Rev. Dr. Jose Aikara CM was elected unanimously as the Vice-President of COBSE (Conference of Board of School Education) at the meeting held in New Delhi recently.
Fr. Jose Aikara was the founder Principal of De Paul International Residential School, Mysore. At present, he is the Chairman of the ICSE Board, New Delhi.
COBSE is the apex body of chairpersons of all school education boards in India, including National Boards and State Boards. Representatives of some of the neighbouring countries also attend the COBSE meeting. This body meets, studies and proposes new changes and policies in the field of School Education which are being introduced by various school boards.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / December 24th, 2013
In partnership with the California-based Keck Graduate Institute, Biocon Academy – the educational arm of the pharma company – will launch the Biocon KGI Certificate Programme in Biosciences next year on January 9 in Claremont, California.
Indian pharmaceutical giant Biocon has teamed up with a top American bioscience institute to train and develop industry-ready talent for India’s rapidly growing pharma sector.
In partnership with the California-based Keck Graduate Institute, Biocon Academy – the educational arm of the pharma company – will launch the Biocon KGI Certificate Programme in Biosciences next year on January 9 in Claremont, California, a press statement said.
The 16-week course, offered in Bangalore, will leverage the industry leadership strengths of Biocon and the academic vigour of KGI to benefit participants and make them readily employable, the statement said.
India’s Biotech industry is valued at about USD 11 billion, having grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 20 percent over the last 10 years. At present, more than 40,000 biotech students graduate every year from more than 725 institutions across India. However, lack of hands-on trainings and practical industry exposure prevents many of these students from building a successful career in biotechnology, Shaw said.
source: http://www.moneycontrol.com / MoneyControl.com / Home> News> Business / by PTI / December 13th, 2013
Ranging from folk and hip-hop to contemporary, there were several marvellous dance performances by the various schools participating in the group dance competition organised by Deccan Herald in Education (DHiE) at Bal Bhavan on Thursday.
The infectious percussive beats and the joyous dances of the Zone B schools brought one of the most enjoyable dance competitions to a fizzing, foot-tapping start.
The contest for the Zone A schools will be held next week.
In the Junior category, the cultural dance group of St Philomena’s Public School won the first prize with their eclectic performance of the ‘dashavataras’ of Lord Vishnu.
The second prize was won by Army Public School and the third by Florence Public School, RT Nagar.
In the Senior category, the first prize was won by St John’s English School, Amruthahalli, for their perfect comic act on an old Kannada song. The second prize was won by St Philomena’s Public School, Doddabylakere, and the third by MS Ramaiah Vidyaniketan, MSR Nagar.
Altogether, 17 schools from the Junior category and 24 schools from the Senior category participated in the competition. With a view to educate people on Disabilities Day, the young dancers of Florence Public School, RT Nagar, presented a heartwarming performance on the dream of a handicapped boy.
SBM, Blossoms, from the Senior group, delighted everyone with their confident dancing and presented a tribute to Lord Ganpathi. The students of Cambridge English High School danced to a power-packed Rajasthani folk song.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / Bangalore, DHNS – December 12th, 2013
Controversies related to malpractice in media and misuse of social networking sites were central to the the discussions at a conference organised by the Department of Communication at St Joseph’s College of Arts and Science here on Friday.
Speaking on the occasion, B G Verghese, a veteran journalist, said, “It is important to look at the dark side of the media to get to the better side of it. Portraying the Press Council as a weak institution, he highlighted the absence of a Statutory Complaints Commission for the electronic media, though tribunals had been set up with a limited reach. Hence, some measure of regulation is needed to ensure accountability, he added. “Ethics and social responsibility should be the watchword of every journalist. That is why integrity and truthfulness become crucial in maintaining the profession of journalism,” Verghese explained.
He said the misinterpretation and one-sided perspective of the media were challenges that needed to be overcome through unbiased reporting. He said any story should always be reported taking into consideration all viewpoints.
The media has a duty to provide a background for better understanding of issues relating to society. This may not be possible at one go, but objectivity can be maintained through careful investigation and follow up.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bangalore / by Express News Service – Bangalore / November 30th, 2013
Linguistic Society of India (LSI) President Prof. Anvita Abbi is seen lighting the lamp as CIIL Director Prof. Awadesh Kumar Mishra, New York State University’s Prof. S. N. Sridhar and others look on.
Mysore :
The three-day 35th annual and first international conference of Linguistic Society of India (LSI) commenced yesterday at the premises of Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) on Hunsur Road here which has been organised jointly by CIIL and LSI.
The conference is being attended by 200 delegates from 18 countries which features paper presentations and discussions.
Inaugurating the conference, CIIL Director Prof. Awadesh Kumar Mishra said that the institute was striving to develop small languages. He opined that all linguists should work together to promote and develop all the Indian languages. He contended that education was mandatory in all the languages for an overall development.
Presiding over the programme, LSI President Prof. Anvita Abbi opined that language of North Eastern States were rich in culture which need to be developed fully. She suggested linguists to also focus on research in the field.
New York State University’s Prof. S.N. Sridhar delivered the keynote address on ‘The world of a multilingual: An Indian perspective.’
LSI Secretary Dr. Shailendra Mishra, Conference Co-ordinator Dr. L. Ramamurthy and others were present.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / November 28th, 2013
Off late, National Institute of Technology (Karnataka), Surathkal, is all set to protect the intellectual properties that have been originating in the institute. The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) cell set up in the institute will formulate its policy soon and thereafter will exclusively look into patenting the ideas and new technologies of the faculty and students of the institute, said NITK Director Prof Swapan Bhattacharya. He was speaking to media persons in the backdrop of the 11th annual convocation held at NITK campus in Surathkal on Saturday.
Prof M B Saidutta, who is in-charge of the IPR Cell explained that already six patent applications have been sent. These are from Chemical Engineering, Electronics and Communications and Chemistry departments. More students and faculty are preparing for patenting their intellectual properties, he said. To a query, he said that it was found that some new ideas or technologies that were originated at NITK Surathkal and put in public domain were patented by some others elsewhere. Also, off late, it has been realised that most of the innovations developed here have commercially high significance but unfortunately not capitalised, said Saidutta.
He hinted that in many a cases, one’s ideas in public domain were patented by someone else.
MoU with Michigan University
Prof Swapan Bhattacharya briefed that as a part of the MoU NITK inked with Michigan State University, US, a host of facilities are made available. Conducting joint workshop in the field of fire safety construction technology is the significant one.
The executive Vice President of the Graduates School of Sciences and Technology, Michigan University, Prof Satish Udupa who was the chief guest of the convocation said that post 9/11, the US has been brain storming on research activities on constructing fire resistant buildings. It has been found that the collapsed twin buildings of World Trade Centre was hardly fire resistant.
Faculty exchange programme, sending under graduates of NITK to Michigan University on summer vacation with stipend, conducting joint research and development projects, organisation of international seminars, symposia at NITK are also planned as a part of MoU.
The director said that as per the MoU signed with Larson and Toubro (L&T), 30 students will be admitted in NITK out of which 15 will be L&T employees. All the study expenses will be borne by L&T and the company will also absorb them after the successful completion of the course.
‘Wait for delayed gratification’
The Executive Vice President of the Graduates School of Sciences and Technology, Michigan University, Prof Satish Udupa in his convocation address called upon students to overcome the temptation of instant gratification with delayed gratification. Instant gratification is for short term only. Delayed gratification will bring wonders in your professional and personal life.
He also exhorted students to do their bit to balance the bridge between have’s and have not’s. There is nothing as wrong like the notion that a single person can not make a difference in society, he pointed. Later, at press meet, Prof Udupa maintained that India has started focussing on research just five years back and it will take time to reap the benefits.
At the convocation programme, NITK Surathkal Chairman Sushil Chandra Tripathi, Dean (Administration) Prof Suman David, Registrar K Ravindranath among others also spoke.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / DHNS / Surathkal – November 16th, 2013
Kannada poet Purohita Thirunarayana Narasimhachar, or PuTiNa as he is more popularly known, did his schooling here as did many other prominent figures. But the 138 year old government Kannada primary school in Melkote, Mandya district lacks even basic infrastructure, and its students continue to sit on the floor as the classrooms are bereft of chairs or desks.
Located on the main street of Melkote, the school has produced prominent journalists like Khadri Shamanna, and judges such as Justice Shivappa, but in 2012 it nearly lost its identity.
Concerned by its poor student strength and lack of basic facilities, the government seriously considered merging it, despite its history, with other, more ordinary institutions. The school, which boasted of 300 students, was left with only 32 at the time.
But fortunately for the institution, education officers and teachers came to its rescue and worked collectively to give it a face-lift.
Thanks to their efforts it now has 85 students and its walls have received a fresh coat of paint after decades. The school compound has been rebuilt and the teachers have sunk a borewell in its grounds to solve its drinking water problem.
But the school clearly has a long way to go as it still has no chairs, desks, a computer learning centre, study or sports material.
Having done everything they could, the teachers say they can do no more and it is upto the government and philanthropic organisations to provide all the equipment the school needs. It is time they acted considering the illustrious alumini it has produced, they emphasise.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / by S V Krishna Chaitanya / November 12th, 2013
Bangalore :
Biotechnology major Biocon today announced the setting up of a centre of excellence (CoE) here for advanced learning in applied biosciences and said the biotech sector aims at a revenue of $100 billion by 2025.
The centre — Biocon Academy — would train and develop industry ready talent for India’s biopharma sector and enable global competitiveness, the company said.
“India has a potential of becoming a global innovation hub for biotechnology. The Indian biotech sector is estimated of the size of $11 billion today and it has grown at the CAGR of 20 per cent over last 10 years. The aim of the sector is to realise the revenue of $100 billion by 2025,” Biocon Chairperson and MD, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said here.
“If this is the trajectory that we need to aim for, it may call for a very impotent talent pool, and a very large talent pool that enables us to achieve this goal,” she added.
Stating that India has a very large opportunity to aim and achieve its goal of $100 billion by 2025, Mazumdar-Shaw said: “In order to do that we need appropriate talent to get us there.”
She said: “Today as we all know there is a very large gap that exists between the quality of human capital available and the need of the industry. While we have the academic sector in our country graduating a large number of biotech professionals we do believe they are not industry ready.”
“We have today over 725 biotech institutes in India, graduating 40,000 students per annum, but is it the appropriate relevant and rich talent pool we are getting? For which the answer is no, because barely 2,000 students get employed each year,” she added.
Pointing out that the challenge is huge and immense, Mazumdar-Shaw said: “What BT Finishing Schools (Government of Karnataka initiative) and we at Biocon through the academy are planning to do each year, it is very very small scale…. Over the next few years if we were able to actually create or expand the talent pool by 10,000 each year — that will be quite a lot.”
To a question on actual demand from the industry for graduates, she said “it is difficult to answer that — it is bit of a chicken and egg situation. If you had the talent pool you will have industries that will come in. You will have much more entrepreneurial companies being formed because of the right talent.”
“As we don’t have the right talent for now — we don’t have enough industries formulating in the biotech space.”
Adding to that she said “Biocon hires 1,000 new employees each year; we find it very difficult to get the right kind of students — it takes a lot of time to train these students to be industry ready. Out of 1,000 we hire almost 80 per cent are freshers.”
source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Companies / by PTI / Bangalore – November 11th, 2013
Abhigya with his father Anand Ramasubramanian, mother Annu Anand and sister Abhidheya.
by Anagha Mahesh
This Children’s Day, we bring you a special feature on an 8-year-old boy, who can recite all the 700 shlokas of Bhagavad Gita with perfect pronunciation and spell out over 125 botanical names of various medicinal plants by just looking at their pictures.
Meet the wonder kid Abhigya Anand, a resident of city. Born to Anand Ramasubramanian and Annu Anand couple, residing at Emerald Enclave, behind Infosys, Mysore, Abhigya is just eight years. When he was just two-and-a-half years old, he could identify 40 flags of different countries and also about 50 car models. The virtue continued, with him learning to speak German in just a month when he was five years old and was residing at Stuttgart, Germany.
Abhigya’s father, an MBA graduate, has travelled extensively throughout the world along with family. Hence, Abhigya found it exciting to learn new languages. When he was seven years old, the family was based in Melbourne, Australia.
It is here that Abhigya drew inspiration to memorise and understand the Bhagavad Gita. He succeeded in learning 12 chapters out of 18. He chanted a few chapters at various temples in Melbourne, Mysore and Bangalore. Whatever he learnt was through You Tube videos as he didn’t have access to a teacher at Melbourne.
He was too keen on learning all the 18 chapters.
Once, Abhigya’s parents came to know that Sringeri Mutt would felicitate and honour anybody who can chant all the 18 chapters of Bhagavad Gita.
When they tried contacting them, the boy’s parents were told that all the 18 chapters should be recited at once. The parents were a little disheartened since Abhigya was confident of reciting only 12 chapters. This motivated the boy so much that he learnt the remaining six chapters and was thorough with all the 18 chapters within nine months with perfect intonation.
Abhigya will recite Bhagavad Gita at Sringeri during the end of this month.
His love for languages helped him learn how to speak and write Kannada within a month’s time. He is also fluent in Tamil and Sanskrit and has learnt and understood the meanings of over 200 Sanskrit shlokas.
The 8-year-old genius has also read over 500 Amar Chitra Kathas and can recollect most of the stories he has read. Apart from this, his other hobbies include playing cricket and football with his father and friends. He also plays mridanga.
Unlike most of the children, since there was a lot of globe-trotting involved, Abhigya has never been into a formal school. He is home-schooled by his mother Annu, a home-maker. He does attend a few classes here and there at MCS Govt. School, Belagola, for the sole purpose of socialisation with other children.
He has a four-year-old sister Abhidheya, whom he cured of dengue by suggesting a few ayurvedic medicines which he had learnt about by reading a book on Ayurveda.
Those who want to see it to believe it can watch Abhigya’s video on YouTube titled ‘7 year old Abhigya chanting Bhagavad Gita.’
Mother’s Message
Children should be encouraged to develop inclination towards spirituality as such an inclination at a tender age will help them maintain the same throughout their life. Thus, making them worthy citizens for the Nation, which claims to be a nation where spirituality occupies a vital place.
And it is also advised that children be given home food always and kept away from junk food with their future health in view.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / November 14th, 2013
Bharath Seva Dal (girl’s wing) of B M High School was awarded first prize in the Rajyotsava Day parade held in Nehru maidan under the aegis of Dakshina Kannada district administration on November 1.
The rolling shield was awarded by B Ramanath Rai, district in charge minister.
MLAs J R Lobo, Mohiudin Bava, commissioner N Prakash, district president of Bharath Sevadal, Basheer Baikampady, secretary T K Sudheer, Karnataka Sahitya parishat district president Pradeep Kalkura, Taluk president of Seva dal, Prabhakar Sriyan, District panchayat president Koragappa Naika and district convener of Bharath Sevadal T S Manjegowda, teachers of B M High school and other leaders were present.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Media Release / Mangalore – Saturday, November 02nd, 2013
