Tripura
ICRE outpost inauguration
The Dehradun-based Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) announced detailed plans to inaugurate a branch office in Tripura at a media conference in Agartala on November 28.
The office will be sited in the Shantirbazar forest division of South Tripura district. According to Dr. V.K. Bahuguna, director-general of ICFRE, the branch office will conduct research on forest resources such as bamboo and timber and impart education on forestry and wildlife. Earlier, Tripura’s forests minister Jiten Chowdhury met Dr. Bahuguna on November 27 and assured him of the state government’s full cooperation.
According to Bahuguna, ICFRE’s charter is to promote and coordinate forestry education, research and application, develop forest extension program-mes and propagate forests preservation through mass media, audio-visual aids and extension machinery.
Rajasthan
Additional SBC quota
The Rajasthan government announced acceptance of the Justice I.S. Israni Committee report recommending 5 percent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for five communities, including Gujjars, under the ‘specially backward category’ (SBC). After the committee submitted its report to chief minister Ashok Gehlot on November 22, its acceptance was announced in Jaipur on November 28.
According to Gehlot, although following acceptance of the Israni Committee report the reserved quota for scheduled castes, tribes and other backward classes will rise to 54 percent, exceeding the 50 percent cap imposed by the Supreme Court, the committee’s additional 5 percent quota for five SBC communities is in consonance with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Indira Sahni vs. Union of India (1992). Gehlot also announced a committee to examine the possibility of 14 percent reservation for economically backward communities.
However, Gujjar leaders have not welcomed the decision describing it as politically motivated. “It is a political decision because we wanted the reservation within the constitutional limit of 50 percent,” says Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla, who has spearheaded several Gujjar agitations in the state.
Odisha
Vedanta Foundation’s e-shiksha project
Vedanta Foundation, the CSR (corporate social responsibility) arm of the London-based Vedanta Resources Plc (annual revenue $ 11 billion or Rs.59,689 crore) signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with the state govern-ment of Odisha (aka Orissa) for implementation of its e-shiksha project in 1,000 schools statewide, on November 23.
Under the terms of the MoU, the foundation will provide quality e-content to over 200,000 children (class VI-X) statewide in English, science, mathematics and social sciences.
The foundation will provide e-content developed on the basis of the CBSE curriculum. “The teachers training programme will help our teachers to learn new technology-aided pedagogies and deliver quality education,” says an Odisha government spokesperson. A total of 2,500 teachers are expected to be trained under the project.
Maharashtra
IDFC bets on MSFM
Private equity player IDFC Alternatives announced an investement of Rs.100 crore in the Bangalore/Manipal-based Manipal Education Group’s management business, in Mumbai on November 26. “IDFC Alternatives, through IDFC Private Equity Fund III, has invested Rs.100 crore in Manipal Servicecorp Facility Management (MSFM), promoted by the Manipal Education Group,” said an IDFC statement.
MSFM currently services clients like CapGemini, Cisco and Titan Industries, but is repositioning itself as a student-living services and facilities management provider to education institutes in the country and abroad. Student-living services will first be rolled out in the MEG-promoted Manipal University, Jaipur campus and the T.A. Pai Manage-ment Institute, Manipal and later in MEG’s banking training vertical in Bangalore, elaborates the IDFC statement.
Comments IDFC Alternatives managing partner Satish Mandhana: “Upgra-ding social infrastructure, including our educational institutions, will be vital to the country’s economic growth.”
Kerala
CUSAT recast
A proposal to transform the state government-funded Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) into a Central government university is under active consideration, Union minister of state for human resource development (HRD) Shashi Tharoor informed media personnel in Thiruvan-anthapuram on November 14.
According to a November 15 press release, the Kerala government proposed transformation of the status of CUSAT and its renaming as the Indian Institute of Education, Science and Research (IIESR). “The initial procedures for transforming CUSAT into IIESR have been started by the HRD ministry. It is a long process involving working out financial liabilities and consideration by Parliament before it is approved by the Union cabinet,” says the press release.
Delhi
E-9 Delhi Commitment
A meeting of the education ministers of the world’s nine most populous countries — Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan — concluded in Delhi on November 10, with adoption of the New Delhi Commitment to work together in curriculum reform and inclusive education strategies.
The E-9 ministers, who evaluated their countries’ progress towards achievement of the Education for All (EFA) by 2015 Millennium Declaration of the United Nations, resolved to cooperate in developing of teaching and learning materials, and usage of ICT (information communication techno-logies) for developing institutional capa-city for assessing learning outcomes.
“Now our aim is quality and reduction of the gap between boys and girls who are out of school,” said India’s newly-appointed human resource development minister M.M. Pallam Raju, speaking on the occasion.