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VP Hamid Ansari says “Society should create rather than just consume knowledge”

by anik April 3, 2024

written by anik

VP Hamid Ansari spoke on a creating a society that creates rather than just consume knowledge On August 15, Vice President Hamid Ansari spoke for popularising science and technology among people, and favoured making a society that progresses, builds and creates rather than one that becomes mere consumers of knowledge.

The VP was speaking at a function, where this year’s Gujar Mal Modi Science Foundation award was given to former director of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Mustansir Barma. “To be a society that progresses, builds, creates rather than one that being passively contemplates such progress, it is essential to make science and technology an essential part of the culture of the people,” he said.

Ansari added that knowledge should be one effectively addressing cultural, social and human resource. Popularisation of science and technology must make such knowledge a central component of culture of social awareness and of collective intelligence. “The world is increasingly being divided into societies that produce knowledge and those essentially are consumers of knowledge,” he said.

Aso, he said that the matter has arisen due to a number of historical, cultural and political, social and economic situation over the times and strategies should be developed in this respect. He felt that the technical possibilities of gaining access to information are changing people’s vision of the world, transforming relationship between human beings and dissemination of knowledge.

Ansari described Barma a distinguished professor and former Director of TIFR, who made immense contribution in the field of statistical science in India. Barma was conferred the Padma Shri in 2013.

[“source-indiatoday.intoday”]

April 3, 2024 0 comment

Education

Law Minister says legal education in country gets a raw deal

by anik April 3, 2024

written by anik

Union Law Minister, Sadananda Gowda talks about legal education in India On August 16, the Union Law Minister, D.V. Sadananda Gowda said legal education in India always got a raw deal compared to other courses. Legal education and teaching in colleges should be on par with that of National Law Schools and it should be more practical-oriented, Gowda said while addressing the 13th Annual Convocation of NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad.

He added, “Legal education being such an important field, I doubt whether we did attach the importance and attention it deserves. I am of the impression that the legal education in India always got a raw deal and to a large extent it continues even today.” First of all, there has to be an immediate change in the way law is taught in law colleges other than the National Law Schools across the country and bring them on par with the National Law Schools,” the minister said. He also advised law graduates “not to run away” from practising it by opting for corporate career.

Further, Gowda said that, “If you people run away from practising law, this would have negative impact on anything we do to improve the way law is practised in India, though we produce best products.” The legal education, besides becoming more-practical oriented, should be social research-based and focus on study of comparative law and international law so as to provide legal services across the globe, he opined.

He also said that the Centre wrote a letter to Andhra Pradesh government for necessary infrastructure to set up a high court. He, however, refused to elaborate citing that matter as being sub judice as it is currently pending in court. Meanwhile, when asked about the special status issue for Andhra Pradesh, the Minister promptly said, “We are committed.”

Telangana housing, law and endowments minister Indra Karan Reddy, Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale, acting chief justice, high court of judicature at Hyderabad and Chancellor, NALSAR University of Law were among those present at the convocation.

[“source-indiatoday.intoday”]

April 3, 2024 0 comment

Education

AIPMT Re-Test result 2015: Declared

by anik April 3, 2024

written by anik

AIPMT Results declared! The Central Board of Secondary Education has declared the AIPMT results 2015 on the official website www.aipmt.nic.in. The exam, which was scheduled to be conducted on May 3, finally took place on July 25. The test was canned due to the leak of question paper and circulation of the answer keys through electronic devices across 10 states in the country.

As many as 6.23 lakh students registered for this examination, out of which only 4,22,859 candidates downloaded the admit card. The candidates had access to the answer keys from 10 am on August 12 till midnight on August 13. The Board allowed them to challenge the same or find any discrepancy up till August 13.

The candidates who appeared for the exam can check their results by following the given guidelines:

Visit the official website www.aipmt.nic.in/www.cbseresults.nic.in
Enter the required details (Registration number/Date of Birth)
Click on ‘Submit’

The result will be displayed on the screen. The candidates are advised to keep the print out of the same for future reference.

The exam had 180 objective questions from Physics, Chemistry and Biology. The students were seen complaining about the Physics paper since it involved long formulas and very complicated calculations. Biology exam was a favourite among them as it was apparently heavily drawn from the NCERT books.

[“source-indiatoday.intoday”]

April 3, 2024 0 comment

Education

Delhi government to introduce eight vocational streams in 200 schools

by anik April 3, 2024

written by anik

Delhi schools may soon have vocational courses The Delhi government is planning to introduce eight vocational streams, including beauty and wellness, automobile and travel and tourism, in 200 schools. The government intends to make school education skill-oriented by doing so.

These new streams are likely to be introduced in schools from October this year. The eight streams will also include retail, financial marketing management, general duty assistant in health care, information technology, and security. These streams, to be offered to students from class 9 to 12, will have four levels A,B,C and D.

The Director of Education, Padmini Singhla said that, “We have recently signed an MoU with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to offer these streams and are now in process of finalising training partners. Though this will take another month we are trying to squeeze as much a possible so that we can do substantial teaching this year.”

Further, she added, “After we finalise the training partners, we will enter into tripartite agreement with Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), sector skill council and the training partner. The project is being carried under the RMSA and state government is providing substantial budgeting. Earlier the funding used to come from RMSA only.”

The training partners will start the recruitment of teachers and trainers once the agreement is finalised. “We will start the classes by mid-October and simultaneously we will work on establishment of labs in these schools because not all schools have the infrastructure needed for teaching of streams as beauty and wellness and automobile,” Singhla said. “The streams will be graded and, after the students have completed the D level by class XII, the courses will be integrated with ITIs enabling them to pursue the area in full fledged manner,” she added.

As per the proposal, the National Skill Qualification Framework will be divided into four levels. “In the initial stage, there will be two vocational streams in each school for the students to choose as per their interest in the area. For now, the project will be carried out in 200 schools and we will expand it to more schools from next year,” Singhla said.

The National Capital has 1,007 government-run schools. The idea to introduce vocational courses in Delhi government schools was suggested by former President APJ Abdul Kalam to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, Manish Sisodia during a meeting on June 7. Addressing a gathering of teachers, educationists and government officers at the Delhi secretariat on July 2, Kalam had said that 25 percent of school time, for students between class 9 to class 12, should be devoted to skill development. He had also suggested Sisodia to provide two certificates to the students passing out from Delhi government schools- academic certificate to pursue further academic education and vocational certificate to choose the vocation as per his area of interest.a

[“source-indiatoday.intoday”]

April 3, 2024 0 comment

Education

DU, JNU and IITs can now accept foreign funds without registration

by anik April 3, 2024

written by anik

Foreign funds in domestic universities Taking a big leap towards international collaborations, Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Gujarat National Law University and Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) are among a category of some 300-odd institutions in the country that are free to accept foreign donations without registration under Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA).

A Home Ministry official, as reported to PTI, has clarified that no restriction has been imposed on such institutions in accepting donations from abroad even though they are no longer registered under the FCRA. The registration of these institutions under FCRA was cancelled about two months back as they were deemed to not require the same.

According to the new rules, an institution created through the Act of Parliament/State Legislature or audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), would not be required to register under FCRA for accepting foreign contributions.Apart from DU, JNU and Gujarat National Law University, other institutions eligible to accept foreign contributions without the FCRA approval include the IITs, Panjab University and School of Planning and Architecture.

The FCRA registration of more than 16,000 organisations was cancelled by the Union Home Ministry over the last one year for violating various provisions of the law, including non-filing of annual returns. As many as 16 foreign donors, including US-based Ford Foundation and Greenpeace International, have been put on ‘prior permission’ category for defying FCRA rules.

[“source-indiatoday.intoday”]

April 3, 2024 0 comment

Education

Right to Education may extend school education from nursery to Class 10

by anik April 3, 2024

written by anik

RTE Act may extend from nursery to Class 10 The children’s Right to Education, and the right to free and compulsory education may soon encompass school education from nursery to Class 10. This may happen if CABE, a top body advising the Centre and states on education sector reforms, accepts a proposal in this regard.

The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) will consider the report of its sub-committee on extension of the RTE Act and the controversial no-detention policy at a meeting to be chaired by human resource development minister Smriti Irani on August 19, official sources said.

Education ministers from states, academicians and distinguished people from several fields will attend this meeting. It will engage in an “exhaustive deliberation” on the two issues mentioned above.
RTE Act currently applies to children between six and 14 years studying from Class 1 to 8. The CABE sub-committee in its report submitted in 2012, when UPA was in power, had identified issues such as entry age for pre-school under the extended framework, qualification and capacity building of teachers at the pre-primary level, age of children in secondary education and duration of secondary education.

The then HRD minister M M Pallam Raju had chaired the last CABE meeting on the issue, Raju had said it needed comprehensive discussion before a decision on extending RTE’s purview was arrived at. On its extension to the pre-primary level, the panel had suggested ensuring child-centered pedagogy, play-way method and holistic development as critical elements of pre-school education and stressed on the need for effective coordination with Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).

The sub-committee had suggested assessment of existing infrastructure, appointment of additional teachers and recommended consultations with all stakeholders including the state governments, for extending RTE up to the secondary level. The role and regulatory mechanism of the private sector and sharing of financial responsibility between the Centre and states were some of the other issues highlighted by the panel for detailed discussion.

The board would also deliberate on the report of another sub-committee on no-detention policy up to class 8. The committee headed by the then education minister of Haryana, Geeta Bukkal had recommended doing away with it as automatic promotion affected learning outcomes. A few states have already repealed the policy, which had come into effect with the implementation of RTE by bringing in necessary amendments to the state rules.

The RTE Act, which makes education a fundamental right of every child between the age of 6 and 14, came into effect on April 1, 2010. It requires all private schools, except for minority institutions, to reserve 25 percent of seats for underprivileged children.

[“source-indiatoday.intoday”]

April 3, 2024 0 comment

Education

Facebook cancels Indian-origin Harvard student’s internship after he reveals privacy flaw

by anik April 3, 2024

written by anik

An Indian-origin Harvard student’s internship at Facebook was cancelled after he developed an app that pointed out the privacy flaws in the popular social media’s messenger service, a media report has said.

Aran Khanna was preparing to start the coveted internship at Facebook three months ago when he launched a browser application called Marauder’s Map that used data from Facebook Messenger to map where users were when they sent messages. The app “capitalised on a privacy flaw that Facebook had been aware of for about three years: the Facebook Messenger app automatically shared users’ locations with anyone who they messaged,” the report said.

Mr Khanna tweeted about the app on May 26 and soon it went viral. However, within three days, Facebook asked Mr Khanna to disable the app and then withdrew its internship offer to him. The company also deactivated location sharing from desktops, which meant Mr Khanna’s app wouldn’t work even if he hadn’t taken it down. Before it was disabled, the extension was downloaded more than 85,000 times, Khanna said.

Khanna detailed the experience in a case study published this week for the Harvard Journal of Technology Science. He said that he created the app to show the consequences of unintentionally sharing data so that users could decide for themselves whether or not it was a violation of their privacy.

Mr Khanna also received a call from Facebook’s global communications lead for privacy and public policy, who reiterated that Mr Khanna shouldn’t talk to the press because the story had become damaging, the report added.Mr Khanna complied, redirecting all press inquiries back to Facebook but Facebook still asked him to deactivate the extension, which he did.

Mr Khanna however also updated an online post in which he said that Facebook asked him to disable the map. Further, he said that he was told that he violated the Facebook user agreement when he scraped the site for data.

However, Mr Khanna told Boston.com that the data was from his own messages, which meant he used information accessible to all Facebook users, not just to employees. The report said Mr Khanna also received an email from Facebook’s head of global human resources and recruiting, who told him that his online post didn’t meet the high ethical standards expected of interns.

Matt Steinfeld, a Facebook spokesman, said that the mapping tool scraped Facebook data in a way that violated its terms, and those terms exist to protect people’s privacy and safety.

“Despite being asked repeatedly to remove the code, the creator of this tool left it up. This is wrong and it’s inconsistent with how we think about serving our community,” Mr Steinfeld said. Mr Khanna maintains that the app was aimed at showing users how their data was being used. “I didn’t write the programme to be malicious,” he said.

[“source-indiatoday.intoday”]

April 3, 2024 0 comment

Education

21 students fall ill after eating mid-day meal in Chhattisgarh

by anik April 3, 2024

written by anik

21 students fall ill after mid-day meal in Chhattisgarh At least 21 students of a government-run primary school fell ill after consuming a mid-day meal in Chhattisgarh. The incident took place at a village in the state’s Janjgir-Champa district, the police said.

The incident comes under the Pamgarh police station limits, and a senior police official from there says that reportedly the mid-day meal included fungus-infected pickles. This led the students to fall sick and suffer from vomiting and nausea after eating the meal. This unfit meal was served to the students of a school in Pendri village.

Noticing that the children were not feeling well, the school teachers immediately rushed them to the local community health centre in Pamgarh. The senior police official said that their condition had been reported to be normal.

On the face of it, the fungus-infected pickles which were served along with the mid-day meal seem to be the reason behind making the children sick. However, an official said that a probe will also be carried out in order to reach the root cause of the incident. Investigation has begun already and further action will be taken based on its findings.

Soon after this incident, another case of children falling ill after consuming a mid-day meal was reported from Madhya Pradesh. It occurred at Pipalkota village in Khandwa district, where 45 students in a government-run school complained of colic, vomiting and uneasiness after eating a mid-day meal.

[“source-indiatoday.intoday”]

April 3, 2024 0 comment

Education

Madhya Pradesh: 45 children fall sick after consuming mid-day meal

by anik April 3, 2024

written by anik

Children fall sick after mid-day meal in MP school Approximately 45 children have fallen ill at a government school at Pipalkota village in Khandwa district in Madhya Pradesh. These students fell sick after consuming a mid-day meal the school, a government official said yesterday.

On August 12, these 45 children consumed the mid-day meal and subsequently fell ill. They were immediately admitted to the district hospital, but the situation was controlled as they were discharged the same night, the official said.

However, Bhishan Bande, from the district hospital said that on August 13, 32 of the 45 kids who fell ill returned to the hospital. They were complaining of colic, vomiting and uneasiness to the primary health centre at Jawar, near the village. Out if these, 22 children have been sent to the district hospital for treatment while the remaining 10 children are undergoing treatment at the health centre, he added.

The officials have informed that on the day of the incident, a total of 54 students had come to attend school, out of these 45 students ate the mid-day meal, and all 45 of them fell sick. They also said that a departmental probe has been initiated into the incident and that the samples of the left over mid-day meals have been collected and sent to laboratory for testing purposes.

Meanwhile, the authorities have assigned the self help group, Maa sharda, for the work of preparing the mid-day meals in the school, they added.

[“source-indiatoday.intoday”]

April 3, 2024 0 comment

Education

Delhi University admissions 2015: Twelfth cut-list released

by anik April 3, 2024

written by anik

Delhi University admissions Delhi University released the twelfth cut-off list for admissions to undergraduate courses for the academic session of 2015 on August 13. The list for all three streams, Science, Commerce and Arts have been published online, the candidates can check the same at the official site of the university, www.du.ac.in.

The students can view the cut-off for their particular course and college by following the steps mentioned below:
Go to the official website,
Click on the link, ‘Undergraduate Admissions 2015 Cut offs: Click Here to View Twelfth Cut Off (2015)’
The candidates should click for their respective stream, ‘Science cut off’, ‘Arts and Commerce cut off’ or ‘B.A. (Hons.) French, German, Italian, Spanish’

The cut off list will be displayed on the screen.

With the eleventh cut-off list most of the seats for all popular courses have been filled up, however, most of the admissions have been closed for the General category, while few are still available in the SC, ST, OBC and PwD categories. The candidates must complete their admission and payment of fees procedure from August 13 to August 14. This is the final cut-off list which the university has released, there will be no further lists and the application procedure for admission to the undergraduate programmes will be concluded on August 14.

This year, Delhi University has received over four lakh registrations. In total, 3,20,799 applications have been submitted out of which 2,32,049 are online applications and 88,750 are offline applications. The academic session began on July 20, the university has introduced the Choice-Based Credit System (CBCS) marking scheme this year onwards.

[“source-indiatoday.intoday”]

April 3, 2024 0 comment