Rajasthan
CII’s Rajasthan@75 vision plan
The confederation of Indian Industry (CII) released a vision document Rajasthan@75, detailing a road map to 100 percent literacy, women-empowered leadership, and a peaceful and secure society free from caste and religious divisions in the state, at a media conference held in Jodhpur on February 22.
C.K. Prahalad, professor of economics at the University of Michigan Business School, USA, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said that better education, basic infrastructure such as roads and telecom, a corruption-free and secure society, are the targets that Rajasthan should achieve by 2022.
According to Prahalad, India can produce ten Nobel laureates in the next ten years if the CII Vision Document 2022 is adopted in letter and spirit. “In 1920, when India had a population of 280 million, it produced Nobel Prize winners C.V. Raman and Rabindranath Tagore. Why not now, when the population has risen to 1.2 billion?” he asked.
Rajasthan@75 envisions rapid growth and development in areas such as health, education, infrastructure, agriculture, public administration, services and manufacturing, and science and technology. Speaking on the occasion, the chairman of the CII’s northern region chapter, Salil Singhal, said CII has drawn up vision plans for seven states and two Union territories, but Rajasthan is the first state to have written a vision document.
Gujarat
Graduates promised large scale employment
The Gujarat state government expects the creation of 25,000 new jobs for youth following the Vibrant Gujarat summit staged by the state government on January 12-13, according to education minister Ramanlal Vora. By signing memoranda of understanding “worth crores” with corporates during the summit, the state government is hopeful of creating large scale employment opportunities, said Vora at Saurashtra University’s 43rd annual convocation ceremony held on February 8 in Rajkot. “The state government is ready to extend all possible help to develop skilled manpower which will be required at the district and taluka levels before the new projects become operational,” he said.
Nearly 50,000 students from over 300 colleges affiliated with Saurashtra University were awarded degrees at the convocation.
Tamil Nadu
Bharti Foundation inaugurates new school
Quality education, health and other infrastructural facilities for all can become a reality if government and the private sector work together without regarding each other as rivals, Union home minister P. Chidambaram said at Kallal, Sivaganga district while inaugurating the Rs.22 lakh Satya Bharti School, built by the Bharti Foundation.
The Bharti Foundation proposes to construct 500 schools across India to help rural children access quality education, excel in extra-curricular activities and learn healthy habits. “This is the 155th school. Ten such schools are under construction in the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency,” (which he represents in Parliament), said Chidambaram.
The Bharti Foundation is promoted by leading mobile phone service provider Airtel.
Jammu & Kashmir
Young professor wins AICTE award
Parikshat singh manhas, associate professor at the Business School and Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Management of the University of Jammu, has been awarded the prestigious ‘Career Award for Young Teachers’ prize of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), the apex level accreditation and regulatory body for technical education. The award, which includes a Rs.10.5 lakh cash prize, was conferred on Manhas for his paper ‘Destination Positioning Anal-ysis’, for promotion of tourism in violence prone regions.
Moreover, an electronics, commerce and information sciences postgrad of Seattle University, USA, Manhas was recently commissioned to head a major research project valued at Rs.5.50 lakh by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Andhra Pradesh
Fake educationist arrested for serial fraud
Police arrested an individual who was allegedly running an unauthorised educational institute in Hyderabad. Syed Afsaruddin alias Afsar, who posed as the director of the National Institute of Secondary Education, was taken into custody by the city police commis-sioner’s task force on February 9.
Computers and 200 fake certificates for several education courses were seized from the institute’s premises, deputy commissioner of police, A.S.C. Wesley told reporters. This is Afsaruddin’s second arrest on similar charges. Last year he served eight months in jail. However after his release in August, he continued to run illegal businesses in the Sundernagar and Erragadda localities of Hyderabad and promoted a self-styled Hyderabad Educational & Research Centre, Wesley informed the media.