Post Graduate Certificate in Project Management (PGCPM)

Posted on September 24, 2008

Post Graduate Certificate in Project Management (PGCPM)

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in association with Project Management Associates (PMA) and Centre for Excellence in Project Management (CEPM) announces admission to Post Graduate Certificate in Project Management (PGCPM) as per details given below:

Special Features

> Latest know-how of Project Management
> Total online delivery including evaluation in the programme
> Minimum 6 Months Maximum 1 Year
> Graduate in any discipline with minimum 50% marks
> Rs. 6,000 + Registration Fee of Rs. 100
> All cities of Regional Centres of IGNOU

The Prospectus along with application form can be downloaded from IGNOU website (ignou.ac.in) after October 7, 2008. Filled-in application forms with requisite fee may be forwarded to Programme Coordinator (PGCPM), Room Nos. 110/115, Visvesveraya Bhawan, School of Engineering & Technology, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi – 110 068 on or before October 31, 2008.

Post Graduate Certificate in Project Management (PGCPM)

Posted on September 24, 2008

Post Graduate Certificate in Project Management (PGCPM)

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in association with Project Management Associates (PMA) and Centre for Excellence in Project Management (CEPM) announces admission to Post Graduate Certificate in Project Management (PGCPM) as per details given below:

Special Features

> Latest know-how of Project Management
> Total online delivery including evaluation in the programme
> Minimum 6 Months Maximum 1 Year
> Graduate in any discipline with minimum 50% marks
> Rs. 6,000 + Registration Fee of Rs. 100
> All cities of Regional Centres of IGNOU

The Prospectus along with application form can be downloaded from IGNOU website (ignou.ac.in) after October 7, 2008. Filled-in application forms with requisite fee may be forwarded to Programme Coordinator (PGCPM), Room Nos. 110/115, Visvesveraya Bhawan, School of Engineering & Technology, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi – 110 068 on or before October 31, 2008.

KISS of knowledge and sustenance

Posted on September 24, 2008

KISS of knowledge and sustenance

Kolkata, Sep 22: Hard times generated out of ignorance and poverty could only be warded off with quality education and creation of ample opportunities.

Ten-year old Anjali Beera, a Santhal from Orissa’s Keonjhar district, could hardly thought of leaping the confinement of abject poverty and gain access to a proper schooling, thanks to the Bhubaneswar-based Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS). She is presently studying in Class Four and simultaneously receiving practical inputs in sewing, handicraft, pickel and jam making. Anjali’s parents were engaged in farm activities and they are six siblings including her.

Sprawling over 50 acres, the KISS is a residential institute for tribal children which provides fooding, clothing and vocational training free of cost since its inception in 1994. The school, apart from catering primary and secondary education to the children, conducts undergraduate courses in Arts, Commerce and Science.

The residential school has a total strength of 7,000 tribal students representing 56 tribes drawn from the backward regions of Orissa. This also includes 13 primitive tribes.

It is noteworthy that a team comprising KISS boys had won Under-14 Rugby World Cup overplaying their South African opponents in London in September 2007.

”Childhood days were desolate and wintry dark when my father passed away before I could cut my fifth birthday cake. I had to sell bananas and coconut in the local market to make the both ends meet in my family and support my education. After completing M.Sc in Chemistry, I taught in colleges under Utkal University,” Dr Achyuta Samanta, founder of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) and KISS, said.

Dr Samanta was recounting his days of hardships prior to his strong determination took shape to a Rs 1,200-crore KIIT armed with ten campuses and a brigade of 13,000 students. However, the beginning dates back to an ITI set up by him in 1992 in Bhubaneswar. ”That was too in a rented building with a strength of two students and a meagre capital of Rs 5,000. I had to even borrow that amount from my friends for chasing my dreams,” he said.

KIIT imparts education in engineering, medicine, business management, bio-technology, rural management, computer application and law, armed with Wi-Fi campuses. It would introduce braches of studies like film technology, media studies and fashion technology during the current year, the founder informed.

Sprawling over 250 acres, it is the youngest university in the country to bag awards from the Limca Book of Records for four different categories simultaneously.

”The tribal community in Orissa formed one-fourth of the state’s population who are suffering abject poverty and neglected in the society. Since I have tasted abject poverty, I wanted to do something for the have-nots. My policy is to eradicate poverty, ignorance and illiteracy through proper education. KISS has obtained 40,000 applications from the parents of different tribal communities to get their children admitted in the institute,” he elaborated Five per cent of seats under various disciplines in KIIT is reserved for the meritorious students of KISS, he said adding West bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Karnataka were in his radar to come up with similar institutes.

” Imparting quality education to a deprived child is like giving sight to a blind,” signed off Dr Samanta.

IGNOU VC lauds open varsities

Posted on September 24, 2008

IGNOU VC lauds open varsities

Bhopal, Sep 22: Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Vice-Chancellor V N Rajasekharan Pillai today said open universities could play a key role in disseminating vocational and technical education in faraway regions.

”A mere 11 per cent of India’s youth are receiving regular college and university education. The open universities are fulfilling the responsibility of educating the rest and making them vocationally capable,” he told reporters here.

Pointing out that IGNOU’s chief objective was to develop the abilities of comparatively less-educated people so that they got employment opportunities, Prof Pillai added that IGNOU was working under different schemes with organisations across the country and the Bhopal visit — his first — was in that connection.

An Institute of Industrial Management for Safety, Health and Environment is being set up here with IGNOU assistance. IGNOU’s Regional Director K S Tiwari threw light on the Regional Office’s achievements.

President asks not to compromise with quality education

Posted on September 24, 2008

President asks not to compromise with quality education
Mathrubhumi English Edition

Lucknow, Sep 23: President Pratibha Devisingh Patil today said the educational scenario of the country faces challenges of both quantity and quality to become a leading nation of the world.

”As we expand our education infrastructure, it is important that the quality of eudcation is not compromised, if we want to become a leading nation of the world,” she said.

The President was honoured with D.Litt (Honoris Causa) degree by Lucknow University (LU) Chancellor T V Rajeswar with which she has become an alumuni of the university.

Delivering her convocation address at the LU here, Ms Patil said, ”Our varsity must compete with the best in the world, as quality education for all young people was essential for securing them a better future.” She said as the society transforms, the education system must respond to the change and a growing country like India requires a talented and well-trained population to harness opportunities into visible and concrete results.”Universities must adopt a system for looking at the curriculum and changing and amplifying it to include new fields of knowlege to respond to the national requirements,” the President added.

”I am told that the National Knowledge Commission has stated that India requires 1,500 universities nationwide, but the current number falls short of it,” she expressed.

However, Ms Patil said that unfortunately, there has been a deline in our research capacity. ”This trend needs to be reversed and research facilities in our university need to be reinforced. The varsities must become centres of research and advanced research responding to the requirement of society and the various economic sectors such as agriculture and industry,” she said.

Pointing out the evils of the society, she said,”We have to rid the society of prejudices, discrimination against women and social evils by changing the mindsets of the people. We should also fight addiction to drugs, tobacco consumption and alcoholism, which have a debilitating effect.” The President appreciated the girl students, who had outnumbered the boys in recieving gold medals, particularly Babita Singh, who won six medals. She also recalled great people like former President Shanker Dayal Sharma and others associated with the LU, a premier educational centre of the country.

The convocation function was also addressed by LU Chancellor and UP Governor T V Rajeswar and Prof A S Brar, the Vice-Chancellor of LU, who welcomed the guests. State Higher Education Minister Rakesh Dhar Tripathi and Health Minister Anant Kumar Mishra were also present at the function.

The Chancellor conferred D Sc(Honoris Causa) degree upon emminent scientist Prof R P Rastogi and D Litt (Honoris Causa) Degree to renowned Oriya wirter Chandrashekhar Rath.

Altogether, 17 students were awarded 28 medals, with Babita Singh getting six, while Amit Kumar and Bhagyendra Kumar Verma getting two medals each.

The President said universities have contributed significantly to the economic and social development of post-independent India and today also universities have a role as institutions for new and innovative thinking. ”It is in the university that the youth can be enthused with a spirit of national unity and national development so that they are eager contributors to building a strong and modern India, through a process of inclusive growth,” she said.

Rajeswar, in his presidential address, said the University was one of the first universities to be co-educational and deemed it a privilege in honouring India’s first woman citizen with a Doctor of Literature (Honoris Causa). ”Mrs Patil represents the noblest virtues of the Indian tradition,” he said.

Expressing his concern over the state of affairs in the education system, Mr Rajeswar said the country was far behind the target of universalisation of primary education, especially with reference to the girl child. ”Violence against women, restriction on women’s mobility and traditional role divisions of work continues to restrict women’s life choices in education and career,” the Governor said adding, it was unfortunate that less than 20 per cent of the youth between the age of 18 to 25 years receive higher education in the country.

The Chancellor also said one of the biggest lacunae in our higher education scene has been in the area of fundamental research in sciences, which has created a shortfall of teachers in higher institutions of Science and Management.

He said, ”In the area of global competitiveness, we need a multi-disciplinary approach to education with flexibility.” Welcoming the guests, prof Brar demanded that the university should be converted into a centre of excellence as proposed to the Planning Commission.

The VC also took the opportunity in demanding more grants for the university as the state government support to this university is lesser as compared to some other central universities with lesser requirements. ”With freezing of state grants, it is a difficult task to maintain quality,” he said.

Prof Brar further said that the state government would more realistically respond to the financial requirements of the varsity as this was the most crucial investment in nation building.

The President was welcomed by Guv T V Rajeswar and Chief Minister Mayawati at the Amuasi airport from where she headed towards the LU.

Ms Patil would be meeting several delegations, including the widow of martyar Abdul Hamid at Rajbhawan this evening. The Governor would hold a formal dinner for the President where she would take a night halt.

The President would leave for Kanpur tomorrow morning to attend a function.