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INDIA
IGNOU, National Council of Rural Institutes sign MoU
The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Council of Rural Institutes (NCRI), Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), to launch an Internship/Skill Development Certificate Programme, involving ‘hands-on-experience’ for the students. The MoU was signed by IGNOU Registrar (Admin) U.S. Tolia
and NCRI Member Secretary Upamanyu Basu in the presence of IGNOU Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Department of Higher Education Secretary Vibha Puri Das and Director of the Student Service Centre at IGNOU Dr. Jayshree Kurup. “IGNOU has various programmes, which have practical components. Internships have now been made mandatory in programmes like Master’s in Rural Management, which are modular in nature. Keeping this aspect in mind, we thought to collaborate with the NCRI, giving students an
HRD ministry constitutes task force to examine deemed university applications
The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has constituted a task force to examine applications from ‘institutions that need to take corrective measures to several criteria for satisfying the Deemed University status’ regarding rectification of the deficiencies mentioned in the Report of the Committee constituted to review functioning of in-
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stitutions deemed to be universities. The central government had constituted a committee of experts to review the functioning of the existing institutions ‘deemedto-be-universities’ vide its notification number F.9-26/2009U3A dated June 7, 2009 so as to satisfy itself of the justification of their continuance as institutions ‘deemed to be universities’. The Review Committee (committee of experts) had submitted its report to the government on October 20, 2009 which had been accepted, in principle, by the government.
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opportunity for six to eight weeks to do an internship, to be provided by NCRI itself,” said Prof Pillai. Elaborating upon the responsibilities of the National Council of Rural Institutes, NCRI Chairman Dr. S.V. Prabhat said, “NCRI will identify the rural institutes/NGOs, evaluate their strengths (infrastructure, faculty, past experience, etc.) and come up with a list of them for adoption in order to establish learning/study/ practicum centers for the implementation of short-
term internship/skill-centric/ application-oriented training modules.” While lauding the efforts of NCRI and IGNOU, Das said, “This programme will lend value to those who already have it. In short, it will be more like giving back to the community.” According to the MoU, “The programme has been designed to provide a value addition to the existing academic programmes or to promote skills of the youth with the objective of improving the potential for self employment and greater employability in the job market.”
Symposium on trends in biochemistry inaugurated at AMU Inaugurating a National Symposium on ‘Current Trends in Biochemical, Biomedical and Environmental Sciences’ organized by the Department of Biochemistry, Vice Chancellor P.K. Abdul Azis of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) said that it is quite appropriate in the present day scenario where interdisciplinary research is the norm and boundaries between various disciplines are
getting blurred. Prof. Azis said that the Department of Biochemistry has produced distinguished scientists and entrepreneurs and these alumni are working in the United States. He pointed out that AMU had decided to establish central instrumentation facilities with modern equipment to boost more research activities He hoped that the symposium will promote scientific exchange and
also encourage more collaborative and inter-disciplinary research at AMU. Organising Secretary of the symposium Qayyum Husain, in his welcome addresses said that the first batch of M.Sc. Bio Chemistry passed out in 1959. “Since, then 56 students have obtained M.Sc. and more than 200 candidates awarded have gone to developed countries on post-doctoral assignment,” he said.
Global standards required in agriculture education – Pawar Minister for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Sharad Pawar has called for evolving global standards to enhance quality and relevance of agricultural education and research in the country. Addressing a two-day conference of vice chancellors of agriculture universities and directors of ICAR institutes here today, Pawar said, “Requisite models of public-private partnerships must be evolved for educational activities as well as for development, application and flow of technologies from lab to the market place and for strengthening of National Agricultural Research and Education System infrastructure through active interface with the industry.” He stated that, “In order to effectively address the emerging needs of agricultural sector, we require highly competent human resources. In this context, Global schools, demand-driven curricula, student centered and problem solving approach in curriculum delivery, effective co-ordination of multi-commodity and multi-disciplinary research in entire production to consumption chain of agricultural commodities and capacity building through training at the national and international level, are some issues which need priority attention.”