India announces scholarships for NRI students in Saudi

Dubai: India has announced a scholarship programme of as many as 100 grants for students of Indian origin in Saudi Arabia who are willing to pursue under graduate courses in several disciplines in their home country.
 
The Indian Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has announced the details of a scholarship scheme offering 100 scholarships to assists children of Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in pursuing under graduate courses in several disciplines ranging from science, economics, law, architecture, humanities, media studies, management, hospitality, and Agriculture/ animal husbandry.
 
The scheme "Scholarship Programme for Diaspora Children" (SPDC) was launched by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in 2006-07.
 
The eligibility of candidates applying for the scholarship would be judged on the basis of their performance in an qualifying examination (equivalent to plus 2 stage in India).
 
The programme is open only to PIOs /NRIs from the specified 40 countries, including Saudi Arabia, having a larger concentration of Indian Diaspora.
 
The amount of scholarship admissible would be 75 per cent of the total Institutional Economic Cost (IEC) or USD 4,000 per annum, whichever is less. IEC includes Tuition fee, Hostel fee and other institutional charges.
 
According to a Consulate statement, NRI candidates would be eligible for the grant of the scholarship only if their total family income per month does not exceed an amount equivalent to USD 2,250.
 
"Children of NRIs should have pursued at least three years of education, inclusive of 11th and 12th or equivalent (not beyond), in a foreign country during the last six years, and should have passed the qualifying examination abroad.
 
The last date for receipt of duly filled-in application forms in the prescribed format by Ed.CIL is 18th June," it said. 

Near perfect 100 for Dubai's ISC student

Dubai: A Dubai-based Indian student has scored a staggering 99.5 per cent in the Indian School Certificate examinations for the 12th grade, a first in the history of the board.

Rohan Sampath scored 100 per cent in Mathematics, 100 per cent in Physics, 100 per cent in Computer Science and 98 per cent in English, becoming the first student to do it in the history of ISC exams, his school, Dubai Modern High School, said.

The 18-year-old, who has studied at the same school since kindergarten, credited his parents and teachers for his incredible success.

Rohan was the president of the Modern Debating Society at school and represented the UAE at the World School Debating Championships in Scotland, last year.

His father Sampath Srinivasan said his son has always been academically excellent, but that has never been his only focus.

Sampath never went for private coaching classes and says there is no secret formula for success. Outside India, the ISC examinations are taken in schools in Indonesia, Singapore, Bhutan, Yemen and the UAE.

BITS Pilani Dubai campus introduces PhD programme

DUBAI: BITS Pilani's only international campus here has announced to start PhD programmes in engineering, management and allied interdisciplinary after getting approval from emirate's Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA).

The Birla Institute of Technology and Science here has said that the Doctoral programme will be offered from this semester.

Topics of research can be chosen from any of the disciplines in which the Institute offers the first and higher degree programmes, the university said in a statement.

Topics can also be chosen from interdisciplinary research areas, for example, nanotechnology and nano-science, nano-robotics, micro-electro mechanical systems, mechatronics etc.

Arab world unemployment estimated at 20 million

Dubai: The level of unemployment in  the Arab world stands at an estimated 20 million and is growing at fast pace, especially among the youth in countries witnessing the 'Arab Spring', a labour organisation has said.
 
According to an Arab Labour Organisation (ALO)  document, which is to be presented in the ongoing Arab Labour  Conference in Cairo, unemployment in the region is currently estimated at 20 million, a rate which is far higher than that of the world.
 
The 39th session of the Arab Labour Conference,  which recently begun, will focus on finding solutions to the unemployment issue with special emphasis on the countries  that witnessed the Arab spring.
 
The study also expected the situation to take a turn  for the worse in the coming years as the Arab population is set to grow to 460 million in 2025 and reach 600 million by 2050. 
 
The ALO hoped that countries, especially those  who successfully tackle their political crises, would be in a position to deal with the unemployment. The document  contained recommendations to improve the employment situation in the Arab world.
 
These included an appeal to governments in the  region to focus on financing credit facilities so youths could open small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and also to invest in human resources development.
 
The document also appealed to the governments in  wealthy Arab countries to replace the non-Arab expatriate workforce with Arab workers wherever possible.
 
"The eightday conference will also discuss the  report of the ALO director general on the significance of social protection as a means to ensure social justice," ALO Director General Ahmad Luqman said. 

Indias global education company to start West Asia operations

Dubai: A top Indian global education firm, CORE Education and Technologies plans to expand its operations in West Asia, a senior company executive has said.

As part of this effort, CORE will be among 250 companies participating this year at the Gulf Educational Supplies and Solution (GESS) exhibition, running from February 28 to March 1, Chairman and CEO CORE Education and Technologies, Sanjeev Mansotra said.

“CORE seeks to form long term associations with government organisations across the world and believes that GESS is a wonderful platform to showcase CORE's transformational education products and services in K-12, Higher Education and Skill Development to the knowledge fraternity in GCC,” Mansotra said.

He will be present at the show to launch CORE's West Asia operations.

The show, organised with the support of the UAE Education Ministry, will be presenting the world's most innovative technologies for the education sector.

Education Ministries of four Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS) will also present their programmes and projects.

CORE Education is one of India's largest global education company that provides transformational and innovative solutions for the entire education continuum of K-12, higher education and vocational education.