Bihar
Higher education drive
Bihar will soon become a hub of professional education following the inauguration of a number of greenfield technical and medical institutes, the state’s chief minister Nitish Kumar said at a press conference in Darbhanga district on November 20. “The state government is promoting new engineering and medical colleges to prevent the flight of students to other states for professional education, and also to attract students to Bihar,” said Kumar after inaugurating two engineering colleges in Motihari and Darbhanga districts in north Bihar.
Three more engineering colleges will soon be inaugurated in Begusarai, Madhepura and Sitamarhi, he added. Together, the four new engineering colleges will offer 780 seats.
Moreover, the state government has asked the Medical Council of India to accord sanction for five more medical colleges, and grant permission to introduce postgraduate courses in existing medical colleges besides increasing the number of seats.
The state government has also identified 500 acres for promoting a new Indian Institute of Technology at Bihta, adjacent to the state capital. Moreover it has selected a 1,000 acre site for a Mahatma Gandhi University in Motihari in East Champaran district, Kumar informed media personnel.
Jammu & Kashmir
Operation Sadbhavana excursion
A group of 25 school children from Baramulla district (Jammu & Kashmir) embarked on a multi-city tour of India under the Indian Army’s Sadbhavana (Goodwill) programme on November 20. “The children will be visiting New Delhi, Agra and Ajmer among other destinations over ten days. The objective of the tour is Paigam-e-Aman (message of peace),” said Brigadier V.P. Singh, commander of the Rampur Brigade, after flagging off the tour.
Organised for the children of Nambla High School in the Uri sector, the excursion is sponsored by the Ramput Brigade under Operation Sadbhavana. “The tour will enable children to observe how people of different faiths and creeds live together in India,” added Singh.
“Our children are lucky to go to Srinagar and other parts of the country. Many of us have never visited even Srinagar,” comments Maqbool Wani, a parent of one of the children.
Goa
Garbage dump controversy
Nine students of a high school in Panaji were taken ill, due to an unbearable stench emanating from garbage dumped in the vicinity of the school, by the City Corporation of Panaji (CCP). Class VII-VIII students of People’s High School in Mala had to be shifted to an urban health centre after they began vomiting and complained of abdominal pain.
“The CCP is dumping its garbage right next to the school resulting in a stench which pervades the school,” teacher Dattatray Ghanekar told reporters on November 19. “As the classes started this morning, nine students began vomiting one by one. We had to summon ambulances and get them admitted immediately in the nearest urban health centre.”
Earlier on November 12, students of People’s High staged a protest rally before the office of CCP mayor Tony Rodrigues. The school’s reaction earned it a show-cause notice from the state government’s education department.
The issue of a show-cause notice to the school has evoked angry response in the state capital, with members of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) rushing to the site. “We are holding a meeting in People’s High School to assess the situation. The state government cannot continue dumping garbage in the school’s backyard,” says IMA member Dr. Shekhar Salkar.
Jharkhand
XLRI summer placements
Despite the global economic slowdown, the summer internship placement programme of the 2010 batch of the XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur, has received “exceptional response” by way of international offers and stipends, Prof. Rajiv Mishra, chairman of the placement committee of the institute, informed newsmen on November 19. According to Mishra, on all counts — internships, locations, stipends — XLRI has emerged as the most preferred recruitment destination for corporates and industry in India and abroad.
Claiming an unprecedented 74 recruiters this time, he said over 200 offers were made to the batch of 180 students with 15 percent of summer internships offered by companies in North America, Europe, South-east Asia and the Middle East.
The average stipend for the internship period, beginning April next year is Rs.85,000 — a quantum jump of 75 percent over last year, while 45 students will be paid over Rs.1 lakh. The highest stipend was offered by a Wall Street bank at its trading desk in Hong Kong, for which an XLRI student will receive a package of Rs.5 lakh. The highest domestic stipend was Rs.3 lakh, offered by a Mumbai-based bank.
Moreover there was also a five-fold increase in internships offered internationally by investment banks, FMCG majors and other corporates.
Kerala
Toonz second academy
Animation major, Toonz Animation India launched its second centre in Kerala, which offers a one-year diploma course in animation and digital arts at Kozhikode. “Following overwhelming demand from the student community in the Malabar region, we decided to open a centre here in addition to the existing one in Thiruvananthapuram,” executive director S. Ramprasad informed reporters on November 26.
The study programme will enable the academy’s students to become proficient in key areas such as character modeling, organic character texturing, lighting, character animation and particle effects, dynamics and compositing.
At its fully-equipped new studio, the Kozhikode Toonz Animation Academy will train 60 students over 12 months for a tuition fee of Rs.1.5 lakh. Toonz Academy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toonz Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, Singapore, and promoted its first school in Thiruvananthapuram in 2002. Subsequently it established training centres in Mumbai, Delhi, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Indore and Ahmedabad.