Question papers in Tamil for polytechnic students

Chennai: Tamil Nadu government said it was taking steps to make question papers in Tamil for students studying in central polytechnics in the state. 
   
"Till now, question papers for central polytechnic students are only in Hindi and English. The state government is taking steps to include Tamil as one of the medium in which question papers are printed," Labour Minister S T Chellapandian told the state assembly.
    
If that materialises, Tamil would become the first language to be included in central polytechnic question papers in the country, he said.
    
He said many students from the state were facing difficulties as the papers were always in Hindi and English.

Centre to support to J and K efforts for youth employment: PM's Advisor

Srinagar: Prime Ministers Advisor for National Skill Development Council S Ramadorai said the Centre will lend full support to Jammu and Kashmir government in its endeavour make the youth of the state employable.
     
Chairing a meeting on ‘Skill Development here, he said the focus of efforts to tackle unemployment should be on creating a platform where employability of youth forms a central concern.
     
"Government institutions, academicians and corporate houses have a responsibility in this regard to work together and sort out issues and address the mismatch between supply and demand," Ramadorai said.
 
State Chief Secretary Madhav Lal, Joint Secretary, in Ministry of Home Affairs K Skandan, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister B B Vyas and administrative secretaries of different departments participated in the meeting.
 
While briefing Ramadorai on the initiatives taken by the state government, the Chief Secretary said the state government is following a policy of identifying sectors with large employment potential and imparting skills that will lead to higher growth and employability.
     
"Our plan is to increase by two times our existing institutional capacities and execute partnerships between the government and the industry and also to tie-up with markets outside the state and even globally to achieve our targets of employability," Lal said.
 
Skill development strategies and sectoral initiatives by various departments were presented and deliberated upon during the meeting, an official spokesman said. 
 
Progress and impact of skill development initiatives and empowerment schemes including ‘Udaan and ‘Himayat were also reviewed, he said. 

Police book nine students for ragging

Parbhani (Maha): Nine students of a local veterinary college have been booked for ragging their juniors, police said.
 
The offence was registered at Nava Mondha police station here.
    
According to police, 24 junior students were tortured physically and mentally by the senior students.
 
The accused are identified as Nikhil Deshmukh, Pandurang Ghuge, Arun Shinde, Balaji Jadhav, Mahesh Bhuktare, Nilay Raut, Sidheshwar Badane, Ravindranath Etalwad and Vikas Gadewad.
 
According to police, the incident had taken place a few days ago. However, when a professor came to know about the matter, he lodged a complaint.  

India has potential to be global hub of bio-pharma sector

Boston: Noting that India has the ability to be a "global hub" in the bio-pharma and healthcare sector, industry leaders here have said that New Delhi needs to take steps to realise huge untapped potential in this field.

Indian government officials, attending a day-long brain-storming session in Boston, said that they are taking concrete steps in this regard.

"There is a lot of potential in India which is still untapped," said Maya Said, vice president head of strategy external innovation and science policy, global research and development of Sanofi, a French multinational pharmaceutical company.

According to Said there are areas where India needs to work out in order to realise its full potential, including regulatory reforms.

Academicians and top executives of the bio-pharma and  healthcare sector argued that it is important for the global community that India succeeds in its endeavour.

"I think, India has incredible responsibility for helping us understand about what causes diseases .. what I think India has the need and responsibility to create the new medicine for the future not only for  the Indian population, but also that of the world too... I think India has a role to help the world in getting drugs.

"If it does not, I think we all are going to fail… India has to be an important partner with all of us,"  said William W Chin, executive dean for research at the prestigious Harvard Medical School.

Participating at a the day-long US-India BioPharma and Healthcare Summit 2012 organised by the USA India Chamber of Commerce, Chin said one of the key to the Indian success is going to be come out with policies that would encourage academics to be more eager to commercialise their ideas/research.

The Department of Pharmaceuticals Joint Secretary Dr Raja Sekhar Vendru said that the Government has commissioned a study to come out with recommendations to make India a global hub of research and development in the bio pharma sector.

The report, being prepared by Earnest and Young, is expected shortly, he said.

As part of its effort to make India a global hub in R&D by 2020, the 12th Plan proposal of Department of Pharmaceuticals are focused on making the National Institute of Pharmaceuticals Education and Research (NIPERs) as focal institutes for such new drug discovery and innovation.

There are six NIPERs at present; the proposal is to add 10 more such national institutes across the country, which would give impetus to the government objectives in this regard.

The 12th Plan also proposes Department of Pharmaceuticals to Rs 12,000 crores.

Role of India in would be to innovate, deliver healthcare at a reasonable cost, said Dr Elias Zerhouni, president- Global Research & Development Sanofi, in a video message.

The day-long Summit focused on overcoming the barriers to building collaborative partnerships between the Indian and global companies.

"Share of India in global R&D spending increased by more than ten times between 2002-2009 (albeit off a small base). To sustain the past growth and capture its fair share, the focus of this year's position paper has been to flesh out a practical road-map towards building a comprehensive innovation ecosystem in India," said Bart Janssens of the Boston Consulting Group, which released a report commissioned by USA India Chamber of Commerce. 

HC sets aside Bank's order rejecting education loan plea

Chennai: The Madras High Court has held that a nationalised bank cannot deny a student-applicant an educational loan solely on the ground that admission was secured under the management quota.

Justice M Jaichandren set aside an order of a nationalised bank rejecting an engineering student J Pandiyarajan's's educational loan application, as he had been admitted under the management quota.
   
The judge applied the principles laid down in an earlier judgement and said the bank was not justified in rejecting the student's education loan request.
   
"There is no prohibition to sanction education loan to students admitted in the management quota," the Judge said and added that if the banks stand was accepted, no student admitted under the management quota, in any private self-financing college, would  be in a position to secure an education loan.
   
This would defeat the purpose for which the Union Government and RBI had introduced the scheme.
   
Directing the student to resubmit an application to the bank for a loan, the judge said the bank should pass appropriate orders as per the regulations and guidelines laid down for granting educational loans.
   
The petitioner, studying B.E (Mechanical) course in a private institution, here, had challenged a February 13 last order of the Indian Overseas Bank's branch in Salem district, rejecting his request for educational loan.     

He had sought a consequent direction to the bank to provide him the financial assistance.