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NN, Aug 9, 2010, 10.03pm IST
VARANASI: The city celebrated the 68th anniversary of the Quit India Movement or the August Kranti, a civil disobedience movement launched on August 9,1942 in response to the call of Mahatma Gandhi for immediate independence, on Monday. A series of programmes were organised at different places to remember the days of the movement.
The department of history, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), held a lecture on the Quit India Movement. Recalling those days, the speakers said the BHU was a centre of August revolutionaries and the teachers, as well as the students, followed the mantra of 'do or die' propagated by Mahatma Gandhi. Led by Prof Radhe Shyam Sharma, thousands of students had taken active part in the movement and had spread it in the entire Eastern UP.
Highlighting the role of Varanasi in the August movement, Prof Rakesh Pandey of BHU said Varanasi-- particularly BHU-- had become most sensitive place for the British rulers and they had kept constant vigil on its teachers and students. On the instruction of the then governor of the United Province, Maurice Hallet, the then collector of Varanasi, Finle, had made the BHU campus an army camp and adopted all possible ways to crush the movement, he said. In 1942, rounds of firing at 23 different places in Varanasi had killed at least 18 persons and injured 85. As many as 117 persons were ousted from the district and 310 were arrested. To crush the district financially, the British rulers had collected a fine of Rs 22,42,262, he said. The girl students of BHU had also taken part in the movement and many of them had even lost their life, he said and further stated that the BHU students had spread to other districts of the region and mobilised the masses.
Historian Prof JP Mishra said to crush the movement in Ghazipur, firing was done at 20 places in which 167 persons had sacrificed their life and 229 had been injured. Around 3,000 revolutionaries had been arrested, he said. The British rulers had imposed a fine of Rs 32 lakh on Ghazipur. Similarly, the movement had spread to Azamgarh, Muhammadabad and other places. The people of Baghi (rebel) Ballia had freed the district from the British rule and Chittu Pandey was made the collector. The agitated crowd had destroyed police stations and railway properties at different places. The programme was also addressed by Prof AK Jain, Prof RP Singh and others.
Meanwhile, children associated with the Vishal Bharat Sansthan (VBS) carried out a Kranti March from Shastri Nagar Park to Azad Hind Park in Sigra to pay homage to the martyrs of the August Movement. Besides, the political workers also organised programmes to celebrate the day.
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http://varanasiview.blogspot.com/
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Varanasi, August 25, 2010: A 10-member Cambodian Parliamentary delegation led by Chheang Vun, Chairman of the Commission on Foreign Affairs International Co-operation, Information and Media of the National Assembly visited Banaras Hindu University (BHU) here on Wednesday.
The delegation called on BHU Vice-Chancellor Prof. D. P. Singh in the Committee Hall of Central Office in the presence of all the senior officers of the university. Professor Singh welcomed the delegation and explained BHU continuous upward march in providing quality education in the country. He also informed the visitors about BHU contributions in education, environment, value policy and quality policy in higher education.
(Chheang Vun (right) receiving present from VC, Prof. D. P. Singh (left))
A presentation about BHU was made by Prof. M Joshi, Chairman, International Cell. Chheang Vun said he was very happy to be in BHU as he always enjoyed being with professors.
He said when he was young, he became professor and he was professor for 12 years before he became Member of Parliament. “Professor is most prestigious position in our country,” he said.
He said education, agriculture, tourism are important areas where Cambodia needs support and help from India.
Prof. Joshi informed the delegation that out of 500 foreign students in BHU, 27 Cambodian students are in the Faculty of Agriculture, Arts and Social Science.
Vun requested the Vice-Chancellor to increase the strength of Cambodian Students in BHU, particularly in the field of agriculture, tourism, housing and information and communication.
He said he expects support from India to boost their food production, help in education system particularly development of the university system, information and communication technology and doctors to support their health system.
He said due to long war fought in past had affected the Cambodian health system, education, intellectuals and agriculture.
He specifically requested three things from BHU Vice Chancellor that includes the university to offer scholarship to adjust more Cambodian students, Government of India’s support to Cambodian students to study in BHU and exchange programme with Cambodian university.
In the response Professor Singh suggested that Cambodian government should to approach Government of India for offer of fellowship to study in BHU.
Prof. Singh assured, he would look into the offer of exchange programme with Cambodian university for development of education system there.
Later, Rector, Professor BD Singh proposed a vote of thanks. Before the meeting the delegation was received by the Rector at Bharat Kala Bhawan.
Source: PPP Cell-BHU
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/Global-suitors-woo-new-IITs/Article1-582902.aspx
Charu Sudan Kasturi, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, August 06, 2010
Germany and Australia have joined a growing number of developed nations keen to tie up with the new Indian Institutes of Technology that have opened in the last two years. Both have formally told the Indian government their universities would like to collaborate with the new IITs. The reason is clear: the developed world is looking at India both for trained technical manpower and as a potential research hub.
Germany wants to collaborate with IIT-Mandi that started in 2009 while Australia is interested in IIT-Patna, started in 2008, top government sources have told HT.
They join Japan, France and the United Kingdom, which are already in talks with the government to collaborate with the new IITs in Hyderabad, Jodhpur and Ropar, respectively.
The proposed collaboration involves the foreign partner providing technical knowhow and assistance to the IITs, and engaging in exchange programmes and joint research, sources said.
The talks so far with Japan, France and the UK suggest that the foreign partners are keen to tap Indian talent - both in terms of trained engineers and research - through their collaboration with the IITs, the sources said.
Japan, for instance, wants IIT-Hyderabad to incorporate the Japanese language and the country's management practices in its course structure - a move that would ease the integration of the institute's graduates into Japanese firms. Top Japanese companies are also expected to help train students at this IIT.
The early IITs too were hand-held and assisted - financially and technically - by foreign countries when they were started half a century ago, though that was largely to help a newly independent, struggling nation find its educational feet.
IIT-Bombay was helped by the erstwhile Soviet Union and UNESCO, IIT-Kanpur and Madras by the US and Germany and IIT-Delhi by Britain.
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http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/iit-b-alumni-pledge-1pay-to-institute/404090/
BS Reporter / Mumbai August 10, 2010, 1:11 IST
The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) may soon have enough corpus to fund various activities on its campus. The premier engineering institute has initiated a new fund-raising drive — Give one for IIT Bombay — by its alumni.
The movement, which is voluntary, involves each IIT-B alumnus to contribute one per cent of his or her income to IIT-B for life time.
So far, more than 735 students out of 1,000 in the graduating class of 2010 have signed up for the initiative.
An IIT-B graduate earns an average annual salary of Rs 7 lakh. This means the institute will be able to generate over Rs 51 lakh (Rs 7,000 per student per annum) when these student begin contributing in the first year. The amount however, would double next year when more number of students sign up.
“The aim is to engage alumni early. We would be using the funds to meet various needs like infrastructure, joining bonus for faculty, green initiatives on the campus or benevolent fund for the faculty members and IIT-B staff,” Bakul Desai, ideator, IIT Bombay Alumni Association, told Business Standard.
The programme has been created by the association in collaboration with the IIT Bombay Heritage Fund.
The fund-raising drive was seen as a soft launch of the programme with the motto ‘pledge now and pay later’.
The institute plans to keep an account of the contributing members and also provide them a timely update on wherever the funds are being used. The students can suggest to the association if they wish to divert the fund to a specific venture on the campus.
“The institute realises that graduates striking out on their own for the first time need time to settle down before they can start repaying and hence while they pledged now they will probably start honoring their pledges in a years time when they are more settled into their careers. Also, this would encourage older alumni members to come forward and contribute,” added Desai.
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/IITs-IIMs-to-dump-grades/articleshow/6316744.cms
Hemali Chhapia, TNN, Aug 16, 2010, 01.38am IST
MUMBAI: The country's centres of excellence, mentored by foreign governments, have graded their graduates based on a Western system — the cumulative grade point index — for several years. Now, a section of them is moving to a more conventional marking system — based on percentage — after public sector undertaking (PSU) companies recruiting from top institutes have asked IITs, IIMs and National Institutes of Technology to provide an equivalence of their grades by giving percentages.
Each institute, autonomous in nature, has its own grading system. Most IITs award a cumulative performance index (CPI) on a scale of one to 10 but IIT- Kanpur does not award odd-number grades. And, among the IIMs, those in Ahmedabad and Bangalore award a CGPA on a scale of one to four — like American universities — but IIM- Calcutta grades its students on a range of one to nine points.
This, according to PSUs, creates a lot of confusion and hence the move to ask for a more conventional grading system. But, just like the current varied marking system, the decision to move to percentages, too, has elicited divergent opinions among India's premier educational institutes. Some are internally drawing up an equivalence and will publish that on the report card but others say they don't feel the need to carry out such an exercise.
Professor in charge of placements at IIT- Bombay Ravi Sinha said, ''Each PSU has its own human resource policy and they want us to provide our grade equivalence for the minimum threshold level which they can interpret.'' So, IIT-Bombay, ''keeping in mind students' interest'' — in its senate — decided to flesh out an equivalence so that a ''system of conversion equivalence should emerge from reliable data and a clear and unambiguous basis to stand the test of time''.
But most NITs have asked the PSUs to either devise their conversion table or refer the matter to the All-India Council for Technical Education. ''I have a method of grading my students and the PSUs should draw up their own method of assessing the graduates they hire. We have referred the case to the AICTE,'' NIT-Nagpur director SS Gokhale said.
IIT-Guwahati director Gautam Barua too said converting grades into percentage was ''no easy answer''. IIT-Delhi chairman (placement) Kushal Sen confirmed that such a request had come from the PSUs but ''there is no way we can convert CPI to percentages''.
Many of the IIMs, however, have already designed a formula to convert. ''PSU recruiters last year had the same request. They wanted us to provide the corresponding percentage for our CG,'' IIM-Bangalore placement official Sapna Agrawal said.
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http://www.deccanherald.com/content/89189/centre-set-up-iit-campuses.html
New Delhi, Aug 16, DHNS:
Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) may set up their campuses in Qatar and Singapore soon.
Addressing the golden jubilee celebration of IIT-Delhi on Monday, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said the Centre was “keen to take IITs abroad” as those institutes already have a brand name there.
Earlier, speaking on the occasion, President Pratibha Patil said institutes like IIT-Delhi needed to develop robust mechanisms for collaborations with other institutions as the need of the hour was to focus on research and innovations applicable to conditions and requirements in the country.
Exhorting premier technical institutes to support new ideas and discoveries that could be the solution to many future challenges, Patil asked IIT-Delhi to assist individuals, especially grass root inventors, to properly market their ideas.
She hoped that India, with its vast scientific and technical knowledge, would catch up with leading industrial nations in filing patents for innovations and inventions. “Inventions made in laboratories must be able to be used in field to become agents of transformation,” she said.
Observing that India still has a “long way to go” as far as competing with the world in filing patents is concerned, Patil expressed hope that given the scientists and researchers and their knowledge, capability and commitment, India will be able to file more patents in the coming years.
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http://updates.highereducationinindia.com/2010/hrd-minister-admits-faculty-crisis-at-4163.php
Last Updated: 2010-08-20T05:02:52+05:30
HRD Minister Admits Faculty Crisis at IIT & IIM
New Delhi: On Wednesday i.e. on August 18, 2010, the Lok Sabha was informed that India’s leading institutes like Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are facing a faculty crisis with nearly one-third of the posts vacant.
(HRD Minister Shri Kapil Sibal)
Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal in his written reply to Lok Sabha has mentioned that around 35 percent posts are vacant in the central universities, 25 percent in the IIMs, 33.33 percent in the National Institute of Technology and 35.1 percent in other central education institutions coming up under the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry. However, the minister denied any decision to start an Indian Education Service to meet to the shortage.
Furthermore, Mr Sibal also said that there is no decision of the government for the creation of the Indian Education Service. He added that although the National Education Policy, 1986, provides for the establishment of Indian Education Services as an all-India service, however, as there was no consensus among the state governments, it could not be established.
However, he mentioned that several long-term measures have also been initiated for attracting young people to opt for teaching career. These include enhancement in fellowships and attractive start-up grants in various disciplines. Apart from that, short-term measures like raising the retirement age in teaching posts from 62 to 65 years and enhancement in salaries and other benefits for teachers are being taken by the government.
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TNN, Aug 6, 2010, 04.31am IST
LUCKNOW: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has done away with the class X board exams in schools and come up with a mechanism to enable students judge their level of knowledge in terms of marks. The arrangement is called Proficiency Test System (PTS) and would be available for the class X students who opted for continuous and comprehensive evaluation last year. PTS would not be a compulsion. Only interested students would opt for the same and take the test accordingly in June.
PTS would be available in all subjects namely, English, Maths, Science, Social Studies and Hindi. The test would contain multiple-choice questions. However, the number of questions and the duration of the paper are yet to be finalised. The board is also trying to figure out whether the candidate could take the test online or not. The question papers would be set by institutions of repute. While Central Institute for English and Foreign Languages would prepare the questionnaire for English, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, be responsible for Science and Maths question papers. The board has also contacted Indian Council For Social Science Research and Central Hindi Institute for social studies and Hindi respectively.
Talking to TOI, chairman, CBSE, Vineet Joshi said, ''There is a group of students which draws motivation from marks... so we have an option of them.'' He added that circulars for PTS would be sent to schools via regional offices by month end.
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Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN, Aug 14, 2010, 01.20am IST
NEW DELHI: Come 2011 and there will be only one common entrance test each for over 30,000 MBBS seats and over 11,000 MD seats in all government and medical colleges in the country.
This important decision, taken by the Medical Council of India and accepted by the Union ministry of health, was conveyed to the Supreme Court on Friday bringing huge relief to lakhs of aspiring doctors.
Earlier, students wanting to take up courses in medicine had to appear in at least five to six entrance tests for various colleges and worry about attendant problems like clash of exam dates as well as travel to distant places for counseling for allotment of seats.
But from 2011, there will be just one entrance test each for MBBS and MD courses offered by all 271 medical colleges, 138 government-run and 133 under private management. These colleges together offer over 31,000 seats for MBBS courses and another 11,000 for PG.
The confusion caused by multiple entrance tests and counselling saw hundreds of students rush to the Supreme Court every year complaining about the system where they were left high and dry even for making a single mistake in their choices.
One such petition filed by Simran Jain through advocate A D N Rao had sought a direction from the apex court to MCI and the Centre for a single window system for admissions.
During hearing of the petition before a Bench comprising Justices R V Raveendran and H L Gokhale, the decision for one common entrance test was conveyed by MCI counsel and senior advocate Amarendra Saran. Additional solicitor general P P Malhotra said the government had accepted MCI's suggestion to amend the regulation concerning admissions to medical colleges.
The state of affairs of private medical colleges and their admission process had come for some serious scrutiny in the apex court, which said last year, "Every year, this is happening. We know how these tricks are played on students every year."
Interestingly, the malaise seems to have spread to government medical colleges too as the apex court had last year asked Director General of Health Services Dr Mangla Kohli to look into allegations of malpractices in admissions into some such colleges in various states.
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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100829/jsp/frontpage/story_12869346.jsp
G.S. MUDUR
New Delhi, Aug. 28: The University Grants Commission has erected a hurdle to faculty recruitment by rendering thousands of PhD holders ineligible for appointments unless they have cleared a National Eligibility Test, faculty members and scholars say.
A UGC order has indicated that only candidates who obtained their PhDs under new quality standards, made mandatory in July 2009, would be exempt from the test for appointment as assistant professors in varsities and colleges.
Senior faculty members said the language in the June 30 order appeared to have been crafted without thought about its implications for existing PhD holders or scholars now pursuing PhD in Indian universities.
“Very few existing PhD holders would fulfil the rigorous 2009 standards,” said Subhash Lakhotia, zoology professor at Banaras Hindu University (BHU). “We need standards to improve the quality of Indian PhDs, but this order will put a large number of young aspirants to disadvantage for no fault of theirs.”
An association of BHU scholars has demanded that the new rules be applied only to scholars who registered for their PhDs after July 2009, when the new quality standards came into effect.
University faculties desperate to fill up vacancies too are unhappy with the new rules. Jawaharlal Nehru University alone has more than 100 faculty vacancies, said Alok Bhattacharya, senior faculty member at the JNU School of Life Sciences.
At BHU, Lakhotia said, the number of faculty vacancies runs into hundreds. “On the one hand, India is planning a massive expansion of its education base, on the other, it is preventing thousands of PhD holders an opportunity to even face selection committees,” he said.
A UGC official said varsities with grievances could make submissions before September 30 to a committee the commission has set up to “remove anomalies”.
Under the June 30 order, even existing PhD holders who have cleared the NET would be denied the five advance increments available to PhD holders appointed as assistant professors.
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TNN, Aug 6, 2010, 06.53am IST
BANGALORE: IISc proposes to offer admission to 110 students in its new under-graduate Bachelor of Science (BS) course that is set to begin from August 1, 2011.
Of this, seats will be allotted to general and special categories as per government regulations. IISc officials said existing national-level entrance examinations such as KVPY, IIT-JEE and AIEEE will be considered for admission to the BS course. The institute is also considering ways to ensure that rural and women candidates are well represented.
The under-graduate programme is open to class XII students with physics, chemistry and mathematics as main subjects.
A formal notification for applications will be issued in December and applications will be received between January 1 and March 31, 2011. The first set of admission offers will be made to KVPY candidates in April 2011. The next set will be announced during the first week of June 2011. Counselling of students will be conducted during the third week of June. Classes will commence from August 1.
The four year under-graduate course has been designed for specialization in six streams - physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, materials and environmental science.
In the first one and a half years, core courses in physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, humanities and engineering are offered. Specialization will be offered in the following one and a half years when students will be free to choose courses from electives and other areas. The programme culminates in the fourth year with a research project under the supervision of an IISc faculty.
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Undergraduate program at IISc., Bangalore
http://www.iisc.ernet.in/ug/index.htm
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Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP