• Vision of Future Cities India 2020
• Success to be launched for quality education
• Experience India, through e-learning
• New centre to boost Indo-UK research
• NRI youth to witness changes in India
• Ancient Indian concepts to cultivate human mind ignored'
• India tops in providing education loans: FM

• Priority for women in IAS, IPS planned
• First cooperative varsity in India
• Climbing the innovation ladder
• Desi wordsmiths
• Indian MBBS degrees at par with US standards
• New plans unveiled by NID

Initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) with support from Bentley Systems, the competition encourages students to use their design skills to help prepare India's cities for the year 2020. "The 2007 Future Cities India 2020 competition asked students to design a roadway to enhance the flow of traffic during the Commonwealth Games 2010. The proposed Commonwealth Games Village has a residential zone and an international zone. The international zone will consist of temporary structures such as media centres, entertainment facilities, practice grounds and commercial space. The challenge for the 2008 competition is to conceptualise a plan for the post-Commonwealth Games redevelopment of the international zone," said Mohit Baradoo, academic programme manager, Bentley Systems. The department of science and technology (DST) and Bentley is bringing together counsellors and technical professionals as mentors to help students provide solutions to pressing real-world infrastructure challenges. Fourteen teams were short-listed for the final competition through the initial selection process from Delhi and NCR. Navya of Apeejay School, Sheikh Sarai, said: "It has been a learning experience while we were doing our research for the project. While preparing the models we have to take into account issues such as environment, cost and aesthetics, among others. We are focusing on a city which is environment-friendly, how to design an internal road system and parking facilities keeping in mind the population growth." In the final stage of designing the computer model, the students are using Bentley's MX Road software used for designing of road infrastructure and Micro Station software for three-dimensional (3D) models for building and animation. According to Baradoo, the winners will be given a scholarship worth US$2,000 for the first prize and US$1,000 for the second prize. The winners will also get trophies and certificates as well as books.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, December 31, 2007

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Reiterating its commitment to ensuring the participation of women in governance through the smooth passage of the much-delayed Women's Reservation Bill, the government intends to make the Union Women and Child Development Ministry the nodal point for creating and maintaining a comprehensive gender-disaggregated database, for quantitative and qualitative data. According to the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, endorsed by the National Development Council last week, pro-active efforts will be made to provide competitive exam training and prioritise recruitment of women to All-India Services, especially the Indian Administrative, Foreign and Police Services. The purpose of maintaining a gender data would be to base new initiatives on facts and figures, assess the gender impact of programmes and assess the level of women's participation in planning and implementing programmes. There will be simultaneous training and inputs for women in the Panchayati Raj institutions to enable them to influence gender-sensitive local planning and implementation. Gender disaggregated data on the participation of women, especially in SCs/STs and minority women, in elected constitutional bodies, Council of Ministers and in the overall government sector will be collected and made available in the public domain.

For Muslim women
To tackle the double discrimination faced by Muslim women, the Women and Child Development Ministry will formulate and implement a pilot scheme for "Leadership Development for Life, Livelihood, and Civic Empowerment of Minority Women". This scheme will reach out to minority women and provide them with support, leadership training and skill development so that they can move out of the confines of home and community and assume leadership roles in accessing facilities that will improve their lives and livelihoods. The scheme will give them training, inputs, information and the confidence to interact with the government system. Implementation of the scheme through non-governmental organisation, in the initial phase, will also encourage the NGO sector to take up work with this neglected community. In the first phase, the scheme would be launched in five states with large minority population and is expected to reach 35,000 to 50,000 women directly and hundreds of thousands indirectly. As the nodal agency for the empowerment of women, one of the important tasks for the Women and Child Development Ministry will be to curtail the "harmful effects" of television on women's lives through a gender-informed media policy.

Courtesy: www.hindu.com, December 26, 2007

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The Union Government proposes to launch a centrally sponsored scheme to make available quality secondary education in the country during the XIth Plan period. The Scheme for Universalisation of Access to and Improvement of Quality of Education at Secondary Stage (SUCCESS), also known as Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), would require a total of Rs 35,566.62 crore during the XIth plan period, HRD Ministry officials said. The objective of the scheme was to make secondary education of good quality available, accessible and affordable to all students in the age group of 15-16 years (classes IX and X). The major target of the scheme was to make universal access of secondary level education to all students in the age group of 15-16 years by 2015 by providing a secondary school within five kms of any habitation and a higher secondary school within seven kms of any habitation as also universal retention by 2020. A total of Rs 90,485.11 crore would be required for the effective implementation of the scheme by 2020.

Courtesy: www.dailypioneer.com, December 25, 2007

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The National Co-operative Union of India (NCUI) is all set to establish the first-ever co-operative university. According to NCUI officials, the proposed Jawahar Lal International Co-operative University would be functional from the forthcoming academic session. Set to offer professional courses on law, management, co-operation, international trade and information technology, the university would consist of 20 co-operative institutions across India offering vocational and professional education. Bhagwati Prasad, chairman and chief executive, NCUI, said: "We have placed our proposal to the University Grants Commission (UGC) and after the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) gives its approval, which could take around five to six months, we would be ready to offer courses as an university. The 20 co-operative institutions across India would be converted to deemed universities and would be a part of this international university." The university's main campus would be located on the premises of Vaikunthbhai Mehta National Institute of Co-operative Management (VMNICM), Pune. The VMNICM and the existing institutes of co-operative management would be affiliated to this university, which would be federal in character. "The unique feature of this university is that it would be the first in India. The university would be the result of the co-operative movement in India and would be funded by the movement. A university for the co-operative sector, it would initially offer undergraduate and postgraduate including doctoral degrees/courses,'' added L D Ahuja, officer on special duty, NCUI. The university aims to involve youths in large numbers to disseminate knowledge, equipping them to accept challenging jobs and hone their entrepreneurial skills to tap self-employment opportunities. The university also aims to establish links with international co-operative organisations and international agencies like the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), PACTA, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Colombo Plan, among others.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, December 24, 2007

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While the Indian techies are able to blend with the foreign culture of Europe and the Far East by acquiring foreign language skills, their foreign counterparts here are seeking to understand Indian culture and local traditions. In response to client requests, Cognizant Academy, the academic wing of Cognizant, has developed two e-learning tools to showcase the cultural history of India. The courses provide a basic at-a glance knowledge of India, its people and traditions and the geographical and ethnic diversity. Pre- and post-independence history has also been detailed. A section also introduces the learner to eminent personalities from Srinivasa Ramanujan to A R Rahman and Amartya Sen. One can also learn Indian etiquette from this course. This e-learning tool is usually in great demand from clients on their maiden visit to India. Earlier, the training programs on Indian culture and work habits were provided through classroom training. However, with growing demand, a need was felt to reach out to a larger audience that cannot be covered through classroom training. The e-learning tool has helped meet this need.

The Indian perspective, countries like Germany, France, Spain, China and Japan are now hotspots for Indian IT companies. As these countries open up, Indian software professionals realize that knowledge of local language and customs are indispensable if one wants to create a bond of mutual trust. Speaking on the need for foreign language skills, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Vice-President and Kolkata Centre Head says, "The IT industry is now looking at the growing business in European countries and Asia Pacific region. Moreover, companies are also employing people from these countries. Thus, knowledge of foreign language has also become essential for communication with one's own employees." Cognizant Academy recently conducted 'A Language a Day' week from November 19 to 23, 2007. Each day, a new country was introduced. The focus was on helping learners to basic vocabulary frequently used in the said country in day-to-day situations. Together with language, finer soft skills-general habits, mannerisms, business and dining etiquette were also part of the training. Christened 'Around the World', the workshops covered the language and culture of five countries - Germany, Spain, France, China and Japan. What made the workshop interesting was its unique session plan. Each day commenced with a module on awareness of the culture of a country, followed by basic words and sentences of the language. The associates then participated in a role-play enacting a situation. Though a compelling need, acquiring foreign language skills at a professional stage in life may be little trying. It would be great if foreign languages are introduced as a third language in schools. "Learning any language in school helps the student develop a liking for the language. Also, it is easier to learn the basics of a language, such as grammar and pronunciations, when one is young. There are some schools where either French or German is taught as a third language. However, there is no compulsion and their numbers are few. With the growing demand for Asian languages like Japanese and Chinese and European languages like Spanish, we need more institutions to teach these languages," Mukherjee said.

Courtesy: www.newindpress.com, December 24, 2007

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Over the past decade, India's young graduates have drawn global attention to the country. Banks, software companies, generic drug makers and investment bankers have outsourced tasks ranging from answering customer calls to writing research reports and mining data for drug development to this pool of knowledge workers. The "India" brand thus created has inspired multinational firms to set up research and development (R&D) centres in the country, even as the highly skilled Indian diaspora comprising scientists, engineers and technologists is moving back to set up start-up companies in hot spots such as Bangalore, Hyderabad and the National Capital Region (Delhi and its environs). All this activity is fuelling an explosion of ideas that has catapulted India from being an adaptor to an innovator, according to Atlas of Ideas, a research report by UK-based think tank Demos.

Researchers at Demos were given a brief to identify the new hubs of innovation that policymakers and investors in the UK could plug into. Despite countries such as Japan, the US and those belonging to the European Union ranking higher on conventional metrics-such as the number of scientific papers published and patents-filed researchers at Demos argue that new ideas in drug development, nanotechnology and communication will come from Asian countries including India, China and South Korea. "We are moving to a non-linear model of development-countries such as Brazil and India, for instance, might have similar problems, for which they could look for collaborative solutions," says James Wilsdon, head of science and innovation at Demos. In India, as the economy grows at an average of 8% for the fifth consecutive year, there is a growing demand for goods and services in the domestic market. "This demand for new innovative products and the ability of people to make money from such innovation is what will make India a hub for new ideas," says Naresh Gupta, senior vice-president, print and classic publishing solutions business unit and managing director, India research and development, Adobe Systems, Inc. In about a decade of operations, this centre has contributed more than 15 full products to the Adobe suite, which includes popular software such as Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop. By setting up research centres in India, global technology majors such as Adobe and Microsoft Corp. are tapping into a talent pool of roughly 14 million graduates with an average work experience of seven years; this number is topped up annually by a further 2.5 million new graduates in science, engineering and information technology. This is more than double the number of Chinese graduates, and almost twice that of the US, according to data compiled by Demos. Critics argue there is not enough interaction between these multinational centres and local Indian institutions to seed innovation in India.

Courtesy: www.livemint.com, December 24, 2007

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The India-UK Advanced Technology Centre (IU-ATC), a virtual research and innovation centre comprising 22 industry and academic partners, was launched recently to drive collaborative research programmes and technology transfer between the two countries. The IU-ATC will conduct research on current and next generation fixed and wireless communications, with the aim of becoming a global centre of excellence for next generation networks (NGN) and information and communication technologies (ICT) research. The IU-ATC, which has British Telecom (BT) as its prime industry partner, will facilitate industry collaboration with academic research and government as part of an initial five-year research and development plan. "The consortium has already secured over $3 million to establish the first-ever India-UK virtual graduate research school, which will support collaborative PhD and post-doctorate projects and exchange visits within the IU-ATC consortium," said Matt Bross, chief technology officer, BT Group. Currently, there are 22 consortium partners bringing a diversity of skills. The Indian partners include - IIT-Madras, IIT-Bangalore, IIT-Delhi, IIT-Mumbai, Infosys Technologies Ltd, BT India, Wipro Technologies and Sasken Communications. While the UK academic and industrial partners include - University of Ulster, BT, University College London, University of St Andrews Scotland, Queen Mary University of London, University of Southampton, University of Cambridge, Intergence Systems, UK. Ashok Jhunjhunwala of partner school - IIT, Madras, said, "With the creation of the IU-ATC, Indian PhD students can now collaborate in a global-virtual platform, to share innovative research concepts among an elite group of British and Indian academic institutions. The global connectivity of this consortium will ensure the rapid transfer of ideas and technology with the aim of creating breakthrough NGN and ICT research." The areas that IU-ATC will focus on include - cross-layer protocol real-time interoperability and performance; real-time network management protocols; pervasive sensor networks; embedded devices; wireless protocols; SATCOM-Interworking; end-to-end network security; real-time network data analytics for fixed-wireless broadband; mobility performance management; enterprise systems and services development; intelligent systems and service-oriented applications for converged NGNs; and resilient resource-aware communications infrastructures for rural and urban areas.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, December 17, 2007

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Careers in Indian languages are as popular and profitable as those in a foreign tongue. So, if you have the ability to pick up languages, use your talent to talk your way into a great profession, encourages Panna Saroopa. Language is the vehicle that permeates every aspect of life, and language-related careers are thriving with opportunity. With over 22 officially recognised languages, and over 2,000 dialects, India is fast gaining a reputation of being a major employer of language experts. While learning a foreign language such as Spanish, Russian and Japanese does open up several avenues, Indian languages are not far behind. The list is endless, and opportunities start from tour operators, online content writers, technical decoders, teachers, interpreters, translators, researchers and transcribers, to name a few.

Pre-requisites
While a thorough understanding of the language(s) you wish to specialise in is a must, that is not enough in itself. Depending upon the kind of job you wish to take up, you should work on developing tertiary skills, which will enable you to gain an edge. Job opportunities. Primarily, language experts find employment in five fields. These include general translation, technical translation, interpretation, transcription and teaching.

Looking ahead
"With the growth in globalisation and multi-cultural/ multilingual organisational set ups, the demand for proficiency in languages will continue to be strong," predicts Ghose. "Since 'language' has begun to be focused on by the government, AI and CS related outfits, research organisations, and the translation-industry, and since there are so many new avenues opening up as well as new large scale projects and programmes being undertaken, I think linguistics has tremendous potential," says Singh. Keeping up with the demand in the professional arena, academic institutions across the country offer several courses for those interested in this field.

Added advantage
Apart from the multitude of career opportunities that you can avail of, language education plays a critical role in mental development and knowledge production. Learning different languages enhances our communicative competence, supports multilingualism and contributes to the development of languages and cultural life. Besides, by choosing to learn another Indian language, you can promote quality in language pedagogy and nurture tolerance for diversity.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, December 17, 2007

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India has said it will invite its diaspora youth from across the world to visit their booming motherland which is emerging as a global powerhouse. "We are conducting a 'Know India Programme' for diaspora youth in the age group of 18-26 years under which youth of Indian-origin from different countries are invited to visit India to see the phenomenal transformation taking place in India and the country's transition from just a destination for culture, heritage and art to an emerging powerhouse in global economic system," Vayalar Ravi, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, said. He told the ninth Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) meet here last evening that the Indian government had also created an Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre as a one stop shop for serving the interests of overseas Indians. Indian envoy Ashok Kantha read out the minister's speech as Ravi could not make it to the conference due to "pressing domestic commitments." Ravi said New Delhi was in the process of establishing a University in India to provide world class higher education to PIO (Persons of Indian Origin)/NRI students in the Indian environment. "We have started a scheme for grant of scholarships to the children of PIOs/NRIs for higher studies in India," he said.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, December 16, 2007

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The apex body in the US for granting recognition to health science courses on Thursday gave its approval to the system of evaluating medical education in India. The US National Committee on Accreditation, an organisation responsible for foreign accreditation, has granted parity to parameters set by the Medical Council of India (MCI) for health science courses including the MBBS programme. However, this parity does not give students or doctors automatic passage to the US or any other country, said Hemant Patel, president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin. It only means that the standards of education here will be treated on par with those in the US, said Patel. The parity status has been given on six parameters: curriculum, teaching, method of evaluation, extension, research and impact of education proc-esses. Doctors at the AIIMS, which was a few months ago embroiled in a controversy over issuance of degrees to students who wanted to go abroad for further studies, said the recognition was long overdue. "Indian medical courses are rigorous and one of the most lengthy in the world. That's why Indian doctors do so well abroad," said Dr Kumar Harsh, president resident doctors' association (RDA). "Giving parity to the Indian medical courses is a matter of great pride for doctors and academics alike. More than receiving it as a move that will facilitate the movement of students, Indian medical fraternity should celebrate it as a day when the quality of Indian higher education was recognised the world over,'' said Dr A K Aggarwal, dean, Maulana Azad Medical College. "The parity means that quality medical undergraduate education in India is as good as the one in the US. But this doesn't give them an automatic passage to the US or any other country. We also hope that the parity will mean that students from abroad will now consider coming to India for medical education which is cheaper in our country,'' said an officer at MCI.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, December 14, 2007

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Scientific research should focus on practices used in ancient Indian civilization to nurture the human mind and intelligence, said noted scientist and University of Pune's Board of College and University Development (BCUD) director Pandit Vidyasagar. He was speaking at the inauguration of a seminar on 'The History of Indian Science and Technology' organised by the Infinity Foundation and the Deccan College and Post Graduate Research Institute on Thursday. Vidyasagar, whose expertise is in the area of physics and interdisciplinary sciences, said the lack of patronage for science in recent times and the trend of rote learning had affected the attitude towards science. "There is a need to inculcate a scientific temper in society to make it vibrant," Vidyasagar said. "Many concepts that would help cultivate the human mind were explored in great depth by our ancestors, but these have been relatively ignored in modern science." Citing examples from the scientific texts of the Patanjali Yoga Shastra, Vidyasagar said there were concepts mentioned about states of consciousness during sleep, which had not even been conceived in modern science. "These methods and practices relating to the properties of the brain could be explored more in detail," he said. The seminar, which will be held till December 16, has been organised by the Infinity Foundation as part of its History of Indian Science and Technology (HIST) project for documenting ancient Indian wisdom pertaining to science and technology. In his introductory address, archaeologist Vasant Shinde said technologies devised by man over the various stages of evolution played a crucial role in his adaptation to adverse climates. "India's traditional knowledge is fast disappearing, and needs to be documented," said Shinde.

Courtesy: www.expressindia.com, December 14, 2007

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With the government announcing a national design policy earlier this year, it has now become imperative for design institutions and designers to rethink their role in the context of global economies, especially in Asia. With this in mind the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, is focusing on creating new talent, while designing new programmes and organising exhibitions in collaboration with institutes abroad. While announcing its seventh design summit, which takes place on December 12 and 13 in Bangalore, Darlie Koshy, director, NID, stated: "The summit this year assumes a greater significance from the perspective of implementation of the national design policy. It is poised to become a roller coaster of ideas." The summit, titled 'Leadership through Design', being held in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), aims to assess the current scenario, future trends and promote design in the Indian industry. This year, Italy is participating as a partner country at the summit and will also showcase Italian design from the post-war period to the present. NID also plans to launch a Master's programme in design entrepreneurship, to be delivered in collaboration with Stanford University, US. It would be in line with Stanford's global team-based design innovation programme 'Course 310'. Once the modalities of the joint venture are finalised, a few of NID's students would be sent to Stanford for a period of nine months as part of their ongoing Master's in design entrepreneurship programme. "The training in Stanford will cost us $1,50,000 per student. For funding, we have already requested help from some corporate houses in India," informed Koshy. The other two Master's programmes that NID plans to launch are contemporary retail management and design for health.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, December 10, 2007

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India occupied first place in the world in providing education loans, benefiting 10 lakh students till September this year, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said. The banks in India have sanctioned a total of Rs 14,500 crore as educational loans, he said while inaugurating the 2878th branch of the Bank of India (BOI) at the temple town of Tirunallar in Karaikal enclave of Puducherry on Saturday. The Government has planned to further provide education assistance to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore to 15 lakh students belonging to minority communities over a period of five years, he said. Stating that providing credits for various sections of the society was the duty of banks, he said that farm credits was growing at a satisfactory pace and was likely to touch Rs 2,35,000 crore this fiscal. From an estimated target of Rs 2,25,000 crore, the farm credit was likely to rise by Rs 10,000 crore in 2007-2008, Chidambaram said the Government was according top priority to agriculture and it would continue in future too. Listing out the various measures taken by the Government for the welfare of farmers, Chidambaram said that the interest rate for farm credit had been lowered to seven per cent.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, December 09, 2007

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