US-based Mindlance opens new facility in Kolkata

Mindlance, a New Jersey, US-based IT infrastructure service provider, with its India Headquarters at Bangalore, has announced the setting up of a new facility at Kolkata, as a part of its ongoing expansion in India. The new Kolkata facility would be a delivery & sales center for the Eastern Zone and would primarily cater to customers in West Bengal, Assam, Orissa & Bihar.

This will be the company’s 6th office in India, the other five being located at Bangalore (2 offices), Gurgaon Jaipur, and Mumbai. Mindlance with its rich global expertise will be keenly interested to help set up other IT enterprises in East India in the near future. Mindlance would also introduce the latest technologies like Managed services, IT consulting, Datacenter management, Cloud computing, IT Security and RIMS to the firms in West Bengal. We are hoping that this partnership brings a lot of positivity to the IT progress of the state.

 said, “We are extremely pleased to announce the opening of our 6th new facility in Kolkata, which is strategically placed to target one of the core focus geographies in the domestic market. This facility would help us cater to our highly demanding and ever increasing customer base in the Eastern region, especially in the IT, Education and Health Care sectors. Kolkata on account of its heavily networked communities possess high awareness and literacy levels, superior telecom connectivity, and a propensity for quick technology absorption, Mindlance would most definitely be looking forward to invest in big numbers in the state”.

“According to Nasscom, the employability of people having IT skills in West Bengal is 40-45 per cent, way above the national average of 25 per cent. The attrition rate of 10 per cent in West Bengal is the lowest among the metro cities making is a favorable employment destination. With over more than a decade of experience in implementing IT, Mindlance has become a very trusted Tier two System Integrator”, added Kamal Sharma.

Mindlance had achieved a remarkable and applaudable number of over 100 clients in India within a short span of 8 months. The company plans to grow exponentially further this year too & would be inaugurating over 5 new offices across various locations in India.

Street urchins toil at dawn to keep school dreams alive

Fourteen-year-old Deepchand should be learning but instead he lies sprawled fast asleep on the floor of an Indian school, exhausted by his early morning labours finding rubbish to sell.

Abandoned by his mother, his father dead, he works as a trash collector on the streets of New Delhi, starting two hours before dawn collecting plastic bottles, drink cans and metal, anything that will earn him a little cash.

Deepchand, who like many street kids has only one name, uses the plastic bag in which he collects garbage as his sleeping bag when he beds down on the pavement at night.

But there is hope for Deepchand, and countless others like him, through the Aviva Street to School Centre, a programme run by Save the Children that targets street kids to try to prepare them for entry into mainstream schools.

“It’s hard to teach them at times, they’re so exhausted,” said Save the Children programme worker Pradeep Kumar, gazing down at the sleeping Deepchand, whose hands are calloused from work.

Getting India’s millions of street children into schools is just one of the big challenges facing the government as it seeks to implement its landmark Right to Education Act which is just over a year old.

That’s where transition institutions like Aviva come in, helping children learn the most basic social skills such as sharing, and allowing them to catch up on lost school years so that they can one day attend full-time classes.

But many impoverished parents, who rely on income from the children to support the family, see no point in education.

“My father says, ‘Do rag picking’ but I want to go to school,” says nine-year-old Suleiman in the brightly decorated classroom that lies up a flight of narrow stairs in a bustling market.

“The parents are so fixated on getting enough money to survive, the value of an education falls,” says teacher Nivedita Chopra.

“But if they see their child doing well and feel it could eventually translate into a better life for them, it can change their minds,” Chopra says, as she busily puts stars on drawings thrust at her by pupils.

A few of the children at the school, which is part of a global network funded by the Aviva insurance group, have had a bit of formal schooling, others none.

“Some of them we have to teach the very basics, like how to hold a pencil,” says another teacher, Rekha, who goes by one name.

Deepchand, by now awake, says he wishes for only one thing: To obtain training that would give him a skill and get him off the streets.

“These children are like any other children, they want to go to school, wear a school uniform, but most of the time they don’t get the chance,” says Kumar.

India’s education act means all states must now provide free schooling for every child between the age of six and 14 but its implementation is badly bogged down.

State governments, which are in charge of education, oppose any change that the federal government will not fund.

Just five of India’s 29 states, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Orissa, Sikkim and Manipur, have taken preliminary steps to implement the law, which aims to get 10 million unschooled children into the education system.

“The education act so far has all been cosmetic. Nothing has really changed on the ground,” said child advocacy coordinator Umesh Kumar Gupta of the volunteer National Coalition for Education.

Even when children such as Deepchand and Suleiman do get into school, their chances of getting a proper education are bleak. The shortage of teachers is estimated to be 1.4 million so classes are overcrowded. States like India’s most populous Uttar Pradesh have more than 200,000 teacher vacancies, according to the volunteer  of Right to Education Forum.

“Who will train that many teachers?” asks Krishna Kumar, professor of education at Delhi University, who adds many teachers are appointed without “any attention to basic qualifications.”

New pharma courses in the offing

The city-based EIILM, has taken up an ambitious project to set up a chain of pharma management institutes across eight states of India at an aggregate investment of Rs 40 crore over three years. 

After the first campus in Kolkata being inaugurated last year, it is all set to open the Bangalore campus from June this year, followed by Chandigarh in August. And in a phased manner six other state campuses by 2014. Besides West Bengal, Karnataka and Punjab, the other states in the offing are: Tamil Nadu, Maharasthra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and one in northeast. 

Last year, Kolkata based educational group, EIILM, became Asia’s first institute to introduce a five-year integrated BBA and MBA course in pharma management. In a smart initiative to protect its patent over a first in India pharma course, Dr Soumendra Bandopadhaya, founder director of EIILM, has procured a name and curriculum copyright from Calcutta High court which makes it an exclusive course in pharma management in the country.

The course rolls medicine, engineering and management into an assorted program, which for many years, the pharma companies have been clamouring for. The copyright initiative is aimed at protecting its exclusivity in the pharma management domain, nationwide.

Dr Bandopadhaya said, “In Bengaluru, we have set up a huge 10,000 sq feet campus right in the heart of the city at Brigade road. And as I announce the opening of the campus we already have 600 students asking for a berth when we can accommodate only 150 students annually.” He revealed that the Chandigarh institute would be a bigger outfit with an intake of 250 students annually.

 

Yash Khetrapal, vice president, ANG Lifesciences said, “The pharma industry is under serious pressure to supply trained manpower. BPharma as a course is outdated since they lack practical knowledge and teach nothing about the management aspect. General MBAs are no good for us either. They have no knowledge of pharma. Besides Kolkata, the new campuses in Bengaluru and Chandigarh will help the pharma companies based out of south and north India to draw students from EIILM pharma management in Bengaluru and Chandigarh.” He added, “As for my own company, EIILM has provided me a quota of just fifteen students. I am bargaining for fifty every year”.

 

The pharma management course has been divided into ten semesters spanning over 60 months and beginning right after high school.

Simultaneous agitations during Ramdev's fast

After Anna Hazare’s campaign against corruption, Baba Ramdev has decided to go on satyagraha for a ‘corruption-free’ India. Demanding the black money deposited in foreign banks be brought back, Ramdev had vowed to fast-unto-death in New Delhi on June 4 as part of his ‘Bhrastachar Mitao Satyagrah’, a drive to check corruption.

  Simultaneous agitations will be held in Orissa on the same day by members of State unit of Patanjali Yoga Samiti and Bharat Swabhiman, a social organisation.

Informing this to the mediapersons here, in-charge of the Patanjali Yoga Samiti Sudhanshu Sekhar Adhikari said the Yoga Guru, through his hunger strike, wants to compel the government to bring back Rs 300 lakh crore black money stashed away in foreign banks and declare it a public property.

Two other demands of Ramdev are drafting of a Lokpal Bill and an end to ‘British Rule’ in education, farming, health and  law in India. Ramdev is also demanding a ban on high denomination currency notes, which he feels, is a reason for rampant corruption.

Adhikari said as many as 1,500 religious heads and social activists from across the State have consented to take part in the dharna at PMG Square in Bhubaneswar. Members of Bharat Swabhiman and Patanjali Yoga Samiti will also stage an agitation in front of the Collectorate in Khurda on the same day, he added. The agitation in Bhubaneswar will be for an indefinite period, he said.

  Adhikari said volunteers launched a toll-free landline number on May 9. A missed call from any mobile number on the toll free number - 0223308112 - will register the number in their database and updates of the campaign will be sent through text messages. Volunteers have also launched online campaigns on social networking sites such as Facebook, Orkut and Twitter. Their Facebook page, named Bharat Swabhiman Trust (Official), has registered 3,569 members so far.

Orissa: Nabarangpur Collector Reviews the Developmental Works of Block

Collector Sibabrata Dash, visited Chandahandi block inspected the progress of various development works being carried out in the block here on Wednesday. At a meeting Mr.Dash stressed on development of agriculture, and education, Mr.Dash Collector instructed officials to complete all development works within the stipulated time and adhere to norm.

Visited tahasil office, and LAMPS, Later he visited Tel river bridge construction works, in Beheramunda, interacted with the farmers and villagers instructed the officials to speed up the construction of bridge works being carried out in by the ITDA, Nabarangpur. Also visited the area Sindhimunda-Kharipakhna, where a bridge is demanded by the peoples to link with Chattisghar. Dhrubachanran Panchbhaya, PDDRDA, Chairman of the Block, Nursingha Charan Majhi, Promod Padhi, representative of minister, Ramesh Majhi, Zilla parisad Member, Motilal Hans, Samit members, and officials of the block were present at the meeting.

Elite schools lead education boom in Asia

The offspring of the booming region's wealthy elite are enrolling in some of the world's most famous schools and universities. But they don't have to get on a long-haul flight to do so.

Many of the world's most prestigious institutions have built, or are building, new campuses in some of Asia's thriving cities.

Harrow School is one of England's most famous fee-paying schools with a long and impressive list of "old boys".

British wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill, the poet Lord Byron, India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, King Hussein of Jordan and even the pop singer James Blunt once wore the school's famous straw boater hat.

Next year Harrow will open a new campus for 1,200 students in Hong Kong, which follows Harrow schools already opened in Bangkok and Beijing, to help satisfy a growing demand for ultra high-end schooling in Asia.

It won't be cheap.

Parents will have to pay a debenture -- basically a deposit -- of HK$600,000 ($77,000) to secure a place plus annual fees of up to HK$145,000.

Mark Hensman, the executive headmaster of Harrow International Schools, says the demand for expensive schooling is being driven by parents whose ambitions for their children have risen in line with their incomes.

"These aspirations result specifically in the need to learn English and gaining qualifications that will facilitate access to western universities," he told AFP.

"The trend in recent years has been for the growth of international schools to be sustained by a rapidly increasing demand from local parents rather than from expatriate parents.

"Governments in these countries are struggling to meet these expectations in their local education system and so international schools are increasingly filling the vacuum."

One of them is Marlborough College, another famous old English fee-paying school, which is building its first overseas campus as part of a massive new education hub in Malaysia.

The EduCity hub in Iskandar, Johor state -- which sits on the southernmost tip of peninsular Malaysia opposite Singapore -- aims to enrol around 16,000 students by completion of the site in 2016.

The Netherlands Maritime Institute of Technology opened in May and Britain's Newcastle University will welcome the first students to its medical school in September. Southampton University is building a campus.

From the US, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is jointly creating Asia?s first Institute for Supply-Chain Innovation with a Malaysian partner and Johns Hopkins University is expected to set up a medical school.

A sports complex and international student village with housing are also planned.

Khairil Anwar Ahmad, who heads the company behind the complex, said the aim was to provide talent, stimulate the local economy and put Malaysia on the education map.

EduCity will offer students a cheaper way to get a good foreign degree -- in the case of Newcastle University Medical School at about 65 percent of the cost.

"Asian parents always place a lot of emphasis on education," Ahmad told AFP. "There are more parents who can send their kids abroad but probably not Europe or the US so that this is a more affordable option.

"It?s more affordable... but you get the same quality."

The EduCity institutions hoped to attract a 50-50 mix of local and foreign students from mostly China, India, the Middle East and other regional countries.

In Singapore, a sapling of the US's prestigious 'Ivy League' college circuit has been planted with Yale University setting up the city-state's first liberal arts college at the National University of Singapore.

International schooling is a huge global business worth $26 billion in school fees alone. But this figure is expected to double in a decade, says analyst firm ISC Research as the number of schools also doubles.

"International education is now very big business," Nicholas Brummitt, Managing Director of ISC Research, told AFP.

"Two of the most noticeable changes in the market are the increase in the number of local students and the increase in the number of schools run for profit.

"In the year 2000, international schools were still perceived largely as an expatriate and non-profit phenomenon. Now many international schools, especially new ones, are for profit and cater in large part for wealthy local families.

"We estimate that, overall, 80 percent of international school students are now from local families, a complete reversal over the last 20 years."

It was Harrow's links to the Thai royal family that originally brought the school to Asia -- 23 princes were educated at the original Harrow school over a 100 year period including the present king's father.

A visit to Thailand by the teachers of the crown prince's sons in the mid-1990s led to a proposal the school open a branch in Bangkok in 1998, as many Thai parents were already sending their children to the UK and the US.

"Significantly, more and more British public schools are opening schools abroad and some of the British public schools which have previously opened international schools are looking to open more," Harrow's Hensman said.

Muslims allover India should feel sense of ownership for Jamia Millia Islamia: Vice chancellor Najeeb Jung

Being the first Central University to attain minority status, Jamia Millia Islamia will extend its hands to take more students from all parts of India; from North East to South. The vice chancellor of the university Mr Najeeb Jung made it very clear that Jamia is not meant only for the Muslims of UP and Bihar but it belongs to Muslims allover India.

Muslims from all parts of India should proudly feel the same sense of ownership to the University as the North Indian Muslims feel. To increase representation from all parts of Indian, the university already started conducting entrance examinations in Kerala and Guwahati. Next year it expects to reach Mizoram and other unrepresented areas.