Kerala CM voices concern over denial of education loans by banks

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy expressed concern over denial of educational loans by banks and said the guidelines prescribed by the All India Bank Association for sanctioning loans were not acceptable to the state.
    
The state government would take up the matter with banks, he said to a calling attention of Thomas Unniyadan (KC-M) seeking steps to end the reported discrimination by banks in sanctioning educational loans.
    
With a view to arriving at a consensus on different aspects to be presented before the banks, a meeting of MLAs, who were interested in the matter, would be held on June 25 here, he said.
    
Government was of the view that banks should take a liberal attitude for sanctioning educational loans, he said.
    
Earlier, banks had only one condition the institutions for which admission was sought should be a government recognised one, for sanctioning loans. However, in due course they added more restrictions, he said.
   
The Cooperative banks, which were denied permission to sanction educational loans, have now got consent, Chandy said. 
   
State Rural Development Minister K C Joseph said district level monitoring cells would be constituted to address the grievances of students applying for educational loans. 
    
Unniyadan brought to the notice of the House the difficulties and red-tape faced by students and parents to get educational loans from banks, even though Centre had announced the scheme, and wanted the state government to intervene in the matter. 

Kerala Higher Secondary Examination results announced

Thiruvananthapuram: Girls excelled in the Kerala Higher Secondary Examinations for which the results were announced today.

The total pass percentage stood at 82.25. Of the 2,93,112 students who appeared for the examination in 1,897 centres, 2,58,179 candidates qualified for higher studies, State Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.

Out of the 3,334 students who got 'A' grade in all subjects, 2,234 were girls.

Pass percentage was more in Kozhikode district (90.96 per cent) and lowest in Pathanamthitta district (81.2 per cent).

Among the 61 candidates who appeared for various arts examination at the Kalamadlam Arts School, 51 students qualified for higher studies and pass percentage in the Arts School was 83.6 per cent.

The examination result of the Kerala State Vocational Higher Secondary was also released today for which the pass percentage was 84.73 per cent.

Kerala to start virtual classrooms in ITIs

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Industrial Department has decided to introduce virtual classrooms in 34 industrial training institutes in the state.

It envisages imparting changing technology in industrial sector to industrial trainees with the help of E-learning. In the first phase, virtual classrooms would be set up in 34 ITIs, state labour minister Shibu Baby John said here.

The programme will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at Kozhikode on May 17 which will also coincide with the first anniversary of the United Democratic Front government.

Along with virtual classrooms, job and placement portals would become operational, he said.

NITTTR workshop on FDP for engg colleges on May 1

Chennai: The National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) here is organising a one-day workshop for indentification of thrust areas for faculty development programmes for engineering colleges on May 1.
   
The workshop was meant for principals/senior faculty members of all engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, an official release said here.
   
Participation would be only by registration which is free, it added. 

Now a 7-inch tablet for Rs.5,399

Thiruvananthapuram. Giving competition to the government's Aakash tablet, Telmoco Development Labs Pvt. has come out with a Tablet PC - Attitude Daksha - a 7-inch tablet variant for Rs.5,399 inclusive of all taxes. Attitude Daksha, touted as the most powerful 7-inch tablet computer for students and professionals, was launched here Tuesday.

Technopark Technology Business Incubator (T-TBIC) incubated Telmoco plans to compete in the low-cost tablet PC market where the government-launched Aakash tablet is prominent.

Daksha features Capacitive 5 point touch screen with 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor with 512 MB DDR3 RAM. It has a HDMI port, Micro SD slot, 3.5 mm audio out, Micro USB port and having OTG connector for 3G Dongle and RJ 45lAN cable.

Daksha is capable of 1080p full HD video streaming and has dedicated 400 MHzGPU for advanced flash Apps, Interactive Apps and full HD videos. Daksha is powered by 3,800 mAh li-Pol battery which gives a back up of over 6 hours with WiFi on.

"Even though the Indian media tablets market witnessed high decibel launches by the world's leading vendors, the Tablet PC market in India is a niche market that is quickly picking up the pace in terms of adoption," said C.R. Nijesh, chairman and executive director, Telmoco at the launch.

Telmoco Development labs Pvt ltd is a company initiated in electronics research and mobile technologies.

Attitude Daksha is initially set off to launch at schools, professional institutions, and corporate houses and will be available in the market from May 15. It can be ordered online from Telmoco website.(IANS)      

Centre for Science of Music to start in M G Varsity

Kottayam: The Inter-University Centre for Science of Music will start functioning at the Mahatma Gandhi University here from April 23. 
 
The Centre, being set up with financial support of the state government, is intended to take up research in the field of science of music and serve as an inter-disciplinary platform, an official release said.
 
The Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar Chair will be established at the centre on the occasion. 

Kerala schoolgirl's solo exhibition in Delhi

New Delhi: She is still within the portals of a school, but when 15-year-old Varsha Renjit from Kerala wields a paintbrush, she can create an incredible tapestry of colours and emotions on the canvas a fact that has allowed her to brush shoulders with the likes of legend and Padmashree Anjolie Ela Menon.

Varsha who has just completed class X is showcasing 40 select paintings in her solo exhibition “Raindrops” at the Lalit Kala Akademi here that was inaugurated by Anjolie Ela Menon.

“Varsha has got a distinct accent when she uses colours. Some her compositions are very strong, not expected from a girl of her age. She proves that she has arrived,” says Menon.

“This exhibition reminds me of my first exhibition which I conducted in Delhi, in 1958. I was also 15 years like Varsha. M F Husain inaugurated the show. I am very optimistic about Varsha's future” added Menon.

The current exhibition is the young artist's seventh solo exhibition in the India and the first in Delhi.

“Varsha has a keen sense of observation, fine details of life around her do not escape her attention. These experiences are translated on to the canvas in terms of colour” says Manisha Patil, professor of Art History at Sir J J School of Art, Mumbai.

The 40 exhibited works are inspired by nature and the artist employs a vivid and energetic colour palette with consummate ease, building up intriguing textural areas in the process, layered with multiple meanings.

“Much of her work stems from the subconscious,reminiscent of the paintings of Masson or the non representational style of Kandinsky. At times there are shades of Pollock's gestural paintings. She is still too young to have formulated her own identity as a painter.

In the future, guided by sound academic training, enriching her knowledge of the art world and enlarging her vision, Varsha has the potential to go far,” says Patil.

The school going Varsha says, “I started painting when I was in Grade II to fill the void created by the demise of my grandfather.”

As imaginations kept coming to her without much ado, shattering the boundaries of her pain, Varsha started wielding her paintbrush with a rare sensibility, using rainbow colours to fill canvases and acrylic giving shape to her subtle moods.

After her solo exhibition in 2006, in Thiruvanthapuram and since then she has held similar shows at Kochi, Kozhikode and Mumbai, before stopping over at Delhi.

“I have always wanted to think out of the box,” says Varsha who likes experimenting with colours.

Along with the exhibition a book titled “Raindrops” was also brought out in 2010, depicting her journey as a painter from the early age.

“Moods guide me decide on the topics and canvases. I like to paint something which comes from within, rather than mimicking something in the outer world,” she says.

Among all the colours she uses lavishly on her works, pink and purple are her favourites. “They give a lot of energy. Each wall in my room is a different shade of these colours. I live with colours,” says the young artist.

HC stays admissions to Medical PG course

Kochi: Kerala High Court stayed admissions to this year's Medical PG courses.   

However, a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manjula Chelur and Justice V Chidambaresh said counselling can be continued.
  
The stay order was issued on a batch of writ appeals relating to the awarding of negative marks for admssion to service quota.
  
In another proceedings, Justice S Sirijagan, directed issue of question booklets, answer keys and answer sheets of state Post Graduate medical entrance examination for students within 7 days.
  
The order was issued on a writ petition filed by 115 students alleging irreregularities in valuation. According to them, a large number of incorrect questions were included in the question paper. 

500 Kerala teachers to get opportunity to teach in Brazil

Thiruvananthapuram: Around 500 teachers from Kerala might get an opportunity to teach in Brazilian schools in the near future.

The teachers, who need not necessarily know the Portuguese language, would teach Maths and English from Class 1 to 6 using the education inventory tools developed by state owned IT@School – that is taught here in all state run education institutions.

M. Sivasankar, secretary, General Education Department of the state and K. Anvar Sadath, executive director, IT@School Project told IANS from Brazil that their visit there has been a success in exploring the possibilities of instituting a programme of academic collaboration between Brazil and Kerala.

According to Sivasankar, officials from the Pernambuco state in Brazil said attempts would be made to sign a bilateral agreement on academic collaboration between Brazil and India, during the visit of President Dilma Rousseff March 29 at the 4th BRICS summit in New Delhi.

BRICS is the international political platform of leading emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which together comprise half of the world’s total population.

“There are around 40 schools with roughly 4,000 children in total for standards 1 to 6. They wanted one Indian teacher for every 40 children to be deployed in these schools for a period of three years. UNESCO will be the nodal agency to coordinate the project in association with Federal University and Ministry of Education,” said Sadath.

PMO official among 11 Indians chosen as Young Global Leaders

Geneva: Binoy Job, a senior official in the Prime Minister's Office who was instrumental in using media for social change, is among 11 Indians selected as 'Young Global Leaders' by the World Economic Forum.

37-year-old Job, Director, Media and Communications to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and 10 other Indians were named as 'Young Global Leaders' at a function here yesterday.

Others Indians selected for the honour are Subhashini Chandran, Vandana Goyal, Alok Kshirsagar, Adarsh Kumar, Sendhil Mullainathan, Ashwin Naik, Sanjiv Rai, Chhavi Rajawat, Rajamanohar Somasundaram and V R Ferose.

Job, the first professional from Development Communication and Television to be inducted into the PMO two years back, established the first of its kind Media Production Centre there to disseminate information faster through print, broadcast and social media.

Job, who hails from Kuttanad village in Kerala, studied Journalism at Delhi University and Leadership and Globalisation at London School of Economics (LSE).

Some of the eminent personalities who were honoured in the past include Larry Page of Google, Sidhartha Lal of Eicher group, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and politicians Sachin Pilot, Deepinder Hooda and Jyotiradita Scindia.

Job's 'Development Channel' has more than 2000 stories to its credit and is the largest development news portal in the world. His youth leadership initiative - Leaders for Tomorrow is one of the largest leadership movements for social change.