Education Briefs

Six students from 60 across the country have won the Horlicks Dream Team competition organised by the Bangalore-based education consultancy and events management firm Activity. They were awarded scholarships of Rs. 25,000 each on November 5.

The six winners inducted into the Horlicks Dream Team were Pavan Kapnadak from Kola Saraswathi School, Chennai; Soumya from Gokuldham High School, Mumbai; Samiksha from Apeejay School, Delhi; Rewan Rai Parti from Ryan International School, Delhi; Steffie Ann Thayil from the Meridian School, Hyderabad; and Bulbul Bhol from Buxi Jagabandhu School, Bhubaneswar.

"Our aim at Activity is to make all our endeavours edutaining — education that is entertaining and entertainment that is educative," says Syed Sultan Ahmed chief executive of Activity. "The grand finale of Horlicks Wiz Kids 2004 was the Dream Team competition which let the participants experience a different world altogether — a world without books, heavy school bags and classes to attend."

The Horlicks Dream Team was the outcome of Horlicks Wiz Kids 2004, which elicited huge response from over 100,000 students across 1,500 schools in 15 cities to showcase their talent. The Dream Team competition brought 60 finalists to Bangalore who were also imparted training in communications by Ahmed, and values and vison by Dr. J.M. Sampath to bring alive the concept of dynamic development.

ITC Limited — foods business will sponsor the largest-ever women’s tennis event in South Asia, the ‘Sunfeast Open 2005, Kolkata’ from September 19-25. This new event being added to the WTA Tour championships, will feature some of the world’s leading players as well as the new generation of Indian stars led by Sania Mirza and Shikha Uberoi.

The tournament which offers prize money of $ 170,000 (Rs.78.2 lakh) is being brought to Kolkata by Globosport, the sports management company owned by India’s Davis Cup star Mahesh Bhupathi, under the auspices of the government of West Bengal. "With the explosion of talent in women’s tennis in India, the Sunfeast Open 2005 Kolkata, will allow us to see a new generation of Indian women take on the best in the world in their own backyard. The perception of India being a one-sport country is about to change and the Sunfeast Open 2005, Kolkata, will be a major catalyst for the change," says Hemant Malik head of marketing ITC Limited — Foods Business.

Comments Mahesh Bhupathi: "Internationally women’s tennis has a huge following, and to be a woman tennis star is to be a global sports icon. People like Sania, Shikha and Neha have made giant steps in that direction and have the potential to be role models for millions of women across India. Thanks to the vision of the West Bengal government and corporates like ITC Foods, we have a platform for these girls to keep improving thereby paving the way for future champions in India."

Under an agreement signed on November 1 in Mumbai, Diagonal GlobalCom-Media will enhance and promote BPA Worldwide’s services in India. Diagonal GlobalCom is a consultancy firm specialising in working with publishers and other media to enhance their growth and profitability. The firm will market BPA services in India.

"Given the recent openness to foreign investment in India, we believe there is a need to share information and training programmes with publishers who are either interested in investment or wish to improve their skills in an increasingly competitive marketplace," says Glenn Hansen, president and CEO, BPA Worldwide. "We are pleased to have Diagonal GlobalCom as a partner, and we are confident that their recognized expertise in India’s media and advertising communities will facilitate the adoption of global professional standards in this important market."

"We look forward to further enhancing the status of India’s media industry by increasing awareness of the critical role of branding, marketing and circulation auditing as per BPA’s globally-respected auditing standards," said Santosh Goenka, founder of Diagonal GlobalCom, speaking on the occasion.

BPA Worldwide (est. 1931) is a not-for-profit organisation and founding member of the International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulations (IFABC) governed by a tripartite board of media owners, advertising agencies and advertisers. Based in Shelton, Connecticut, USA, BPA has the largest membership of any media-auditing organisation in the world, spanning more than 20 countries. Worldwide, BPA serves 3,000 media properties — including more than 2,000 B-to-B publications, 600 consumer magazines and newspapers, 300 websites, plus e-mail newsletters, databases, wireless and other advertiser-supported media.

An annual conference of school principals is scheduled to be held in Bangalore on February 4-5. An estimated 200-250 schools principals, vice principals and headmistresses are expected to participate in the conference whose objective is to acquaint them with institutional administration and leadership issues.

The agenda of the conference includes presentation of papers and discussions on: vision and values of educational organisations; leadership in education; possibilities, trends and opportunities in the education sector; setting standards and design of measuring tools to assess schools’ performance and cross pollination of ideas across and within industries.

The conference coordinaters are Dr. J.M. Sampath an international trainer on value education and author and G. Gautama, educator and principal of The School — KFI, Chennai.

Speakers at the conference will include: Dr. Kalpana Sampath, director of Arpitha Associates; H.G. Dattatreya, former principal HAL Staff College; K. Murali Eshwar, director of Margabandhu Toys Pvt Ltd; and Ramesh Ramanathan, founder of Janaagraha.

The S.P.Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai has instituted its Social Impact Awards to acknowledge success stories reflecting the inter-dependence of business practice and wider societal concerns. The Social Impact Awards will recognise the best projects implemented by students of B-schools, and NGOs which have relevance, are sustainable and innovative.

Entries are invited for the SPJIMR Social Impact Awards. The contest is open to students of all B-schools and NGOs in India. Participants are required to submit a paper on initiatives taken in the recent past. The last date for receipt of entries of completed papers is January 10, 2005. The final award ceremony will he held in Mumbai on February 5, 2005. The project will be evaluated in two categories: for B-school student participants and for NGOs. The winners selected by an eminent jury will be awarded cash prizes of Rs.15,000 in both categories with the runners up eligible for cash prizes of Rs.10,000.

For further details e-mail docccom@spjimr.ernet.in.