New 2600 classes sanctioned in Gujarat

Permission for grant-in-aid schools for RTE: Hasmukh Adhiya

N4E Correspondent

Gandhinagar: For implementation of Right To Education(RTE) act in Gujarat, 2600 new classes permission has been given to grant-in-aid schools. This announcement was made by principal secretary for education Hasmukh Adhiya.

He said that we have taken two major decision, in which 600 grant-aid-schools will have 8th standard. In second decision, new 2000 classes have been sanctioned in 9th and 10th standard. First decision has been taken as government of Gujarat has decided to close classes of 8th standard in secondary schools and merge it in primary schools.

The trend has been seen that most of grant-in-aid schools are having educational facilities upto 7th standard. So government has decided to extend the facility till 8th standard. In 9th and 10th standard demand has been increased. So we have decided to increase 2000 classes in grant-in-aid schools. DUe to this poor students will have benefit to study in grant-in-aid schools.

Next Vibrant Gujarat summit to focus on education

AHMEDABAD: If multinational corporations and large private sector companies were the focus of the last four Vibrant Gujarat summits, the 2013 edition will see a large number of universities from within and outside the country participating for the first time. Nearly 3,000 to 5,000 square meters of space has been earmarked in the summit this year for university stalls.

This is for the first time that the Gujarat government has invited educational institutes to Vibrant Gujarat event mainly to help them forge partnerships with local educational institutions in the state. "This is necessary as skill development has become an absolute necessity in the wake of a large number of industries setting up their base in the state. 

Gujarat has one of the most complex matrix of industries in the country. The students from the state should now acquire new skills to work in these emerging sectors," says a senior officer of the industrial extension bureau (iNDEXTb) of Gujarat. The officials also added that special seminars on career opportunities, facilities for on the spot university partnership will be the main highlight of the event. In the next two months, officials from the bureau will travel to Europe, UK, US, China, Singapore, some African countries and even Middle East to invite various agencies to the 2013 edition.

"The tour plans are being finalized. Our teams will approach government agencies in these countries to help us reach out to potential investors in various sectors," says this iNDEXTb official.

Gujarat 1st state to impart soft skill trainings at ITIs

Gandhinagar: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi dedicated 20 Swami Vivekananda Superior Technology Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) in the state through videoconferencing, with a view to imparting skill, encouraging original research and development and innovations in cutting edge technologies. With this, Gujarat will become the first state in India to start such specialized courses at the level of ITIs.

Talking online to the trainees at Chandkheda, Kubernagar, Keshod, Rajkot and Palanpur, Shri Modi encouraged them to develop skill in the next generation high-tech like CNC, Chemicals, Automobile Engineering, Automation, Solar and other sources of renewable energies. Modi opined that the answer to whether India or China will lead the 21st century lies in youth power only. He added that while our nation consists of 65% youth, that does not mean the 21st century is ours. We must give lay special attention on skill development and only them can we realize the maximum potential of our youth power.

• Prepare youngsters in the field of disaster management: Modi

Talking about it is, Modi said that Gujarat has ushered in major changes among ITIs. 30-year-old courses have been revised and latest technology has now been made available. He said that Gujarat was the first state that was imparting soft skill training to its ITI students. Shri Modi opined that it is important to accord every individual, whatever work he or she is doing with adequate respect and dignity. Shri Modi noted that Gujarat had also given the opportunity of keeping the engineering option open for ITI students, which in itself is a unique endeavor.

Modi believed that ITIs must stand for top quality research and innovation. He added that there is scope for massive innovation in every field and that any individual can innovate. Chief Minister laid immense stress on safety norms, procedures and disaster management. He said that ITIs must impart basic safety norms and procedures and even prepare youngsters in the field of disaster management. Shri Modi believed that with skill, getting jobs would be much easier and this combined with will and zeal was a winning combination. (SKILL + WILL + ZEAL = WIN).

He said that Gujarat Government has opened the doors of Superior ITIs and now it is for the trainees to take advantage of them and realize their dreams. The aim should be to combine development and environment. He said the government plans to start evening classes and courses in soft skills, besides that in disaster management. These evening classes could also rope in retired professors and this again would be a win-win situation, Shri Modi pointed.

Modi stated that this century will rest on the pillars of IT (Information Technology), BT (Bio-Technology) and ET (Environment Technology) and that skill development is crucial to these pillars. He asked ITI students to explore innovate ideas related to wind and water energy. On the occasion, the Chief Minister asked industrial houses to join the government effort in starting more ITI courses. He wished youth from Gujarat surpass their counterparts in China. Gujarat is one state, which has accorded status symbol to ITI courses, he said.      

Gujarat plans to hire more teachers

Gandhinagar: RTE Act requires that a school with less than 60 students have at least two teachers, with another teacher for every additional 30 students. Even for large schools, with over 200 students, the pupil-teacher ratio must never exceed 40.

The norms mean that India needs to hire 6 lakh teachers. Gujarat needs to hire over 20,000 teachers to meet the RTE Act norms.  The state hired 10,000 teachers last year and plans to hire the rest soon, Gujarat principal secretary, education, Hasmukh Adhia said. 

Only 40% of schools in India meet the pupil-teacher ratios required by the RTE Act. And that number masks the massive differences between states. Teacher absenteeism – because of non-teaching tasks is required to perform, because of responsibilities at multiple schools, the challenge won’t end with meeting the pupil-teacher ratio norms.

Khirsara in Gujarat emerges prominent Harappan site

Ahmedabad: After three years of extensive excavation by the Archaeological Survey of India(ASI), Khirsara has emerged as the prominent Harappan site in western Kutch, showing how advanced the trade from this part of Gujarat used to be around 4,600 years ago.

"Khirsara has emerged as one of the most prominent mature Harappan settlements in Western Kutch. Earlier, Dholavira and Junikuren had emerged as prominent Harappan sites in Kutch," ASI's Superintendent Archaeologist, Vadodara, Dr Jitendra Nath said.

"The evidences found over last 3 years of excavation there show how advance trade used to be from this part of Gujarat around 4,600 years ago," he said.

Khirsara lies about 85 km Northwest of Bhuj on the Bhuj-Narayan Sarover State Highway. The site is locally known as 'Gadhwali Wadi' and is located on the south-eastern outskirts of the present village overlooking river Khari.

"The prime reason for Harappans to settle at Khirsara was perhaps the availability and easy accessibility to raw materials and minerals in the vicinity," Nath said.

"Khirsara produced a variety of objects for export such as various types of beads of semiprecious stones, steatite and gold, shell bangles, inlays etc," he said.

Discovery of a large number of drill bits and shells debitage indicates that these items were meant for export, the officer said.

During excavation, we have discovered a unique warehouse, a factory site, a citadel, seals, antiquities from the Indus Valley settlement at Khirsara, which is fortified and measures roughly about 310 x 230 metres, Nath said.

The super structure of warehouse seems to have been made of perishable items like wood or wattle and daub. The space in between the parallel walls might have served as a duct for circulation of fresh air to protect the stored material, he said.

The Harappan civilisation is sometimes called the Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from earlier and later cultures existed in the same area of the Harappan Civilisation.

Khirsara's close proximity with river Khari might certainly have supported the maritime trading activities of its inhabitants, Nath said.

The citadel, a fortress overlooking a city or perhaps protecting a town, shows fortification and re-fortification which scholars reason that elite clan might have lived there. The rooms found there show finer structure, he said.

The factory site discovered during excavation had several products showing that it was utilised for manufacturing activity.

The presence of big furnaces, tandoor, storage jars, small water tanks and discovery of a hoard of gold beads, semi-precious and steatite beads, copper implements, seals, weights, shell objects and debitage indicate that this area (factory site) was once utilised for manufacturing activity, he said.

"Amongst prominent antiquities we have found 25-26 pieces of disk type gold beads from the factory site there. The gold beads are of disk type, globular and tubular," Nath said.

A variety of seals which include square, rectangular and bar types made of steatite, soap stone and sand stone have been discovered at Khirsara.

The bar type seals bear Harappan character only whereas the two rectangular seals represent figurines of unicorn and bison on the obverse, Nath said.

The analysis of botanical remains done by the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow reveals that the carbon dates for samples collected from the site fall in the range of 2600-2200 BC approximately, which is roughly 4,600 years old, Nath said.

Khirsara was first reported by the Department of Archaeology, Gujarat government in 1969-70. The site was revisited by a team of Excavation Branch of ASI Vadodara in July 2009 for a survey during which they observed a variety of Harappa artifacts and carried out further digging.

2,500 doctors at six medical colleges on strike in Gujarat

Ahmedabad: Around 2,500 doctors, who are faculty members at the six medical colleges in Gujarat and serve in hospitals attached to them, have gone on an indefinite strike. Demanding pay-scale parity with the teachers of other non-government medical colleges as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines, a demand pending for three years, the doctors went on strike on Thursday. 

"We have been demanding pay-scale parity with teachers in non-government medical colleges, as in pharmacy, law, science, polytechnic colleges...as per UGC guidelines, and a time-bound promotion schedule," said Gujarat Medical Teachers' Association (GMTA) secretary, Dr J C Makwana. 

There had been no assurance from the state for the last three years despite repeated representations and several rounds of talks, he said. "We are also demanding that government remove cap of Rs 75,500 on the pay-scale as the retirement age has been increased from 58 to 62 years," Makwana said.

The strike is on in district medical colleges of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Surat and Bhavnagar. These doctors teach junior doctors as well as attend to patients. 

Around 400 doctors of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's four hospitals, including a dental college, today went on a token strike in support of agitating doctors. The BJ Medical College and Hospital here is one of the biggest in the state and caters to over 1,500 patients daily. 

Gujarat amongst educationally backward states

Gandhinagar: With a meagre budgetary allocation of 13.9 per cent for education, Gujarat ranks amongst the educationally backward states in the country, state Congress president Arjun Modhvadiya said.

Gujarat ranked 14th in terms of budget allocation for the education sector, he said, during the discussion on budgetary demands for the Education Department in the Assembly.

“Number of students enrolled in state primary schools has dropped by 21 lakh. In 1999-2000, there were around 81.34 lakh students in primary schools, which got down to 61.32 lakh, a decline of around 21 lakh,” Modhvadiya claimed.

However, Education Minister Raman Vora refuted the claims, and blamed the Centre. “The Centre has allocated less than 50 per cent of the grants meant for the education sector, because of which the state government is facing hurdles in providing basic physical facilities,” Vora said.

“The number of students enrolled in schools has gone up primarily due to Kanya Kelavani Rath Yatra Shala Pravotsav and Gunostsav schemes, it has reached over 87 lakh,” he said.

For implementation of Right to Education Act, recruitment of 19,000 teachers was required, but only 15,000-odd could be recruited as Centre denied sanction, the minister alleged.

Gujarat overcame calamity to become petrochemical hub: Modi

Vadodara (Guj): Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said the state has emerged as a petrochemical hub of the country even after the devastating earthquake in 2001 had caused a massive damage to its infrastructure.

“After devastating earthquake in 2001 which caused a huge damage to life and property, every one thought that Gujarat would not be in a position to stand up. But Gujarat proved them wrong and developed chemical and petro industries to become a petrochemical hub in the country,” Modi said.

He was speaking after inaugurating the Asia's state-of-the-art Fire Safety & Disaster Management Studies College at Navgama, about 45 km from here.

Modi claimed that Gujarat was first state in the country to frame Disaster Management Act and equipping local bodies with fire fighting equipment.

“Gujarat government is creating awareness among school students who are imparted training in how to deal with emergency fire management,” he said.

Affiliated with the Fire Science Academy, University of Nevada, Reno, USA, the facility is Asia's first training institute which has oil fired zero discharge props.

The institute is set up in collaboration with IGNOU to impart the highest quality training in the fields of fire fighting and protection, crisis and disaster management, rescue, hazardous materials management, incident command systems and instructor training.

USD 4.15 billion Checkmate Group also has a stake in the entity.

“We intend to establish institute for dealing with incidents like air crash and fire situation in the aircraft in future for which we are trying to get a Boeing aircraft to be parked at the campus of this institute,” Checkmate MD Vikram Mahurkar said on the occasion.

The firm provides industrial security and safety services to companies.

Gujarat Assembly approves IITRAM Bill

Gandhinagar: The Gujarat Legislative Assembly passed a bill seeking to set up Infrastructure Technology, Research and Management (IITRAM) University, with a majority vote.

The bill, IITRAM Act-2012, was passed by voice vote amidst stiff opposition from Congress, who alleged that the bill was not in accordance with the UGC guidelines about setting up a varsity, as it proposes to have director-general, instead of a vice-chancellor, which means that it will bypass the state Governor.

Foreseeing a demand for engineers in the infra-space over the next few years, the state government has decided to set up a university and the bill shall pave a way for it.

Opposing the bill, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president Arjun Modhvadiya said it lacked measures for providing autonomy to the university and was not in accordance with UGC guidelines.

Modhvadiya also opposed the provisions made by the BJP government to appoint a director general in place of a vice-chancellor saying, “It would adversely impact the autonomy of the varsity.”

Leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil said a university without a vice-chancellor can never be autonomous. The varsity should have Gujarat Governor as its vice chancellor, he said.

“Around 60 per cent posts are lying vacant in the engineering and technical colleges of the state, the government should first fill them to ensure its smooth functioning,” Gohil said.

Dismissing opposition's claims, Minister of Education Ramanlal Vohra said a few private universities in the state have the post of Director General, which ensures autonomy.

“Once operational, the varsity would provide skilled manpower for infrastructure,” Vohra said.

Gujarat to set up IITRM

Ahmedabad: Anticipating an increase in the demand for engineers in infrastructure development, the Gujarat government has proposed to set up an Institute of  Infrastructure, Technology, Research and Management (IITRM) in the rapidly industrialising state.
    
"To cater to need of specific demand of trained manpower in infrastructure and to provide a platform for research based institute in the field of engineering, it is considered necessary to have a dedicated autonomous institute with powers of a University," said Gujarat's Minister for Education Ramanlal Vora, referring to setting up of IITRM.
    
"This will lead to the development of centre of excellence in the area of infrastructure engineering and will boost technical education in the state," he said.
    
"Foreseeing a demand for engineers in the infra space over the next few years the government has decided to set up a varsity on the lines of Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU)," Gujarat's Principal Secretary Education Department Hasmukh Adhia said.
    
"The capital support to this proposed varsity shall be given by the government. It would charge normal fee from the students to meet its recurring expenditures from the fee structure, and gain financial autonomy," Adhia said.
    
A bill to pave way for the establishment of university called-IITRM- was tabled during the budget session of the state assembly recently.
    
The bill, if enacted and brought into operation, will involve an estimated expenditure of Rs 18 crore in FY 2011-12 and a sum of Rs 67 crore in FY 2012-13, of which Rs 47 crore will be capital expenditure. 

"The institute thrusts shall be on research. It is expected to accommodate around 2,000 students in campus, once fully operational," Adhia said.

Out of these, 50 per cent students will be under graduates and remaining from PG Doctoral and sponsored  courses in the area of engineering and management.

In the backdrop of rapid industrialisation here, the demand for engineers in Gujarat is touted to be higher as compared to the other states.

The state engineering colleges presently offer courses across 32 segments such as aviation, textile processing, automobile, amongst other at nominal fee of Rs 3,000 to 4,000 per annum.
 
In the recently tabled budget, the Gujarat government increased its planned expenditure by 33 per cent to Rs 50,599 crore in FY:2012-13 against plan size of Rs 38,000 crore in the last fiscal.