3 Indians among 15 finalists in Google Science Fair

Bangalore: Two students from the city, one from Lucknow and an Indian origin American are among the 15 finalists in this years Google Science Fair, the global science competition that challenges the young minds to conduct experiments that they think can change the world.
    
16-year old Rohit Fenn and Raghavendra Ramachandran (17) qualified for the final round from Bangalore, while Sumit Singh (14) has made it from Lucknow, Google India Head (Products) Lalitesh Katragadda told reporters here.
   
Another finalist is 17-year old Yamini Naidu, an Indian origin American, he said.
   
The three Indian students will fly along with 12 other finalists to Googles headquarters in California in July to present their projects to the panel of judges and compete for prizes that include $100,000 in scholarship funds, a trip to the Galapagos Islands and more, Katragadda said.
   
Rohit's qualifying science project is a partial-vacuum assisted flush that conserves over 50 per cent of the overall water used in a toilet to flush, he said.
   
Raghavendra Ramachandran, also from Bangalore, won a place in the final 15 with a project that involves re-converting the partially oxidized fuel (alcohols) into usable fuel, he added.
    
Sumit Singh, from Lucknow, designed a low-cost Vertical Multi-Level Farm, which could be used by small farmers to increase crop yield in agriculture and horticulture, he said.
  
Yaminis project is about creating a homology model of a human receptor protein using a computer modelling programme, he said. 

Karnataka State Higher Education Council recommends multi-campus courses

BANGALORE: The University Grants Commission ( UGC) has said this before. And, Karnataka is now reiterating it. The Karnataka State Higher Education Council has recommended to start multi-campus courses, inter-college and inter-university credit transfer system by 2020.

In its vision document for the year 2020, the state's think-thank in higher education has proposed to introduce in a phased manner after piloting in at least five institutions. With this, students will be free to move from one university to another as the varsities will follow the same credit system.

"This system will have another advantage. As of now, universities in Karnataka work in isolated patches. For instance, Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) is meant only for technological courses and no other disciplines.

With this system, we will also look at facilitating universities to start other courses so that there is universality," said S C Sharma, vice-chairman.

The Vision 2020 document also highlights the problems faced by the state varsities today. One of them is the growing localisation of the state university system.

"Increasingly the state universities are becoming sites of academic inbreeding. Most teachers and students  come from the same or contiguous regions as the location of the university. Only rarely does it reflect a truly state-wide, let alone a national, outlook in the choice of the faculty and students," it said. Credit transfer might prove to be a solution for this problem as well.

Century real estate in tie-up with IIM-B

Bangalore: Realty player Century Real Estate and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, have inked a MoU for setting up the IIMB-Century Real Estate Research Initiative.
 
The IIMB-Century Real Estate Research Initiative will focus on collecting data and conducting scientific, cross- disciplinary research on the Indian real estate sector that will be published in leading academic and practitioner journals, IIMB Director Pankaj Chandra said in a statement.
 
In addition, the Research Initiative will seek to provide guidance and policy prescriptions to government and industry stakeholders on major issues relating to the real estate sector, he said.
 
P Dayananda Pai, Founder-Century Real Estate, said there was a "tearing need" for such an initiative in the real estate space that will focus on research besides acting as an interface between the industry and the policy makers "and eventually churn out quality human resource for this sector."
 
"The initial charter for the Research Initiative will be to create taxonomy of relevant data that will be required to do meaningful research, initiate research projects that fill key knowledge gaps and engage with key stakeholders within the industry," said Prof Venky Panchapagesan, who has been leading the effort to set up this initiative at IIMB. 

Girls outperform boys in SSLC exams in Karnataka

Bangalore: Girls outperformed boys in the SSLC examinations held in April this year in Karnataka with a pass percentage of 84.58 against 80.03.
    
The overall pass percentage was 82.26. As many as 7,31,991 candidates appeared for the examination, of which 6,02,147 passed, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Vishweshwar Bhat Kageri told reporters.
    
Udupi district stood first with 89.53 pass percentage, followed by Sirsi with 88.31. Hassan was in third spot with 85.92 pass percentage and Bidar last with 63.32 pass percentage, he said.
    
Students in Scheduled Tribe category (75.49 per cent) did better than Scheduled Caste students, who recorded a pass percentage of 72.64 per cent, Kageri said.
  
As much as 77.07 per cent of the candidates from government schools passed, while 85.46 per cent of candidates from unaided private schools passed in the examination, he added.   

In all, 132 candidates were debarred for malpractices, Kageri said adding that SSLC supplementary examinations would be held from June 18, 2012.
  
He also advised failed candidates,who apply for retotalling or photocopies to enroll in the supplementary exam before the last date of submission, without waiting for the result.
    
A total of 47 schools recorded zero percentage and there were no government schools in it, he said.   

Kegeri announced distribution of three computers for three students securing the highest marks in each taluka. 

91,000 seats come up for poor kids under RTE Act in Karnataka

BANGALORE: This is what the revolutionary RTE Act has given underprivileged children in the state: around 91,000 seats up for grabs in unaided private schools in the state.

The 91,000 seats is the 25% quota that private schools (except minorities) are supposed to reserve for the disadvantaged group. Of these, around 20,000 are available in Bangalore. Even if all the seats in any school are not filled up, the government will take a call on what to do with it, and the managements will have no say.

Karnataka is stepping closer to the revolutionary idea of having the underprivileged in classrooms along with the rest of society. On Wednesday, the department of public instruction issued the application form for the RTE quota.

Application forms will be available on its website. For people with no access to the website and schools not providing it, the form is available with the block education officer. Parents can collect it and submit it by May 25, to a neighbourhood school of their choice. Schools have been told to prepare the list of students by June 5. In case a school refuses to accept the application form, the parent can report to the local body, in this case, the BEO.

What should the child do?

When the application forms are submitted, sufficient proof needs to be attached to claim the quota. For identification of an orphan, the certificate will have to be issued by the women and child developmentdepartment. Similarly, migrant and street children will have to be certified by the departments of education, women and child development, or labour. HIV-positive children should have a certificate from a taluk-level doctor of the health department. SCs, STs and other backward classes will have to follow the procedure from the social welfare department.

In order to get a certificate for migrants, parents have to furnish a ration card, voter ID, driving licence and LPG bond to the officer concerned. For orphans, the caretakers will have to submit the forms. Parents have to submit a certificate from the revenue department, regarding income, if they want to apply under EWS quota.

For age proof, a parent can either submit the birth certificate, a certificate from anganwadis or even a self-declaration. The parent will also have to specify in which medium he wants his child to study.

Karnataka govt warns of stern action against KSOU

Bangalore: Karnataka Government warned the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) of stern action against its "illegal actions" including offerring some courses without the approval by statutory authorities.
    
State Minister for Medical Education S A Ramdas at a press conference here alleged that KSOU has been offerring paramedical and nursing courses without approval by the state government and also indulged in serious violations by offerring technical courses without sanction from Distance Education Council (DSE) New Delhi.
    
KSOU based in Mysore has also issued advertisement in some dailies offering BE/B.Tech/ME/M.Tech/Diloma in Engineering and other Technical and professional programmes through distance mode and DSE has issued show cause notices and also threatened to withdraw the recognition, he said.
   
Ramdas, who also hail from Mysore said he would bring to the notice of the Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda the irregularities and warned the government would not hesitate to order regisgtering of criminal complaint against the officials of the KSOU. 

Former ISRO scientist quits job to start Sunday Science Schools

Bangalore: A former ISRO scientist is all set to start 'Sunday Science School' in Karnataka to help children go beyond textbooks, create models and set up laboratories in homes.

Aimed at children in the 10-15 year age group, it would run up to 27 Sundays from July this year to February 2013.

The brain behind the project is Dr Sujata Virdhe, Director of L Green Ventures, who previously worked with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for 23 years in the field of satellite power systems, solar energy and indigenisation of electronic components.

To start with, the unique schools would be opened in Bangalore, Mysore, Dharwad, Hubli, Mangalore and Udupi.

"My heart always wanted to go back to basic sciences. I have taken voluntary retirement (from ISRO) to concentrate on my passion," Sujata, an applied physicist and PhD holder from Pune University, told here.

At the Sunday Science Schools, students are taught to make their own projects. At the end of the academic session, each student would have a display of the science models and also a small home laboratory.

A range of activities are included to cover energy, solar car, weather magnetism, biology, chemistry, motors, aero-models and astronomy. "We arrange all the material for these workshops," she said.  

Participating students will complete more than 50 activities in a variety of science subjects and make 22 take-home projects in Level-1 of the activity, while Levels 2 and 3 cover the entire range of science topics.
   
Sujata, who has 20 years experience in designing many science education experimentation and 'do-it-yourself' kits for students, said the idea of Sunday Science Schools has been motivated by the fact that 95 per cent of the knowledge learnt by hands-on learning is retained forever in our memory.

"We have a good network of passionate science communicators. We are always on the look out for engineers and professionals who are free on weekends and the educated home-makers and samaritans for teaching science," she said.  

Today parents attempting to make their children opt for science subjects are faced with more distractions than ever before. Parents often find it difficult to invest their time in doing projects with children.

"Sunday Science School is a meaningful way to sustain children at their creative and logical best selves," Sujata said. "We have been working on hands-on-science for the past 18 years. I have been feeling the need of hands-on science, as I noticed that children are keen to do science activities."

The fees would be Rs 5,800 for each level. 

Suggest innovative ideas to teach kids

BANGALORE: Opening its doors to innovation, Rastriya Madhyamika Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) has called for out-of-the-box proposals that can be implemented in classrooms.

The innovation guidelines published have asked government, semi-government and NGOs working in the field of education to suggest unique ideas. The state government is responsible for collecting and sending them to the Project Approval Board (PAB). The ideas should be tested before implementation.

Speaking at a seminar on 'Inclusive education and bridging the widening societal disparities', Toby Linden, lead education specialist, World Bank, New Delhi, said: "At present, innovation is possible only within norms defining each expenditure category. There should also be the option for states to be creative without the constraint of norms and for non-state agencies to be involved in designing new ideas".

"How will schools that need approvals from management committees even purchase desk and chairs or identify diversified needs of children and impart education? Most of the money that goes to schools reach late and is sometimes used in the next financial year. There is a rush to spend the funds then. Governance at district levels and below needs to be improved," said Ambrish Dongre, senior researcher, PAISA (Planning, Allocations and Expenditures, Institutions: Studies in Accountability).

Speaking on education in tribal areas, H Sudarshan, honorary secretary of Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra, said: "Don't force mainstream education on these distinct groups. It's their right to get education in their own dialect."

CET to be postponed to 3rd week of May

Bangalore: Common Entrance Test for selection of students for admission into professional courses in Karnataka scheduled for the first week of May will be
postponed to the third week, Director Pre-University V Rashmi Mahesh said.
    
Speaking to reporters here, Rashmi Mahesh said the question paper leak and strike by PU teachers for higher pay package has delayed the schedule by 15 days.
     
As a result the CET will now be conducted probably on May 21,22 and 23 instead of May 3,4 and 5, she said.
     
Rashmi Mahesh said that in wake of the delay, Pre University second year answer sheet valuation will go on till April 29 and likely to extend upto May 4.

Since PU teachers are also entrusted work of CET, the postponement is inevitable. Only 20 per cent of 32 lakh answer sheets have been valuated till now.  Hence, the time table was reworked and fresh dates have been sent to the government for approval.

National Law School signs MoU with HAL

Bangalore: Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd said it has signed an MoU with National Law School of India University (NLSIU) for establishment of HAL Defence Public Sector Chair in Business Laws at the HAL Management Academy here.

R Venkata Rao, Vice-Chancellor, National Law School of India University, and A K Mishra, Director, Finance, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, signed the MoU, HAL said in a statement.

Besides providing training on International Business Contracts Management to HAL executives, the MoU is expected to enable capability building of HAL's contract management system, it said.

The HAL Chair Professor of NLSIU will engage in research pertaining to relevant areas of business laws relating to Defence Public Sector procurement, it said.

"The MoU will facilitate development of a platform of Defence Public Sector Community for Contracts and Business Laws and build a knowledge data base for Defence Public Sector Undertakings in general and HAL in particular", the statement said.

Eight IIM-B graduates awarded gold medals

Bangalore: Eight bright students of the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) were Friday awarded gold medals for their outstanding performance in the post-graduate programme (PGPs) courses at the B-school's 37th annual convocation in this tech hub.

Of the 371 graduates passing out from the reputed institute in management course, gold medallists Ritesh Ritollia bagged first rank and Shravan Chandra second rank while Anish Nazimudden was judged for best all-round performance.

In the software enterprise management course, gold medallists Harsh Vitthal Badli secured first rank while P.S. Sanjeev Kumar was honoured for best all-round performance among 96 graduates.

Out of 28 students who passed in the public policy and management course, gold medallist Neelima Rebecca Phillips got the best academic performance.

Of the 62 graduates in the executive management course, gold medallists Vimal Chandra was ranked first while Harish Balkrishna Shetty was selected for best all-round performance.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D. Subbarao, who was the chief guest at the convocation, presented the degrees to the two-year PGP batch of 571 students passing out in the four main courses.

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, who is also chairman of the B-school, addressed the students in the presence of their parents, director Pankaj Chandra, institute faculty and distinguished invitees.

An electrical engineer from IIT-Roorkee, Ritolia will soon join Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in New Delhi, while bio-engineer from IIT-Kanpur Sharma has been selected by the global financial services firm Nomura to work in its London office.

Nazimudden, an electronics engineer from Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) at Pilani in Rajasthan, will also join BCG as a management consultant.

Similarly, Badli, a computer science grad from Visvesvaraya Technology University (VTU) at Belgaum in Karnataka, is a geek at Honeywell Technology Solutions Ltd.

Kumar heads solutions engineering for the APAC region at Philips Lighting and Neelima is an additional general manager in the state-run BSNL at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.

Vimal Chandra, an electronics engineer from Lucknow, has worked in various capacities at Indian Oil and IT bellwether Infosys, and Shetty, an electrical engineer from Mumbai University, will soon join Tata Consulting Services (TCS) in Mumbai.

Physics exam postponed following leak of paper

Bangalore: Lakhs of students of second year Pre-University science course in Karnataka were affected  as their examination for Physics paper was postponed following leak of the question paper, officials said.

The PUC board announced that exam has been postponed to a later date. Three days ago, the Mathematics question paper was leaked, leading to postponing of the exam to April two,sources said.

Police have arrested three persons in connection with the question paper leak. Meanwhile, the PUC Board has placed 14 teachers under suspension for leakage of question papers, according to an official of the Board.

Talking to reporters at Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri said the leakage of Physics question paper would also be probed by CID along with the Mathematics question paper leak.

Dr Meena is Bijapur Women university V-C

Bangalore: Dr Meena Rajiv Chandavarkar has been appointed the Vice-Chancellor of  Karnataka State Women's University, Bijapur.

Governor H R Bhardwaj has appointed Meena from the panel of names sent him.

The appointment will be for a term of four years from the date of assuming office by Meena, a communique from Raj Bhavan said here today.

Now Japanese universities woo Indian students

Bangalore: Many Indians have heard of Japanese companies such as Suzuki and Toyota but any takers for the University of Tokyo? Very, very few.

Now 13 core Japanese universities are keen to attract more Indian students by raising their profile in this country by showcasing the benefits of higher education in the world's second most innovative nation.

The University of Tokyo, ranked the world's seventh top-most varsity, on Monday announced the opening of its India office here to serve as a liaison office for all 13 universities seeking to enhance awareness on higher education opportunities, and providing information and assistance for students.

And it has roped in a strong ambassador in software icon and Chairman Emeritus of Infosys Ltd, N R Narayana Murthy, who also serves as a member of the President's Council, the University of Tokyo.

Putting his stamp of approval for “smart youngsters” to opt for higher education in Japan, Murthy referred to the country's stature in terms of economy and innovative spirit and “extraordinary culture and language”, besides Tokyo being a beautiful city and the safest in the world. Currently, about 500 Indian students are studying in Japan, officials said.

In the University of Tokyo which has a student strength of 30,000, international students account for 3,000, including 1,000 Chinese, 600 Koreans and a mere 35 Indians.

“...we would like to increase that number (Indian students) rapidly. We are totally unsatisfied with 35,” Professor Akihiko Tanaka, Vice-President of the University of Tokyo, told a press conference here.

Murthy, Chairman of the University of Tokyo Alumni Association Shrikrishna Kulkarni and Director of the University of Tokyo (India Office) Hiroshi Yoshino expressed the view that it is only a matter of time before Indian students look at Japan as an education destination.

Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Kolkata IIMs make it to Asia-Pacific top 10 again

BANGALORE: The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) - Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Calcutta - continue to be the quality B-schools in the country.

The trio has figured in the top 10 in the Asia-Pacific region. The QS Global 200 Business Schools Report 2012 has put these B-schools among other Indian schools in the global rankings.

IIM-Ahmedabad is ranked second, IIM-Bangalore's rank is fifth and IIM-Calcutta is ranked eighth.

IIM-A and IIM-C have shown the biggest improvement in employer opinion this year in the region by improving four places.

Indian School of Business has been ranked seventh, S P Jain Institute of Management and Research is at 16 and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade at 21.

INSEAD, Singapore is number one in the region for the third consecutive year. Melbourne Business School (University of Melbourne, Australia), NUS Business School, ( National University of Singapore) and University of New South Wales were some of the other institutes that featured among the top 10 in the region.

The QS global report, which originated in the early 1990s, provides a detailed overview of the most popular business schools around the world based on information given by global recruiters.

It lists out 200 business schools from which employers prefer to recruit MBAs. The ratings are made regionwise (Africa and the Middle East; Asia-Pacific; Europe; Latin America; North America) and MBA specialization ratings.

According to the report, even though business schools in the United States and Europe remain the most popular destinations for MBA, schools in other partsm, like in the Asia-Pacific, are gaining popularity.

"Business schools in the Asia-Pacific region are looking at the standard of top American and European institutions as indicators of how they compare and where they could improve. Furthermore, the economic growth in some Asian countries, particularly in China and India, has heightened the demand for more accredited business schools in the region in order to train the next generation of successful business leaders," says the report.

"IIM-B has shown gradual improvements in the ratings, climbing from sixth (2009) to fifth (2010) and this year missed the top cluster by just 2.7 points," the report says.

However, there is a worry about international student enrolment.

"Many of Asia's business schools lack in international student enrolment, causing concern among employers who are looking for graduates to work in a multinational environment," the report says.

The percentage of international students in IIM-A, IIM-B, IIM-C and ISB is 1, 10, 3 and 5 respectively.

Stabbing of Indian student a terrible incident: Britain

Bangalore: Britain termed the stabbing of an Indian student in London a "terrible incident" even as it sought to downplay it, saying the European country was one of the safest.

"I am aware of the case. Obviously it's a serious offence and we must all be very concerned about the victim", UK Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Jeremy Browne, told reporters in response to questions.

Three Indians have been charged with the attempted murder of Praveen Reddy, an MBA student in London, who was critically stabbed on Friday night in Newham.

Browne said the British police would investigate the incident "very carefully, very thoroughly" and they are generally very efficient in catching perpetrators of crimes.

"So, this is a terrible incident. Everybody in Britain will be very upset by what has happened", he said. Browne, however, stressed that "bad, terrible times" happen in all countries of the world but Britain is one of the safest.
"But I hope that people will not believe that this (the stabbing incident) is typical of what happens generally in Britain", he added.

Production base of Akash to be diversified: Sibal

Bangalore: The low-cost Aakash tablet PC will be made completely indigenous and its production base diversified, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said.

"We are now going to diversify production base and indigenise Aakash tablet. We are planning to create eco-system for end to end development of Aakash in India. This will create enormous opportunities for R&D institutions, developers, electronic production houses," he said at a function here.

He said the IITs and the ITIs are onboard on development of the device which has so far reached out to a handful of students.

The HRD Ministry has already said that it will require an additional 22 crore units of Aakash and for this fresh tenders will be issued enabling other companies along with the present manufacturer Datawind to also get a chance.

At present, the device is available to students at Rs 1,100 after government subsidy.

Asked if the next tender will have 'made in India' clause in it, Sibal said, "Well, we want to make sure that it is 100 per cent done locally ultimately." At present, several components including the processor  are procured from outside.

At the event of Indian Semi Conductor Association, he said, "I want all of you present here to think about it and be part of this magnificent journey."

The government in the meantime plans to involve three more IITs for the Aakash project to make it more indigenous and further lower its price.

Apart from IIT Rajasthan, which is spearheading the project, IIT Mumbai, IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur would also be roped in for the project, sources in the HRD Ministry said.

The speed of the improved device will come at 800 MHz instead of 300 MHz at present.