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IGNOU focuses on Nepal’s duet education system To integrate existing two education systems in Nepal, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has focussed on Kathmandu’s potentials to take up new special initiatives. “The open education will be highly beneficial in the country like Nepal characterised by low literary rate and remote geography,” at a programme organised by IGNOU here recently, Executive Chief of International Centre for Academy, Amit Giri said. He further said a new system has been introduced under which people having no time to attend college everyday could fulfil one’s academic pursuit remaining at home.
Indian gems win Gates Scholarship at Cambridge Altogether four Indians have won the esteemed Gates Scholarship for post-graduate studies at the Cambridge University. Sukrit Silas from Delhi will study Ph.D. in Pathology as would Bangalore-born Divya Venkatesh. Raghu Mahajan from Chandigarh will do Part Three of the Mathematical Tripos and hopes to go on to do a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics while Anand Shrivastava, a product of IIT Madras, will study M.Phil. in Economics. The university, describing them as the “world’s most brilliant students”, said they were selected from among the several thousands from 29 countries who applied for the scholarship set up in 2000. It enables academically gifted postgraduates with a strong interest in social leadership and responsibility to study at Cambridge.
Wharton business school plans to spread wings in India One of the world’s top business schools, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania is all set to expand its wings to India in the next one-and-half years. The globally acclaimed business school will zero in on either Mumbai or Delhi for the expansion. “Our students are already coming to India. The difficulty is that the world does not know Wharton is in India,” says Dean Thomas Robertson. Wharton, has various points of presence in India - healthcare institute with ISB, study trips of the executive MBA student faculty to India and executive education programmes. Wharton’s focus is on India and China, two of the fastest growing economies. Over the past two decades, Wharton has positioned itself as a global school. Close to 40 per cent of its students and 35 per cent of faculty are international.
India to assist Sri Lanka in VTC set up With a tide of technological development sweeping across all shores of education in almost all parts of India, vocational training has been a major part of it which is also developing and spreading its wings across. With the assistance of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Skills Development, Government of India, few more vocational training centres (VTC) are set to be established in the north and the east of the country
as well as in Nuwara Eliya. The Ministry said a feasibility study had been conducted by the Hindustan Machine Tool International Institute and they hoped to establish the vocational centres within this year. The Rs. 2,670 million project initiated bzy the Ministry will have a contribution of Rs. 2,375 million from the Indian government along with a transfer of knowledge in IT, account
plant repairing and motor mechanics, to name a few.
out of 138 countries, Qatar placed 25th while Bahrain was 30th in the 2010-11 Global Information Technology Report Transformations 2.0. Globally, the top five were Sweden, Singapore, Finland, Switzerland and the US. The report is released annually by the Insead international business school and the World Economic Forum. Bruno Lanvin, Executive Director eLab ISEAD, said, “The UAE’s regional top ranking is recognition of the efforts to seize technology as part of the strategy to move forward. During the past decade, the UAE has taken bold initiatives in developing its ICT infrastructure as well as many services — especially e-government
— the UAE’s current ranking is evidence that these efforts were well placed; it can lead others in the region and beyond to undertake similar efforts. Placing great emphasis on technological change will bode the UAE well, he said, “because it will increase local buy-in, especially from business, for this ICT-lead policy, moving from e-readiness to higher levels of usage is now a major challenge for the Emirates.” The UAE push is encouraging others to do the same, he said, and the “dynamics of GCC will create additional emulation. Qatar moved up five ranks this year, and is now just behind the UAE”, Lanvin said.
UAE leads top-30 ICT users
Three Arab countries — the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain — are ranked among the top 30 countries for harnessing information communication and technology (ICT) to transform society. The UAE ranked 24th
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