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http://www.northeastern.edu/news/stories/2010/01/strauss.html
Phyllis Strauss, who researches DNA repair in mice, is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship. Photo by Craig Bailey
January 11, 2010
Phyllis Strauss, who is researching DNA repair in mice, and Nicole Rafter, an author, researcher and instructor in biological theories of crime, and crime films and society, have received highly competitive Fulbright Scholarships for 2009–2010, according to the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, which administers the program.
Currently fulfilling her four-month Fulbright grant in India at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, Strauss is researching DNA repair of the cell’s genetic material during the earliest stages of embryo development in mice.
She applied for the Fulbright at BHU because its research emphasis in DNA repair relates closely to her work at Northeastern, she said.
Strauss uses zebra fish to analyze the role of a cell protein, called AP endonuclease, in the early stages of an embryo. At BHU, she hopes to discover whether her findings with the fish hold true with mice.
“It’s the first stop in asking if this (finding) is important to human development,” she said.
One eventual outcome of her research, she says, would be to make it more possible for doctors to predict which embryos would be successful before they are implanted in humans during in vitro fertilization.
“If people could predict which embryos would be successful, we wouldn’t need to implant so many embryos,” cutting down on the likelihood of hazardous multiple pregnancies and births, she said.
Rafter, who recently won a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Criminology, leaves in several months for her Fulbright project at the Johannes Kepler University, in Linz, Austria. She will teach two graduate courses, which are also offered at Northeastern¬—crime films and society and biological theories of crime—and will finish research on a new book, “Criminology Goes to the Movies.”
A colleague at the Austrian university, another criminology historian, asked Rafter to apply for the scholarship so she could teach there, she said. “I am very pleased,” said Rafter, “because it gives me an opportunity to work with an important scholar who has similar interests.
For more information, please contact Lauren McFalls at 617-373-5460 or at l.mcfalls@neu.edu.
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TNN, 26 December 2009, 10:57pm IST
VARANASI: We should strive for knowledge that liberates from bondage and constricting process, says noted thinker and Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University Dr Karan Singh. He was inaugurating the three-day 4th International BHU Alumni Meet (IBAM) on Friday.
Recounting four basic pillars of education including learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be, he said India was on the crossroads of civilisation and people should be curious to know and ask questions. Emphasising on the need to create more intermediate schools for churning out skilled and balanced future generations, he also discussed perspective of higher education in the country.
International seminar on higher education, global perspective and Indian vision was also organised on the occasion.
Delivering keynote address of three-day seminar, Prof Moolchand Sharma, vice-chancellor, Central University (Haryana), stressed the need for devising policies, structures and strategies that could help in meeting challenges and harnessing opportunities that the process of internationalisation of higher education brought. He also suggested internationalisation of higher education should be based on solidarity and mutual respect and promotion of humanistic values and intercultural dialogues.
Grandson of Pt Madan Mohan Malviya and guest of honour, Justice Giridhar Malviya, while paying tributes to the founder of the university, said it was created for nation building.
Welcoming alumni from different parts of the country and abroad, V-C, BHU, Prof DP Singh highlighted the achievements of new Rajiv Gandhi South Campus at Barkachha (Mirzapur). He also invited suggestions for its development on the occasion.
Earlier, Chancellor, BHU, Dr Karan Singh also released souvenir along with profile of BHU, Alumni Newsletter, Mahamana Sandesh and CD containing rare photographs of Malviyaji, prepared by Bharat Kala Bhawan on the occasion.
Prior to the inauguration, an exhibition of academic achievements of BHU was inaugurated on the Swatantrara Bhawan lawns. The inaugural function was followed by special lecture on occasion of sustainability day by Padmabhushan Chandi Prasad Bhatt on achievements of Chipko Movement.
"We are at a cross-road of illiteracy, poverty, class struggle, orthodox religious feelings and moral degradation," Said Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University and president, Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), while delivering special lecture on Srimadbhagawatgita to mark the birth anniversary celebrations of Pt Madan Mohan Malviya at the university.
Expressing concern on the current socio-cultural, political and financial state of affairs in the country, he said "though we have conquered space and made entry into nano-age besides unfolding human genome and super computers, all this has come at the cost of decaying human values and ethics. Our concept of life has got distorted with earthly needs on short term basis and it has created sense of sorrow and insecurity," he added.
"Solution to these unavoidable problems lies comprehensively in Dharmashastras, which enlighten our mental faculty and successfully guide us to the path of peace and prosperity," he preached.
Gita Samiti, Malviya Bhawan, BHU had organised the programme.
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TNN, 5 February 2010, 10:35pm IST
VARANASI: Discussions on global international project on 'reconstruction of supercontinents using large igneous province (LIP)' garnered
attention on the second day of the four-day Sixth International Dyke Conference (IDC), organised by department of Geology, Banaras Hindu University, on Friday.
Highlighting the key features of the project, coordinator Wouter Bleeker of Geological Survey of Canada said the project would not only decipher reconstruction of supercontinents back to 2.7 giga years using LIP, but it would also have wide ranging implications for mineral deposit targeting, hydrocarbon resource exploration and earth system evolution.
"It is a global collaboration five-year project involving multinational efforts and presently around 50 scientists from different countries are associated with the project," he said. "Efforts are being made to include more scientists (geologists) from India especially from Kolkata, Bastar and Aravalli regions in the project," he added.
It may be mentioned here that the department of geology, BHU, that has been actively involved in dyke researches from almost all parts of the Indian peninsula for the past 20 years, is also involved in the project with Prof Rajesh K Srivastava, convener of Sixth IDC, being its member.
Later, talking to reporters, Bleeker said Indian sub-continent, especially Deccan Volcanic Province (DVP) believed to have originated about 100 million years ago, provided interesting dimensions to dyke research. "The driver piece of craton or crust is accessible and dykes are clearly exposed in the region," he added.
Similarly speaking about mineral deposit exploration, he said a number of mineral ores of nickel, copper, platinum, chrome and cobalt had been found in the studies. "The cooling of Deccan volcanic offshore has also given indications for large volume of oil and natural gas (hydrocarbon resource) embedded in the cracks and rifts of rock blocks," he informed.
What is dyke?
It is the process of intrusion of local rocks, mainly igneous rocks into the country rock (parental rock). It is a natural phenomenon, mainly caused by tectonic or volcanic activity with magma flux making inroads in the parental rocks through crevices or slit opening. The process changes the chemical as well as physical properties of rocks through metamorphosis.
Significance of dyke research
# It has implications in mineral deposit targeting, hydrocarbon resource exploration and earth system evolution
# Dyke swarms have large footprints and their ages provide high time-resolution
# It also provides tectonically meaningful trends, directing to igneous centre with high precision point
# It provides target of choice for paleomagnetic constitution as dykes are easy to recognise and relatively insensitive to uplifts
(Source: department of Geology, BHU)
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/-Youth-fest-at-BHU-ends-/articleshow/5537269.cms
TNN, 5 February 2010, 10:34pm IST
VARANASI: The five-day annual inter-faculty youth festival of Banaras Hindu University `Spandan-2010' concluded on Friday.
While the colourful folk dance of various states of the country (performed by BHU students) took the centre stage, vocal recitation of Padmabhushan Pt Channulal Mishra, the chief guest of valedictory function, enthralled the audience.
Earlier, prizes and awards were presented to the winning students representing various faculties. Around 2,000 students representing 15 faculties, four affiliated colleges, Mahila Mahavidyalaya and Rajiv Gandhi South Campus, Barkachha (Mirzapur) participated in various events.
Fusion-2010: The five-day joint art exhibition on traditional arts of India, presented by artists duo Payal Prakash and Sarita Upadhyaya concluded at Ravindrapurt Art Gallery on Friday.
A number of art forms of country including Pachhikari from Orissa, Pattkala of Kolkata and Madhubani paintings from Bihar were exhibited on the occasion.
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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100204/jsp/frontpage/story_12064633.jsp
CHARU SUDAN KASTURI
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New Delhi, Feb. 3: The IITs are proposing an eight-fold increase in student fees from Rs 50,000 to Rs 4 lakh a year under sweeping proposals the institutes will present to the government tomorrow.
The institutes will propose to human resource development minister Kapil Sibal that the fee hike be spread over 10 years with a Rs 35,000 mark-up every year. The plan is aimed at helping the IITs become self-financing institutions.
The directors of the IITs will also unveil a plan to meet crippling teacher shortage through a scheme to attract fresh M. Tech graduates as “faculty interns”.
But the directors have failed to arrive at a strategy on how to increase the weightage of marks obtained in school-leaving examinations while selecting students.
Tomorrow’s meeting, officially described as a brainstorming session, has been called by Sibal as a follow-up to a session of the IIT council — the highest decision-making body of the institutes — on October 19, 2009.
At that IIT council meeting, each institute had decided to prepare a reform blueprint on specific issues. IIT Kanpur, tasked with proposing a financial structure to help the engineering schools gain financial autonomy, has suggested the eight-fold fee hike.
In its presentation, the IIT has said calculations had shown that the institutes spend Rs 4 lakh — or $10,000 — a student annually.
In order to be financially independent of the government, the IITs need to earn this amount through student fees, IIT Kanpur has said. At present, the IITs charge Rs 50,000 a year.
An annual hike of Rs 35,000 will enable the IITs to charge Rs 4 lakh a student in 10 years, the institute has said. The proposal will also ask the government to provide a corpus for each IIT specifically to pay off pension dues.
IIT Delhi, given responsibility for preparing a roadmap for attracting faculty, has suggested a scheme titled ‘Catch them young’ to lure fresh M. Tech graduates. M. Tech graduates at IITs will be asked to join as “faculty interns”. They will have to take only two to three classes a week and will be encouraged to pursue their PhD for the rest of the time.
They will be paid better than students who pursue only their PhD, and will not be burdened with administrative tasks.
IIT Madras was asked to work on admission reforms. Without going into specifics, the institute has repeated plans voiced by Sibal after the October council meeting to increase the weightage of school-leaving marks in IIT admissions.
The IIT has suggested a preliminary screening to restrict the number of applicants from over 4 lakh a year to around 1.2 lakh.
But it has rejected using the All India Engineering Entrance Examination -- used by the National Institutes of Technology and most other engineering colleges -- to pick or even shortlist students.
IIT Bombay, asked to suggest reforms to improve the research output of the IITs, has suggested that the government create a separate funding category for research.
At present, research funding is a part of the total money an institute receives from the government. Separating the research funds will ensure a dedicated budget for research, according to IIT Bombay.
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http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article100852.ece
New Delhi, February 4, 2010 PTI
The government on Thursday set up a committee to suggest reforms in the IIT entrance examination but did not take any decision on the proposed fee hike in the elite institutes.
At a brainstorming session on IITs, chaired by Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, a committee was set up under IIT Kharagpur Director Prof. Damodar Acharya to study the existing JEE structure and suggest improvement in it.
The committee will submit its report in three months, a Human Resource Development Ministry official said. It is expected to suggest on how to consider the Class XII marks of students while preparing the cut-off for the admission into these 15 elite institutes.
At present, the IITs are taking students on the basis of cut-off prepared in view of the marks scored by students in IIT Joint Entrance Examination. Consideration of Class XII marks in the cut-off would ensure that meritorious students get into the IIT stream.
The meeting, attended by the IIT directors and chairpersons, however, did not take any decision on the proposal to increase the tuition fee of students to make the institutes self-sufficient.
Mr. Sibal suggested that as the government is planning to set up a Higher Education Funding Corporation, which would provide assistance to poor students. The proposal on fee hike would be discussed after the corporation is set up.
IIT Kanpur had prepared a detailed proposal on hiking the tuition fee. At present, B.Tech students are paying Rs 50,000 per year as fee. The proposal suggested increasing the fee to Rs 4 lakh per annum over a period of ten years.
At the last meeting of IIT Council, the apex body to decision on IIT issues, discussions were held on giving more weightage to marks obtained in school-leaving examinations while selecting students.
At Thursday’s meeting, Mr. Sibal asked the IITs to indicate in four weeks about the specialised area they want to focus on to emerge as global giants in that area by 2020, the official said.
The new IITs will consider their roadmaps in two months time. The IITs will give roadmap on how to attract world-class faculty from within and outside the country to meet the faculty shortage. The IITs are suffering from about 30 per cent faculty shortage.
The institutes will also suggest how to expand their infrastructure incrementally. A committee under Prof. Anand Krishnan was set up to study this issue and give recommendations.
Suggestions were also made to have a structured credit transfer system in the IITs to enable students of IITs to migrate to other institutes.
Mr. Sibal asked the IITs to explore setting up a secretariat for their marketing.
The government also set up a separate committee under IIT Guwahati Director Prof. Gautam Baruah to suggest improvement in the governance in the IITs, the official said.
This committee will study the relationship of the IITs with the government and suggest how to have better correlation.
Mr. Sibal asked the IITs how they could increase their linkages to school children and with technical institutions and universities.
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http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article100973.ece
NEW DELHI, February 5, 2010
Special Correspondent
With the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) yet again making out a case for fee hike, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday suggested that they maintain the present fee structure till the proposed Education Finance Corporation (EFC) is in place.
The issue was apparently raised by one of the IIT directors at the “brainstorming” session convened by the Minister to chalk out a road map for taking the premier institutes to the “next level.” Intervening, the Minister suggested that the IITs refrain from increasing the fee till the government puts in place a mechanism that will provide students access to funds.
This could well defer the fee hike till 2012 as Mr. Sibal earlier this week had said the Ministry was optimistic of being able to set up the EFC in the 12th Five Year Plan.
On other reforms, all the IITs were asked by Mr. Sibal to indicate in four weeks areas in which they can achieve the highest standards by 2020 so that these institutes can break into the top 50 league of institutions across the world. In the case of the new IITs, they have been given two months.
Panel to be set up
Besides, a committee has been set up to examine possibilities of improving the Joint Entrance Examination for IITs. While the committee has been given three months to submit its report, plans are also on the anvil to have a structured credit transfer system to allow IIT students to migrate outside.
Governance issues also came up for discussion and another committee was set up to suggest improvements in the administration of IITs and their relationship with the government. To market the IIT brand, it was proposed that all the institutes could have a common secretariat.
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http://www.indianexpress.com/news/IIT-Kgp-basks-in-alumni-shower-of-largesse/565271/
Shiv Sahay Singh
Posted: Saturday , Jan 09, 2010 at 0332 hrs Kolkata:
With the laying of the foundation stone for P K Sinha Centre for Bio energy at IIT Kharagpur, the oldest IIT in the country seems to be riding high on support from alumni.
With two million-dollar pledge to the centre from Prabhakant Sinha — who graduated from the institute in 1970 and is at present the Co Chairman of ZS Associate — the IIT-Kharagpur alumni have so far donated 10 million dollars to their alma mater.
And thanks to their largesse, the institute now boasts of at least five new centres of teaching and research, and more and more proposals are pouring in everyday.
“We are more than happy with what support we have received from the alumni in terms of contributions and setting up of the centres. With the support of alumni, the university has ventured into the areas of management and law — not the conventional areas of engineering — and helped to strengthen research in various other disciplines,” said A K Majumdar, Deputy Director, IIT-Khargapur. It all began with setting up of the Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM), the first management school in an IIT, with an investment of $ 2 million in 1993 by one alumnus Vinod Gupta.
This was followed by setting up of G S Sanyal School of Telecommunications in 1996 with the support of Arjun Melholtra, an alumnus who made a contribution of Rs 3 crore and dedicated the institute to his teacher and former director of the institute G S Sanyal.
In 2006, the IIT got a law school, the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, that specializes in intellectual property rights. For this school also Vinod Gupta donated $ 1 million. Two years later, Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management was set up. Ranbir Singh Gupta, an alumnus of 1970 batch BArch, contributed $ 1 million for setting up the institute.
“We are coming up with a unique course on entrepreneurship and plan to set up centre of innovation. We will be collaborating with Lord Kumar Bhattacharjee, head of Warwick Manufacturing Group of UK and one of our alumni,” said Damodar Acharya, Director, IIT-KgP.
Various faculty members that once an alumnus comes up with a significant contribution in one particular field of study, the government also chips in. “Those who graduated in late 60s and 70s want to do something for their institute,” said Amit Patra, Dean of alumni affairs.
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Thursday , January 7 , 2010
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100107/jsp/calcutta/story_11951210.jsp
OUR LEGAL REPORTER
A high court division bench on Wednesday said a simple process should be followed to fix the cut-off marks in the IIT entrance exams but declined to interfere because it had no “expertise” on the matter.
Justice A. Banerjee and Justice K. Mukherjee made the observations while hearing a student’s petition challenging the legality of the IIT admission process. The bench dismissed the petition.
“We don’t have any expertise to look into the matter. We can only say that there should be a simple method to ascertain the cut-off marks. But that does not mean that the process adopted is wrong,” the bench stated.
The petitioner, Sanchit Bansal, son of an IIT Kharagpur faculty member, had appeared in the entrance examination in 2006 and scored 75 in mathematics, 104 in physics and 42 in chemistry. “Experts had fixed 37, 48 and 55 as the cut-off marks for mathematics, physics and chemistry, respectively,” said the lawyer who appeared for IIT.
A single-judge bench of the high court had dismissed Bansal’s petition in June.
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Kartikeya, TNN, 1 January 2010, 12:47am IST
MUMBAI: They are regarded globally as centres of excellence and considered to be India's ticket to making it big in the industrial and entrepreneurial world. So it is shocking that the nine centrally funded technical institutions (collectively called CFTIs), which include the prestigious IITs and IIMs, are currently short of more than 3,000 faculty members or about one-third of the sanctioned strength.
The statistics, sourced from the Union HRD ministry, point to a rather grim situation. For instance, one-third of the teaching posts at the IITs and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) are lying vacant. The premier Indian Institute of Science (IISc) at Bangalore does not have even half the teachers it needs; ditto for the three Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPAs). In fact, all the CFTIs—whether it is the lone Indian School of Mines (ISM) at Dhanbad or the NITs dotted across the country—are currently functioning without the requisite number of teachers.
There is an overall deficit of 1,284 teachers, 222 of these at IIT-Bombay. "We have a policy of rolling recruitment where we fill up vacant posts as soon as we find a qualified candidate," explains A K Suresh, dean for faculty affairs at IIT-Bombay. "Moreover, we take care of immediate needs by hiring faculty on a contractual basis."
By 2014, IIT-Bombay will reach its maximum capacity of 8,000 students and by then will have to ensure that it finds enough professors to maintain the healthy student-teacher ratio that is required for an elite engineering institute.
The situation is equally bad in IISc, which is concerned with research in frontier areas of science and education in contemporary technologically important fields, and the SPA, a specialised university, the only one of its kind that provides training in different aspects of human habitat and environment. Both these institutes are involved in the cutting edge of technical knowledge pursuit, and the effect of an inadequate faculty can well be imagined. Indeed, experts worry that the inability to find qualified professors may seriously compromise India's ability to groom top-notch engineers, scientists and businessmen of the future.
The government has been trying hard to recruit qualified individuals to teach at CFTIs but has found the going tough. Very few students who graduate from the CFTIs come back to teach, preferring to move abroad or accept lucrative jobs in the private sector. The Sixth Pay Commission did hike salaries at these premier institutes but most professors at IITs and IIMs claim that even the new pay scales are not good enough to attract talented people to teaching in India.
The inability to find enough qualified teachers is even more galling, considering that the institutes attract the best of India's brains. Admissions involve a gruelling competitive process for which students prepare for years. And after all the hard work they find themselves reaching institutes where there are not enough teachers to groom them for excellence.
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http://www.dnaindia.com/academy/report_iit-bombay-alumni-make-a-healthy-contribution_1328582
DNA, Tuesday, December 29, 2009 1:15 IST
Mumbai: Across institutes, alumni get together to rekindle old memories. But rarely, in India at the least, have they actually done something significant for their alma mater.
The 1984 batch of the Indian IIT-Bombay, made a difference when it got together for its silver jubilee last week. The ex-students left a legacy as a special "thank you" to their teachers. Many of these teachers, who retired before 2003, are aged and do not have adequate medical insurance. The students chipped in to do their bit for them.
"Faculty members who have retired before 2003 do not have any health coverage provided by the IIT or the government of India. Nor can they buy medical insurances because of their advanced age. We, therefore, decided to set up a retired faculty wellness fund for them," said Arvind Sanger, an alumnus.
Every IIT batch getting together for its silver jubilee has a "legacy project". This year, it was the turn of the class of 1984. Its legacy project had three initiatives -- their theme,
"The past, the present and the future."
The money that has been pledged by the students for the wellness fund will provide medical coverage to the faculty members retired before 2003. It has been estimated that there are 165 of them. The future reunions are expected to help the fund grow.
"We are just trying to help those who have made this institute shine. If the fund grows in the coming years, it can become a supplementary health coverage benefit for these faculty members," said Sanger.
Previous IIT-B batches who have contributed to help the faculty include those of 1977 (faculty housing), 1982 (sign-on bonus to newly-hired faculty members) and 1983 (sign-on bonus and faculty development funds).
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/Girls-storm-male-bastion-IIT/H1-Article1-489551.aspx
Kiran Wadhwa, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, December 23, 2009
Women are making their presence felt on Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campuses.
In the last five years, the number of women clearing the joint entrance test (JEE) to get into the seven IITs has trebled, according to a report analysing IIT admission trends.
In 2005, women formed five per cent of the total number of those who cleared the JEE (381 out of 6,433). In 2009, their pool increased to 10 per cent (1,048 of 10,035). Though the percentage is small, it is a big improvement.
“The number of applications from women has also increased and courses at IIT are no longer viewed as only-for-men. Even women are interested in technical fields,” said Anil Kumar, IIT-Bombay’s JEE chairperson, who prepared the report.
Women alumni are glad. Kavita Ramanan was one of just 10 women in a batch of 300 in 1992 at IIT-B. “There were those who thought we’d wasted a seat and that we’d eventually get married and stay at home,” said the professor from Brown University, Rhode Island.
“Parents may still be apprehensive about sending their daughters to the male-majority IITs but there is no bias on campus,” said Sukhada Pendse, a third year IIT-B electrical engineering student, one of eight girls in her class.
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Hemali Chhapia, TNN, 29 January 2010, 02:03am IST
MUMBAI: After all the hullabaloo over the Common Admission Test (CAT) going online, some of the Indian Institutes of Management have decided to rework the formula for selecting candidates, reducing the weightage for the CAT score.
For instance, IIM-Kozhikode -- which placed the highest weightage on CAT scores all these years, 90 points -- has proposed reducing it to 50 points for this academic year's admission. "This year, we plan to consider candidates' performance in Class-X and XII examinations, too, apart from their work experience," said a senior IIM-Kozhikode faculty.
He, however, added that the decision had nothing to do with the technical glitches that marred the conduct of the entrance exam this year. "We wanted to bring in this change for the past two-three years. We've finally decided to bring down the CAT weightage from 90 points to 50 points this year."
IIM-Bangalore, meanwhile, has gone the Ahmedabad way. The Bangalore B-school has done away with group discussion and expects candidates to be prepared for essay writing, something that IIM-A started in 2007. Students will be given 30 minutes to write on a topic that will "typically reflect current political, economic and business affairs, though other topics such as sports and those that require more creative thinking can also be included", said an IIM-B official.
IIM-A didn't divulge detailed information regarding the selection process last year. This time around, too, it's unlikely that the points it gives for the CAT score would be made public. But officials confirmed that like last year, the highest weightage would be given to a candidate's performance in the personal interview.
Himanshu Rai, chairman (admissions) at IIM-Lucknow, said the institute would place 30 points on CAT scores and the remaining 70% would depend on a host of other areas like group discussion, personal interview, Class-X and XII marks and work experience. "We want to bring in more diversity on the campus, in terms of fewer engineers and more women students," Rai added.
Sources in IIM-Calcutta said the selection process was likely to remain unchanged.
The new IIMs expected to start this academic year -- Trichy, Ranchi, Rohtak and in Rajasthan -- are yet to take any decision on the selection procedure. Admissions to these institutes will be conducted by the existing IIMs.
CAT TILE
* IIM-Ahmedabad: CAT score will get less weightage than personal interview like last year, also to be factored in are essay writing, Class X and XII scores
* IIM-Bangalore: No GD and case study discussion this year. Instead, candidates will be given 30 minutes to write an essay. Merely 20 points for CAT
* IIM-Kozhikode: Weightage for CAT down to 50 points from 90 points, the institute will consider scores of Classes X and XII, apart from work experience. Last year, 10 points were set aside for work experience
* IIM-Lucknow: CAT weightage to remain constant at 30 points. But the institute plans to slightly tweak weightage for Class X/ XII marks as well as work experience
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http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/a-testing-year-for-students-despite-reforms/380916/
Archana M Prasanna, / New Delhi December 28, 2009, 0:23 IST
From scrapping of Class X boards and setting up of 7 new IIMs to disappointing placements and an unsuccessful computer-based CAT — students saw it all
Although 2009 brought cheer to the education sector with the announcement of a slew of reforms, it would also be a year students and campuses would want to forget in a hurry.
From subdued placements and protest from faculty members over compensation to a chaotic Common Admission Test (CAT), Business Standard's Education team captures the year that was.
B-school final placements
The usual headline-making placements at Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), saw a drastic dip in the number of offers and average salary packages during their final placement season in the last week of February this year. While all IIMs had to extend their final placements, there was very little or no increase in salary offered to most students this year. Students at IIM Ahmedabad, known for being offered hefty packages, were offered an average domestic salary of Rs 12.17 lakh, a 31 per cent reduction over last year’s Rs 17.85 lakh. The silver lining, however, had been the surge in the visit of public sector units (PSUs) as compared to the private sector every year.
As for the non-IIMs, which witnessed comfortable placements but drop in salaries, PSUs filled the gaps left by private companies during their placements in April this year. B-schools registered a jump of 20-50 per cent in the registration of PSUs which came to the campuses to recruit students. Most of the non-IIMs accepted average salaries ranging from Rs 6-10 lakhs. For the first time since its inception, the Indian School of Business Hyderabad, extended its placement season indefinitely.
Kapil Sibal takes charge as Union HRD Minister
Kapil Sibal took charge as the Union Minister for Human Resource Development (MHRD) in May this year and categorically stated that pending bills like Foreign Education Bill and Right to Education Bill — drafted by the previous government — would be pushed forward. By finding synergies between the MHRD and the Ministry of Science and Technology — the ministry he previously headed — Sibal said that these would be utilised by his new ministry.
Since Sibal took over, he worked on matters like law to further amend the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act to strengthen the Commission, law to amend the Copyright Act 1957 to address the concerns relating to copyrights of the various stake holders and launching of a new scheme of interest subsidy on educational loans taken for professional courses by the economically weaker students. He recommended the grading system in place of marks for Class X Boards. He has also given the go-ahead on lifting curbs on the IIMs for setting up campuses abroad. The MHRD is now looking at the possibility of allowing the private sector to set up education institutions under section 25 of the Companies Act.
Yash Pal Committee recommendations
The Yash Pal Committee, headed by scientist Yash Pal, submitted its final report on ‘Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education’ in June 2009. The committee was formed in 2008 to study and suggest measures to revamp the system of higher education in the country. Some of the recommendations included creation of a regulator called National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) in place of regulatory bodies like University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), scrapping of deemed university status, and university status for the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and the IIMs. Some academicians criticised the report saying that doing away with existing regulators was not a solution. Further, the recommendation to convert IITs and IIMs into universities also did not go down with many in these institutes who felt that their system was much superior to that of a central university.
HRD’s 100-day plan
The Ministry of Human Resource Development rolled out a 100-day agenda this June with an aim to set up an autonomous overarching authority for higher education and research; making the Class 10 board exam optional; review the functioning of deemed universities; give interest subsidy on education loans taken by poor students and public-private partnership in school education, among others.
National Commission for Higher Education and Research is based on the recommendations of the Yash Pal Committee and the National Knowledge Commission and will subsume in it agencies like the UGC, Medical Council of India and the AICTE. It will formulate policies for law and medical schools, engineering colleges and technical institutions, among others.
Among others, the agenda also mentions a law to regulate entry and operation of foreign educational providers that will regulate these and let good foreign universities enter India. The minister had already directed the UGC to review the functioning of all the ‘deemed-to-be-universities’ and report the deficiencies within the next three months. Operationalising the newly established 12 central universities and 2 new IITs and academic reforms like the semester system and a choice-based credit system will be among the other priorities.
Destination Australia for education takes a beating
Australia’s reputation as an education spot and a welcoming country suffered after a spate of racial attacks on Indians began in June and the closure of a dozen colleges till recently. In November, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said that 94 cases of attacks on Indians have been reported this year in Australia as against 17 incidents of assault in 2008.
According to Association of Australian Education Representatives in India, the recent attacks on Indian students in Australia has resulted in new enquiries coming down by 60-70 per cent. The country's reputation suffered further when the Victorian government shut down 11 colleges in and around Melbourne because of their failure to comply with the regulations. The closure of the eleven dodgy colleges stranded over 3000 students, most of which were Indians. This made destinations like UK and Canada more attractive to students.
Budget for higher education raised by Rs 2,000 cr
The overall plan budget for higher education for 2009-10 was proposed to be increased by Rs 2000 crore over the interim budget estimate. This was announced by the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee while presenting the Budget in Parliament in July, 2009. The government proposed a full interest subsidy scheme on education loans for poor students pursuing technical and professional courses in approved institutes. It also allocated Rs 2,113 crore for IITs and NITs pan-India. Mukherjee said the interest subsidy scheme is expected to benefit nearly 500,000 students. This is also expected to enable students from economically weaker sections to access higher education, and it proposed to introduce a scheme to provide them full interest subsidy during the period of moratorium. The scheme will cover loans taken by such students from scheduled banks to pursue any approved course in technical and professional streams at recognised institutes in the country.
The higher education budget for the current fiscal has been pegged at Rs 15,429 crore, including a planned allocation of Rs 9,600 crore. During the last financial year, the total allocation was Rs 11,340 crore. The UGC has been provided an allocation of Rs 4,374.95 crore which includes expenditure for both central and deemed universities. The provision for the scheme Mission in Education through ICT has been substantially increased to Rs 900 crore. Similarly, the provision for setting up and upgradation of polytechnic under the skill development mission has been increased to Rs 495 crore.
7 new IIMs to be set up
On 27 August this year, the Union Cabinet approved setting up of seven new IIMs in Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan as part of the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The total fund requirement for their establishment was decided to be around Rs 1,057 crore, according to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
Of the seven new IIMs in the country, the one in Shillong called Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management has already been established commencing its first academic session from 2008-2009. IIM Rajasthan is to be setup in view of the finance minister’s budget announcement in February. At present, there are seven IIMs in the country, including the one at Shillong, Kolkata (Calcutta), Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Lucknow, Kozhikode (Calicut) and Indore. In the first phase, four IIMs at Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Raipur (Chhattishargh) and Rohtak (Haryana) will be set up in 2009-10, which would become functional from academic session 2010-11.
IIT/IIM/IISc faculty protest
Revised pay hike norms laid by the MHRD led to several protests and hunger strikes by the representatives of IITs. The representatives of IITs and IIMs held joint meetings with the MHRD in the first week of October in the hope of once and for all resolving the ongoing tussle over faculty pay hike, promotion and appointment issues.
Over 3,000 faculty at all the IITs went on hunger strike on September 24 to protest against the MHRD’s stand on faculty pay and appointment. However, the IITs continued to take classes and mentor the new IITs. Till the revised MHRD order was published, the IITs, IIMs, IISc, IISERs and NITIE followed what is known as a flexible cadre system that allowed them to promote faculty based on their performance, irrespective of their age and experience. For instance, a lot of brilliant lecturers and PhDs could become a professor by his early 30s.But the new recruitment rules for professors — articulated in a revised pay notification for faculty at these institutions on September 16 — put an end to this flexibility.
The faculty at these institutes now need 10 years’ experience before they become eligible for professor posts — irrespective of how bright they may be. The revised MHRD order also says said that maximum 40 per cent of the professors can be promoted to senior grade depending on their performance.
CAT & IIT-JEE
A not-so-decent placement season at the IIMs and a computer-based CAT for the first time turned to be deterrents even as the number of applications dropped by 30,000 to 2.46 lakh, from 2.76 lakh aspirants last year. On the contrary, IIT-JEE, the entrance test for the IITs saw the number of applications rise to 3.50 lakh in 2009 from 3.11 lakh in 2008. The rise is attributed to the announcement of new set of IITs, giving rise to chances of aspirants making to the premier engineering colleges.
CAT gets chaotic
The IIMs’ maiden attempt to make CAT computer-based ran into rough waters with close to 20,000 students not able to take the exam in the first three days due to technical glitches. A virus named ‘Conficker’ played havoc with the systems and the IIMs along with their partners Prometric and NIIT faced a lot of flak. Students faced problems like logging in, searching their names in the database, clicking on options and submitting their biometric details. There was a public outcry to scrap the test and reschedule the exam but the IIMs decided to go ahead with the test and assured students that everyone would get a fair chance. They also announced that an additional date would be announced in mid-January 2010 to complete the testing process.
(Compiled by Archana M Prasanna, Vinay Umarji, Chitra Unnithan, Kirtika Suneja, Pradipta Mukherjee and Kalpana Pathak)
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Introduction
The novel titled “That's the Life Baby” is published by Mahaveer Publishers. This debut novel is written by Priyesh Ranjan, a Part-III student of Dept. of Ceramic Engineering, IT-BHU.
The book was launched on the last day of Delhi Book Fair (7th Feb.). 2,500 copies are already in markets and second impression is due in 1st fortnight of March.
Priyesh Ranjan can be contacted at: ownpriyesh@gmail.com
(Priyesh Ranjan)
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About the book:
Details of Book: That's the Life Baby
Book: That's the Life Baby
Author: Priyesh Ranjan
ISBN: 8183520006
ISBN-13: 9788183520003, 978-8183520003
Binding: Paperback
Publishing Date: 7 February 2010
Publisher: Mahaveer Publishers Number of Pages: 224 Language: English
List Price: Rs. 99
To buy online: http://www.flipkart.com/s-life-baby-priyesh-ranjan/8183520006-9v23f5bqdc
http://www.a1books.co.in/itemdetail/8183520006/THAT-S-LIFE-BABY/
Will be available at all the major bookstores from the 3rd week of this month
To watch the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4HTQJhO9x8
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Book Review:
http://www.merinews.com/article/thats-the-life-baby-a-campus-caper/15797607.shtml
That's the life baby: A campus caper
CJ: A QUANTUM LEAP
Thu, Feb 11, 2010 10:15:11 IST
PRIYESH RANJAN'S debut novel, That’s The Life Baby, is a delightful account of four friends who are sent to Kota by their parents to prepare for the grueling IIT JEE. Their lives don’t turn out quite as they planned as they collectively muddle through academic toil, romance, success and tragedy.
Humorous, insightful and youthful, Priyesh, an IT-BHU student, takes us through a whirl wind tour of emotions and teenage chitchat. The book is an 'unputdownable' adventure in which the reader has no option but to join the guys in their daily night outs, counter strike tournaments and Chambal garden adventures. We watch as they nibble on jalebis and tea at 4:00am in the morning, bunk organic chemistry to learn a little biology and they grow up in front of our eyes, from bubbling boys to full-fledged men.
Interestingly, That’s The Life Baby is not a glorified account of life in an IIT but of the less glorious coaching years that precede it. A must read for every student who is or has gone through it, as well for the parents who pack up their children to capture the IIT dream.
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Yogesh Upadhyaya talks with Priyesh Ranjan about his book:
Q-1: Priyesh, What is the story in the book about?
A: Let me take you through the abbreviated summary of the book: A native of Jamshedpur, the steel city in Jharkhand, Abhi moves to Kota for preparations. But something else awaits him there. Together with Rohan, Naidu and Vivek he defines new fundas of friendship. At the same time the surreal connection between his mother and Aditi marks the entry of love in his life. The twist starts.
How does Shruti, Abhi's best friend become a victim? Can mechanics mantras damage Abhi's survival at Kota? An unexpected death exacerbates the scene. Under knotty circumstances will Abhi and his friends able to make it to IIT?
Meanwhile Bharti becomes Abhi's partner. What happens to Aditi? The story gets murkier with mistrust, link up and much more. Can fate and M4U channel together bring colors to Abhi's life? He ends up shaking a leg on the Ghats of Varanasi. What role does a TV show play in his life? Will Aditi remain in his life? Will fate award him with a king's crown or betray him? It's unusual!
Q-2: Why prompted you to write the story? What are the readers’ reactions?
A: As any writer would say – I love writing! Writing gives me a creative satisfaction. The idea to write a story was there for last 1-2 years in my mind. I believe that each of us a story to tell. In my case, I just wrote it down.
Initial reactions have been very encouraging. Only bouquets, no brickbats! Let’s see how long the smooth ride continues.
Q-3: What advise will you give to someone about writing and publishing a novel?
A: Have faith and keep writing. Writing requires a lot of patience. You should be very careful while selecting the plot. It should be worthy enough to inspire you through the ups and downs of the process. If there is something harder than writing then it’s convincing a publisher that your story is good enough to get published. Getting a publishing nod depends on your writing style, narration and odds of being a bestseller.
Q-4: Please tell us about you. What are your future plans?
A: I am a native of Patna, Bihar. My father is an executive engineer and mother is a housewife. My elder brother is a computer engineer and works for a MNC. I did my schooling from RKMV Deoghar, Jharkhand and later moved to Kota for my higher secondary studies. I am interested in entrepreneurship and want to have a career in that. I am also the co-founder of PadhakuJoker.com where I devote most of my free time. Besides, I love watching movies and reading.
The plot of second book is already prepared. I am going to spend another 7-8 months working on it. Writing as career? Maybe! That depends on how badly I am hurt by brickbats!
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Excerpt from the novel:
The same Punjabi song – ‘…Kala kauwa kaat khayega…’ was being played at some nearby pandal.
“Huh! People here seem to be crazy for this song. They are never fed up listening to it.” I showed my disinclination for the song. She gave back a grin. The cold breeze kept ruffling her hair. Some locks were displaced to her forehead but she didn’t move them back. She knew that she looked even more beautiful with that.
“I love sitting like this. The ambience is so appealing,” she remarked.
“And I love throwing stones in the river.” I continued to create ripples.
“I like it too.”
I slid my right hand into pocket and took out a color paper which smelt of rose.
“Aditi, this is for you.” I held it towards her.
“What is it?” She asked.
“You better see yourself.”
There was enough light to read. Written on the paper was –
I knew, one day I would meet you
For you were always in my dreams and thoughts
Sometimes you were the angel, sometimes you were the princess.
Sometimes you were holding my hands, sometimes you were caressing me.
Slowly and swiftly every night passed like that.
Every time it rained, I missed you.
Every Valentine’s I was alone.
Every time I saw Taj Mahal, I thought if I could be there with you
I always wondered wherever you were whether you felt the same way or not.
Love is blind, love is mad, love has wings.
But for me love is you.
Now the long wait has come to an end
For, you are in front of my eyes.
Now I can touch you, I can talk to you
Without the obnoxious alarm disturbing me.
Now I can be with you, forever and ever.
O my angel! You are the spring of my life
I wish there was no summer.
Hold me and embrace me like never
For I want to be with you, forever and ever.
A spark of affection appeared in her eyes as she finished reading. She looked at me and said.
“For me? How sweet!” Her eyes were moist.
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http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100120/LIFE/701199996/1084/life
Rebecca Conway
* Last Updated: January 19. 2010 10:26PM UAE / January 19. 2010 6:26PM GMT
A pure silk sari from Varanasi's silk bazaar can sell for Rs600 (Dh48) to Rs40,000, depending on the embroidery. Less expensive imports have cut into the local artisans' industry. Rebecca Conway / The National
Babloo Mehendra whips a cobalt scarf through a silver ring and grins.
“See? Pure silk. You can pull pure, natural fabrics through a ring, but not mixed or synthetic. You can do it with all our shawls; it’s a sign that we sell pure silk products here. The real thing.”
In his tiny and immaculate shop near the edge of the River Ganges, Mehendra sprawls a mounting pile of silk scarves and saris, the jewel-coloured fabrics shimmering. Proud of his organic dyes and pure silks, he pauses over a wide and dazzling silver-green brocade. Six metres of it – the amount it would take to wrap a full sari – can cost up to $1,000 (Dh3,670)
“It takes a day, maybe two, to weave a shawl,” Mehendra says, “but it can take up to six months to create something like this, weaving single silk strands together by hand for the colour and texture, and then adding embroidery, metallic threads and beading. So it’s expensive but it’s worth the level of work. It’s a unique trade to this city.”
Varanasi, India, is so renowned for its silk trade that shoppers travel from across the country to search for wedding fabrics and wholesale opportunities. Many of the city’s silk emporiums export their products around the globe.
Nestled at the crossroads of the Varuna and Asi rivers from which it takes its name, Varanasi has long attracted pilgrims, traders, conquerors and craftsmen. Each has left a commercial legacy and helped establish the city as a trade centre.
What started as a ritual use of cotton fabrics in burial ceremonies held along the city’s ghats has expanded into an artisan industry.
The beginning of Varanasi’s silk-weaving history is a subject of debate, but locals say the silk empire began in roughly 1300AD when many skilled Gujarati weavers decamped to Varanasi following a great fire.
Weavers from Delhi and Rajasthan followed, and the development of new types of hand looms broadened production abilities. In the 18th century, artists introduced new designs in gold and silver thread. Varanasi became a creative melting pot, and patterns, brocades and styles developed.
Although the industry’s exact age is not known, Varanasi, or Banaras, silk is mentioned in the Hindu Rig Veda and Buddhist history texts, which, together with images from the Mughal court, provide clues to its evolution. They also point to Varanasi’s prominent and long-standing role in silk production and brocade craftsmanship.
Originally a leading Mughal-era export to Tibet and Saudi Arabia, silk has become a modern commercial trend, cementing Varanasi’s reputation as a centre for fine silk production. (All four of India’s silk varieties – mulberry, tussar, eri and muga, each named after the plants on which the silk worms are fed – are used to produce Varanasi’s famous cloth.)
Even with its rich heritage, the industry has not been immune to economic downturn or increased competition. Despite intermittent government bans on the import of cheap, pre-made silk, Mehendra says Chinese silk clothes (allegedly smuggled into India) still threaten the existence of Varanasi’s silk industry, as demand for the hand-woven, hand-printed and embroidered silks local weavers produce declines in the face of less expensive imports.
“A pure silk sari starts at maybe Rs600 (Dh48) and goes up to Rs40,000 depending on the embroidery,” says Prikash Ahmed, who comes from a family of weavers. He has been weaving silks for more than 12 years. “But cheaper fabrics and imports can sell for around Rs300, so we lose out if people chose the cheaper fabric, even though the quality is not as high as Varanasi silk.
“Some of the Chinese fabric is poorer quality, but it costs less because it’s ready-made and manufactured on mechanical looms, not by hand. Less work goes into it. It is not an art like Banaras silk but more people can afford it.
“Everything is getting more expensive in India. It costs more to buy food or pay for electricity, so people spend less on clothes and expensive products.”
Artisans working on traditional, hand-operated looms are also unable to match the level of production or the uniform weave that machines generate.
A clutch of NGOs and charities have been established to lobby for more industry support in Varanasi and to provide sustainable, fixed-price outlets where weavers and traders can market fabrics at their full value.
Varanasi Weavers Trust is one example. The non-profit organisation aims to encourage economic stability among members of the silk community by introducing fair trade opportunities and lobbying for government-supported emporiums for local products.
Nalin Kumar Pandey sells silk shawls and home furnishings at the Beni Shawl Emporium, a government-supported shop that ensures fair trade by fixing the prices of the goods on sale. It discourages bartering, Pandey says.
“People know we are selling pure silk products and that they are handmade by local weavers and embroiderers. We don’t mix threads or natural fabrics with synthetics and we don’t carry imported products, so shopping here benefits workers and those who buy the products. It’s a way to sustain Varanasi’s pure silk work.”
Since Varanasi is home to an estimated five per cent of India’s one million weavers, decreasing trade has been hard on the city’s artisans.
“It is more difficult to get a lot of work now because so much fabric comes from China,” Ahmed says. “We still make a lot of fabric here in Varanasi, but there are less jobs now than there were when I started this job. Not everyone can always get work. ”
Still, demand for traditionally made Varanasi silk remains. Much of it is produced in the Muslim Quarter, away from the ghats that line the Ganges and behind the old city. Tiny tailors’ shops and fabric houses are crammed together along Varanasi’s characteristically narrow lanes.
Silk scarves are typically woven from one or two colours of thread and follow a basic, Mughal-inspired pattern of scalloped flowers and wide borders. Sari fabrics are left unembellished, ready for artisans to add gold and silver embroidery or inlay with sequins or tiny glass beads for wedding saris, which form an integral and highly valued part of a bride’s trousseau.
Small flower patterns, foliage outlines, corner designs and brocade work are the most popular designs. Two-tone fabric, which changes colour in the light with the warp and weft of the weave, is also popular.
Workers say raw silk and smoother, more refined finishes are equally popular. “Tourists love to come here and buy the raw silks because they have more texture and colour,” Ahmed says. “And we export a lot of raw silk abroad for clothes and bags, bedcovers and furnishings.
“But Indian people come for the sari fabrics – for weddings, parties, formal clothes. They know they can get the best here because we have manufactured this cloth for so many years that everyone knows how good the quality is.”
At his ghat-side shop, Mehendra flicks a bright magenta silk shawl over his arm and says: “Tomato dye. We always use vegetable dyes, natural dyes. They last longer and give more vivid colours. Natural dyes don’t damage the fabrics, either.
“People look for quality, not synthetics or plastics. You can feel the difference when silk is mixed with satin or a synthetic material. The dye doesn’t hold as nicely, either. So people appreciate the natural colours and threads.”
In Varanasi’s fabric bazaars – hidden in a network of narrow, blue-painted alleyways behind the ghats – one shopper says: “If you want the best price but still quality silks, you have to shop here in Varanasi. The weavers have been doing this work for many years, so the ability they have has been passed down. The fabrics are still the same quality that made Varanasi famous for silks originally.”
Shoppers preparing for India’s busy wintertime wedding season also boost trade. One of them, Poonam, says: “I do buy cheaper silks, ready-made from China or elsewhere. But for gifts, weddings, parties – all special occasions – you want a quality product. That is made here, and that you can see it being made. You can request designs, exact colours and styles. When you are spending a lot, you want it to be perfect.
“People will always want this level of quality, and they want to own something with a history, something made by people with skill and who have had the trade passed down to them.
“Varanasi silk is a special thing. It will not be lost.”
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