The Grand IIT Bombay College Fest

It is called the ‘The Baap of all College Festivals’ and the title is done justice by the fact that over 60,000 students from 500 colleges would be in attendance for witnessing and participating in over 120 events that would span over four days and four nights on the sprawling campus of IIT Bombay. This glut of competitions/workshops/performances define Mood Indigo 2008 or MI’08 — the annual cultural festival of IIT-Bombay. This college fest has a national patronage and students from across the nation are expected to participate in it, like every year.

This time the fest is supposed to be a bit special as the institute celebrates its golden jubilee year of foundation. Mood-I would last from 20th December to 23rd December, 2008. The fest has huge participation as it gives the students a platform to display their talents in front of thousands of patrons. The most famous genres include Music & Dramatics, Dance and Literary & Fine Arts.

Central Government’s Ayurvedic Undertaking

New Delhi is about get an Ayurverda-based Centre of Excellence focused on research, drug-safety, standardization and quality control of medicines. This has been a result of the Central Government’s approval of the creation of All India Institute of Ayurveda, AIIA. The new Institute would offer post-graduate/doctoral courses in various disciplines. The AIIA would become operational around March, 2012. It has been proposed that the institute would treat 250 to 300 patients on a daily basis. The Union Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, further said that six new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) would be set up across different states in the next three years.

Nursery Admissions Begin in Delhi

Most of the Delhi-based nursery schools have announced the onset of the new admission session. This time there is a slight difference in the admission schedule of pre-primary schools. The nursery admissions have begun in some schools only and would be followed by the other schools, unlike the usual practice of numerous preschools announcing their admissions simultaneously. This will help the parents to avoid rushing to each school, be more relaxed and take a more informed decision regarding the admission of their child. This makes a lot of sense, keeping in view the ever-increasing realisation of the need for good schooling before entering primary education.

Students of IIM launch ‘Students’ Portal’

A portal has been launched by three students of the Indian Institute of Management —IIM. The portal would mainly deal with careers related to business consultancy. The just-launched website, www.learn2consult.com, provides all the necessary information for those seeking jobs in consultancy. This innovative portal has been created by the joint efforts of Alok Rustagi — IIM, Kozhikode, Rajat Kashyap — IIM, Lucknow and Karan Ahuja, IIM Lucknow. The portal has linkage to various industry experts. It even has a query-based ‘Ask the expert’ Section.The founding members feel that this portal was vital as consulting was looked down upon in preference for finance-oriented jobs by post-graduate students.

Chandrayan 1: India’s Pride

The Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s message from Tokyo made the Indians around the world feel proud, when the nation’s maiden mission to moon, the launch of Chandrayan I was accomplished. This is considered as India’s first foray into a mission solely centred around the Moon. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C11 helped to successfully launch the Chandrayan 1 satellite. India can now boast of technology good enough to enter the sphere of outer space exploration and the people working at ISRO should feel proud of their efforts.

It is believed that the launch of Chandrayan 1 would lay the foundation for better cooperation between USA and India. America too has contributed to this successful launch as the Raytheon Technology being used in Chandrayan 1 is being supported by NASA.

Sehewag-The Educationist!

It has been reported that the destructive Indian opener Virender Sehewag wants to set up a sports academy along with a school at the Silani Kesho village in his native state, Haryana. This proposal has also found supporters from the Haryana state government. Sehewag would be receiving the land under the title of Shri Krishna Drishti Educational Society, headed by him.

The proposed project would span over 23 acres. The planned sports academy would induct up to 400 cricketing aspirants, 250 soccer hopefuls along with a hostel facility for nearly 400 students. The inhabitants of the village of Silani Kesho and surrounding areas would enjoy a reservation of 5% which would include full tuition fee waiver.

Australian Exam Centres in India

Australia is all set to open five Examination Centres in India. These centres would serve the purpose of recruiting for overseas doctors as Australia is fighting an acute shortage of medical professionals. In the present scenario, the hopeful candidates appear for the concerned examination in testing centres in far-away places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai or London.

The proposed five centres would come up in major metros like New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. This makes a lot of sense as India is biggest contributor of trained overseas doctors migrating to Australia. Indians from India, U.K. and South Africa form a large percentage of annual overseas recruitments Down Under.

Will Kota get its own IIT?

Kota in Rajasthan has been the states’ busiest industrial hub and famous across the country for its numerous coaching institutes and the large number of IIT/Medical aspirants that descend here every year. Kota’s coaching classes have been famous for decades now and the region is well-known for producing a large number of toppers and pass-outs in the entrance examinations. Now, the Rajasthan government wants Kota — the Education City of India, to be chosen for setting up the next branch of Indian Institute of Technology or IIT.

However, the Human Resource Development ministry isn’t in favour of the state government’s proposal. The HRD ministry’s viewpoint isn’t misplaced. The presence of the large number of IIT aspirants and money-minting coaching institutes could lead to the creation of a coaching lobby.

Boost For Tourism/Hospitality Education

The Indian tourism industry has faced an annual scarcity of 2,00,000 trained professionals. The current system offers only 12,000 trained people. Taking this problem into consideration, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, CCEA has approved the proposal for broadening the scope for better infrastructure and more trained manpower resources. As a result, new educational institutes will be created in the key areas of tourism and hospitality.

Even the existing polytechnics and universities would be upgrading to offer hospitality/tourism-related courses. This would translate into the strengthening of the currently-operational establishments like the IHMs and Food Craft Institutes. Some of these institutes would be turned into centres of excellence for the above-mentioned courses.

Aviation University in Hyderabad

Hyderabad is on the verge of getting an international civil aviation university. Concordia University of Canada would be setting up the aviation-themed University. In all probability, the University would start offering its various courses in 2009. The campus would be set-up around 2010 in India’s first aerospace-oriented special economic zone in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

It has been proposed that it will be called the International Civil Aviation University (ICAU). The project would seek investment in the range of $40 to 50 million. The University’s initial programmes would include B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, M.Sc. Aeronautical Engineering, B.Sc. Aviation Management, M.Sc. Air Transport Management and Aviation MBA. The University would span across Hyderabad, Montreal and Toulouse.