Supreme Court Adjudicates Against Vacant Seats

The Supreme Court has stayed a plan proposed by the central government to keep some seats reserved for the backward-category students for a period of three years in the higher educational establishments across various states in the country. The SC bench dismissed the plea which wanted that the seats reserved for candidates of the OBC category, if left vacant, shouldn’t be allocated to the general category, GC students.

On behalf of the government, the plea was brought forward by solicitor Goolam Vahanvati. He gave the example of JNU where the government had to allow the vacant seats of the OBC category to be filled by the candidates of the general category. This was argued as a contradiction to the recent educational reservations made for the OBC students. The SC bench, however, rejected this proposal and adjudicated that this was a waste of national resources. The SC has fixed another future hearing in this case.

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s North-Eastern Initiative

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has decided to set up centres of Gandhi Institution of Information Technology or the GIIT at Guwahati and Jorhat in Assam and other regional centres in Kohima, Agartala, Shillong and Gangtok. BVB already boasts of 30 GIITs all over the country and has become a recognised brand in the field of affordable IT education with its centres spread in Asia and even Europe.

This is being done as a part of an initiative to provide subsidised or free IT education to the students of north-eastern parts of India. These centres aim to provide three months of free IT education to the local youth in these regions in the beginning. The institutes are being funded by the Prime Minister’s Special Fund.

Online Acupuncture Course from IGNOU

The Indira Gandhi National Open University, IGNOU has once again pioneered the cause of making education more accessible and has launched an online diploma programme in the study of Acupuncture. This is perhaps the first time that a medical diploma is being offered online. However, the students would be assisted with contact classes for practical training purposes.

The course is due to commence from November, 2008. The programme would have to be completed in a minimum period of 1 year and a maximum period of 3 years. The curriculum has been set up in collaboration with the Institute of Acupuncture & Natural Medicines, IANM, New Delhi. The programme would be available to medical graduates from various streams including those from allopathy, ayurveda and homeopathy. This initiative from IGNOU makes sense as the requirement for professional acupuncturists is growing by the day.

NCDEX to train DU Students

The students studying finance at the Delhi University, DU are on the verge of gaining from an exceptional training programme. These students would get the opportunity of trading in commodities before they pass out from the University. This development comes about due to the collaboration between the Department of Financial Studies, DFS and National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX). However, the students aren’t going to incur any losses for the traders as they would be allowed to indulge in mock trading only.

To take this initiative further, the DFS has gone a step ahead and offered two non-credit courses to the students of M.Sc. (Mathematics) and that too absolutely free-of-cost. A new syllabus for the Master of Finance & Control Programme has also been developed. The revised curriculum will be implemented from the next academic session.

Tibetan Students in India, Harassed

Many Tibetan children, studying in India, are being harassed by the Chinese authorities. This problem arose as an ultimatum issued by the Communist Party of China expired. The students and their families are facing stiff punishments imposed by the Chinese government for enrolling in schools in India which were run by the Tibetan government. Most of these schools were headed by the Tibetan spiritual leader — the Dalai Lama.

However, this problem isn’t something new to the Tibetan refugees spread across the north-eastern boundaries of India. It is a common practice for Tibetan children to escape from Tibet and illegally seek shelter in Dharamsala, north India. This place is home to the Dalai Lama. The children seek Tibetan religious education and a better way of life, once settled here. On the contrary, the Chinese government has alleged that the Dalai Lama and his group of supporters were enticing young children from Tibet and Nepal and forcing them in following the Dalai Lama’s beliefs.

India’s Top Colleges: 2008 Survey

A survey report was published today that revealed India’s best performing colleges for year 2008. Marketwatch a well known research agency published a detailed report about the annual survey reportedly conducted by AC Nielsen-ORG-MARG. India Today was said to have commissioned the research agency for conducting the survey.

The survey was done for 1400 colleges and in 12 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh Chennai, Kochi, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune. The report also said that about 800 experts were contacted and inputs taken.

The best colleges for 2008 in the categories of Arts, Commerce, Science, Law, Medicine and Engineering are:

Arts: Loyola College, Chennai

Commerce: Delhi’s Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC)

Science: Loyola College

Law: NALSAR

Medicine: AIIMS

Engineering: IIT Kanpur

Abhinav Bindra targeting towards Education Sector

Abhinav Bindra doesn’t seem satisfied with being India’s first-ever individual gold medalist at the Olympics held at Beijing. He now plans to open a chain of more than 500 schools across the nation. The Bindra family plans to directly monitor the schools that would be operational in Punjab, but the schools in other states would be run on a franchise basis.

AS Bindra, father of Abhinav Bindra and the patriarch of the Bindra business empire, stated that the schools would be built and run on international standards and would have a special emphasis on sports facilities. In all probability, the schools would be named as Abhinav Bindra Ace Public School (ABAPS).

The presence of so many branches in the country would mean that a child shifting from one city to another would find it relatively easier to gain admission in a branch of ABAPS. The motto of the proposed schools, as announced by Abhinav, sounds like his mantra in life — ‘Fortune favours the brave’.

On Demand Video To Promote Teacher Training

Government of India has reportedly deployed Starbak V3 as part of its exercise to aid the teachers in providing quality education. Starbak V3 is a popular service provider of video networks. The service provider has successfully aid different public service agencies like Health Care Agencies, Corporations, Education agencies, etc.

National institute of teacher technical Trainings aims to promote excellence in teaching with the aid of Starbak V3 services.  Starbak V3 service providers will provide live and on-demand video communications to assist and hook-up the teachers spread over an extended geographical territory.

Using video as a teaching tool is indeed a new proposition and the government is yet to see its effectiveness. Educationists have welcome the initiative and expressed their contention for looking for innovate and modern solutions to tackle the problems in education field.

St. Bede’s College on the Verge of Closing Down

One of the oldest women colleges in India is facing a severe shortage of funds and has reached near closure. St.Bede’s College in Himachal Pradesh is on the verge of closedown due to shortage of funds. The College Prinicpal, Molly Abraham, while speaking to a new agency (IANS) said that it was difficult to run the college any longer.

St. Bede’s College is a renowned institute and has been delivering services since 1904. The college principal was reported as having said that the government agencies did not cooperate and had reduced the grants to half. The college is one of the institutions that has been accredited as A+ by the popular accreditation agency NAAC.

On one hand, the government is trying to pour more funds in the primary and secondary education and on the other hand grants for higher studies are falling short. The college administration has strongly criticized the government for providing minimal support. Some well known public figures who have graduated from St.Bede’s have expressed deep concern for the current situation and the expected closure of the institution.

IIT Guwahati-Branching Out

The Indian government’s 11th Five Year Plan had insisted upon setting up new IITs to broaden the horizon for graduate and post-graduate education. The HRD Ministry had asked the various IITs if they could accommodate extra students. This initiative was further undertaken by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had appealed to the IITs having extra land and the potential to expand.

IIT Guwahati has a major advantage in this regards and nearly 550 acres of its campus would now be used for expansion. The establishment is planning to increase its student intake by nearly three-folds. IIT Guwahati has proposed to enhance its present infrastructure to double its student capacity by the year 2012. The increase in the number of students would mean nearly a 54 per cent rise in the available seats.