Education Headlines, 23 Sep. 2010

TAPMI Launches 'Blue Ocean Strategy'

T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), a Mangalore-based B-school, has started the India Blue Ocean Strategy Research Centre in association with Blue Ocean Strategy Regional Centre, Malaysia. The primary aim of setting up this institute is to provide adequate training to corporates, students and faculty members. Dr. Saji Gopinath, Director of TAPMI said, “We believe that this institute will help industry, the student community and faculty for better understanding of the market strategies in the wake of ever-changing market dynamics.” Mr. Peter Tan, Blue Ocean Strategy Institute, Malaysia, said, “The cornerstone of blue ocean strategy is ‘value innovation’ and a blue ocean is created when a company achieves value innovation that creates value simultaneously for both the buyer and the company.”

Source: 20th September, 2010, Business Standard

‘Advanced Online Advertising’ Programme Launched by NIIT Imperia

NIIT Imperia in alliance with Google India has launched 'Advanced Online Advertising' program for advertising and marketing. This programme is a Google-certified programme, which has been specially designed by Google experts to provide an in-depth knowledge of Google's global advertising program Google “AdWords” to the Indian advertising and marketing professionals. The program will commence on October 5, 2010 for which the last date for the registration of the program is September 21, 2010. Mr. Shraman Jha, Head, NIIT Imperia said, “"This is a strategic tie-up with Google that will enable NIIT to offer a structured training program in online advertising and marketing for the first time in India. Through this cutting edge training program we hope to create a pool of professionals trained in effective use of the online medium to ensure that the marketing budget is spent more effectively and measurably.”

Source: 14th September, 2010, Digital Learning


Indians Students Have Won 3 Gold Medals At the 4th IOAA

It’s a moment of pride for India since Indian students have won three Gold and two Bronze medals at the 4th International Olympiad in Astronomy & Astrophysics (IOAA), held at Beijing, China. India has also topped the medal tally with Chirag Modi (Indore), Nitesh Kumar Singh (Mumbai), and Aniruddha Bapat (Pune) bagging Gold medals, while Shantanu Agarwal (Patna) and Kottur Satwik (Hyderabad) won Bronze medals. Besides this stupendous record, a special prize for best performance in the theoretical round was felicitated to Nitesh Kumar Singh from India. The Indian team was led by   
Dr Aniket Sule from Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) and Pradip Dasgupta, Siddharth College, Mumbai. A total of 24 teams from 22 countries across the world participated in the 4th International Olympiad in Astronomy & Astrophysics (IOAA).

Source: 20th September, 2010, NDTV

Most IITs Not Ready To Offer Full-time Medical Courses

The IIT Council may have given a green signal on September 11, 2010 to the IITs across India for offering courses in medicine; however, none of the IITs except IIT-Kharagpur seems to be ready to take a plunge into imparting full-time medical education in the near future. Professor Surendra Prasad, director, IIT Delhi, said, “We will continue to offer courses related to medicine. But we do not wish to venture into medical education full time. We have access to good hospitals in our neighborhood and as and when we need good technology, we use their services. IIT-Kharagpur is remotely located and needs a good hospital facility. This move will help them tremendously.” IIT-Bombay and IIT-Kanpur have made it clear that medical education is not on the cards for at least the next five years.

Source: 20th September, 2010, Business Standard

Guwahati University Graduate Becomes INSEAD Dean

Prof. Dipak Jain, a well-known Indian-American academician, has been tipped as Dean of INSEAD, a leading international B-school. Prof. Jain, a native of Assam & Guwahati University graduate, would be introduced at INSEAD's Leadership Summit Asia 2010, slated for November 12 in Singapore. He will take the official charge as Dean of INSEAD in March 2011 succeeding Dr. J Frank Brown.  Mr. Franz Humer, Chairman of the INSEAD Board, said, “I am pleased that someone of Dipak Jain's caliber and values will continue to develop the school. The board chose Dipak Jain to lead INSEAD into what is fast becoming a new global economic climate--one in which emerging markets are growing at a faster rate than the industrialized mature economies of Europe and North America. In this environment we need to teach solid business and management skills while being innovative, entrepreneurial and instilling a culture of true sustainability.”

Source: 20th September, 2010, Rediff

14,000 Seats Lying Vacant In Karnataka Engineering Colleges 

An alarming number of 14, 000 seats (8,691 seats in the private quota & 5,000 seats in the common entrance test government quota) are lying “unfilled” in engineering colleges of Karnataka. Theses statistics have came as a surprise after the final round of counseling got over in different Karnataka engineering colleges. The state government had declared earlier that a special counseling round would be conducted for students, who passed their pre-university courses in the supplementary attempt. The most obvious reason being seen behind so many seats remaining vacant is that numerous engineering colleges have been sanctioned and established in the state.

Source: 20th September, 2010, Indiaedunews

Synthetic Bone Implant Developed By IIT-Bombay

Synthetic bone implant has been developed by a team of researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. The implant that has been newly developed enables regeneration of cells in the area thereby contributing considerably in the formation of a new bone and accelerated healing. The implant would help in getting rid of complex surgeries for treating bone disorders. The implant has been developed after six years of consistent research work by a dedicated team of researchers at IIT-Bombay. Disciplines of biology and material science have been used to conduct trials of the new implant. Performance of the control group using the new implant got improved within 30 days, while bone grafts improved the performance of the treatment group within 15 days. The team of researchers is now seeking ethical permission for conducting trial of the bone implant for the next 120 days.

Source: 16th September, 2010, Higher education in India

UPSC Combined Medical Services Examination To Be Held On Jan 16, 2011

The UPSC has scheduled the Combined Medical Services Examination – 2011 to be held on January 16, 2011 at various test centers across India. The applicants can log on to the official UPSC website for getting detailed information about the eligibility criteria, syllabus and scheme of the examination, centers of examination, guidelines for filling up application form etc. The last date of submission of offline applications is October 11, 2010. However, there is a relaxation of a week’s time for applicants residing in remote areas or abroad. They can send in their applications by October 18, 2010. The last date for filling up online applications is October 11, 2010 till 11:59 pm.

Source: 20th September, 2010, Indiaedunews

IISc And IIMB Team Up For Academic Exchange

Two pioneer institutes, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc) and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) signed a MOU on September 15, 2010 to collaborate for closer academic exchange between the two institutes & start Technology and Innovation Management activities associated with science-based Intellectual Property created at IISc and co-created between the two Institutes. Professor Pankaj Chandra, Director, IIMB, said, “We are delighted to enter into this partnership with IISc. In this technology-driven age, such collaborations are crucial for development, as academic research benefits society when converted into entrepreneurial opportunities. The intersection of science and management offers exciting opportunities and this collaboration will certainly enhance the output from Bangalore as a knowledge centre.”

Source: 20th September, 2010, Indiaedunews

AMU Has Lunched Three Refresher Courses

UGC Academic Staff College, Aligarh Muslim University has launched three Subject Refresher Courses (SRCs) namely, Interdisciplinary SRC in research methodology in Social Science, SRC in History and Orientation programme. Approximately 80 from different parts of the country such as from UP, Assam, Maharashtra, Uttrakhand, Rajasthan, Delhi, Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand have enrolled for these courses until now. Dr. Afzal Khan, Department of History and Prof. Asmer Beg, Department of Political Science are Course CoordinatorS of SRC in History and Social Science respectively. Prof. A.R. Kidwai is Course Coordinator of the Orientation Programme.

Source: 16th September, 2010, Indiaeducation Diary

TISS Soon To Launch Three Dual Degree Programmes

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is geared up to launch three dual degree programmes, each of one-year duration. The development of curriculum of these three Master’s programmes is under progress. Professor S. Parasuraman, TISS Director, said, “There is a huge need for trained personnel in various areas. These programmes will be super-specialty courses, and candidates will undergo intensive training. The programmes are an attempt to address those areas where there is a dearth of skilled personnel in our country.” The three dual degree programmes are based on public policy, mental health and the management of non-profit organizations. The dual degree programme on mental health, scheduled to be started in June 2011, is being launched in collaboration with the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

Source: 21st September, 2010, DNA

IGNOU To Offer Certificate English Course Through Nokia Phone

To give a modern face lift to its distance education, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has entered into an agreement with Nokia to offer a Certificate English Course through Nokia phone. Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU said, “We will initially start this programme in six districts of Maharashtra. After six months, depending on the response, we will launch it on a national level.” The course education would be in functional English to be provided through SMS. Prof. Pillai further added, “we have entered into an exclusive agreement with Nokia for this programme. This is a first-of-its-kind collaboration to provide English education on a large scale.” Mr. D. Shivakumar, MD, Nokia India, said “Nokia's Ovi Life Tools is aimed at bridging information gaps by providing timely and relevant information customized to the user's location, language and personal preferences directly on their mobile devices.”

Source: 21st September, 2010, New Kerala