Magsaysay Awards

A Philippine governor crippled by polio, an Indian couple providing medical care and education to tribal people and an unconventional Japanese publisher are among winners of this year's Magsaysay awards.The awards, seen as Asia's equivalent of the Nobel prize, also honored Ahmad Syafii Maarif, the head of Indonesia's powerful Muhammadiyah group, Thai prosthetic limb manufacturer Therdchai Jivacate and Sri Lankan social worker Ananda Galappatti.The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation named Prakash and Mandakini Amte for the community leadership award. The couple, both medical doctors, run a hospital and school for the Madia Gond tribals in a remote part of central India.

IIT CUT-OFF

The Indian Institutes of Technology will reveal cut-off marks used to select students in this year’s entrance exam, allowing candidates for the first time to independently verify whether their scores merit a seat.On August 1, the IITs will display online the cut-off marks used in their Joint Entrance Examination 2008 to pick the top performers in the test, exam organisers have said.The IITs will also disclose, on the same day, details of opening and closing ranks for students belonging to each category — general, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, physically handicapped.For an entire month — from August 1 to August 31 — students can see their scores online. On August 1, the question papers from this year’s exam, and the key to the papers, will also be displayed online, allowing students who remember their answers an opportunity to match their scores with their performance.Both the subject cut-offs — in physics, chemistry and mathematics — and the aggregate cut-off used to screen students who have cleared all subject cut-offs, will be displayed on the JEE website — http://jee.iitr.ernet.in .

LAPTOP AT Rs. 400

India is developing a laptop to be sold at $10, that will target higher education applications.Research on the new low-cost laptop is being carried out at the Indian Institute of Science ,Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. government is planning to use information and communications technology (ICT) to strengthen its current programs for distance learning by making them accessible online. The government also plans to make available free bandwidth for education purposes to every Indian. It plans to use this bandwidth to build a "knowledge network" between and within institutions of higher learning in the country.India's Internet penetration is currently very low. The country had 4.38 million broadband subscribers at the end of June for a population of over 1.13 billion.

Physics olympiad 2008

Shitikanth, this year’s IIT-JEE topper from Jharkhand, bagged gold at the 39th International Physics Olympiad in Vietnam. A five-member team represented India in the Olympiad being held in Hanoi from July 17. Based on physics theoretical and practical examinations,the competition drew 390 participants from 82 countries.Along with Shitikanth, three other Indian boys — Nishant Totla, Garvit Juniwal and Kunal Shah — also bagged golds.Another member of the Indian team, Saurabh Goyal, bagged silver in the competition.. On July 30,team would be felicitated for his achievement at Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education in Mumbai. In IIT entrance,Shitikanth scored 470 out of 489, among the highest scores in the IIT joint entrance examinations

NEW IITS

The Cabinet had approved establishment of eight new IITs with an estimated cost of Rs 6,080 crore.The Government had also approved creation of 30 faculty posts per year in the first three years of establishment of each of the new IITs, besides approving posts of a director and registrar.Six of the eight IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Gujarat, Punjab and Rajasthan would start their academic session this year while the remaining two in Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pardesh will begin teaching in 2009.New IITs will be mentored by the existing ones. The IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat would start the academic session with 120 students each for B.Tech programmes through temporary campuses and would be mentored by IITs of Madras, Guwahati and Bombay respectively.The IITs of Rajasthan, Punjab and Orissa would start their classes in the campuses of their mentor IITs at Kanpur, Delhi and Kharagpur respectively.The aspirants for the post of directors can send their applications directly to the Ministry, while the eminent persons can also nominate candidates and send their recommendations to the selection committee.

1,600 new colleges by Mah government

Maharashtra government has decided to open 1,600 new colleges all over the state this year to provide relief to thousands of students who have recently passed out of school but have not secured admission to junior colleges.The list of the new colleges with the number of seats, their locations and the courses offered would soon be announced and displayed on the state government website.

India bags five bronze medals at the IMO

The IMO took place in Madrid, Spain from July 10-22 with the participation of more than 535 candidates from 101 countries and territories around the world. At the end of the competition, the 267 contestants were awarded, 47 gold, 100 silver and 120 bronze medals.China led this year’ contest with 217 points, five golds and one silver, followed by Russia, the Unites States, the Republic of Korea, Iran and Thailand.The 50th IMO is scheduled to take place in Germany from July 10-22, 2009.India has bagged five bronze medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), which concluded today at Madrid in Spain.Indian team ranked 31st in IMO, an event for young meritorious students in mathematics and in terms of aggregate score, in which a total of 97 countries participated.The six-member Indian higher secondary student team, who went to participate in IMO which was held from July 10 to 22, had to be satisfied with only five Bronze medals and one Honourable Mention, according to Registrar of Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), which is the nodal agency for national science olympiads.The winners are Ankit B Baraskar and Prashant S Sohani from Pune, Rudradev Basak from Burnpur, Anirudh Gujarale from Hyderabad, Utkarsh Tripathi from Kanpur. The Honourarable Mention was received by Abhinav Garg of Chandigarh.The students were led by Prof B J Venkatachala of Mathematical Olympiad cell of HBCSE, Bangalore. Mahendra Datta of Durgapur government college, West Bengal was the deputy leader while R B Bapat of Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi accompanied the team as an observer.

Girls just as good as boys in math

The long held belief that boys are better at maths than girls has been refuted by a new study.Based on the test results of seven million students in the US, researchers at UC Berkeley have found that boys and girls in grades two to 11 scored the same in maths.Previous studies have shown that girls are just as capable at math as boys, but the new research was the first to cover such a massive sample of students across the country - taking advantage of the standardized test scores now required by No Child Left Behind. The study was led by American psychologist Janet S. Hyde, from the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin (Madison). Her colleagues are Sara M. Lindberg, also from the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Marcia C. Linn, from Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology at the University of California at Berkeley, and Amy B. Ellis and Caroline C. Williams, both from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin.

ENGINEERING GRADUATES

India graduates around 200,000 engineers a year, but the quality of the students varies widely. India's main tech trade group, NASSCOM, says that only half of these new graduates are employable. Additionally, India graduates 20,000 master's degree holders and fewer than 1,000 PhDs in engineering. Those tallies aren't even high enough to staff the country's universities. (By contrast, each year U.S. universities confer 130,000 bachelor's, 50,000 master's, and 12,000 PhDs in engineering).

Foreign Univarsity Bill

Government announced plans to bring the Foreign Education Providers (Regulation for Entry and Operation) Bill to Parliament in the upcoming monsoon session. The Left has consistently opposed moves to let in foreign universities.At present, foreign universities are forbidden from offering degree courses in India by the human resource development ministry that governs education, although the commerce ministry officially allows 100 per cent FDI in the sector. But nearly 150 foreign education providers are offering joint courses with Indian varsities under a twinning arrangement — part of the course in India, the rest abroad — that is allowed by the education department.Under the proposed law, foreign education providers will have to apply for deemed-to-be university status from the University Grants Commission (UGC). Once granted the status, the foreign institutions will be treated on a par with Indian deemed universities.A crucial caveat in the proposed law may also allow the UGC to exempt some “world-class” institutions — like Harvard, Cambridge or Oxford — from its regulations on a “case-by-case” basis.

IIST

The Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), the space science school set up by the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) in Thiruvananthapuram, has been cleared for the deemed university status. A deemed university status will, among other things, confer upon the institute autonomy and the institute can issue degrees. Inaugurated on September 14, 2007, the IIST is only the third institution of its kind after Caltech, US,and the International Space University, Strasbourg, France.The IIST, which has currently opened admissions to its second batch, offers three streams including avionics, aerospace engineering and Integrated Masters in Applied Sciences. The first batch at the IIST has 138 students.

IIT ORISSA

104 students of civil, electrical and mechanical engineering of IIT Bhubaneswar will start their classes on the IIT Kharagpur campus.The Bhubaneswar institute is one of the six IITs opening this year, but a site for the institute has not yet been finalised in the Orissa capital.While Kharagpur is taking the responsibility of Bhubaneswar, Kanpur is doing it for Rajasthan, Chennai for Hyderabad, Delhi for Punjab, Mumbai for Gujarat and Guwahati for Patna.According to the Centre’s specifications, 600 to 1,000 acres are required to set up an IIT. The site should also be close to an airport, railway station and national highway. Besides, two million gallons of water should be available every day.Orissa Government has searched 900-acre plot near Banki, 62km from Bhubaneswar airport and close to the Mahanadi.

Chandrasekar

Chandrasekar will be the youngest postgraduate from IIT-Madras when he receives his degree at the convocation 25th july.He has also topped class.Chandrasekar became the youngest Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Cisco Certified Network Associate at 11 years.Chandrasekar was appointed an honorary director of the Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council – Center of Relevance and Excellence in network engineering in August 2002.In 2002,Chandrasekar admitted into the BE programme, when he was 15 at ANNA University.He then took the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering and scored 99.32 percentile.

ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN UP

There are 286 technical colleges in the UTTAR PRADESH educating about 66,024 students from different parts of the country.About 40 new engineering and management colleges have got affiliation from the Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) to launch various graduate and post-graduate level technical courses in the state. Out of them, 32 are in the Kanpur-Lucknow region.The Krishna Group of Institutions has set up two new engineering colleges, of which one is for girls apart from one management college. The owners of Pranveer Singh Institute of Technology (PSIT) are also beginning a new campus.The Kanpur city, which already boasts of an IIT, is set to get another 17 technical colleges. The city presently has about ten technical colleges, which will increase to 27 from this year.

Global Indian International School

The Global Indian Foundation, a Singapore-based non-profit organisation which established the first Global Indian International School six years back in Singapore, has now grown into a healthy network of 15 schools in seven countries with more than 17,000 students.While most students are Indians, the school also gets students from as many as 30 countries. Four schools are in India and the rest across countries like Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, New Zealand, Thailand and Singapore. All the Global Indian International schools also have a compulsory Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Values and Thoughts - a library of books on Gandhi.The school offers both International Baccalaureate (IB) and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum. While CBSE is followed until Class 7, students have a choice to go for either IB or continue with the CBSE board after that, till Class 12.

Vedic mathematics

Vedic mathematics is an older, Indian system of calculation based on rules and principles with which any mathematical problem can be solved.Thousands of years ago, mathematicians authored theses and dissertations on mathematics. The system is based on 16 vedic sutras or aphorisms that are word formulae describing ways to solve a whole range of problems.These 16 one-line formulae originally written in Sanskrit, enables one to solve long problems in a much quicker manner.It’s a mental tool that encourages development and use of intuition and innovation, while giving students flexibility, fun and satisfaction.At the Genius Academy Bhubaneswar more than 100 students have enrolled for a course in vedic mathematics and are enjoying maths.

OBC reservation in civil services

The Supreme Court will decide on July 18 the fate of 96 general category candidates who have made it to the merit list of civil services examination, results of which were declared in 2007.These candidates are being downgraded because the OBC candidates who have qualified from general category on merit are being given the benefit of OBC category.According to the petitioner if OBC candidates were qualified in general category are given the benefit of reservation now then the petitioners shall not be selected despite having made to the merit list.The order which was passed by Madras High Court in relation to 2005 batch is being implemented for 2007 batch also and those OBC candidates who have qualified in the general category are being upgraded by giving the benefit of OBC category to them.

MATH LAB

NCERT guidelines indicate that mathematics be treated as a prime focus area in schools till 2010.CBSE had issued directives to all schools following the CBSE curriculum, to install a math lab for promoting the subject.CBSE had also directed that 20 per cent of marks be kept aside for lab assessments, which would be added in the final marks.In addition to providing greater scope for individual participation in the process of learning, the math lab also enables the teacher to demonstrate, explain and reinforce abstract mathematical ideas by using concrete objects, models, charts, graphs, pictures, posters, etc.The math lab enables school students to learn and explore mathematical concepts and verify mathematical facts and theorems using tools such as the geometer's sketchpad.The tool covers mathematical curriculum from classes I to XII.Talent development and training corporation NIIT Ltd,launched in March this year, the math lab solution ,which is currently installed in 12 schools in India.Total solution package for math lab costs Rs 8 lakh for a 30-seater while a 60-seater costs Rs 12 lakh.These labs are being introduced by NIIT in collaboration with US-based Key Curriculum Press and Zome Inc.NIIT already has 100 professionals working on the development of these labs, 25 of whom are mathematicians. These labs are already in operation in four schools, including Doon School.

CBSE,S PATNA REGIONAL OFFICE

The seventh regional office of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was inaugurated in Shri Krishna Memorial Hall in Patna.This is the first regional office to be set up since 1990-91. when the Board decided to go for regional expansion. It would run from the Bihar State Financial Corporation building and cater to the need of 12 lakh students of X and XII in Bihar and Jharkhand. There are 500 CBSE affiliated schools in these two states and till now they were governed by the Allahabad regional office of CBSE. Another office is likely to open in Bhubaneswar soon.

IIT HIMACHAL

The permanent campus of the IIT himachal will be located at Kamand, 16 kilometres from Mandi, where the government has selected 2,674 bighas. The administrative block of Mandi college, measuring 4,091 square metres (against 38,000 square feet asked by HRD ministry), has been made available to the Centre. For the director’s residence, the government has offered Mandhav Complex a HPTDC hotel right opposite the college. The hotel has 17 sets, besides a kitchen, hall and open places. The registrar’s residence and some other needs would also be met here.For the girls’ hostel, a PWD rest house having 18 rooms and a hall have been kept ready.The boys’ hostel will be located at Drang.

NEW IITS

Cabinet formally approved eight new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to be set up across the country as world class engineering institutions at a total cost of Rs.60.80 billion ($1.5 billion).Government also approved the takeover of the Institute of Technology (IT)-Varanasi under the IIT system.IT-Varanasi currently functions under the Benaras Hindu University.new IITs have been approved in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan,Orissa,Gujarat,Punjab,Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.Among them, six would start their academic sessions from July 23, while the other two - approved in Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh - were expected to start functioning from the 2009-10 academic year.To ensure that the IITs are operationalised at the earliest, the government has sanction one post of director and registrar each for the eight IITs. It has also sanctioned 30 faculty posts for per year.As per the government, the creation of new IITs will enable provision of high quality education for more students in the country, who aspire for top class education. It would also address state/region specific technology related problems of States/UTs situated in the IITs’ ’Zones’.Three existing IITs — Guwahati, Madras and Delhi — have been made ‘mentor institutions’ for the new institutes at Patna, Medak and Rajasthan.Faculty from the Guwahati and Madras IITs will be deployed to teach at makeshift campuses at Patna and Medak. IIT Rajasthan doesn’t even have a ‘makeshift campus’, and will debut from its mentor’s campus at IIT Delhi.. It has also specifically approved the post of a Director in each of the new IITs in the grade of Rs. 26,000 (fixed) and a post of Registrar in the grade of Rs. 16,400-22,400 for each of the new IITs.The Cabinet has also decided to raise the grade of all existing IIT Directors from Rs. 25,000 (fixed) to Rs. 26,000 (fixed).

Indian Institute of Nano Technology

Central government had announced the establishment of centres of the Indian Institute of Nano Technology in Bangalore, Mohali and Kolkata. The Union Ministry of Science and Technology had released Rs 100 crore for the purpose.India is all set for a nanotechnology revolution, which would dramatically improve the standard of life of the people and find solutions to major problems in health, agriculture and water management.Medical science would also derive huge benefits from use of nanotechnology as detection and treatment of serious diseases like AIDS and cancer would be easier.With increasing importance of power generation through non-conventional energy sources, nanotechnology would be of great help as it could considerably increase the capacity of photovoltaic cells - to generate electricity by solar power

mysteries of invention

Mr Caldwell advances a theory in an article, "In the Air" published in the June 30 issue of the New Yorker magazine.It is about scientific and technological discoveries which are associated with one famous person in public mind, but in reality other scientists too had hit upon them at the same time. it makes evident that scientific discoveries are not the exclusive products of a single brilliant person's fertile mind, but are `in the air' all the time and within the reach of anyone who has the alertness to `snatch' them.For instance, as Mr Caldwell points out, Newton and Leibniz both discovered calculus. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace both discovered evolution.Three mathematicians "invented" decimal fractions. Oxygen was discovered by Joseph Priestley and Carl Wilhelm Scheele. Color photography was invented at the same time by Charles Cros and by Louis Ducos du Hauron, in France.Logarithms were invented by John Napier and Henry Briggs in Britain, and by Joost Brgi in Switzerland.There were four independent discoveries of sunspots, all in 1611; by Galileo in Italy, Scheiner in Germany, Fabricius in Holland and Harriott in England .The law of conservation of energy, so significant in science and philosophy, was formulated four times independently in 1847, by Joule, Thomson, Colding and Helmholz. They had been anticipated by Robert Mayer in 1842.There seem to have been at least six different inventors of the thermometer and no less than nine claimants of the invention of the telescope.Typewriting machines were invented simultaneously in England and in America by several individuals in these countries. The steamboat is claimed as the "exclusive" discovery of Fulton, Jouffroy, Rumsey, Stevens and Symmington.There are 148 such major scientific discoveries for which credit can be claimed by more than one person, but is actually given to only one! NEW YORKER..

5th DU CUT OFF

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (DDU), Satyawati (Day) College, Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women,Ramjas College , Hindu College are among the institut ions,which have seats vacant in some courses.DDU is still open for admission to B.Sc.(H)Physics,B.Sc. (H) Electronics and B.Sc. (H) Mathematics at the same cut-off as in the fourth list. It has reduced the qualifying marks for B.Sc. Physical Science and B.Sc. Life Science by 3 and 2 per cent, respectively. Admission is open till July 17.Delhi University has decided to allow both Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students to reapply to colleges as per the seats available there.

Teachers’ Training

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) set up a ‘mini hub’ for dissemination of information via Edusat (education satellite) at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to facilitate better teachers’ training programmes across the country.mini hub will help them set up direct link with 100 Satellite Interactive Terminals spread across the country.With the increase in the bandwidth,in addition to the 100 CIET centres, about 120 centres from the Consortium of Educational Communications (CEC) will be operative through this mini hub.

IIT- RAJASTHAN

The ministry of human resource development has decided to launch the Rajasthan institute as India’s eighth IIT on August 2.Classes will begin on August 4, the sources said, but students selected to the Rajasthan institute will be asked to report to IIT Kanpur on July 30.The seven existing IITs are at Kharagpur, Mumbai, Madras, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati and Roorkee.Rajasthan was among the first three states — along with Andhra Pradesh and Bihar — that were announced as recipients of new IITs, but the state and the Centre have not been in agreement over the institute’s location ever since.Apart from Rajasthan, five other new IITs — in Orissa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab — are starting courses this year. Of these, the Rajasthan, Orissa and Punjab IITs will function out of their “mentor” institutes — the IITs at Kanpur, Kharagpur and Delhi — this year.The remaining three — Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar — will operate out of temporary campuses near their respective state capitals.A foundation stone is to be placed at the IIT Andhra campus in Medak near Hyderabad on August 8, but classes are likely to start later.

Engineering education in Tamilnadu

Tamilnadu government established engineering colleges in Villupuram, Tindivanam, Ariyalur, Thirukuvalai, Ramanathapuram and Panruti to provide facilities to the students to pursue professional education at an affordable cost.These institutions have been designated as Anna University (Chennai and Tiruchi) colleges.These six new government engineering colleges will start functioning from the current academic year.During the ongoing single window counselling for engineering admissions in Tamil Nadu, there are virtually no takers for the new government colleges.This is despite the fact that the annual fees in government colleges are only Rs 15,000 against Rs 40,000 charged by colleges which offer courses accredited by the National Board of Accreditation.

Engineering education in Karnataka

Karnataka has 164 engineering colleges spread across the State. There are close to 25different branches to pick from.Some of the four year BE courses offered include Electronics and Communication, Computer Science, Mechanical, Civil, Electrical and Electronics,Aeronautical Engineering,Architecture,Industrial Production, Instrumentation Technology, Industrial Engineering and Management, Medical Electronics, Chemical, Automobile Engineering, Telecommunication, Biotechnology, Textiles, Mining, Ceramics, Silk Technology, Construction Technology and Management, Biomedical, Environmental, Polymer Technology, Information Science and Manufacturing Science.The colleges and the branches offered in Karnataka can be grouped into three categories.Aided colleges having aided branches, where in the college and the branch is fully supported by government funding. The second category is the aided colleges with un-aided branches: here the support is provided partially by the government.The last category is the private colleges.These are self-financed institutions.That means,there is no government funding available to run these institutions. However they are bound by Government admission and administration rules.Recently 14 colleges in Karnataka have been given the autonomous status. Under this, the colleges can formulate their own curriculum and student assessments, but the degree is offered by the VTU.

New engineering college in punjab

There were 51 engineering colleges in the state till last year.The number will rise to 61 with the approval to 10 engineering colleges of Punjab Technical University (PTU). There are two other applications that are likely to get clearance.The PTU already has list of 43 affiliated engineering colleges. The other engineering colleges in the state, include three each of Guru Nanak Dev University and Punjabi University and one each of Punjab Agricultural University and Lovely Professional University.Three pharmacy colleges have also received approval increasing the number to 30. The seats in these colleges are being filled by separate merit and counselling. Besides, the management college of Rayat and Bahra group has also got approval for 60 MBA seats at Hoshiarpur.The same group is coming up with an institute of engineering and nano-technology at Hoshiarpur with 60 seats each in computer science engineering, mechanical engineering, electronics and communication engineering and civil engineering. A pharmacy college of the group is also being set up in the same district. In addition, a college for girls of the same group has been sanctioned at Kharar.Three other colleges for girls given the nod include Shaheed Udham Singh Women Engineering College, Tangori in Mohali, Sachdeva Engineering College for Girls, Mohali, and Doaba Women Institute of Engineering and Technology, Kharar.The other five B.Tech colleges include Northwest Institute of Engineering and Technology, Moga, Baba Isher Singh Engineering College, Moga, Jasdev Singh Sandhu Engineering College, Patiala, Continental Institute of Engineering and Technology, Fatehgarh Sahib, Global College of Engineering and Technology, Amritsar.The two pharmacy colleges, other than those of Rayat and Bahra, include St Soldier Pharmacy College, Jalandhar, and Swift Institute of Pharmacy, Rajpura.

civil engineering

civil engineering has become one of the less preferred branches of engineering. Industry experts estimate that India faces a shortage of 70,000 civil engineers each year.Not surprising as just 200 of the 1,700 technical colleges certified by AICTE offer civil engineering as a course and that means just 10,000 civil engineering graduates per year.The major reasons for the lack of interest in civil engineering are excessive Government control in major projects and a tendency to turn towards foreign technology. An analysis of the courses offered in the 272 engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu reveals that less than 30% of institutions offer civil engineering.To be precise, just 81 of the 272 colleges in the government, aided and self-financing sectors offer civil engineering courses for undergraduates, as per statistics released by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on June 30.Same situation in all other states.

IISST

The Central government on the advice of the University Grants Commission (UGC) has declared the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IISST), Thiruvanatha puram, a deemed university.The status has been granted provisionally for a five-year period with immediate effect and will be subject to certain conditions.The functioning of the IISST as well as its performance shall be reviewed annually by the UGC through an expert committee.The IISST would start new academic courses only as per norms prescribed by the UGC and AICTE and would take immediate steps to start Post-graduate, doctoral and post doctoral programmes in engineering areas of space technology

South Asian University (SAU)

South Asian University (SAU) expected to start functioning by 2010.The proposal for SAU was made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the SAARC Summit in Dhaka in December 2005 and later ratified by the eight member countries.Mr. Pranab Mukherjee laid its foundation at a 100-acre plot in Maidan Garhi, Mehrauli in south Delhi on May 26. The campus construction is due to start early next year.The university could take up special studies on economy, culture, religion and societies in the SAARC nations.The initial investment for SAU will be made by the Indian government after which the member countries could contribute and the university would also raise money from international financial institutions and donors.

FOURTH DU CUT OFF

This year close to 10,000 OBC students have formally applied for admission to Delihi Univeristy.More than half of the 6000 seats reserved for OBC students are lying empty, even though colleges are down to their fourth cut off list.According to the Supreme Court order, the cut off for OBC students has to be 10% lower than the general category cut off and that's still too high for most quota students.colleges are suggesting that to fill any vacant seats they will abandon cut offs and accept students on the basis of highest OBC scorers first. The lack of admissions in this category had been reported from the first cut-off list, when few admissions took place. Most colleges have seen disappointingly low number of admissions in the OBC category, forcing them to lower the cut-off in each consecutive list.

OBC RESERVATION IN IIT

Each of the existing seven IITs will rollout 9 percent OBC reservation this year while the six new IITs will implement full 27 percent OBC reservation from this year. In three years, all IITs will roll out the full 27 percent quota for OBC candidates.The IITs are implementing the OBC reservation for the first time.This year, 654 seats across the 13 IITs in the country have been reserved for OBC candidates.The ceiling on the annual income for non-creamy candidates, according to the government, is Rs.250,000.Of the total 311,250 students who appeared for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE-2008) for admission to seven IITs, 72,000 were OBC candidates.The IITs had short-listed 1,130 OBC candidates of the total 8,650 candidates who had qualified for the 6,872 seats available in the IITs. Most of Other Backward Class (OBC) candidates who were called for counselling prior to admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) failed to prove their non-creamy layer status to avail the benefit of reservation.

CAT 08

The seven Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) have announced that CAT for the academic year 2009-11 will be held on November 16, 2008. Nearly 2,000 students will get admission to these institutes.The CAT Bulletins, which contains application form can be purchased from July 14, 2008 till August 8, 2008 from select Axis bank branches, and in special cases from IIMs directly by August 13 2008. The last date of submission of CAT forms is September 5.There are a total of 102 non-IIM institutions who are using CAT 2008 scores. Last year there were 111 non-IIM institutions who used CAT scores.CAT 2008 will be conducted at 23 centers in India which include Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow and others.The candidates must hold a bachelor’s degree with at least 50 percent marks (45 percent marks in case of students belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes or persons with disability).Last year, over 230,000 students had appeared for the CAT entrance examination.Last year, the Common Admission Test (CAT) form was priced at Rs 1,100 for open category students and Rs 550 for reserved category candidates. This year, this has been raised to Rs 1,300 and Rs 650 repectively.

Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana

The Government of India instituted a fellowship programme in 1999, the
Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana - (KVPY) to attract students to
research careers in Science, Engineering and Medicine. It is funded by
the Department of Science and Technology New Delhi and coordinated by the Indian Institute of Science, (IISc) Bangalore. In addition, the Indian
Institute of Science handles all aspects of Science Stream, while the
Engineering and Medicine Streams are handled by the Indian Institute of
Technology-Bombay, Mumbai and the Indian Council of Medical Research,New Delhi respectively.The Fellowship is open to students completing X Std, XII Std, I year.B.Sc., I year BE and I Year M.B.B.S. Further details are available on the
KVPY website: http://www.iisc.ernet.in/kvpy.

IGNOU

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) launched online courses in two subjects.The courses are Masters Degree in Library Science and post-graduate certificate in Cyber Law.All the academic activities like admission, classes, assignments and examination will be held online in these courses.These courses will provide virtual learning environment right from registration to certification.The students will have to furnish their details through Internet to get admission while university will provide the course materials and classes on its website.The university will also introduce an online admission system under which there will be a payment gateway for receiving admission fees from the students.The university has developed a digital repository of learning resources.About 80 per cent of the study materials of IGNOU has been put out in the digital repository which has been thrown open to the public in its website.IGNOU also launched webcasting facility for its educational channels, GyanDarshan and Gyanvani.

CAT-2008

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) which will be conducting the common admission test this year on November 16, have decided to continue with the paper-pencil test. Last year, there were reports that the CAT was likely to go online in 2008 after the IIMs put out an advertisement calling for agencies interested in working with the management institutes to take the CAT online.

SEMINAR at IIIT-A

Renowned scientists, including 14 Nobel laureates from across the world will meet at the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-A), Allahabad in December to motivate the present generation to undertake research in basic sciences.Ten outstand ing undergraduate and postgraduate students from every Indian university, nominated by their respective vice-chancellors, will have the opportunity to listen and interact with these laureates during the week-long event.Among the Indian scientists to participate in the event are Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Prof CNR Rao, Prof MGK Menon, Prof R Chidambaram, Prof Goverdhan Mehta, Prof G Madhvan Nair. INDIAN EXPRESS

IISER

Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) set up in 2006 at the behest of the Prime Minister as the Centre’s answer to the lack of top-quality undergraduate science schools. three existing IISERs at Calcutta, Pune and Mohali — are expected to increase their intake by 300 with a record number of students joining their courses this year.Two new IISERs — at Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram — are also starting classes this academic session, admitting an additional 42 students each in their debut year.The human resource development ministry was earlier planning to introduce an IISER act recognising the five-year integrated MS degrees offered by the institutes.Now,the ministry has decided to recognise the IISER degrees through an amended NIT act.

Horatio Boedihardjo -Ph.d at 17

Oxford University has accepted a 17-year-old Horatio Boedihardjo from Hong Kong on one of its doctorate programmes, making him one of the famed university's youngest such student.Horatio Boedihardjo became an Oxford undergraduate at 14 and has now been admitted to the university's mathematics doctorate programme.His sibling March Boedihardjo last September became Hong Kong's youngest ever university student at the tender age of just nine.He thanked his professor Janet Dyson who invited him to pursue studies at Oxford.Horatio entertains the idea of being a teacher and inspire children to learn more about mathematics.He even went on to invite people who are interested to communicate to him through his e-mail address horatio.boedihardj @hotmail.co.uk if they are interested in studying mathematics at the university.

IT fails to attract students- Bengal

Top rankers in the common entrance test for 53 engineering colleges in the Bengal preferred streams such as electrical, electronics and mechanical over IT.Even after the top 10,000 students exercised option until the end of last week, almost 60% of 2,000 seats in IT engineering were vacant, according to the central selection committee.Though seats in top government colleges such as Jadavpur University and Bengal Engineering and Science University aren’t empty, there are ve-ry few takers for IT courses offered by private colleges in the state. These seats, too, aren’t going to go empty, but would be taken eventually by those who do not have other options.The response to computer science and engineering, a similar course offered by some colleges in the state, is slightly better than IT, but much worse than previous years. The contents of the two streams are slightly different — computer science focuses on software development, and IT deals more with support services.

Gandhian studies

There are incresing interest in courses like Gandhian studies, environment studies, peace studies and conflict management. This is evident from the number of applicants this year at Panjab University’s Department of Gandhian and Peace Studies here.The department is flooded with applications for admission to the 2008-09 session, getting nearly 10 applicants for each of the 25 seats. In fact,the department has increased its intake from 20 to 25 seats this year. On an average we have received 10 applications for one available seat,” according J.N. Sharma,HOD , Department of Gandhian and Peace Studies.Students from diverse backgrounds like commerce, science and even business studies are applying for the Gandhian studies course.The course is the foremost choice of students interested in various aspects of Gandhian thought, the freedom movement, conflict resolution, peace and international studies.The department, which came into existence in 1965, initially used to offer only a one-year certificate course in Gandhian philosophy. But now, it is offering MA, MPhil and PhD courses.The department of Gandhian studies is making full use of multi-media tools and has introduced many practical subjects in its curriculum.The department has also adopted a village, Mahadev Pura, in Haryana. Its students go there every year and work for the uplift of underprivileged kids of the village. These activities are all under their subject, ‘Literacy Mission’, in which students have to submit a report on the village.We have a full-fledged library of more than 6,000 books. We have a series of books written by Mahatma Gandhi on his life and experiences. This year, 16 out of 20 students appeared for the final exams - much better than before.Students passing out of this department are placed in various NGOs and self-help groups. Full assistance is provided to the students for placements.The department of Gandhian studies is making full use of multi-media tools and has introduced many practical subjects in its curriculum.The 2006 film “Lage Raho Munna Bhai” popularised a streetsmart version of Gandhian philosophy that came to be called “Gandhigiri”. IANS

WOMEN COLLEGES-ANDHRA PRADESH

Andhra Pradesh will add 100 more new engineering colleges in 2008, likely to be sanctioned form this academic year, about 30 are expected to be exclusively for women.The State already has 338 engineering colleges with a pool of 1.2 lakh seats. With the addition of new colleges, the number of engineering seats will touch 1.5 lakh.Apart from the growing preference of women for engineering courses, AICTE’s decision to relax rules for setting up women’s engineering colleges as a step towards women’s empowerment, had managements and societies queuing up before it with applications.The AICTE increased the intake of seats from 60 to 90 per branch in women’s engineering colleges and also relaxed the infrastructure norm of 10 acres of land to five acres as special concession.

BOOM IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

71 new self-financing engineering colleges being starting from this academic year in Tamil Nadu. This along with the six new government engineering colleges, effectively takes the number of technical institutions to 349.First self-financing engineering college in Tamil Nadu was established in 1984.Seven of these 71 are exclusive women's engineering colleges, which will function from Perundurai, Kumarapalayam, Sivakasi, Tiruchengode, Athur, Sankari and Chengalpattu.Women's colleges will each have a sanctioned intake of 300 students, the co-educational institutions will admit 240 each.This means an increase of 17,400 BE/BTech seats this year.This year with the new colleges also contributing to the common pool, the number of seats in the government quota could well cross 75,000. The number of aspirants this year is over 1.27 lakh.Over 100 applications to establish new colleges were submitted to the AICTE.

NASA PRIZE

Two Indian students have won the second place for their Design of Transport Aircraft for the Future sponsored by the American space agency NASA. Ms R. Anusha and Mr S. Srinath from the College of Engineering under Anna University, Guindy, Chen nai have won the second place for their Design of Transport Aircraft for the Future.Fourteen teams and two individual students submitted their designs in the annual competition sponsored by NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Programme part of the agency's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.The highest scoring graduate team was from Georgia Tech in Atlanta, USA. The contest asked students to create a future subsonic transport aircraft that could carry up to 50,000 pounds, operate on runways between 1,500 and 3,000 feet long, and cruise at speeds between 595 and 625 mph.

2 yrs work time in UK

Indian students pursuing education in British universities can now work in the UK for two years after completing their courses, instead of one year as allowed earlier. students can seek employment for up to two years under Tier 1 of the Points-Based System (PBS).Many self-financing Indian students take up work while studying or after completing their courses to recover the costs.In 2007 almost 22000 student visas were issued across India, representing a 10 per cent increase in 2006.Tier 1 (post-study work) replaces IGS and the Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland Scheme and provides a bridge from study in the UK to highly skilled or skilled work.Under PBS, applicants need sufficient points to qualify for a visa. Points are awarded for objective criteria such as qualifications, previous earnings,age and UK experience.

UPTU COUNSELING

SEE-UPTU -2008 Online counseling will start on 10th july. Counseling for B.Tec will be on.10-18 july .Dates 19 july and 20 july are for B.Parma and B.FAD counseling.ON 21 july B.Arch and B.HCT counseling will be completed.22 and 23 july are for MBA and 2nd year B.Pharma students.On 24 th july , there will be MCA counseling .25 july will be for the 2nd year B.Tec students.on 26, 27, 28, 29 july will be re- counseling for remaining seats of sc/st/obc category. Counseling of B.TEC 2ND year /B.Sc gradutates will be on 1 august.additional special re-counselling for SC candidates will be on 2-3 august.

Polya prize

Rutgers University professor Vu Ha Van is to be awarded the George Polya prize by the US Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in San Diego, California, for his work in combinatorial theory.Van will receive an engraved medal and a 20,000 USD cash award on July 8.Van received his undergraduate degree in Hungary and his PhD in mathematics from Yale University in the US under the direction of Laszlo Lovasz, president of the International Mathematical Union and 1979 George Pólya Prize winner.Van worked for the Institute for Advanced Study, Microsoft and the University of California, before becoming a mathematics professor at Rutgers University in 2005.The prize committee said Van had made one of the most important contributions to his specialised field in the last ten years.. He is being honored for developing fundamental concentration inequalities for random polynomials that are applicable to broader contexts than earlier inequalities. These inequalities have enabled the solution of long-standing problems in projective geometry, convex geometry, extremal graph theory, number theory, and theoretical computer science. His research interests include combinatorics, probability, and additive number theory. He has received a Sloan Dissertation Fellowship (1997), a Sloan Research Fellowship (2002), and an NSF Career Award (2003). He has been a member of the IAS in 1998, 2005, and 2007, the last time as leader of a focus program, "Arithmetic Combinatorics.The George Pólya Prize was established in 1969 and is given every two years, alternately in two categories: (1) for a notable application of combinatorial theory; (2) for a notable contribution in another area of interest to George Pólya such as approximation theory, complex analysis, number theory, orthogonal polynomials, probability theory, or mathematical discovery and learning. The Prize is broadly intended to recognize specific recent work.

VACENT SEAT

Karnataka’s engineering colleges are likely to see several thousand seats go vacant again this year.Last year, more than 3,000 engineering seats out of the state’s total 55,000 stayed empty.Industry experts say only about a quarter of India’s 400,000 engineers who graduate every year are employable.Popular branches like computer science and electronics and telecommunication will get filled up even in bad colleges, whereas it is often difficult to fill up less popular branches like chemical engineering even in good colleges.

NEW IIMs

In 11th Five Year Plan, the HRD ministry had announced last year to set up 45 new higher education institutions, including 15 schools of technology and management and 14 world class universities all over the country.Currently, there are six IIMs in the country. Besides a new IIM at Shillong (already announced), seven more IIMs will be set up in Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Haryana. Maharashtra Government has decided to step up the demand for setting up an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in the state.The first Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Northern India would come up at Rohtak in Haryana.

IIST

The concept of a “nursery” for ISRO took firm footing in 2006, when ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair took it on as a pet project. Inaugurated on September 14, 2007, the IIST is envisioned as a centre of excellence in advanced space science and technology, offering undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes.It now has B Tech programmes with specialisation in avionics and aerospace engineering, and integrated Masters in applied science. The first academic year came to a close on June 28. by September, 2009, the ISRO plans to shift the facility from its temporary home at the VSSC, Thumba, to a permanent campus next to the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Valiyamala — Thiruvananthapuram.In the years ahead, the institute hopes to forge strategic ties with like-minded agencies across the globe for exchange programmes. Already, ISRO officials have toured some of the best the US and Europe have to offer — the California University of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, and the International Space University, Strasbourg, France.The IIST has attracted a young and talented 26 academics. C.S. Narayanamurthy, who has a Ph.D. from IIT Madras, was teaching in the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, before he joined the institute. He is now the Head of the Department of Physics. Raju K. George is the Head of the Department of Mathematics. P.S. Robi, who heads the Department of Aerospace Engineering, earlier taught at IIT Guwahati.The institute does not charge tuition or other fees and hostel accommodation is totally free of cost. Besides, the students are given Rs.3,000 every semester as book allowance. Students completing the course with a first class will be absorbed into ISRO. They will be asked to sign a bond that they will work for ISRO for five years. If they jump the bond, they will have to pay Rs.10 lakh to the Department of Space.

IIM SHILLONG

Seventh IIM began its first academic session at SHILLONG from on Friday. IIM Shillong is the seventh IIM in the country after Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode.Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management (RGIIM), will function from the temporary Mayurbhanj Complex of the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) till a permanent campus comes up in a 120-acre land allotted by the state government for the purpose.The Institute envisages for its flagship programme, namely, Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM), an annual student intake capacity of 60 in the first year. This is planned to be increased to 120 in the third year and 180 in the sixth year.The institute will conduct courses with Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management, fellowship programme in management, management development programmes, tourism and hospitality management, tele-services and telemedicine, information systems and technology and subjects of local relevance such as tourism, horticulture and hydel power.

Looking Ahead: The Next Fifty Years

Alumni of Mumbai Indian Institute of Technology is organising a World Conference in New York, from July 18 to 20, 2008. The United States of America is home to an estimated 50,000 alumni or about twenty five percent (25%) of graduates from different IITs, placed all over the world.The Marriott Marquis Hotel, Times Square, New York will play host to the largest ever North American IIT alumni event where over 1000 attendees are expected to join in this celebration. The event is open to all IIT alumni and anyone who is interested in the IITs and India.The programme includes thought-provoking speakers and informative panels. The theme of the Golden Jubilee Conference 2008 is Looking Ahead: The Next Fifty Years.Firms founded by IIT Bombay Alumni have created tens of thousands of jobs in America. Some of these firms are traded on NASDAQ.

Lucknow University -cut off

The Lucknow University has declared board-wise separate cut offs for candidates of different categories. The result, besides being declared on the university website www.lkouniv.ac.in, has also been displayed at the university notice board.The cut-offs for general candidates from UP Board was 74.4 this year in comparison to 75.90 percent last year.In ISC board, the general category cut off was 80 per cent as compared to 80.33 last year. In CBSE group, the general candidates cut off was 79.80, same as last year. Similar trends were seen in the Scheduled Caste/Tribe (SC/ST) and Other Backward Class groups.Besides, giving 27 per cent vertical reservation to OBC and 23 per cent to SC/ST, university has also provided horizontal reservation in every category to wards of university employees (10%), wards of college teachers (5%), dependents of freedom fighters (1%) and physically handicapped (3%). Weightages for outstanding sports person and NCC B certificate holders have also been given. Counselling for admission will be held on July 5, 6 and 7 in two shifts — first shift from 9 am to 12 noon and second shift from 12 noon to 3 pm at the new law building, old campus. source-TOI

HUNUR

Human Resource Development Ministry inaugurated a new project for providing vocational training to Muslim girls in Bihar.Named HUNUR,it is a collaborative project of ministry and the Government of Bihar. Under the scheme the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) will provide free skill training to some 12,000 girls studying in different schools in Bihar.The courses offered include gram sakhi, jute production, cutting and tailoring, early childhood care and education, basic technology and beauty culture.This scheme will be implemented through Maktabs, Madarsas and Darul-uloom. The NIOS plans to offer concessions related to infrastructure, fee as well as number of students at study centers under this scheme.The scheme also plans to relax norms for accreditation for traditional educationally backward institutions especially Madarsas and Maktabs. The NIOS will provide them free course material under this programme.The scheme for providing free education to Scheduled Castes (SC) Scheduled Tribes (ST) learners in Bihar through NIOS also was inaugurated.NIOS as per government policy has been giving fee concession to SC/ST learners. Now, the Government of Bihar has taken the decision to give total free education to SC/ST learners of Bihar, both girls and boys.This initiative is expected to improve their access to school level education and will open the path for all other government offered educational schemes and jobs.

No child to fail till class XI

‘Fail’ appears to be a very blunt and derogatory word. This word discourage the student and a sort of stigma remains there for quite some time.Education department of the Delhi government decided no children would be failed till class eleven.On basis of weekly and terminal tests, the children would now be graded on the scale of A to E and no one would fail.It also applies to those students who have just taken their final exams.

Gerhard Ringel

Gerhard Ringel, a former UC Santa Cruz professor of mathematics, died on June 24 in his home. He was 88.Ringel was one of the world's foremost experts on combinatorics and graph theory. He is credited, along with J.W.T. Youngs, with solving the famous Heawood Conjecture. The conjecture gave the formula for the minimum number of colors necessary to color all graphs drawn on an orientable surface. minimum number of colors H(p) needed to color a map on a surface of genus p, namely
H(p) = [ 1/2( 7 + √( 48p + 1)) ].he had a love for butterflies and a massive 5,000 specimen collection.Ringel donated his world-class collection to the museum in 2006.Ringle came to Santa Cruz in 1967 to work at UCSC as a visiting professor. He returned in 1970, accepting an appointment as professor of mathematics. He spent the next 20 years teaching, achieving emeritus status in 1990.

Himadri’

India inaugurated a permanent base near the North Pole to enable scientists to carry out research, especially on climate change. The research base named ‘Himadri’ was equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and was situated on the west coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago of Norway.Himadri will be managed by the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR),an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.India has become the 10th country to have established its full-fledged research station in the region. Other countries that have already set up their stations include Norway, Germany, Britain, France, Japan, South Korea and China. Indian Arctic Programme that started in August 2007 as a small contingent of five scientists has expanded to become a full fledged research station in less than a year.A heritage building that was once a school for the children of coal miners in the town of Ny-Alesund, on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, has turned into India’s first Arctic research base.Indian team includes scientists from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany, Lucknow, the Snow and Avalanche Establishment, the NCAOR and a university in Bhopal. Scientists from the Geological Survey of India and the National Physical Laboratory will fly there later this month.

Third DU Cut Off

The chances of a third list for commerce and humanities subjects in many colleges look dim.. Apart from B.A. Programme and Hindi, a third list is not likely for the rest.The poor show for subjects such as Applied Physical Science, B.Sc. Mathematics, B.Sc. Chemistry is continuing even with the lowering of cutoffs.Daulat Ram also expects a third list for Chemistry, Life Sciences and Zoology.

Green Journey

Aditya Kumar(16), a student of Sanskriti School-New Delhi has been selected to attend the 'Green Journey' programme in China from July 14-30, 2008.The British Council selected 20 climate change champions from each of the 31 countries including India and every champion is raising awareness about climate change in his/her respective area.He will travel the country by train, and see first-hand environment ally responsible schemes and organisations. He will also get to visit the Li Keng Domestic Waste Incineration Facility in Guangzhou - the only facility of its kind that incinerates waste for electricity generation.

SIAM Prize

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) will award the SIAM Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession to Dr. Philippe Tondeur.Tondeur is working as Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign .Established in 1985, the SIAM Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession is awarded each year at the SIAM Annual Meeting to applied mathematician who has made distinguished contributions to the furtherance of applied mathematics on the national level.Tondeur earned an engineering degree in Zurich, and a PhD in mathematics from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He subsequently was a research fellow and lecturer at the University of Paris, France, Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, and an associate professor at Wesleyan University,before joining the UIUC faculty in 1968, where he became a full professor in 1970.Tondeur is being recognized for his creative and dedicated leadership of the Division of Mathematical Sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF),including the initiation of the Mathematical Sciences Priority Area.

Shiv Charan -failed 38th time

74-year-old Shiv Charan took his first board exams in 1969 and since then clearing it has been the only goal of his life., who has been appearing for the Class 10 board examinations for the last 38 years,has failed once again in Rajasthan board's secondary examination.he lives in Kohari village near Behror town, over 140 km from state capital Jaipur. In the early years of his life, he want to marry only after getting through his Class 10 exam.This time he was not able to pass in any subject other than Hindi. He scored 34 in Hindi, 14 in English, 17 in science, 5 in mathematics and 25 in Sanskrit.Shiv Charan took his first board exams in 1969 and since then clearing it has been the only goal of his life.Shiv Charan has already started preparing for next year's examination.

EDUCATION SECTOR

It is estimated that the size of the working age population in India, aged 15 to 64 years is estimated to go up from about 77.5 crore in 2008 to about 95 crore in 2026, i.e. up from 62.9 per cent to 68.4 per cent.Currently, the number of university-level institutions are 419 and the colleges are: 20, 918, while the number of AICTE approved technical institutions are almost 7,000.During the XIth Plan,the Government proposes to set up 30 central universities—16 in uncovered states and 14 aiming at world-class standards; eight IITs; 10 National Institutes of Technologies; 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs); three Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERS),seven IIMs and two Schools of Planning and Architecture.Apart from this central assistance will be provided for 1000 polytechnics: 300 in public private partnership mode and 400 in the private sector. Assistance for setting up of polytechnics in the government sector shall be extended to those states that do not have one at present. The aim of the Government is also to take of infrastructure shortages and faculty shortages that hamper education at present.The Government also aims to provide $ 100 laptops to students so that they can benefit from the telecommunication revolution. Efforts and research in this direction are on at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Apart from this, the Government wishes to network each department of about 400 university level institutions and 20,000 colleges through broadband connectivity and make available suitable e-learning material. The National Policy on Education (1986) had set a goal of expenditure on education to be of the order of 6 per cent of GDP. However, the actual expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP has remained about 3 per cent of GDP till 2007-08(fiscal year).The National Knowledge Commission’s recent report on higher education has recommended that the present support for higher education should be at least 1.5 per cent of GDP, from a total of 6 per cent of GDP for education. The Government has to keep this in mind if it wants to accelerate the level of progress for the country and expand the knowledge base.

Engineering Colleges

As per AICTE data as on 31.08.2007 India is having 1668 approved Degree Engineering Colleges in which only 6 are from Bihar . Highest Engineering colleges are in Andhra Pradesh ( 319),TamilNadu ( 268 ),Maharastra ( 186 ),Karnatka ( 141 ),Uttar Pradesh ( 136 ),Madhya Pradesh ( 104 ).Karnatka have had policy regarding private participa tion in 1950s only which resulted today many of leading Engineering Colleges are from Karnatka with qualiy education and such colleges helped Karnatka / Bangalore in skilled man power supply.Uttar Pradesh opened its door for private participation in Engineering education only in 1998 and in last 10 years its number grew from 6 to 136.Uttar Pradesh district Gautam Budhda Nagar ( NOIDA and Greater NOIDA ) is having a dedicated Knowledge Parks which is having more than 100 professional degree colleges.Uttar Pradesh opened its door for private participation in Engineering education only in 1998 and in last 10 years its number grew from 6 to 136 . Uttar Pradesh district Gautam Budhda Nagar ( NOIDA and Greater NOIDA ) is having a dedicated Knowledge Parks which is having more than 100 professional degree college.

Choice of toppers: IIT-Bombay

IIT Bombay (IIT-B) that has emerged as the most preferred destination for a large number of the top ranking candidates of the joint entrance examination (JEE).Of the top 100 rankers, 54 have opted for IIT-B, followed by IIT Delhi with 27 candidates. Again, while IIT Madras has 10 candidates among the first 100, IIT Kanpur with nine students is a close fourth. Among the top 200, IIT-B is again a winner with approximately 81 opting for it.The trend has been consistent since 2005 when 52 of the top 100 rankers had chosen IIT-B. The number was 46 in 2006. In 2007, of the top 100, 50 had opted for IIT-B, followed by IIT-Delhi (29), IIT Kanpur (15), IIT Madras (five) and IIT Kharagpur (one).While IIT Gandhinagar, for which IIT-B is the mentor institute, has ranks starting at 2,200 and closing at 3,900, IIT Hyderabad has received the best response.On any IIT campus, the top 100 students are considered to be the icing on the cake. Twenty years ago, IIT-Kharagpur was the engineering mecca. The oldest IIT of the country, it did not receive a single student from the top 100 this year. In 2004, only three of the top 100 went there.IIT Roorkee and Guwahati, haven't managed to get even a single student from the top slots to opt for them. Of the top 100 JEE rank holders, about 15% have opted for electrical engineering despite securing seats in computer science. IIT-Kanpur.Last year, computer science in IIT-Bombay opened at rank 1 and closed at rank 47. All 44 seats for the general category students were filled by JEE toppers who joined the Powai campus. Of the 50 top 100 JEE rankers who got into IIT-Bombay, 44 took up computer science and engineering. admissions opened in the new IITs at rank 600, the topper at IIT-Hyderabad chose electrical engineering. IIT-Gandhinagar also opened admissions with the same stream. The six new IITs offer popular courses like computer science and engineering, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering.

DU SECOND CUT OFF

In the second liststudents can still expect to get into courses like BCom (Hons) and Economics(Hons) in high-profilecolleges like Hindu College and Hansraj College.Even Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) is coming out with a second list for BCom (Hons), though admissions to Economics (Hons) have been closed. Of a total of 384 seats in BCom (Hons), 335 have been filled at SRCC. The cut-off is being reduced by 0.5 per cent and now stands at 94 per cent.At Hindu College, around 460 students have been admitted to various courses, while at Sri Venkateswara College, the figure stands at 616. Both colleges are coming out with second lists in BCom (Hons) and Economics (Hons). While Hindu is decreasing the cut-off marks for BCom (Hons) by 0.5 per cent, Venkateswara is reducing it by 1.25 per cent.In Hansraj College the total number of admissions has been around 800 out of the 900 seats that are available.College is reducing the cut-off for BCom (Hons) and Economics (Hons) by 0.25 and 0.5 per cent, respectively.Admission to BA (H) Economics closed in the first list itself at SRCC Indraprastha and Ramjas.At Hansraj,the Economics cut-off dropped by .5 per cent to 92 per cent. Kamala Nehru, which has just a few seats in Economics, has maintained the first list mark of 90.5 per cent.Admissions to History, Philosophy, Political Science, BA (H) Math and Hindi are closed at most women’s colleges. Daulat Ram, Kamala Nehru and Miranda House have no seats vacant in History. However, LSR has declared a second cut-off list for all its courses.Cut-off marks for Sciences, on the other hand, have witnessed a fall. At Daulat Ram, B.Sc (Life Sciences) went down from 75 to 71 per cent and Botany dipped from 75 per cent to 67 per cent.