Congress party president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurated IT behemoth Infosys Technologies’ (number of employees: 105,000; sales revenue: Rs.16,692 crore in 2008-09) Global Education Centre II, the largest corporate education centre worldwide, in Mysore on September 15. Constructed at a cost of Rs.350 crore on Infosys’ sprawling 337-acre Mysore campus, GEC-II is the largest monolithic structure to be constructed in post-independence India, with a built-up area of more than 1 million sq. ft.
“GEC is a stirring reminder of what Indian ingenuity and hard work can do. An Indian company cannot just be world class but can also be ahead of the world. What is most admirable is that your success has carried with it a sense of social responsibility. Your success must not be measured in billions of dollars but by the transformation of our society,” said Mrs. Gandhi in her inauguration address.
Added Infosys co-founder and chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy: “GEC is a testimony to Infosys’ commitment to building the competency of its employees.”
Compared with GEC I — which was inaugurated in 2005 and offers 52 training rooms, 183 faculty rooms and a state-of-the-art library that accommodates 60,000 books — GEC II is grander in scale and range of facilities. With a built up area of 1,002,095 sq. ft, GEC II offers eighty four 100 seater, three 200 seater, six 60 seater and two 36 seater classrooms, five examination halls and 302 faculty rooms. It also has an induction hall which can seat 400 trainees, and a modern library housing 80,000 books. Together GEC I and II can train 14,000 company employees at any given time.
QAIT’s core capability
Noida-based software quality assurance and testing company, QA Infotech Pvt. Ltd (QAIT) is helping e-learning platforms around the world to eliminate errors and loading problems. With its complement of 350 testing engineers, the company claims it has developed core capability in testing a host of third party performance, integration, security, process, loading programs, and local checking in 27 languages.
“As e-learning applications are becoming a necessity for education institutions, publishers, academics, teachers and students, their reliability and end usage have become crucial. As an independent quality assurance organisation we certify application software which is important for developers, marketers and end users,” says Mukesh Sharma, an alumnus of BITS Pilani, who promoted QAIT in 2003.
CampusFrance South India Admissions Tour
Campusfrance — an organisation of the french ministries of education and research and foreign affairs with a mission to promote higher education in France — under guidance of the University Cooperation Service of the Embassy of France in India, has scheduled a South India Admissions Tour across Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad for Indian students desirous of pursuing higher education in France.
The novelty of this programme is a dedicated website to be launched for the South India Admissions Tour. Until October 15, Indian students can apply via a simple online procedure. The visiting French institutions will then schedule interviews with selected students. The interviews will be held in Chennai on October 26-27, Hyderabad October 28-29, and Bangalore October 30-31.
Students approved for admission into a wide range of programmes (management, engineering, humanities, cinema etc.) will be admitted for the academic year commencing in September 2010. Almost all participating institutions offer courses taught in English.
CIE’s primary teacher training drive
More than 35 primary schoolteachers in Mumbai attended a two-day training programme conducted on September 19-20 by University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE). The workshop was conducted by Kate Ruttle, a UK-based expert in primary education, at Mumbai’s Dhirubhai Ambani International School.
Dhirubhai Ambani International School offers the Cambridge International curriculum to students from primary level through to IGCSE. Comments Dermot Keegan, head of the international curriculum at Dhirubhai Ambani: “CIE continues to contribute to the development of education across India through its intensive professional development sessions and excellent quality of assessment it provides for schools taking its examinations.”
According to Ian Chambers, regional manager (South Asia) of CIE, the Cambridge International Primary Programme is respected worldwide because it provides an internationally benchmarked framework for learning. “The Primary Programme includes progression tests and assessment tools that are popular with teachers. They help teachers to identify children’s strengths and weaknesses so that they know where to direct their support,” says Chambers.
More than 230 schools in India are registered to offer the Cambridge international curriculum. To know more log on to www.cie.org.uk.
Axiom Education’s iKen Books launch
Axiom Education Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai-based education innovation company, launched its iKen Books, described as “a unique blend of education and entertainment solutions to create a fun learning experience for children at school,” on September 15.
“iKen books are interactive graphic textbooks based on the NCERT curriculum which bring scientific concepts alive through colourful and entertaining comics. The books have been designed with fun-loving comic characters indulging in real life adventures, and promise to give young minds a thoroughly enjoyable experience while imparting education — that of fun and excitement. I am confident these books will be happily accepted by children and teachers alike, and provide them a new and refreshing experience,” says Saurabh Saxena, director (business development) of Axiom Education.
Currently two volumes of iKen Books mapped with the science curriculum of classes VI-VIII are available online (www.iken.in) and in leading book stores across India.