SSC exam fiasco: probe ordered

Kolkata: The West Bengal government ordered a probe into the delayed arrival of question papers of the School service Commission examination yesterday at several centres in five districts, due to which a large number of examinees could not appear for the test.
 
Two simultaneous inquiries- one by the district administration and another by the education department- would be made to identify the cause of the delay and fix responsibility, state Education minister Bratya Basu said.
 
He said that arrangements would be made to hold tests for those examinees who could not appear.
 
Basu told reporters that the delay in the arrival of question papers occurred in centres in Burdwan, Howrah, Hooghly, South 24-Parganas and Malda districts.
 
The minister said he had talked to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the issue.
 
SSC Chairman Chittaranjan Mondal said there would be zone-wise re-examination, but the minister differed and said there would be no zone-wise re-examination.
 
Mondal alleged that there was a conspiracy to disrupt the recruitment process in schools.
 
The SSC conducted the examination to appoint teachers in secondary and higher-secondary schools. 

Mathematician touring 10 cities to make the subject easy

Kolkata: Giving suggestions as to how the subject of mathematics, perceived as tough, can be made fun for students, a retired professor from Punjab is on a 10-city tour of India.

After discussing the issue with students and teachers in various universities and institutes of Kanpur and Bhopal,  70-year-old Madanlal Baldevraj Ghai is now in the Kolkata leg of his 50-day tour.

"Due to faulty teaching methodologies and incorrect approach of students, mathematics has now become one of the toughest subjects. Wherever I go, I explain to people on how to make the subject simpler to comprehend," Ghai told.

Known as the basis of all sciences, maths is regarded as one of the toughest by students as it requires complex calculations.

The mathematician, who also runs a local NGO and has authored spiritual books, embarked on June 1 for his noble mission to make the important subject simpler, easier and practical for students.

Other cities on his map are Visakhapatnam, Raipur, Surat, Jaipur, Delhi, Noida and Kurukshetra.

In Kolkata, Ghai, who is now pursuing a PhD in the subject from Punjabi University in Patiala, has shortlisted some schools and the mathematics department of the University of Calcutta where he will give a presentation.

Having dedicated his entire life to the development of mathematics, he has taught for 41 years before retiring as the head of mathematics department in P M N College at Patiala.

In 2010, Ghai had toured the country to spread awareness about the importance of Vedic mathematics.

The central government has declared 2012 as National Mathematical Year as a mark of tribute to the maths genius Srinivasa Ramanujan on his 125th birth anniversary celebrations.

To involve and engage students actively with the subject, he suggests academicians that practical mathematics should be included in the curriculum.

"Other subjects like physics and chemistry has practical section as well, but not mathematics. By having math laboratories, students would be able to visualise the use of the complex calculations they make on paper," he says.

Ghai feels that geometry, which is the base of mathematics, has been ignored largely by teachers.

"Similarly the basic of maths has also been ignored at the primary school level. Syllabi should be re-framed to focus on practical aspects of maths. At least 25 per cent of the syllabus should be research-oriented so that students understand the application of the subject in real life cases," he suggests.

During his journey, he is also spreading awareness on the rich legacy which some famous Indians like Aryabhata, Ramanujan and P C Mahalanobis have left in the world of mathematics. 

ICAI plans 100-150 CMA support centres across country

Kolkata: The Institute of Cost Accountant Of India (ICAI) has drawn up plans to set up 100-150 CMA support centres across the country.
 
"We have decided to set up 100-150 CMA Support Centres in a year and the first will be in Gulbarga in Jammu & Kashmir," ICAI central council member Manas Kumar Thakur told.
 
The plan had been drawn with close talks with Ministry of Corporate Affiars (MCA), which wants to promote industrialisation and cost-management concepts in smaller cities.
 
Thakur said these cost management account or CMA support centres will be opened where ICAI is not present and also make the students aware to join the course from smaller cities and towns for bright future.
 
ICAI is already present in 97 locations across the country.
 
Thakur said to align the course with international standards, the institute had already proposed few changes in course in all the three levels and the same was awaiting MCA's approval. 

Finishing school for hospitality industry launched

Kolkata:  A "first of its kind" finishing school which will provide soft skills training to youngsters aspiring for a career in the hospitality industry was launched here.

Academy of Hospitality Skills will provide two courses in hospitality sector catering to graduates of any discipline as well tenth standard pass outs.

"As of now there is a shortage of skilled and qualified manpower in the industry. We will mentor students to fill the gap between the needs of the academy and the industry," the institute's chairman Rajiv Gujral told reporters here.

The institute will provide a finishing course for graduates, a three-month course consisting of classroom training as well as internship to give them practical exposure.

With five centres in the city to begin with from this year, he said they hope to establish 50 centres in West Bengal by the end of the year.  

"Gradually we will move to other parts of the country like Mumbai and Gurgaon," Gujral said.

Describing Kolkata and Chandigarh as the new hotspots of the travel and tourism industry, he said the manpower requirement in Kolkata will be around 8,000 this year.  

"There is a gap between supply and demand for manpower here," he said.

According to the 2011 Indian Hotel Industry Manpower Survey, the Indian hospitality industry will need skilled manpower of close to 3 lakh people by 2021

Govt decides to begin teacher recruitment for Darjeeling

Kolkata: A Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader claimed that the West Bengal government has decided to set up a regional school service commission to break the 25-year teacher recruitment deadlock in Darjeeling district.
 
GJM spokesperson Harka bahadur Chhetri said that the commission would be set up to to fill up 600 vacancies in 770 schools in the district.
 
He said this was decided at a meeting of the school public service commission chairman, home secretary and the GJM.  

ICAI to reintroduce direct entry into CA course

Kolkata: In the next 2 to 3 months ICAI would reintroduce direct entry into the CA course from articleship for graduate students that was discontinued from 2006, revealed, ICAI president, Jaydeep N Shah. 
    
"Commerce graduates with 55 per cent and non-commerce with 60 per cent marks can get into articleship after the preliminary test called CPT," Vice-President S K Agarwal said.

ICAI is in the last leg of carrying out the formalities at a council meeting. A formal approval from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs would be taken thereafter.

Earlier, Shah disclosed about the special committe formed by ICAI that would try to find the causes of generation of black money, loopholes in international agreements with foreign countries and suggest protective measures to the government. 

IIT Kharagpur gets 8 new departments for birthday

KOLKATA: Think tomorrow; think IIT Kharagpur. This should have been the slogan of this oldest tech school in the IIT chain. IIT Kharagpur that will turn 60 this August has already chalkedout a list of pioneering programmes for the years. 

The charter has been sent to the union ministry of human resources development and as things stand, the institute is slated to get a slew of enviable grants to establish at least eight new tech departments or schools and several next-generation laboratories to support research that has never been tried anywhere in the country before. The idea is to help India become tech independent and reduce its dependence on foreign designs and chips as is the case today. The dossier mentions that there would be a new laboratory complex that will house all these state-of-the-art laboratories. 

Energy Science and Engineering Department 

It is common knowledge that fossil fuels comprise about 80% of our energy needs and that the reserves are depleting fast. Naturally, the demand for research on alternative fuels is high on the national agenda. IIT Kharagpur has taken up the cause and has expressed desire to set up a department for energy science and engineering where the focus will be on energy resources and recovery, conversion systems, energy materials, transportation, energy efficient design of buildings, energy bi-product recycling and finally rural and small-scale energy. 

The research activity will be interdisciplinary in nature and will spread across departments like physics, geology, geophysics and core-engineering departments like mechanical, electrical, chemical, mining, biotechnology and agricultural engineering etc. The institute has ambitious plans of inventing and patenting a bio-fuel that will both be cost effective and cheap for vehicular use. It has also planned some technological breakthrough in the field of nuclear power engineering, thermal engineering and non-conventional energy engineering. 

Biosciences Department 

The institute has been focusing on bioscience-based research for sometime now and has been consistently breaking grounds in biotechnology, bioinformatics and genetic engineering. However, this is  the first time that biosciences as a department will be introduced in the institute to act as an interface between engineering and biological studies. This department will become extremely important when the  Parliament by an act allows the institute to set up a school on medical technology soon. 

Incidentally, IIT Kharagpur will become the first tech school in the country to also teach medical technology. Right from drug designing to inventing technologies where effects of drugs would be limited only to the affected cells or, in other words, removing side effects of drugs, the biosciences department will primarily focus on improving the average health on the people. 

Engineering Entrepreneurship 

Despite being armed with a world class B Tech degree, most students from the institute queue up for placements. This defeats the very purpose of their rigorous training. The institute would start an integrated programme on engineering entrepreneurship, whereby after completion of B Tech, a student automatically will move on to pursue two years of entrepreneurship training and complete his masters. During this time, the student will be mentored to start his own engineering unit and float his own company with seed money given by the institute. 

Environmental Engineering Department 

This department will look at ecological renewal and pollution control be it air, water or soil. Water and waste water management, solid and hazardous waste management, including radioactive and biological waste management, will feature prominently in the research done here. Among the macro-level problems, the school is considering to focus on improvement of efficiency of the water-supply chain, total urban water use and waste water management, recycling, reuse and pricing policy, studies on an entire river basin and the design of an optimal strategy for its management. 

Nano science and Technology Department 

Though Nano technology is being practised in the institute for sometime now in every engineering stream, the scope of the new school will not be limited to the traditional approaches of synthesis, characterization and exploitation of nano materials. 

Engineering Design and Manufacturing Department 

Though India has made great strides in technology, but barring the IT sector, it is mostly solution oriented. For designs or engineered products, India is still heavily dependent on developed countries. The new department aims to innovate designs for all kinds of products, representing a whole range of consumer products from automobiles to telecom equipments and from computers to audio-visual equipments, to end the tech hegemony of China, Japan and Germany over us. 

Embedded Electronics Controls and Software Department 

Considering the importance of modern computerised control panels not only in automobiles as well as in aircrafts etc, the institute will set up a department where research will be conducted on control panels that will suit cars with unmatched fuel and pick up efficiency that are yet to come into the market. Though foreign automobile companies like Toyota and General Motors have set up their manufacturing units in India, there is severe dearth of trained engineers. Techies from this department will fill in the gaps. The department would also tie up with such companies so that tech solutions can be provided to them. 

Technology institute's tie-up with German management consultants

Kolkata: GMIT, an Institute of Technology at Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district, has tied up with DFIC management consultants, Germany, to help students have international exposure.
 
GMIT offers engineering courses in civil, electrical, mechanical, electronics in affiliation with the West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT).
 
GMIT director Bodhisattva Banerjee said here, "the objective of the tie-up is to help GMIT establish relationship with European universities so that students can get international exposure after completing their studies."
 
He said that the students would be given a short term exposure tour to enrich their knowledge and intercultural adaptability. 

Vocational education to be a separate stream

Kolkata: Vocational education will become a separate stream in the curriculum of West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education and the school education department in the next academic year.
         
Stating this after a meeting with state Higher Education Minister Bratya Basu, Finance Minister Amit Mitra and representatives of business houses, Technical Education Minister Rabi Ranjan Chattopadhyay said the move was aimed at preparing the individuals for jobs.
         
He said the syllabus for the stream would be prepared within three months and the assistance of different chambers of commerce and the entreprenuers would be sought with regard to introducing the course. 

Marx, Engels likely to be removed from WB school textbooks

Kolkata: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels founders of Marxismmay be out of history syllabus in government schools in West Bengal following a recommendation by a state education panel.
   
The move by the Mamata Banerjee government months after it ended the 34-year-old Left rule in the state was condemned by communist parties as "wrong and controversial" and an attempt to rewrite rpt rewrite history.
   
But the ruling Trinamool Congress defended the move, claiming the attempt is to "correct the imbalance" which was there is history textbooks in the state schools.    

Trinamool MP Dereck O"Brien also made it clear that the government was not trying to doctor history.
   
"Marx, I believe should be studied as a historical phenomenon but not at the expense of the Mahatma, and not at the expense of Mandela," he said, adding "Bengal is redressing balance, not doctoring history."
   
"History doesn't begin with the Bolsheviks and end with Basus and Bhattacharyas. History preceded them and will survive them," he added.
   
The state's school education syllabus committee tasked to modernise the syllabus and lessen the burden of unnecessary topics on students has recommended to abolish Marx and Engels and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in the textbooks.
   
The committee head Avik Majumdar is reported to have said that History syllabus in Bengal gave importance to a particular ideology and that an attempt is being made to give it a balanced approach.
    
Majumdar further said if there was any excess of anything, including Marx, it has to be done away with.
    
"I fail to understand why such a historic event and great masters of history will be excluded in the curriculum. This is not desirable and is unnecessary and unfortunate," a veteran Marxist and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said.
    
CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta called the move atrocious.     

The history textbooks of Class XI and class XII discuss the Industrial Revolution and refer to Karl Marx and his contributions in that context.
    
The final draft of the new syllabus is expected to be submitted to the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education next week.
      
O'Brien said nine out of 695 pages of recommendations by the education panel are related to history.
      
"From Class four to Class twelve every year you are given a dose of Marx, Engels and the Bolshevik revolution. In the new syllabus, it is much more balanced, there is a much more balanced view, there is much more pluralistic view and at last children in Bengal are studying an unbiased history," he said.
      
Brien said Industrial revolution is part of the Class eight syllabus.
      
Dasgupta said the move is not only politically motivated but is also motivated to malign history.
      
CPI(M) MP Brinda Karat said the party has not discussed the move as yet but felt there is bound to be a reaction from parents. 

Nobel laureates to take part in IIM's global conference

Kolkata: Nobel laureates, management gurus, business leaders, academicians and dignitaries from various walks of life will meet next year at the campus of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) for a global management conference.

The first of its kind two-day conference in the country will discuss various issues and challenges of emerging and developing economies like India and China at the IIM-C's campus in January 2013.

Prof. Ashok Banerjee, Dean (External Relations) of the institute told that the project would be funded by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development which had requested them to take the lead in organising an international-level management conference.

All the other 12 IIMs are also taking part in organising the conference, "which will do for IIMs and Indian management schools what the Literature Festival at Jaipur has done for Indian writing," said the institute's chairman of Board of Governors, Ajit Balakrishnan.

Situated at Joka, on the outskirts of Kolkata, IIM-C is ranked as one of the top ten B-schools of the country.  

The list of the speakers are yet to be finalised, Banerjee said adding a large number of people, including 3-4 Nobel laureates and other dignitaries, are expected to participate in the conference.

"We are inviting people from varied backgrounds for this conference. The issues of emerging and developing economics like India, China and Brazil will be discussed. Our issues are similar but the standard and conventional management practises may not apply here," he said.

Experts will re-look at the market model, issues, challenges, the way we are tackling it, and the solutions which can improve the lives of the people in the emerging economies, he added. 

West Bengal to fill up vacancies for lecturers

Kolkata: The West Bengal government would soon fill up vacancies for the posts of lecturers in all the colleges across the state, School Education Minister Bratya Basu said.

Replying to a question-answer session in the state assembly today, Basu said not only lecturers, the vacant posts of principals would also be filled up. 

The posts would be filled through the College Service Commission. 

Basu, however, said part time teachers could not be inducted on full time basis as there are legal issues involved. 

Full time teachers were required to clear State Level Eligibility Test. 

Calcutta university VC criticises UGC funding pattern

Kolkata: Accusing the UGC of being biased against state-run varsities, VC of Calcutta University Suranjan Das criticised it for splurging money on central universities.

“Universitys finance reflects the national scenario where the UGCs financial commitment for state universities remains grossly inadequate. It is a matter of deep regret that about 65 per cent of the UGC fund is spent for central universities,” Das said during the universitys convocation ceremony.

“If India has to move forward this centrist bias in the funding pattern of the UGC needs to be urgently rectified,” he said pointing out that his universitys finances remain primarily dependent on the state governments assistance.

In 2010-11, the University of Calcutta received Rs 230.41 crore from the West Bengal government as maintenance grant while the UGC sanctioned a development grant of Rs 29.12 crore.

Quoting UGCs latest available annual report of 2009-10, Das said while the 23 old central universities received a sum of Rs 776.42 crore, 107 eligible state universities were allotted only Rs 172.16 crore from the UGC.

Besides, the central universities received a non-plan maintenance grant of Rs 2669.72 crore, whereas the state universities are not entitled to receive any UGC grant under this head, Das said.

Salary woes: Para-teachers attempt march to CMs residence

Kolkata: Para-teachers from some colleges in West Bengal made an attempt to march towards the residence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to appraise her of their plight, but the police stopped them mid-way.
 
Police said nearly 40 para-teachers gathered at the Gariahat crossing in south Kolkata and marched through Rashbehari Avenue till they reached Hazra Road crossing near the chief minister's residence.
  
When the police stopped the para-teachers at Hazra Crossing and requested them to move to adjacent Jatin Das Park, they refused and insisted that they be allowed to go to Banerjee's residence.
    
The para-teachers, who claimed they had not been paid salaries for 25 months, also turned down a request from the police to send a two-member delegation to meet Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy.
 
Adamant on meeting the chief minister, they then squatted on the Hazra Road Crossing upon which they were apprehended. They would be released later, police said. 

HC directs WB colleges to hold elections under CEO supervision

Kolkata.  In a significant step, the Calcutta High Court today directed that all students' elections in colleges be held under the strict and close supervision of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, in view of the recent violence in several campuses in the state.

Justice Tapen Sen directed that all elections in colleges must be held under the supervision of the CEO till a seven-member committee, appointed by the state government, frames guidelines for students' elections in accordance with the Lyngdoh Committee report. The court also advised the students' bodies to concentrate more on their studies and to "refrain from identifying themselves with any particular organisation".

 "They may contest elections, but such elections should be purely students' elections and should be used as a shield to protect their academic interests but not as a sword to destroy it," Justice Sen observed.

 Taking suo moto notice of documents produced by the government and concluding that judicial intervention was necessary, the court directed that the CEO would be in charge of these elections and would be entitled to seek assistance of the state Director General of Police (DGP) for providing all help so that the elections are conducted in a peaceful and fair manner.

 "The DGP will render all cooperation to the CEO whenever he so desires and on each day of the elections, he will ensure adequate deployment of police force in the area in question so that no untoward incident occurs," Justice Sen directed. The court further directed that the dates and programme of the election schedule shall be set out by the CEO and the college authorities would render total support to him in this regard

Treasure trove of Bengali science magazines

Kolkata: Banking on 40 years of experience in running a science club, a retired headmaster in West Bengal has built up a treasure trove of Bengali science magazines, many of which are no longer in print.

Established by Dipak Kumar Dan, the archive at Gobardanga in North 24 Parganas district, about 60 km from here, has about 200 Bengali science magazine titles, some of which are 60 years old.

The prized collection includes ‘Bijali, a magazine on electric energy which was in its 32nd year of publication in 1965; ‘Chikitsa Jagat on health which was running for 40 years in 1970. There is also ‘Jnan o Bijnan since its 1950 edition brought out by Satyendra Nath Bose.

Dan, assisted by his wife Rekha, also a school teacher, had set up the Gobardanga Gabeshana Parishat, 'to arouse the thirst for scientific knowledge and for research'.

"When I was a college student, I had seen magazines at the Bangiya Bijnan Parishad. Since then I had dreamt about having such an archive of science magazines at Gobardanga where people particularly students could come and read them," said Dan who retired as headmaster in 2010.

The Parishat's collection of science magazines is part of a library which also has many books in Bengali in science besides encyclopedias.

There are magazines on topics as diverse as agriculture and computer science. Besides ‘Bijali, the Parishat has ‘Aparajeyo Putrakanya (disability), ‘Dhandha (mathematics), ‘Akash Darpan (astronomy), ‘Saar Samachar (fertilizer) and Photon (photography).

"We have magazines published from various parts of West Bengal, Tripura and about 20 titles from Bangladesh. Some of the magazines were published by the governments of West Bengal and Bangladesh," said Dan.
Set up on February 21, 2010, the Parishat will inaugurate the first floor of its office building later this month. Of late, the Parishat has been collecting rural newspapers and little magazines.

On the cost involved, Dan said, "We do not require financial assistance from the government or anyone else. We are managing with our own resources.

"I and my wife Rekha, are happy with this. If someone visits the library and wants to do research we will be happy. We can also study. We have plenty of material to study here," said Dan, who has a number of books on science to his credit.

"From my experience in the science club, I know I can have more magazines but I don't have enough space to keep them," lamented Dan who had set up the science club, Gobardanga Renaissance Institute in 1973.

Research Funding Proposal

Kolkata: On January 24, Project Management Institute (PMI), which is the global project management advocacy body, announced its 2012 request for proposal with respect to 2013 research funding.

The proposed research must be in direct application to any of the different aspects of the project management. Additionally PMI also encourages proposals on research work concerned with multi-disciplinary team of investigators, academics and practitioners.

The Academic Resource Department of PMI is known to solicit research proposals on any project-related topic and the funding is provided to a select few. The organisation seeks scholars who are both contained within the realms of project management and also outsiders.

PMI has been sponsoring projects since 1997 and many of the sponsored projects have become research monographs, articles and white papers. PMI members can avail of the current research materials at no cost.
The call for proposal commenced on February 1 and will continue till April 25; those qualifying for the second round will be notified of the same by July. Up to $ 50,000 will be awarded as grant and the funded projects will begin by January 1 2013.

Interested candidates can get more information on researchprogram@pmi.org.

Fresh medical graduates to serve in rural areas for 3 years

Kolkata: Giving a fillip to the sagging health services in West Bengal, CM Mamata Banerjee said that it will be mandatory for fresh medical graduates to serve for three years in rural areas while the performance of government doctors, nurses and medical staff would be evaluated for awards.

"It will be made compulsory for MBBS passouts to serve in villages for the first three years to build up their careers. My government will give you jobs," Banerjee said after a meeting with health officials at the Swasthya Bhavan.

The state government would bring back the young doctors after three years who would thereafter be given opportunity to do their MS and higher studies, she said.

Stating that there would be awards for good performance in state hospitals, clinics and primary health centres, she said that she had asked Health Secretary Sanjay Mitra to evaluate the performance of doctors, nurses and medical staff.

Banerjee asked government doctors who drew 30 per cent non-practicing allowance, to be more punctual and dutiful and serve patients over and above their duty hours.

She also urged doctors holding responsible positions in large hospitals to visit sub-divisional and local hospitals so that patients felt they were 'in the company of gods' and which would help their cure.

She reiterated that government hospitals should not refuse patients and said that the state government had recruited 2,500 nurses and would appoint more doctors to meet the situation.

Banerjee said that the Planning Commission had approved a Rs 8,000-crore scheme under which 26 hospitals would be set up in 11 backward districts.

"We have plans to open diagnostic centres in each primary health centre and if necessary, we will go for it on a PPP model," she said.

She said if required doctors from other states would be called in to meet the growing need in the state.

Criticising the previous Left Front government for raising a hue and cry over baby deaths and deficiencies in the health sector, the chief minister said "the Left Front and CPI(M) should be ashamed of their non-performance in last 34 years that led to collapse of the health infrastructure.

"You can't expect a magic turn in the situation in the health sector in eight months," she said.

She also charged a section of the media for 'systematically' projecting deficiencies in the health department and hospitals to malign her government.

"I ask them not to play with fire and project what is positive."

Calling for creating mass awareness against superstitious beliefs that led to wrong handling of pregnant women during delivery at home leading to medical
complications, Banerjee said that in the last eight months, child mortality in the state had considerably dropped and it now ranked ninth on that account in the country.

"It is a fact that 30 per cent of children are born at home still and it is the endeavour of my government to bring them to hospitals for delivery of healthy babies," she said.

The chief minister also slammed the opposition for crying hoarse about suicide by farmers and claimed that her government was instrumental in launching the Kisan Credit Card and crop insurance.