic sciences, nor is fit for the industry,'' he added.
UGC chairman Sukhdeo Thorat who attended the meeting, told TOI on Wednesday that the commission was looking at the recommendations and a decision would soon be arrived at. But even before formal word comes through, several vice- chancellors have gone back to their drawing board to re-design their undergraduate courses. Delhi University vice-chancellor Deepak Pental said that there was nothing wrong with a plain BSc programme, but institutes across the country had failed to provide exciting content.
While Delhi University has several colleges that currently offer specialized programmes at the undergraduate level, Pental added, ``We are now working on making all the undergraduate science courses plain BSc ones, and then, if a student wants to specialize, s/he can continue in the fourth year where a narrow discipline, like forensic science, nanotechnology or nuclear physics, can be taken up.'' Similarly, Indian Academy of Sciences president M Vijayan said several universities had studied the institutes' recommendations and like Delhi, even the Bangalore University had recently put in place some of the recommendations.
For years, undergraduate science education has been wallowing in red ink, after several experiments to make it exciting have gone bust. It's high time, say academics, we got the formula correct.
hemali.chhapia@timesgroup.com
Reactions:
Vijay Khole, Vice Chancellor. Mumbai University
Academically, this is a very sound suggestion. Most scientists feel that specialized training must not start before students are informed of all aspects of science and technology so they can understand the interconnections with the applied branches. However, many students drop out after graduation and need to take up a job. Hence these courses were introduced so that there is a stamp of specialization, so as to allow them get a place in the second or third rung in the industry.
Deepak Pental, Vice Chancellor, Delhi University
I fully agree with what the science institutes have proposed. If you don't know biology, what will you learn in biotechnology? Specialisation in any of the narrow areas is not possible without understanding the core subjects.
Suranjan Das, Vice Chancellor, Calcutta University
Ours is probably the only university that does not offer biotechnology or information technology at the undergraduate level. We had set up a high powered committee comprising top scientists to assess if we could also teach specialised courses at the undergraduate level. After studying the situation, we concluded that it was not advisable to teach such specialised courses at the undergraduate level. Although we lost out in the race of making commercial gains, we have steadfastly maintained this stand. However, we now plan to offer 5-year integrated courses wherein students will learn the basics in the first three years and then specialise in the last two years.
Some of the specialised courses offered after class XII
BSc (information technology), BSc (biotechnology), BSc (computer science). BSc (forensic science), BSc (bioinformatics), BSc (polymer science), BSc (nuclear physics), BSc (nanotechnology), BSc (nanobiotechnology)
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Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP