Seasonal Magazine May 2015

VOLUME 14 ISSUE 5 MAY 2015

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What matters more - amphitheatres or merit-first policies?

Amphitheatre style classrooms. Yes, that has been one of the greatest and often repeated claims that we saw and heard about from various private universities by way of their quality and leadership. In case somebody is yet to hear about this buzzword from India’s elitist higher education space, the concept is nothing but multi-level theatre style seating in classrooms, with the obvious advantage that professors can use the same classroom for everything from a normal lecture to a case study presentation to a teleconference. But is it something that should be a preference for a university operating in India?

The second-most repeated claim is about air-conditioned classrooms. India is a tropical country, and AC is any day welcome, but again, should this be a priority in a country where nearly 80% students drop-out from education after plus-two as they can’t afford even a government college? How nice it would have been, if instead of touting AC classrooms, universities had built green campuses, naturally-lit airy classrooms, wind or solar farms, or even open-air classes under the shade of huge trees?

That would have suited India perfectly, and would have taught visionary lessons in sustainability - that lasts a lifetime to the students.

If we could afford the same, our IITs, IIMs, NITs, and other such premium public institutions would be having such facilities. Because they are the apple of the eye, for Central Government that pours huge subsidies year-after-year into these high-quality institutions. A typical medium-sized IIT used to receive around Rs. 200 crore as annual financial assistance from the Central Government, around two years back. While this amount has been scaled down somewhat during the last two years, the figure still appears princely in an Indian context, and in comparison with what a typical government engineering college receives as assistance from the state.

But the ground reality is such that this annual grant of around Rs. 200 crore is barely enough to subsidize students’ fee, pay faculty salary, and undertake routine maintenance. IITs often lament that nothing is left for building new infrastructure, or pursue significant research projects. And yet, there is no dispute that IITs continue to be our best institutions, respected the world over for the quality of its undergraduate engineers. In a way, what this proves is that it is not superior infrastructure but faculty quality and student quality that defines a university’s quality.

This doesn’t mean in any way that amphitheatre style, air-conditioned classrooms are bad. Many Ivy League Universities in US or comparable universities the world over must be having such facilities, from where such concepts get readily copied by our private institutions.

Going a step further, compare the ’princely’ sum our IITs get with what a public university in USA receives from the government. A recent study showed that state universities like University of California or University of Michigan receives more than this kind of grant from the government for each of their departments!

But can we really afford it? Well, any top-notch private university operating in India can afford to build such facilities.

And students who prefer such universities obviously have parents who can foot the bill, AC included. But that was not the question, which was whether ‘we’ Indians as a community can afford such facilities?

The affordability of amphitheatres and air-conditioned classrooms must be assessed in this context. The allimportant point is whether we as a nation can afford such luxuries. Just because private universities are selffinancing universities doesn’t mean that their gates should be open to only those who are capable of self-financing their

to 60 acres. But more needs to be done to increase the utilization rates of our IITs and IIMs. In a country like India, with a huge burgeoning population, that more can even mean accommodating an additional contingent of students as evening batch.

A Class in Harvard University higher education. If that were the case, it is a clear violation of the very objective with which these self-financing colleges and universities were allowed - which was to improve our Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) which is still at a pathetic 21.1%, meaning that around 78.9% of our students between 18-23 still don’t go for college. It is a no-brainer why they opt out. They can’t afford going to even a government college, paying the small tuition fee, and the costs for bare essentials like textbooks, lab fee, and exam fee. But this is really a secondary reason, with the primary reason being that they need to start earning now, and not ‘waste’ 3 or 4 years in a college or polytechnic.

This situation is really spelled as p-o-ve-r-t-y, however unfashionable it has become to speak about it or even admit that it exists. Nobody travelling across the length and breadth of India by road, rail, or even air can deny seeing it.

Nobody who watches TV beyond the silly prime-time debates, and nobody who reads beyond sensational print media headlines can deny it. India is a poor nation, and will remain so for more than we would like to admit, if we are not going to do something about it.

In a nation where just Rs. 200 crore per annum can sustain a world-class IIT, even while it is not enough to sustain a single department in a US State University, we should really ponder about our priorities

in the public and private higher education space.

This doesn’t mean that private higher education is per se bad, and that public education is all gung-ho in India.

Historically, the excesses done by our public education sector would shame even our worst PSUs. Delhi’s famed JNU has only 7300 students, but enjoys a royal 1000 acre campus! University of Hyderabad has only 5000 students, but basks in the glory of a 2000 acre campus! The same kind of miniscule utilizations can be seen across most Central and State Universities. And India’s minimum specifications for new premium public institutions like IITs or IIMs still reeks of royal excesses. A new IIT or Central University requires 500 acres of land as a pre-condition, a new NIT requires 300 acres, and a new IIM requires 200 acres as a minimum requirement to start with!

The end result has been that it has been quite difficult to get sanctions as well as land for new IITs, IIMs, and the like, and even more importantly when they are eventually completed, it is often in double of both the scheduled time and the budgeted cost. Fortunately, a new government appointed committee to overhaul the land requirements have recommended drastic reductions in all requirements, which if implemented, will see new IITs in 250 acres, new NITs in 150 acres, and new IIMs in as little as 10

But there are more arguments running against creation of more public universities, and in favour of more private universities. Any Private University Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor would argue that many of the world’s finest institutions - including America’s famed eight Ivy League Universities - are truly private and self-financing in nature. Yes, it is true that they run on huge own funds - multi-fold more than America’s State Universities - with the combined funds of US Top-10 (which are all private) universities being $180 billion or a whopping Rs. 11.26 lakh crore. Harvard University alone has funds of $35 billion or Rs. 2.19 lakh crore.

But there is a huge difference. The mammoth funds that drives these universities are all academic endowments by industries as well as wealthy donors. That frees these universities to welcome all the truly meritorious - whether they are rich or poor or middle class - with open hands.

And these universities go from strength to strength as more and more meritorious students and faculty join them year after year. This is the ideal model to be followed by our private universities too. But for the corporates and wealthy individuals to start donating to educational endowments, there should be a high-level of transparency in the functioning and accounts of these universities, at par with listed blue-chip companies of India. Even this US model is not fault-free as recent studies reveal that even with a merit-only policy in place, only 15% of all students in such cutting-edge private institutions come from low-income families. Because of this, there is a huge uproar in America about whether these top institutions are any more eligible for the huge tax-breaks they enjoy on these mammoth endowments and the annual returns from it. But in India, industry endowments and the transparency to attract them are good objectives to start with.

John An Anttony

CONTENTS

RENAULT LAUNCHES LODGY, ITS FIRST MPV The much awaited MPV Lodgy from Renault is finally set to make its debut in the MPV segment next month.

Renault dealers in the country have been accepting the bookings for the vehicle at a token amount of Rs. 50,000. Post launch it shall emerge as the new contender against vehicles like Ertiga and Mobilio that have been

GET READY FOR INDIA'S $200 BILLION DIGITAL ECONOMY

A digital population of 500 million could transform India's economy, business landscape, governance and society beyond recognition.

MEET FIGO ASPIRE, FORD’S NEW COMPACT SEDAN

Ford’s next model for the Indian car market will come in the form of the Figo Aspire, the all-new compact sedan.

HOW WORLD VEGETATION IS INCREASING DESPITE MASSIVE DEFORESTATION

In a heartening news for environmentalists, the total amount of vegetation globally has increased by almost four billion tonnes of carbon since 2003, according to an analysis

WHY TO EXERCISE OUTDOORS DESPITE AIR POLLUTION

Add another advantage to the benefits of doing exercise, as a new study has claimed that working out outweighs the harmful effects of air pollution.

GOLD DEPOSIT SCHEME AND REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS (REITS) CAN MONETISE 1% OF GDP

The proposed Gold Deposit Scheme and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) can release as much as one percent of GDP for productive investments, says a report.

PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES MOVING UP, BUT A LOT MORE TO CLIMB

Seasonal Magazine has been on a whirlwind tour of India's private universities for this ranking issue. Over three dozen leading universities extended their invitation to our team to assess their campuses, and our team so far visited over two dozen universities across North & South India.

While most private universities have improved during the past few years, they have to sharpen their focus on quality aspects on at least nine fronts if they are to survive and thrive. These include admission transparency, scholarship assistance, faculty quality, contemporary curriculum, research outlook, industry interactions, soft skills training, placement assistance, and entrepreneurship development. Our ranking endeavour, we hope, will assess these eight core aspects of private universities.

CHINA PLANS FOR MAMMOTH SOLAR POWER STATION IN SPACE

The power station in orbit will have 6 sq km of solar panels and will beam electricity to earth using microwaves or lasers.

ANDHRA AND CENTRE JOIN HANDS TO BUILD A MEMORIAL FOR NARASIMHA RAO

In a striking non-partisan move, TDP governed Andhra Pradesh and BJP governed Centre is coming together to build a memorial for the former

CHINA AND USA MOUNT WAR ON CYBERSECURITY AND BUSINESS INTERESTS US President Barack Obama has sharply criticised China’s plans for new rules on US technology companies, urging Beijing to change the policy if it wanted to do

INDIAN STOCK MARKET RECORDS BEST YEARLY GAIN IN 5 YEARS

While Sensex & Nifty have risen by 25% during the past fiscal, Mid Cap and Small Cap indices have outperformed with a rise of over 50%.

INDIA LEADS THE WORLD IN KITCHEN TIME

People in India spend about 13 hours a week cooking, compared to the international average of almost six hours each week, a study has found.

WHAT GOT EXPENSIVE AND WHAT GOT CHEAPER FROM APRIL 1?

Entry tickets to museums, zoo and tiger reserves have become cheaper, while business class air travel, investment in MFs and chit funds have become expensive with some of the service tax

CONTENTS

Nirma University

Greater Noida based Galgotias University (GU) has clearly benefited from the expertise of its..

Alliance University

Eternal University

Amity University,

Alliance University is one of the rare private universities promoted by a thoroughbred educationist of international repute.

Located in the breathtaking Baru Sahib, in the lap of mighty Himalayas, this state private university was founded in 2008..

Amity University is differentiated by its vast and modern campuses more than anything else. This private university has campuses..

SRM University

KR Mangalam University

Chandigarh University

INDIA’S TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

SRM’s Founder and Chancellor TR Pachamuthu has transformed a simple self-financing SRM Engineering College in..

Baddi University The focus at Baddi University of Emerging Sciences & Technology has been on delivering high quality BTech students, which is..

WHY GOVERNMENTS SHOULD STOP MEDDLING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Irrespective of the shade of the successive Central governments, the HRD minister and functionaries display a propensity, Alice in wonderland-like, for exercising power unbridled by reason and reasonableness.

Galgotias University

Nirma University’s founder and President Karsanbhai Patel has been a uniquely successful..

CENTRE TO FOCUS ON NEW MEDICAL COLLEGES TO FIX SHORTAGE OF 9 LAKH DOCTORS: HEALTH MINISTER The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-like institutions will be set up in every State in a phased manner, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare J.P. Nadda has said.

KR Mangalam University on Sohna Road in NCR, is a private university that has evolved from the expertise of the..

VIT University

VIT University was originally Vellore Engineering College for many years, revealing its roots in engineering education..

LAND BILL UNLEASHING RURAL ANGER?

The palpable anger on the ground suggests that Narendra Modi might be in danger of upsetting rural India in the name of creating industrial jobs.

Chandigarh University is one of the larger private universities in Punjab, with student strength going near 23,000 in recent..

Assam Down Town University

Assam Down Town University, at Panikhaiti, near Guwahati, is the brainchild of Dr. NN Dutta, MS..

AMIDST RUSH OF PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES, HARYANA MOVES FOR A NEW STATE UNIVERSITY IN GURGAON

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar arrived in Gurgaon recently to inaugurate the Sikanderpur flyover but the biggest takeaway for the city lay elsewhere.

SASTRA University

Tamilnadu based SASTRA University has differentiated itself from the rest of the deemed and..

OP Jindal Global University

Assam Don Bosco University

DA-IICT

AISECT University

Assam Don Bosco University has almost all core departments and..

Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT), based in..

Promoted by AISECT, which is arguably one of the largest rural ICT training organization in India..

Integral University

Symbiosis International University

Nitte University

Lovely Professional University

JSS University

Mody University

Maharishi Markandeshwar University

Created by the Jindal Organization in memory of their renowned industrialist founder OP..

Founded in 2004, Integral University of Lucknow has grown to a remarkable size steadily, with even full-fledged medical and..

JK Lakshmipat University

IEC University,

JK Lakshmipat University (JKLU), set up in 2011, has clearly benefited from the expertise of its sponsor, the 125-year old JK..

Raffles University

Raffles University is the result of the unique vision of one towering individual - Late Vinod Kumar Gomber, a Harvard Business..

WHY SCIENCE CURRICULUM SHOULD BE INDIANISED?

One serious, but often overlooked, flaw of science education in India is the state of syllabi - nobody seems to have talked about it. Simply put, we have to teach our students nationally important elements of science, as well as the history of Indian science.

IEC University, with its main campus in Baddi, of Solan District in Himachal Pradesh is a young university notified by state..

ITM University Founded by Rama Shankar Singh as Chairman, this self-financing university is run by Samata Lok Sansthan Trust. Academically..

INDIAN-ORIGIN TEEN GIRL GETS INTO ALL 8 IVY LEAGUE UNIVERSITIES

At just 17, an Indian-origin girl has earned admission to 14 top US universities, including all eight Ivy League schools considered the most prestigious varsities worldwide.

Pune headquartered Symbiosis International University is one of the oldest and largest private..

Lovely Professional University (LPU) has rapidly become the largest single-campus private..

Mody University is a deemed university that has been set up exclusively for girl students.

Founded by RP Mody, who also..

IT IS NOT INFRASTRUCTURE, BUT FACULTY, THAT MATTERS Teachers need to be at the centre of education policy, instead of infrastructure. They must be trained appropriately for the job.

Nitte University, based in Mangalore, is promoted by Nitte Education Trust which is a leading professional education groups of..

Mysore based JSS University is one among a handful of exclusive self-financing medical universities in the country. JSS University is..

Maharishi Markandeshwar University at Mullana, near Ambala, has a modern campus..

UNESCO SAYS INDIA HAS ACHIEVED 'UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION'

Making significant progress, India has reduced its "out of school" children by over 90 per cent and has achieved "universal primary education", according to a UNESCO global education report released recently.

STRANGE

In

ANDHRA AND ANDHRA AND CENTRE CENTRE JOINJOIN HANDSHANDS TO BUILD A MEMORIAL FOR TO BUILD A NARASIMHA RAO MEMORIAL FOR NARASIMHA RAO a striking non-partisan move, TDP-governed Andhra Pradesh and BJP-governed Centre is coming together to build a memorial for the former Congress PM in Delhi who hailed from Telengana, and was neglected by the Congress in his later years. receiving a proposal from Andhra Pradesh government for a suitable memorial in the memory of Rao, who is considered the harbinger of economic reforms in the country.

Rao, who headed a Congress government between 1991 and 1996, was disowned by his party. After his death in 2004, the Congress-led UPA government had denied any memorial to him.

The UPA government, in fact, had gone further and decided in 2013 that there will be no more separate memorials for any leader, citing paucity of space.

Instead, a common memorial ground was set up in view of paucity of space.

ormer Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, who was disowned by Congress and denied a memorial in Delhi by its government, will finally get his due respect in the form of a "samadhi' in New Delhi, 10 years after his death.

Rao, who headed a Congress government between 1991 and 1996, was virtually neglected by his party.

Former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, who was disowned by Congress and denied a memorial in Delhi by its government, will finally get his due 12

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respect in the form of a "samadhi' in New Delhi, 10 years after his death.

The NDA government has mooted a proposal for constructing a memorial for Rao at Ekta Sthal on the banks of river Yamuna, sources said. Urban Development Ministry has prepared a Cabinet note in this regard after

The NDA government has mooted a proposal for constructing a memorial for Rao at Ekta Sthal on the banks of river Yamuna, sources said.

Built over 22.56 acre land, Ekta Sthal is situated between Vijata Ghat and Shanti Van near the Yamuna river. The complex currently houses memorials of former Prime Ministers IK Gujral and Chandra Sekhar, former Presidents Giani Zail Singh, Shankar Dayal Sharma, KR Narayanan and R Venkataraman.

The samadhi complex was built to acommodate nine memorials; while six have been occupied, three are still vacant, an official said.

According to the proposal, the Rao memorial would be a raised plinth in marble with a plaque honouring the former PM. TDP had moved a resolution last October urging the Centre to build a memorial for Rao, who hailed from Telangana.

E-COMMERCE

Get Ready for INDIA'S $200 Billion DIGITAL ECONOMY A digital population of 500 million could transform India's economy, business landscape, governance and society beyond recognition.

ou could think of India's internet growth as a primed-up athlete finally hitting his full stride.

First, there was a gentle warmup. It took 10 years for India to get her first 10 million users and another decade to hit the first 100 million.

Then, the pace quickened. The next 100 million users came in three years between 2010 and 2013, and the third 100 million took only 18 months.

Internet users crossed 300 million in December 2013. The athlete has hit his full stride now. "We are adding five million new users a month and that should take the user base to 500 million by 2018-19," says Rajan Anandan, managing director, Google India.

A digital population of 500 million could transform India's economy, business landscape, governance and society beyond recognition.

First, internet growth could spawn an economy worth $200 billion from internetrelated activities, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG). This is a four-fold increase from where we are today and the growth will come in just three years. Says Alpesh Shah, partner BCG: "Every second Indian will be an internet user by 2018. The biggest growth will come in e-commerce, which will expand almost fi ve-fold, while

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education and healthcare via mobile internet will expand internet use."

Second, it could catalyse entrepreneurship and wealth creation.

Global investors are already chasing Indian startups. Former Skype chief operating offi cer, Michael Jackson, is looking to invest in internet startups in India through his $300 million venture fund Mangrove. "I'm bullish on India's internet economy. With 500 million users it will be the size of Europe. There are challenges like low bandwidth, but that won't prevent the upcoming internet tsunami," says Jackson, partner, Mangrove Capital Partners. Ace angel investor Anandan is willing to bet that each of the next fi ve years will see at least one new startup scale up to be a $1 billion company.

Third, internet growth will also lead to massive job creation. About 4 lakh

people now fi nd direct employment because of the internet. This will expand to 20 lakh by 2020, BCG estimates.

India's internet economy could eventually create 65 million jobs and increase per capita income by 29% as more people come online, according to a Deloitte Consulting report titled 'Value of Connectivity.'

Connectivity will impact businesses and improve socioeconomic indicators.

Deloitte cites a study done in two villages — one with connectivity and another without. Child mortality decreased by 14% in the village with connectivity. Fourth, governance will improve, with or without politicians. Egovernance transactions increased from 0.5 billion to 1.7 billion between 2013 and 2014, according to etaal.gov.in, which tracks internet transactions.

Exact estimates vary. But most expect

India will have 500 million people online by 2018. Industry experts expect as many internet users by 2018. BCG is more bullish, with a target of 583 million users by 2018, almost all of them mobile internet users.

While studies make for a rosy outlook with promises of eliminating poverty as the internet economy expands, there is a lot to consider. At 300 million users, most of the English-speaking population is already covered. The next wave of growth will have to come from vernacular users. Internet access is expensive, and out of reach for most such users.

Quality of connectivity could pose a challenge to access bandwidth-heavy apps in healthcare and education or even watching movies and shopping.

"We will also be the world's largest narrow band country as most people can't afford broadband data plans.

With 300 million users we have covered India, but Bharat is yet to get connected," says Subho Ray, president, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). "Growth could plateau unless public, free WiFi happens in sync," he adds.

Not getting them online, leading internet thinkers believe, will be as much a loss to those that are online.

"To continue connecting the world, we have to connect India. More than a billion people in India don't have access to the internet. That means they can't enjoy the opportunities many of us take for granted, and the entire world is robbed of their ideas and creativity," said Mark Zuckerberg, CEO & founder, Facebook, in a statement at the launch of internet.org app for India on February 10.

Most of the internet connectivity in India is 2G. For example, only 11 million out of the largest telecom company Airtel's subscriber base of 210 million has 3G mobile internet (as on September 2014). Moreover, 90% of the market is pre-paid with the average monthly spend per user as low as Rs 150 and monthly re-charge of Rs 50 to Rs 70. There's no way they will access 3G where a 1 GB data plan costs Rs 250 a month.

(By Shelley Singh for ET) 15

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INNOVATION

Gold Deposit Scheme and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) can Monetise 1% of GDP The proposed Gold Deposit Scheme and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) can release as much as one percent of GDP for productive investments, says a report. avings in non-productive physical assets, primarily property and gold is 17 percent of GDP. A well-run gold monetisation and REITs scheme can recycle one percent of GDP, which can revive the savings rate in the financial space and help fund investments," JM Financial said in a report.

REITs have market size potential of USD 50 billion with a return profile of 13-14 percent pre-tax, it added. The report also said gold monetisation scheme can ease pressure on imports.

The country has an estimated 20,000 tonnes of gold stock. The gold monetisation scheme will allow the depositors of gold to earn interest in their metal accounts and the jewellers to obtain loans in their metal account.

Noting that as much as 30 percent of the physical stock of gold can come into the market and get monetised over the next three years, the report said even if only 5 percent of the total gold stock comes under the scheme over the next three years it will circulate gold to the tune of USD 15 billion or Rs 93,000 crore per annum. This is roughly half of the annual gold demand or 0.8 percent of GDP. It also said allowing banks and other dealers to monetise the metal will open up an avenue to transform the physical asset in a financial asset and free up resources.

As per the report, REITs have market size potential of USD 50 billion with a return profile of 13-14 percent pre-tax. The provision in the Budget of exemption of sponsor units from capital gains puts 16

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REITs at parity with IPO listing.

While some uncertainties remain about the direct holding structure, the report cited transaction costs and time taken for acquisition makes the direct holding structure at a disadvantage vs other structures. But it noted that this can pave the way for REIT formation enabling

REITs have market size potential of USD 50 billion with a return profile of 1314 percent pre-tax, it added.

The report also said gold monetisation scheme can ease pressure on imports.

companies to recycle capital in high RoE residential space or reduce debt.

In a report, the SBI's research wing has said the gold deposit scheme can fetch Rs 1 lakh crore. Describing the gold deposit scheme as a "game changer" SBI research said, "The proposed gold deposit scheme on a conservative basis can bring in the monetary value at least Rs one trillion".

Budget offers multiple measures to monetise gold, including the gold monetisation scheme, a sovereign gold bond and develop an Indian gold coin. Giving a fillip to investments in realty and infra sectors, it rationalises capital gain tax regime by providing partial pass through to them for the sponsors of newly-created business structures REITs and INViTs.

WORLD

China and USA Mount War on Cybersecurity and Business Interests US President Barack Obama has sharply criticised China’s plans for new rules on US technology companies, urging Beijing to change the policy if it wanted to do business with the US and saying that he had raised it with President Xi Jinping. r Obama said he was concerned about Beijing’s plans for a far-reaching counterterrorism law that would require technology firms to hand over encryption keys, the passcodes that help protect data, and install security "backdoors" in their systems to give Chinese authorities surveillance access.

"This is something that I’ve raised directly with President Xi," Mr Obama said. "We have made it very clear to them that this is something they are going to have to change if they are to do business with the US." The Chinese government sees the rules as crucial to protect state and business secrets.

Western companies say they reinforce increasingly onerous terms of doing business in the world’s secondl a rg es t e co n o m y a n d h e i g h te n m i s t r u s t o v e r cy b e rs e c u r i t y

"T his is some thing tha "This something thatt I’v e rraised aised dir ec tly with I’ve direc ectly Pr esiden i," Pre sidentt X Xi," 18

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between Washington and Beijing.

A Chinese parliamentary body read a second draft of the country’s first antiterrorism law last week and is expected to adopt the legislation in the coming weeks or months.

The initial draft, published by the National People’s Congress late last year, requires firms to keep servers and user data within China, supply law enforcement authorities with communications records and censor terrorism-related internet content. The laws "would essentially force all foreign companies, including US companies, to turn over to the Chinese government mechanisms where they can snoop and keep track of all the users of those services," Mr Obama said. "As you might imagine tech companies are not going to be willing to do that."

The scope of the rules reaches far beyond a recently adopted set of financial industry regulations that pushed Chinese banks to purchase from domestic technology vendors. The implications for Silicon Valley companies, ranging from Microsoft to Apple, have set the stage for yet another confrontation over cybersecurity and technology policy, a major irritant in US-

"W e hope the U S ccan an "We US ec tly vie w it and corr orrec ectly view handle it in a ccalm alm and objec tiv e w ay," objectiv tive wa

China relations.

Mr Obama said the rules could also backfire on China.

"Those kinds of restrictive practices I think would ironically hurt the Chinese economy over the long term because I don’t think there is any US or European firm, any international firm, that could credibly get away with that wholesale turning over of data — personal data — to a government," Mr Obama said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying defended the counterterrorism law, saying that it was "a requirement for the government in combating terrorism".

"We hope the US can correctly view it and handle it in a calm and objective way," Ms Hua said.

HISTORY

British Archaeologist Finds Jesus' Childhood Home?

Using an ancient text British archaeologist Dr Ken Dark has spent years investigating the ruins of the first-century ‘courtyard house’ in Nazareth so…could this be Jesus's childhood home? here was, he admits somewhat ruefully, no big “eureka” moment.

As Dr Ken Dark descended the steps under the convent of the Sisters of Nazareth he did not feel the thrill of discovery.

That has all changed now.

With the publication of his report into finding what he believes is the childhood home of Jesus, archaeologist Dr Dark has just had one of the most thrilling days of his life.

archaeology from Reading University, and his all-British team of professional archaeologists and enthusiasts began working in Nazareth, such thoughts were nowhere near his mind.

“I’m not a biblical archaeologist,” he said.

“I don’t go about with a trowel in one hand and the Bible in the other.

We were looking at how Nazareth developed and how its status as a p l a ce of C h r i s t i a n p i l g r i m a g e

affected the landscape.” It has long been thought that the convent of the Sisters of Nazareth sits over the site of a church built by the Byzantines who followed the Romans in occupying the region and stayed until the 7th century.

But when the nuns led Dr Dark down into the cellar he found more than he bargained for. “Nobody was more surprised than me to see spread out before me a vast array of walls and

“I’ve never known anything like it,” he said yesterday.

“It has been reported in Nigeria. I’ve just had Russian TV on the phone and I’m due on the radio in half an hour.

This story has gone all round the world and the world is going crazy over it.”

Since we are talking about one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever, this is hardly surprising.

For make no mistake, whether you are a Christian or not, the identification of what is very probably the house where the founder of one of the world’s major religions grew up is a very big deal.

The site has the potential to become a place of pilgrimage to rival Bethlehem or Jerusalem.

It has been reported in Nigeria. I’ve just had Russian TV on the phone and I’m due on the radio in half an hour At the very least, it is a hugely important historical finding from the imperial Roman era.

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archaeological features such as a water system,” said Dr Dark.

To the right was what looked very much like a cave church known as the Church of the Nutrition which was built by the Byzantines some time between the 4th and 6th centuries.

The layout and features of the church and two tombs beside it matched a detailed description in a text written in 670AD by a monk named Adomnan in which he mentioned a church standing on the spot “where once there was the house in which the Lord was nourished

house – followed by another church during the Crusades and then, much later, the convent – indicated that this was a site of great significance which had to be protected.

was pregnant with the Son of God – an event commemorated in the Church of the Annunciation which is across the road from the convent and the site of the new discovery.

“Great efforts had been made to encompass the remains of this building within the vaulted cellars of both the Byzantine and Crusades churches so that it was thereafter protected.

After fleeing into exile in Egypt, it was to Nazareth that Mary and Joseph returned with the baby Jesus, who grew up as a carpenter’s son.

Both the tombs and the house were decorated with mosaics in the Byzantine period, suggesting they were of special importance and possibly venerated,” Dr

In the Bible he is sometimes referred to as Jesus the Nazarene.

According to Dr Dark the house carved out of the limestone hill is just the sort of home that the family of an artisan like Joseph would have lived in.

“These were the typical homes of everyday people,” said Dr Dark.

It is also known that during the Roman occupation Nazareth was a busy place experiencing a building boom, meaning there was lots of work for craftsmen such as Joseph and perhaps also his growing son.

The Sisters of Nazareth gave Dr Dark full permission to excavate the site.

He said: “They could not have been more helpful but they were not terribly surprised by what we found.

They said they have always thought it was Jesus’s home.”

in his infancy”.

But to the left was a house consisting of a series of rooms built out of the limestone hill.

Dark wrote in his report of the findings published in the Biblical Archaeology Review.

One room was completely intact with a full-height doorway. Another had a stairway next to one of its walls.

His team also unearthed cooking pots and limestone vessels which he could definitively date back to “no earlier and no later than the 1st century”.

Parts of the original chalk floor were visible. The fact that the house had been cut out of the hillside had helped to ensure its preservation.

The limestone vessels suggest the occupants of the house were Jewish, as in the Jewish faith limestone is considered to be impervious to impurity.

Unlike a built wall, a hillside does not fall or get knocked down. As Dr Dark and his team examined the soil layers it dawned on him that the house was several centuries older than the church.

As everyone knows, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But it was in Nazareth, her home town in what is now northern Israel, that his mother Mary learned that she

The incorporation of the hillside into the structure, the evidence that the walls had been cut out of the rock with much older implements all pointed to the house dating back to the 1st century AD.

One room was completely intact with a full-height doorway. Another had a stairway next to one of its walls.

Parts of the original chalk floor were visible. The fact that the house had been cut out of the hillside had helped to ensure its preservation.

Very little of 1st-century Nazareth has survived so the fact that an early Christian church had been built over the 22

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Dr Dark published interim reports on his findings in 2006 and 2012 but his final report will be published as a book.

“As an archaeologist the thrill of discovery doesn’t really come in to play at the time as you are too busy engaging with highly technical data,” he said.

“But it is amazing to see how the findings have been received.

“In 2012 I discovered a whole town which was previously unknown by the Sea of Galilee and it didn’t get this sort of response. I was 54 on Monday so this is quite a way to celebrate my birthday.

“The simplest reason for believing it is the home of Jesus is that the Byzantines believed it and they were a lot closer to the early Christian period than we are.”

“Of course there isn’t a name plate to say this is the childhood home of Jesus.

It can’t be proved on archaeological grounds. But there is no archaeological reason to say this is NOT his home.”

In other words, perhaps all that is needed is a little faith.

RENEWABLES

CHINA PLANS FOR MAMMOTH SOLAR POWER STATION IN SPACE The power station in orbit will have 6 sq km of solar panels and will beam electricity to earth using microwaves or lasers.

he battle to dispel smog, cut greenhouse gases and solve the energy crisis is moving to space.

"Reason", in which a space station transmits energy collected from the sun to various planets using microwave beams.

Chinese scientists are mulling the construction of a solar power station 36,000 kilometers above ground.

Wang Xiji, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, says Asimov's fiction has a scientific basis.

If realized, it will surpass the scale of the Apollo project and the International Space Station, and be the largest-ever space project.

The power station would be a super spacecraft on a geosynchronous orbit equipped with huge solar panels. The electricity generated would be converted to microwaves or lasers and transmitted to a collector on Earth.

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US scientist Peter Glaser published an article in the journal Science in 1968, claiming a feasible design for the space solar power system.

After devoting more than half a century to space technology research, Wang, 93, is an advocate for the station: "An economically viable space power station would be really huge, with the total area of the solar panels reaching

5 to 6 square kilometers."

That's equivalent to 12 of Beijing's Tian'anmen Square, the largest public square in the world, or nearly two New York Central Parks.

"Maybe people on Earth could see it in the sky at night, like a star," says Wang.

Researchers in many countries have drawn dozens of designs, with square, round and bowl-shaped stations.

But why build a power station in space?

Wang says the electricity generated from the ground-based solar plants fluctuates with night and day and the weather, while a space-based generator can collect energy 99 percent of the time.

Space-based solar panels can generate ten times as much electricity as ground-

But why build a power station in space? Wang says the electricity generated from the ground-based solar plants fluctuates with night and day and the weather, while a space-based generator can collect energy 99 percent of the time.

should build an experimental space solar power station by 2030, and construct a commercially viable space power station by 2050.

However, many huge hurdles lie ahead.

For instance, a commercially viable space power station would weigh more than 10,000 tons. But few rockets can carry a payload of more than 100 tons to low Earth orbit.

"We need a cheap heavy-lift launch vehicle," says Wang, who designed China's first carrier rocket more than 40 years ago.

"We also need to make very thin and light solar panels. The weight of the panel must be less than 200 grams per square meter."

He also points out that the space solar power station could become economically viable only when the efficiency of wireless power transmission, using either microwave or laser radiation, reaches around 50 percent.

However, he is confident that China can build a space solar power station.

based panels per unit area, says Duan Baoyan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE).

"If we have space solar power technology, hopefull we could solve the energy crisis on Earth," Duan says.

The world has recognized the need to replace fossil fuels with clean energies.

However, the ground-based solar, wind, water and other renewable energy sources are too limited in volume and unstable.

"The world will panic when the fossil fuels can no longer sustain human development. We must acquire space solar power technology before then," Wang says.

"Whoever obtains the technology first could occupy the future energy market.

So it's of great strategic significance," Wang says.

"Construction of a space solar power station will be a milestone for human utilization of space resources. And it will promote technological progress in the fields of energy, electricity, materials and aerospace," says Wang.

Countries such as the United States and Japan have studied a space solar power station. Japan is leading in the development of wireless power transmission technology.

Some Chinese research institutes and universities have also conducted studies related to space solar power technology in recent years.

Members of the CAS and CAE wrote a report in 2010, suggesting that China

Li Ming, vice president of the China Academy of Space Technology, says, "China will build a space station in around 2020, which will open an opportunity to develop space solar power technology."

The space station could surport experiments on the key technologies of constructing space solar power station, Li says.

China is also expected to develop a new generation heavy-lift launch vehicle, he adds.

"When space solar energy becomes our main energy, people will no longer worry about smog or the greenhouse effect," says Wang.

"The development of wireless power transmission technology will be a great advance. After the technology is applied, power cables will not be needed anywhere in the world. Just imagine what a world it will be," he says with a smile.

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CONSUMER

What Got Expensive and WHAT GOT CHEAPER FROM APRIL 1?

Entry tickets to museums, zoo and tiger reserves have become cheaper, while business class air travel, investment in MFs and chit funds have become expensive with some of the service tax proposals announced in the Budget coming into effect from April 1. inance Minister Arun Jaitley had came out with a host of proposals last month to rationalise service tax, which is levied at an effective rate of 12.36 percent.

These also include raising the rate to 14 percent, but that will come into effect from a date to be notified later by the government after the passage of the Finance Bill by Parliament.

However, the proposals which will come

into effect from 1 April 015 include tax exemption granted to services like admission to a museum, zoo, national park, wild life sanctuary and a tiger reserve.

Similarly, life insurance scheme Varishtha Pension Bima Yojna, ambulance service, retail packing of fruits and vegetables, too will not attract service tax levy.

On the other hand, air travel will become expensive as service tax will now be levied on 60 percent of the value of the ticket as against 40 percent presently.

The abatement for classes other than economy is being reduced and service tax would be payable on 60 percent of the value of such higher classes,

"At present, service tax is payable on 40 percent of the value of air transport of passenger for economy as well as higher classes e.g. business class.

"The abatement for classes other than economy is being reduced and service tax would be payable on 60 percent of the value of such higher classes," said the memorandum to the Finance Bill, adding that the proposal will come into effect from 1 April 2015.

Services provided by Mutual Fund (MF) agents, marketing of lottery tickets, departmentally-run public telephone and free telephone calls from airport and hospitals will be subject to payment of service tax.

With regard to chit funds, the service tax will be paid by the chit fund foremen at full consideration received by way of fee, commission or any such amount.

They, however, would be entitled to claim Cenvat credit.

As part of the rationalisation programme, construction services will be exempted from payment of the levy from 1 April 2015 if the service is provided to the government with regard to historical monument, irrigation work, water supply and sewage treatment plant.

Exemption provided to construction, erection, commissioning or installation of original works pertaining to an airport or port will be withdrawn from 1 April.

Services provided by folk or classical artists will be exempted from the levy provided the amount charged is less than Rs 1 lakh.

Service tax exemption to transportation of 'food stuff' by rail, or vessels or road will be limited to transportation of foodgrains, including rice and pulses, flours, milk and salt only.

The transport of other items, however, will become expensive.

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SOCIETY

India Leads the World in Kitchen Time SPEND PEOPLE IN INDIAURS A ABOUT 13 HO G, WEEK COOKIN HE T COMPARED TO AL N IO T A INTERN OST AVERAGE OF ALMWEEK, H SIX HOURS EACFOUND. A STUDY HAS People in India and Ukraine spend just over 13 hours a week cooking, compared to the international average of less than six and a half hours each week, a study revealed on Monday.

They are followed by South Africa, where its citizens, on an average spend nine and a half hours on culinary activities, Indonesia where people spend more

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than eight hours a week and Italy seven hours a week. The research, conducted

by Germany-based market researcher GfK, said the countries where people spent the least amount of time cooking each week were Brazil (slightly more than five hours), Turkey (slightly less than five hours) and South Korea (less than four hours), possibly due to the popularity of their inexpensive street food carts.

The research was conducted by interviewing over 27,000 people aged 15 and above in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and the US.

The study further said globally 29 percent of people claim to have great knowledge and experience about food and cooking -- but this was again led by women at 34 percent, compared to just a quarter (25 percent) of men.

"Breaking this down into individual countries, South Africa and India top the list, with around half of people (50 and 48 percent, respectively) agreeing, or agreeing strongly, that this applies to them.

"Also in the top five are Turkey and Ukraine at 40 percent each and Indonesia at 38 percent," the study said.

It further revealed that women spend over seven and a half hours per week for preparing the dishes while men spend five hours a week.

NATURE

HOW WORLD VEGETATION IS INCREASING DESPITE MASSIVE DEFORESTATION

In a heartening news for environmentalists, the total amount of vegetation globally has increased by almost four billion tonnes of carbon since 2003, according to an analysis of 20 years of satellite data. nd this is despite ongoing large-scale deforestation in the tropics.

An Australian-led international team of scientists published the findings in Nature Climate Change, describing a range of causes for the increase.

“The increase in vegetation primarily came from a lucky combination of environmental and economic factors and massive tree-planting projects in China,” said lead author Yi Liu from University of New South Wales,

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Australia. “Vegetation increased on the savannas in Australia, Africa and South America as a result of increasing rainfall, while in Russia we have seen the re-growth of forests on abandoned farmland.

“China was the only country to intentionally increase its vegetation with tree planting projects,” Liu said.

At the same time, massive vegetation loss is still occurring in many other regions.

The greatest declines have been on the edge of the Amazon forests and in

the Indonesian provinces of Sumatra and Kalimantan.

“We found unexpectedly large vegetation increases in the savannas of southern Africa and northern Australia.

“The increase in Australia occurred despite ongoing land clearing, urbanization and big droughts across other parts of Australia,” said Albert van Dijk of the Australian National University.

The increased greening means that the total amount of carbon captured in Australia’s vegetation has increased.

“It’s important to recognise that global warming would be happening faster if some of our CO2 emissions were not captured by this vegetation growth,” the paper said.

About 50 percent of emissions from human activities stay in the atmosphere even after the other half is removed by terrestrial vegetation and oceans.

The only way to stabilize the climate system is to reduce global fossil fuel emissions to zero, the researchers noted.

HEALTH

Why to Exercise Outdoors Despite Air Pollution Add another advantage to the benefits of doing exercise, as a new study has claimed that working out outweighs the harmful effects of air pollution. he study by University of Copenhagen shows that despite the adverse effects of air pollution on health, air pollution should be not perceived as a barrier to exercise in urban areas.

Associate Professor Zorana Jovanovic said that even for people living in the most polluted areas, it is healthier to go for a run, a walk or to cycle to work than it is to stay inactive.

This is the first large population-based, prospective cohort study that has examined the joint effects of both physical activity and air pollution on mortality. It is based on high quality data on both physical activity and air pollution exposure.

The Danish study includes 52,061

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subjects, aged 50-65 years, from the two main cities Aarhus and Copenhagen, who participated in the cohort study Diet, Cancer and Health.

From 1993-97, they reported on their physical leisure activities, including sports, cycling to/from work and in their leisure time, gardening and walking. The researchers then estimated air pollution

THIS IS THE FIRST LARGE POPULATION-BASED, PROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY THAT HAS EXAMINED THE JOINT EFFECTS OF BOTH PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND AIR POLLUTION ON MORTALITY.

levels from traffic at their residential addresses.

5,500 participants died before 2010, and the researchers observed about 20% fewer deaths among those who exercised than among those who didn't exercise, even for those who lived in the most polluted areas, in central Copenhagen and Aarhus, or close to busy roads and highways.

Andersen concluded that it was important to note that these results pertain to Denmark and sites with similar air pollution levels, and may not necessary be true in cities with several fold higher air pollution levels, as seen in other parts of the world.

The results are published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

EDUCATION

It is Not Infrastructure, But Faculty, That Matters Teachers need to be at the centre of education policy, instead of infrastructure. They must be trained appropriately for the job.

As is the practice in every other sector, education is an opportunity for business, exploiting a multi-billion-rupee market.

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By Prof. R Krishna Kumar, IIT Madras

he recent TRP increasing incident in Bihar, of students cheating during an examination, is now past its shelf life. TV channels and the media have moved on and the matter is deemed closed after a couple of interviews. It is rather unfortunate that one more opportunity has been missed for analysing the much larger question: Are we educating India?

not by classrooms, desks and benches, pipettes and burettes. The teacher has to become the centre of education. The key question is: What are our schemes and plans to develop and improve the quality of teachers? Our motto should be to impart the same quality of education to every child in India, irrespective of her background, and, for that, teachers all over the nation must be of the same high quality.

Educating India starts and ends with creating ‘infrastructure’, new schools, colleges, IITs and IIMs. It is another matter that even the budgetary allocation is nowhere near the recommendation made five decades ago by the Kothari Commission. As is the practice in every other sector, education is an opportunity for business, exploiting a multi-billionrupee market.

The important fundamental step required to start off in this direction is a central service for teachers. One fails to understand why this country, while recognising the need for civil services in many spheres, did not think it necessary for education. Put aside the downside of the all-India civil services and concentrate on the obvious positive points.

Let us recognise one important fact.

India is educated by its teachers and

Teachers being the key, two things become important: One, we need to

attract dedicated and talented people to this profession by paying them the market salary and giving them the status they deserve. And two, they should be trained and retrained in modern methods of imparting education.

There is a need to introduce an Indian education service. This can be at various levels — primary, secondary and high school. Chosen on the basis of a competitive examination, candidates should be put through a rigorous oneyear training programme based on the IAS model. Let there be at least five training academies in each State, and a common programme which can be carefully drafted by international experts who are well known for modern teaching methods. Teaching is not only about mathematics, physics, chemistry and history. Teachers need training in understanding, motivating, moulding and even reprimanding a child.

Let these teachers be placed in government schools in the district headquarters. With time, let them adopt surrounding village schools. Let there be provision for them to grow in their profession. Let there be scope for a sabbatical for them to rejuvenate and qualify for a higher position. Let them be groomed to occupy important positions in the sphere of education. Let them be catalysts for a revolution in education.

Governments cannot take the narrow view like parents who, in most instances, look at education as a path for material wealth. Prosperity is a byproduct and not the main goal. Finland, for example,

has made revolutionary changes in education with the laudable goal of preparing kids for life. They have completely removed inequality in school education and, as is the case with every successful model, the government solely funds the school system.

That our education lacks quality, defined in a very conventional sense, has been pointed out by several studies. A few well-intended attempts by corporate giants, using their Corporate Social Responsibility fund of 2 per cent of profits, is not enough to solve the problem. In fact, this CSR money can well be used as financial support for the training academies, with no interference in administration.

One is tempted to add that education remaining in the concurrent list has

There is a need to introduce an Indian education service. This can be at various levels- primary, secondary and high school. Chosen on the basis of a competitive examination, candidates should be put through a rigorous one-year training programme based on the IAS model.

made it an orphan. What is needed is cooperation between the Centre and the State, and not competition. Education cannot form the grounds for parochialism, though a child has to understand the society around her. The idea of a central service will have the twin advantages of integrating India and normalising quality across the States.

Language, no doubt, will be an issue, but not an insurmountable obstacle that can be solved with a broad frame of mind.

It is not that higher education, which from the Nehruvian era got preferential treatment, is all hunky dory. Technical education is in a shambles. Sitting in an interview panel, I was shocked to see 39 out of 40 engineering graduates fumble on the equation of a straight line — a basic concept taught in school! ‘Make in India’ will remain, at best, a pleasant dream if this knowledge gap is not urgently addressed.

Indian education, be it school education, higher education or technical education, requires a serious change in the mindset of the planners. Let the government not be paranoid about growth and other macroeconomic indicators. Education is the foundation of society, its values, culture and progress. The Bihar incident is not an outlier, but yet another example of the rot that has set in. It is time we bring back the archetypal school teacher.

It is also time to realise that education is too serious a business to be left to the private sector.

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GRASSROOTS

Land Bill Unleashing Rural Anger?

The palpable anger on the ground suggests that Narendra Modi might be in danger of upsetting rural India in the name of creating industrial jobs. rime Minister Narendra Modi thinks that the propaganda against the land acquisition ordinance is an Opposition conspiracy. He could not be more wrong.

The peoples' movements against the provisions of the land acquisition law are politically ahead of the Opposition parties both in their imagination and demands. The Opposition parties are trying to catch up with them.

Disaffection and bitterness were all too apparent at a convention of the leaders of these movements at the Constitution Club of India in the capital last week. Never before has one heard such harsh language being used against the prime minister.

"In this country, only what 'General' Modi says goes. He only talks down. What about the 'Mann ki Baat' of the farmers," asked a speaker referring to Modi's monthly radio addresses? Another described him as a "munim" (an accountant) of the corporates. Some of the things said about him were too sharp to be reported.

A woman leader from Maharashtra who had led the struggle against land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ) of the Reliance Group said to thundering applause, "The slogan of Reliance is 'Kar lo duniya mutthi mein (grab the world in your fist)'. Narendra Modi today may be in their 'mutthi' (fist) but it is not big enough to grab the land of the farmers of Raigad."

She advised all those present, "Stop measuring land against money. See it as part of environmentally sustainable livelihoods, which are being destroyed. Don't try to fight your battles only in Mumbai and Delhi.

Fight them where your land is."

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the law even if adopted by Parliament.

Modi might still dismiss this as propaganda by "five-star activists". Had he come to the convention, however, he might have had a second think seeing the weatherbeaten and wrinkled faces of the participants in their modest crumpled clothes.

These are the people who can change the public perception about him and his party.

And their numbers are not small.

There are at least 252 ongoing conflicts over land acquisition in 165 districts, according to researchers from the Society for Promotion of Wasteland Development and the Rights and Resources Initiative.

This number accounts for only those conflicts where people have been killed or injured in protests and where more than one village is involved. They involve land acquisition for private entities, using that land for speculative purposes and where project benefits have evaded the oustees.

An estimated 53,000 hectares of land acquired by the government for private industry nearly a decade ago is still lying unutilised. An audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of land acquired under the SEZ Act of 2005 has confirmed that the land acquired for setting up industry had been diverted to real estate projects;

There are at least 252 ongoing conflicts over land acquisition in 165 districts, according to researchers from the Society for Promotion of Wasteland Development and the Rights and Resources Initiative.

and that such land was mortgaged to get massive bank loans by corporates for other activities. The SEZs neither created export revenue nor new jobs.

It is unrealistic to assume that people would believe that the results of land acquisition with reduced safeguards would be better. Why then is Modi persisting with diluting land acquisition laws?

Could it be that coming from Gujarat, he sees land as just another asset that people ought to monetise if the price is right?

This attitude prevents him from seeing that land alienation can lead to a loss of dignity, livelihood and habitat, besides social destabilisation. The anger against land acquisition is not only among landowners. The current policy does not take into account the livelihood of those who do not own land but are still dependent on it - tenants, sharecroppers, labourers and artisans. It also ignores those whose livelihoods depend on common lands, common water bodies and other common natural resources.

The palpable anger on the ground suggests that Modi may be in danger of upsetting rural and tribal India at one go in the name of creating industrial jobs - incidentally, agriculture creates more jobs per percentage point of gross domestic production contribution than manufacturing or the services sector. Diluting or doing away with institutional mechanisms of listening to those threatened by land alienation may have a political cost for Modi as well as his party.

(Credit: Bharat Bhushan for Business Standard)

EDUCATION

Why Governments Should Stop Meddling in Higher Education

Irrespective of the shade of the successive Central governments, the HRD minister and functionaries display a propensity, Alice in wonderland-like, for exercising power unbridled by reason and reasonableness.

his has come to the fore most recently in the refusal of Anil Kakodkar, the respected nuclear scientist, to play ball with the minister in arbitrarily overruling an earlier consensus and interviewing no less than 36 candidates for the post of IIT director in a single day. “IITs are centres of excellence. They should be left alone,” Kakodkar has responded in defence of having left the important task of choosing heads of these premier institutions to the minister and her epigones.

Six years ago, a UPA minister unrolled a plan to create 14 world-class universities (“universities of innovation”) “unencumbered by history or culture of the past” -something that no world-class institution would dare boast. The underlying idea is to build islands of

By Prof. Shahid Amin (Ret‘d) & Prof. Shobhit Mahajan, Delhi University

excellence by relying on “the highly skilled Indian diaspora”.

Now, fast on the heels of a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s diktat making it mandatory for all research scientists in its employ to put in 12 hours of gyan-daan in educational institutions outside their research labs, comes the news that US President Barack Obama

has accepted the GIAN proposal mooted by the Modi government. As with other “smart” acronyms, when unravelled it yields the cumbersome phrase: Global Initiative of Academic Network. Under this programme, top-notch scientists will teach in Indian institutions from between two weeks to 20 days. This is clearly an India-specific movement of global academic talent, following on the heels of Sibal’s still-born scheme to invite premier universities from the UK, Europe and the US to set up off-shore subsidiaries in our country.

The normal flow of international and inter-university academic talent is, however, for such outstanding academicians to hold regular jointappointments for a semester each in two universities. Ronald Dworkin, the late professor of jurisprudence (the US and the UK) and the brilliant social historian Carlo Ginzburg (Italy and the US) are leading examples from the social sciences. We lost one of our most innovative sociologists, Veena Das, the author most recently of Affliction: Health, Disease, Poverty - an ethnographic study of the urban poor, the “aam admi voter” of north Delhi - to the US, as “under the rules” Delhi University could not allow its faculty such intellectual freedom to benefit from and contribute to knowledge globally in a sustained way.

The new fortnightly GIAN idea of the Modi government, by contrast, envisages a veritable “fly-by-night” rapidfire igniting of Indian students’ minds. More significantly, there has been no discussion. In fact, an earlier HRD minister was opposed to the idea of enabling India-based academics (Veena Das worked under the legendary sociologist M.N. Srinivas during the golden days of the Delhi School of Economics) to hold joint appointments in “foreign” universities. For its part, the US government allows Indian academics to teach semester- or year-length courses in American universities under a visa regime meant to facilitate “skill

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development”, requiring a time-bound return to the home country for putting the skill gained to domestic use. The visiting Indian academic, one would have thought, gets paid because she contributes value to the particular US university, which invites her, so to speak, for her “skill-imparting” qualities!

The present government is equally keen on pressing the high visibility insta-cook button, while stirring the slow bubbling gruel of higher education with the ladle of ill-thought, top-heavy recipes. A one-size-fits-all uniform course content across the country is to be matched by a single Central Universities Act riding roughshod over historical specificities; students could now move effortlessly, with scant regard for compatibility, from one university to another, as teachers could be shunted out, the intrepid Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka way, wherever and how so many times the Indian state deems it fit for them to serve the educational requirements of the nation, and in whichever part of the India that is Bharat it deems fit.

It is interesting that the question of institutional autonomy catches public attention when, as in the case of the Kakodkar story, it concerns flagship institutions such as IITs. By implication, for the rest of us wallowing in the mud of public universities, there seems scant possibility of more than a few stunted lotuses blooming. Equally, due to the structure of almost magisterial authority allowed under the colonial dispensation to vice chancellors, the professoriate in these institutions fails signally in its fiduciary obligation to uphold academic and moral norms. Not for nothing were the fellows and professors of Oxford University able to out vote their VC’s attempt to award an honorary degree to a controversial politician from the subcontinent. And some paid a price for it, as when Richard Gombrich, the renowned Indologist, was denied the chair at Oxford that S. Radhakrishnan had once held, as he had successfully opposed the honouring of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto by Oxford University, citing his inglorious role in triggering the 1971 war.

Bihar’s Wall of Shame P

hotographs of parents scaling the walls of an exam hall to pass cheat sheets to students offer the latest evidence of India’s failing school system. The examinees in Bihar, a largely rural state, were in the matriculating class, known as class ten.

A good mark might be a gateway to college and a decent job in government, computing or banking. Sadly a big decline in school standards has made this far harder to achieve, at least by fair means. Hence the lengths—or heights—to which parents will go.

A recent report on education in rural India shows how far standards have slipped in the past decade. Fewer than half of pupils in class five could properly read a text written for class two pupils. Almost a fifth in class two could not recognise single-digit numbers.

An education system that favours elitism over basic schooling is in part to blame. The OECD found that the top 5% of 15-year-olds in two Indian states performed as well as average rich-country children in reading, mathematics and science. But the rest were far behind.

And there are shortcomings even in higher education.

Technology firms complain that graduate recruits are not up to scratch. Only a quarter with technical degrees are considered employable, according to one industry body.

(Credit: The Economist)

For their part, desi institutions such as Delhi University cannot quite effect Bertolt Brecht’s sardonic suggestion - if dissatisfied with the existing lot, “elect another people”. For the usual vishwa vidyalayas, the parameters are given: a national intake of students from unequally diverse backgrounds and a sudden doubling of enrolment and influx of first-generation students. And most crucially, a system that gives the faculty no say whatsoever in choosing its own colleagues.

No amount of quick-fixes can help our public universities meet the new challenges as ong as the cavalier and top-heavy system of faculty recruitment is allowed to continue.

(Credit: The Indian Express) 41

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EDUCATION

Why Science Curriculum Should be Indianised?

One serious, but often overlooked, flaw of science education in India is the state of syllabi - nobody seems to have talked about it. Simply put, we have to teach our students nationally important elements of science, as well as the history of Indian science. onsider existing syllabi of microbiology or infectious/ communicable diseases across Indian universities; diseases that are endemic to the Indian subcontinent are not included, while that of US and Europe are included - which is of little practical significance to Indian students.

What is the point of teaching diseases like Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Chagas disease or “human African sleeping sickness”, which are not reported from India? While malaria, rabies and dengue can be occasionally spotted in syllabi of some universities, most of the common endemic diseases prevalent in the Indian subcontinent, including Ascariasis, Trichuriasis, Strongyloidiasis, Toxocariasis, Lymphatic filariasis, Trachoma, Visceral leishmaniasis, Japanese encephalitis,

Chikungunya, Leptospirosis, and Amebiasis are altogether missing in syllabi of most of the universities, including that of the medical colleges.

This would mean students passing out of those courses are utterly ignorant of the local problems pertinent to them — an issue of great significance in the country’s didactic policy. These exact diseases are globally known as neglected tropical diseases — neglected by the West for the obvious reason that these diseases are not found there. But is it not ironical that these are even neglected in their home!

A number of such diseases still have neither effective treatments nor vaccines, suggesting a lack of research progress in those lines. Medical councils and grant agencies such as Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) should urgently prioritize funding

By Dr. Felix Bast, Asst. Professor, Central University of Punjab research projects on these diseases.

In India, evolution is typically taught beginning with the creation myth, history of evolutionary thoughts in the West, to Darwin’s theory of evolution and evidences supporting it. However, this strategy is tailor- made for Western students; Indians never had a problem accepting Darwin’s theory of evolution, as similar concepts exist in India since time immemorial.

Ancient Indians considered earth is way much older than 6,000 years - as thought of in the West till the 18 Century.

Which Indian won’t get surprised to know that Professor John Lightfoot, 17 Century Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, calculated the age of earth to be 6,019 years — a claim that stood unchallenged for nearly a century?

According to ancient Indian texts age of earth is 1.97 billion years (precisely 197,29,49,116 years, in year 2015), which is much closer to the current consensus of 4.6 billion years.

Palaeontology part of the syllabi as well is very much skewed to the West, with in-depth coverage of lagerstätten of Canada, the U.S., China etc., but that of the Indian subcontinent (for e.g., Kota, Lameta, Maleri, Mandla Formations), being entirely omitted. Works of Birbal Sahni and Pramatha Nath Bose - famous Indian paleontologists, should be included in the syllabi, so as the fossil parks of India and geological history of the Indian subcontinent

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Most of the common endemic diseases prevalent in the Indian subcontinent, including Ascariasis, Trichuriasis, Strongyloidiasis, Toxocariasis, Lymphatic filariasis, Trachoma, Visceral leishmaniasis, Japanese encephalitis, Chikungunya, Leptospirosis, and Amebiasis are altogether missing in syllabi of most of the universities, including that of the medical colleges.

Environmental Sciences is yet another discipline that is expected to benefit greatly by the addition of topics of national significance. Indian coastal ecosystem is altogether missing across the present syllabi, including island biogeography of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Lakshwadeep Archipelago.

For a majority of students, the biome “Savanna” is either in the United States or in Mediterranean and they do not know a Savanna (TeraiDuar) exists in India, an issue that clearly portrays problems with ecology syllabi across the country. India, by virtue of its deeprooted cultural practices, had been conserving bio-resources since time immemorial in the form of sacredgroves, as a couple of studies have revealed, and an in-depth understanding of sacred-groves in biodiversity conservation should be included in the environmental sciences syllabi.

One reason for the problem of syllabi not covering the local issues or works of Indian scientists is that a majority of science textbooks published from India are in fact based on textbooks published from elsewhere, notably England and the U.S., and the syllabi adapted by universities here are in turn based on those textbooks. It is expected that the Indian Science will greatly benefit from a nation-wide effort to “Indianise” our science syllabi and textbooks, along with its timely revision.

(Credit: The Hindu)

Amidst Rush of Private Universities, Haryana Moves for a New State University in Gurgaon Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar arrived in Gurgaon recently to inaugurate the Sikanderpur flyover but the biggest takeaway for the city lay elsewhere.

An announcement that a state-run university would be set up on a 100acre plot in Ghata, off the GurgaonFaridabad Road, filling a gaping hole in Gurgaon's otherwise lustrous education sector.

The CM has made several visits to the city since coming to power last October but Saturday's was different in more than one way as he tried to establish an emotional bond with the people of Gurgaon.

"I have worked in a private firm in Gurgaon for two years, I have closely seen the problems faced by the people here," Khattar said while

speaking at Government Girls' College in Sector 14.

He also said he had stayed in a flat in Park View society during which he got an opportunity to meet people and understand their problems. The state government will make all efforts to address Gurgaon's issues on priority basis, the CM promised.

Accepting the long-pending demand for a state university, Khattar said the proposal to set it up would be moved forward. The Gurgaon MLA, he added, had already identified a 100-acre plot in Ghata village under the jurisdiction of the MCG.

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PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

Centre to Focus on New Medical Colleges to Fix Shortage of 9 Lakh Doctors: Health Minister he All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-like institutions will be set up in every State in a phased manner, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare J.P. Nadda has said.

Nadda, who was at the Government Medical CollegeThiruvananthapuram to lay the foundation stone for various projects, said that Kerala too would get its AIIMS-like institution in the near future and that a Central team would be sent to inspect the sites that the State government had identified for the same, at the suitable time.

Nadda said that making up the shortage of human resources in health sector and at the same time, maintaining the quality of medical education was a dual challenge that the Centre was trying to tackle now.

The country needed at least 14 lakh doctors to maintain the World Health Organisation-recommended doctor-population ratio of 1:1,000, but was short of at least eight to nine lakh doctors. Paramedics were also in short supply.

He said that the regulatory bodies in the health sector needed to relax the norms and take a ‘pragmatic

approach’ and hence the government was engaged in discussions with the Medical Council of India on how a balance could be maintained.

He said that the government was trying to address the regional imbalance in the area of medical education, with 65 per cent of the premier educational institutions situated in the southern and western States. Of the 6,640 districts in the country, about 400 districts did not have a medical education institute. Hence the government had decided to upgrade at least 100 district hospitals as medical colleges with 100 MBBS seats each.

The government was also looking at the increased utilisation of information technology devices for the teaching of non-clinical subjects and continuing medical education programmes.

AICTE Denies Approval to 588 Colleges Bad in fr astruc tur e, shor acult infr fra structur ture shorttage o off ffacult acultyy and e the main poor ac ademic per e ar academic perfformanc ormance are rea sons, people in ed in the appr oval easons, invvolv olved appro pr oc ess said. proc oce The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has denied 588 technical institutions across the country approval to run various programmes. Bad infrastructure, shortage of faculty and poor academic performance are the main reasons, people involved in the approval process said. 31 of these institutions are in Tamil Nadu.

Technical institutions across the country, including engineering, polytechnic, management and pharmacy colleges, have to apply for approval from the AICTE every year. The colleges have to upload the details on a portal, which will be verified by the apex body. The approval is mandatory for technical institutions to commence a new academic year.

When technical institutions sought approval for their courses for the academic year 201516, the AICTE found that 588 institutions did not satisfy the norms. "This is a routine process and every institution is expected to upload relevant documents and records while applying for approval. If documents pertaining to any norm are not available or not satisfactory, the application is rejected," an AICTE official said.

When asked about the reasons, the official said most institutions did not satisfy the infrastructure norms or were short on faculty.

"From 2011-12 to 2014-15, many institutions have applied for an increase in intake. We have found problems like shortage of faculty and lack of enough classrooms and laboratories in many of the colleges," the official said.

Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 107 institutions being denied approval, followed

by Maharashtra with 88. States like Haryana, an emerging engineering destination in the country, has 32 institutions that have been denied approval for the academic year 201516. Tamil Nadu, the state with the highest number of technical institutions in the country, has 31 institutions that have been denied approval.

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WINNER

INDIAN-ORIGIN TEEN GIRL GETS INTO ALL 8 IVY LEAGUE UNIVERSITIES

At just 17, an Indian-origin girl has earned admission to 14 top US universities, including all eight Ivy League schools considered the most prestigious varsities worldwide. irginia-born Pooja Chandrashekar decided to apply to all eight ivies hoping to get into just one of them. But now she has the choice to get into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth, Columbia, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania besides six other elite universities in the US, including Stanford and MIT.

Pooja Chandrashekar

Pooja, the only daughter of two engineers who emigrated to the US from Bangalore, got a SAT score of 2390 out of 2400, a 4.57 grade point average and aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams.

The teenager has more than her academic achievements to fall back on.

Besides the high score, what also boosted her application is enterprise, initiative, and creativity.

The brainy teenager, who graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top-ranked magnet school in Virginia, has developed a mobile app that analyses speech patterns and predicts with 96 per cent accuracy if a person has Parkinson's disease.

She has also founded a organisation that encourages middle-school American girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programmes.

Pooja said that she decided to apply to all eight ivies hoping to get into just one of them, "because college admissions is really unpredictable."

"They are all fantastic schools, so I couldn't discount any of them...I wanted 46

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to make sure I could get into a really good school and have more choices," she told The Washington Post.

She has narrowed her list to Harvard, Stanford and Brown, where she got into a programme that guarantees her admission to the university's medical school.

Pooja said that what sets her apart is her passion for promoting STEM among young girls. Her non-profit ProjectCSGirls, hosts nationwide computer science competitions, " d e d i cate d to c l o s i n g t h e te c h gender gap."

She wrote one of her college application essays about being a

woman interested in a career in computer science, a field long dominated by men. She said she was often one of just a handful of girls in her high school technology classes.

"I want to encourage diversity in the field," she told the daily.

Even with her lofty accomplishments, Pooja is like most other teenagers. She enjoys watching television shows like Shark Tank and listening to Bollywood music.

She is also a fan of the Food Network channel and she said she is amazed by the chefs who show off their skills in the kitchen. However, it's one subject she admits she has not mastered.

"I can't cook for my life," she said.

CAPITAL MARKETS

INDIAN STOCK MARKET RECORDS BEST YEARLY GAIN IN 5 YEARS WHILE SENSEX & NIFTY HAVE RISEN BY 25% DURING THE PAST FISCAL, MID CAP AND SMALL CAP INDICES HAVE OUTPERFORMED WITH A RISE OF OVER 50%. midst rise in investor sentiment, expectation of reforms and pick up in the industrial activity and economic growth following the clear mandate to one party in the General Elections, the benchmark Sensex at the BSE rose by 25 per cent in 2014-15, thereby capping its best show since 2009-10.

This came on the back of a strong participation by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), domestic institutions and retail investors.

The mid-cap and small-cap indices rose even more as the BSE mid cap and the small cap indices rose by 50 and 51 per

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cent respectively during the year.

in a financial year.

In terms of milestones, the Sensex broke several of them in 2014-15. While it hit a new high of 29,681.8, it breached 7 milestones in 12 months rising from over 22,000 in April 2014 to hit 29,000 in January 2015.

Also, with expectations of further strengthening of the economy, FIIs entered into Indian debt market in big numbers to capitalise on high interest income available in the country.

While FIIs, with a net inflow of Rs 1,11,408 crore, were at the centre of the strong performance of the equities market, retail investors, too, came in large numbers to participate in the rising Indian markets.

Net investment from investors into mutual funds over the 11-month period between April 2014 and February 2015 stood at Rs 61,089 crore, which is the highest ever

During the year net FII inflows into the debt markets stood at Rs 1,66,638 crore, which is the highest ever and more than three times the previous high of Rs 49,988 crore witnessed in the year 2011-12.

The aggregate FII inflow into equities and debt stood at Rs 2,78,046 crore which is 65 per cent more than the previous high of Rs 1,68,367 crore witnessed in the year 2012-13.

AUTO

MERCEDES RACING ON SMALL MOTORS But the German giant has a tough task ahead to ensure that its lead over Audi isn't limited to the Jan-Mar quarter alone he launch of compact luxury cars, the size of which are slightly larger than Maruti Swift Dzire but priced four times higher, was a calculated risk Mercedes-Benz took in India when its back was against the wall in 2012.

Apart from a possible conflict with ultra luxe image, the launch of the two smallest cars in its portfolio also meant competing against Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Nissan Teana which operate in that price band.

But the "small" step meant a giant leap for Merc in India. The company, which had slipped to number three position while its fellow German rivals BMW and Audi stole the show, got back in the numbers game only in 2013 when the A-Class and B-Class (launched in 2012) went on sale. At Rs 21.49 lakh,

the hatchbacks targeted at the youth segment became the entry cars for the luxury brand whose entry price otherwise was over Rs 30 lakh with the C-Class.

Demand for the two compact cars hit such a level that Mercedes-Benz exhausted its India quota faster than anticipated. Repeated requests were made to Stuttgart (Mercedes' headquarters in Germany) to increase the allotment for India even as the two models remained totally imported products.

As of today the company has added two more models on the same platform - GLA-Class, a compact sports utility vehicle and CLA-Class, a compact sedan - while adding several variants to the A-Class and B-Class to keep the excitement alive.

Compact luxury products today account for nearly a third of Mercedes-Benz's total India volumes and stretches from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 35 lakh. Riding high on these four compact models and aided by warhorses C-Class and E-Class, Mercedes has now dethroned Audi to claim the top spot in the luxury car ranking in India in the January-March quarter. The last time it was number one was six years ago.

With sales of 3,556 units, Mercedes bettered sales of Audi which sold 3,181 units during the same period. The former reported a growth of 40 per cent while the latter witnessed a growth of 16 per cent during the quarter as compared to the same quarter last year.

BMW, which is now in the third spot among German luxury car makers,

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had overtaken Mercedes in 2009 when it stormed the market with its stylish 3 Series and 5 Series sedans. It took less than three years for BMW to topple Mercedes after it set foot in India.

MODELS ASSEMBLED IN INDIA

However, Audi was hot on its heels.

With new launches including Q3, A4 and Q5, Audi eventually overtook BMW in 2013, a full year before its original targets. Audi also became the first luxury car maker in India to crack the 10,000 per year sales milestone. But 2015 saw Mercedes come back with a vengeance.

MERCEDES: S-Class, E-Class, C-Class, ML-Class, GL-Class

AUDI: A3, A4, A6, Q3, Q5, Q7 BMW: 1 Series, 3 Series, 3 Series GT, 5 Series, 7 Series, X1, X3, X5 JLR: Evoque, Freelander, XF, XJ (Credit: Swaraj Baggonkar for Business Standard)

top-end variants, even if they are at a price premium than the competing models, which are available at a stripped-down version with a sticker price."

double product launches this year to 10 from a mere four launched last year.

With the exception of the A3 sedan, Audi did not have any high volume product last year. However, this year the German company promises at least two products aimed at driving volumes. Though it lost the crown in the first quarter, Audi remained the

On the back of 10 new launches last year and five in the last quarter, Mercedes powered its way ahead of

With as many as 15 products lined up for launch in 2015 as compared to 10 products of Audi, Mercedes is confident about retaining its lead for the rest of

Audi in the first quarter of this year.

The company has been closing the sales gap with Audi with difference reducing to 650 units in 2014 from 999 units in 2013. Demand for the new C-Class and E-Class have outstripped demand and the two models currently carry a waiting period.

the three quarters as well. "The share of new generation cars (like the A, B, CLA, GLA) to our total volume has increased from earlier 20 per cent to almost 30 per cent currently. We expect an increase of 50 per cent in the new generation cars in 2015 compared to the previous year", added Kern.

Eberhard Kern, managing director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India said, "The E-Class and C-Class remains the main volume drivers and together they contribute about 40 per cent to our volumes. Mercedes-Benz only sells the top-end variant of these sedans in India, which are highly feature rich. This is a key factor, as we have seen Mercedes-Benz customers prefer only

But Merc has some serious competition. Audi will more than

Joe King, Head, Audi India said, "We are very happy to retain the leadership position in the luxury car market for two consecutive years despite having only one major launch (Audi A3) in the last fiscal year. We are now looking forward to an exciting 2015 with 10 new models including the Audi TT and new Audi Q3 coming up".

THE CLA IS OFFERED IN BOTH PETROL AND DIESEL VARIANTS, THE FAMILIAR 2.1-LITRE DIESEL PRODUCING 135PS FROM 3,600RPM TO 4,400RPM AND PEAK TORQUE OF 300NM FROM 1,600RPM TO 3,000RPM.

In terms of reach too, the two rivals are stretching themselves as much as possible. While Mercedes will inaugurate 15 new dealerships this year, Audi had recently opened showrooms in Guwahati, Ranchi and Bengaluru along with a service facility in Kolkata.

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largest luxury car seller for the financial year 2014-15.

COVER STORY

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Seasonal Magazine has been on a whirlwind tour of India's private universities for this ranking issue. Over three dozen leading universities extended their invitation to our team to assess their campuses, and our team so far visited over two dozen universities across North & South India. While most private universities have improved during the past few years, they have to sharpen their focus on quality aspects on at least nine fronts if they are to survive and thrive. These include admission transparency, scholarship assistance, faculty quality, contemporary curriculum, research outlook, industry interactions, soft skills training, placement assistance, and entrepreneurship development. Our ranking endeavour, we hope, will assess these eight core aspects of private universities.

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COVER STORY

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CENTRAL UNIVERSITIES

nother admission season at graduate and postgraduate level is fast approaching. Even not all hardworking students are expected to gain admission for the course they wish for at the institution they prefer.

Which brings back the eternal dilemma of ‘course-or-institution’, and to add fuel to the confusion, in recent years, there have been even more options by way of private universities.

The additional question they bring to the table is whether students should opt for available courses/branches at conventional institutions, or opt for these entirely self-financing universities?

If there is one development agenda where all Indians agree, it is this - if India is to achieve its potential ever, it has to grow its teaching-learning infrastructure multi-fold in the next couple of decades. Education is not only the empowering force, but the real socio-economic leveller.

It is also an accepted reality that our governments couldn’t deliver what they promised for long - quality education that is subsidized up to the degree level for all. It is into this challenging territory that India’s pioneering edupreneurs from primary to higher education levels have ventured into.

Today, India is home to a burgeoning community of private schools, international schools, self-financing colleges, private deemed universities, and private universities. All of them 54

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following the self-financing model to the hilt, and not apparently taxing the national exchequer.

Besides aiding lakhs of students to study what they desire at the place they desire, these private universities have given proper jobs to thousands of teachers and support staff. However, with all these rapid growth has also emerged several low quality institutions that threaten to cast a bad name on the whole private education sphere.

From our extensive tour of private university campuses, there were several takeaways. While larger private universities have paused expanding their infrastructure to focus on more qualitative issues, smaller and emerging private universities are still in the

Though engineering undergraduates from our IITs are still in demand in USA for employability purposes, it is a fact that none of our IITs find a place among the Top 200 World Universities as compiled by reliable sources.

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IITs/IIMs/ NITs

INDIA’S HIGHER EDUCATION INFRASTRUCTURE

130

PUBLIC & PRIVATE DEEMED UNIVERSITIES

205

PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

311

STATE UNIVERSITIES

35000

AIDED & SELF-FINANCING COLLEGES

Smriti Irani, Minister of Human Resource Development

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COVER STORY process of upgrading their campuses.

Competition to attract students have definitely heated up with new colleges and universities springing up in even mid-range cities on a quarterly basis or even monthly basis. Despite being bogged down by their self-financing nature, almost all universities we met were doing their level best to attract and retain the student inflow.

Private Universities have to fight and survive this battle as private colleges have been on a resurgence during the past year, as some sections of students and their parents have started shifting their preference to more conventional universities and their affiliated colleges.

Another insight from our visits has been that there is a surplus of seats - at least for the time being - in branches like engineering and management.

However, in a country like India where GER ratio is still pathetically low, this is going to be a temporary phenomenon.

Thankfully, during the last couple of years, India has been going through a start-up boom, due to e-commerce going mainstream. Private Universities are making use of this trend in many ways. Ahmedabad based Nirma University, a top ranking university for entrepreneurship development, for example, is bringing in innovators to the campus to teach, and is already home to a successful student start-up.

Anyway, demand for graduates will catch up with supply eventually, but universities have to sharpen their focus on quality aspects, at least on nine fronts if they are to survive this catching up period.

These include admission transparency, scholarship assistance, faculty quality, contemporary curriculum, research outlook, industry interactions, soft skills training, placement assistance, and entrepreneurship development. Our ranking endeavour, we hope, will assess these eight core aspects of private universities.

Though transparency in admissions still needs to be improved, some private universities have made significant progress when it comes to transparency in placements. An example is Greater 56

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Noida based Galgotias University, a top ranking university for placements, which publishes in its website the placements obtained by each of its students.

Wherever there is reasonable transparency in admissions, the quality of placements tend to be better. One example is Thanjavur based Sastra University, a top ranked private university in South India for quality of placements, which attracted internationally renowned recruiters like Microsoft, Amazon, Bosch, and a few more such MNC giants even before the bulk recruitment season started.

Another hint for the effectiveness of private universities comes from the dramatic shift in demand for research grants received by Central Government’s Department of Science & Technology (DST).

While, even a few years earlier, the

Merit has always been a relative thing. For long, merit for a course was decided by the availability of seats. But a country like India, known for its burgeoning youth population, soon ran out of options in the government-funded sector. Lot many students had merit for particular courses than there were seats.

proposals were dominated by the likes of IITs, IISc, NITs etc, now around 50% of the proposals are from private institutes. Though private or selffinancing colleges too are included in this 50%, there is no doubt that it is the advent of high-profile private universities that have changed the research landscape.

One reason for the improvement in

Radical concepts like Flipped Classrooms, where students learn at home through video lectures and demonstrations, and come to conventional classes for doing only ’homework’, have already proven to improve student success rates across the board.

research outcomes in private universities is the autonomy enjoyed by them in critical aspects like curriculum development. For instance, Bangalore based Alliance University, a top ranking private university for updated curriculum, invests heavily in updating its curriculum by hiring internationally renowned experts in each subject.

Many private universities want to prove a point about their quality, and what best way than research to do it? DST research grants are quite generous, at least according to Indian standards, ranging from Rs. 30 lakh to Rs. 30 crore for a single approved project.

Another reason why private universities fare better in research is international alliances. Sonipat based OP Jindal Global University, a top ranking university for international academic alliances in North India, for example has

forged different kinds of tie-ups with universities in many regions including North America, Europe, Australia etc.

Basing all logic on GER is flawed, as it ignores why the other 80% are not studying in a college today. Though on paper there are many reasons, including dyslexia, in practice what social researchers have repeatedly found is that the reason is purely economical.

In other words, fee is unaffordable and/or they need to start earning now itself.

The focus and competition on research activities are definitely improving in the country, but the sad part is that forget private universities even the elite public institutions are still no match for developed countries’ standards.

Though engineering undergraduates from our IITs are still in demand in USA for employability purposes, it is a fact that none of our IITs find a place among the Top 200 World Universities as compiled by reliable sources.

Such compilations can’t be faulted as despite having an annual enrolment of around 15,000 students, none of our IITs have delivered a path-breaking world patent, let alone produce a Nobel laureate in their long history.

Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences

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COVER STORY While our top leaders often lament about this, there is a point that they conveniently forget, which is the level of funding IITs receive in comparison with the American universities.

Maybe in the long run, private universities can end up better poised on the infrastructure front. Some of the private universities like JK Lakshmipat University of Jaipur, a top ranking private university in Rajasthan for infrastructure, has built up commendable infrastructure like its Cloud Computing Lab with Thin Clients, which many IITs & NITs are yet to have.

IIT Roorkee recently did a study on this subject, in which they compared what IITs receive and what US State Universities receive. Mind you, not what the Ivy League or such top-tier private institutions receive, but what public universities in US receive.

As an example from this study, IIT Roorkee used to receive Rs. 190 crore annually as grants around two years back. In contrast, what a single department of a public US university l i ke U n i ve rs i ty of Ca l i fo r n i a at Berkeley or University of Michigan at Ann Arbor receive is much more than this.

Yet another example for superior infrastructure delivering results in India’s private higher education space is Chennai based SRM University. This private deemed university has leveraged superior infrastructure like its three campuses in South India and one campus in North India, to emerge as a top ranking university in engineering placements.

Even in Asia, National University of Singapore’s individual departments have bigger budgets than our IITs, whose funding has been reduced during the past two years. Even on full funding, the grant was barely enough for infrastructure and salaries, leaving nothing much available for research.

In contrast, some private universities has invested heavily for not only research, but in creating recreational facilities for its students. Sikar based Mody University, a top ranking private university for girls in Western India, has 58

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17.5 acres dedicated for extensive sporting facilities including Equestrian with 55 horses and an Olympian trainer, despite being a girls-only varsity.

Another university with a girls-only focus in under-graduation level, Himachal based Eternal University, has invested in another dimension to ensure that maximum variety of courses are offered. A top ranking private university for variety of courses for girls in the state, this private university based in Baru Sahib today is capable of offering 35 undergraduate and postgraduate programs, even in rare streams like nursing, renewable energy, agriculture, food technology, & music.

In any case, fund crunch indeed is one prime reason why IITs even lag in BRICS standards, let alone developed countries’ standards.

In the recently published study, The Times Higher Education BRICS and Emerging Economies Rankings 2015, which gives comprehensive data and

lliance University is promoted and led

by Dr. Madhukar G Angur, a professor and scholar of international repute.

The curriculum at Alliance gets updated faster as it has several tie-ups with noted international universities to share and develop program contents. This Bangalore based private university’s curriculum is in tune with industry demand as not only is Chancellor Dr. Angur a noted corporate consultant, but a successful entrepreneur.

Kapil Sibal

DR. MADHUKAR ANGUR CHANCELLOR ALLIANCE UNIVERSITY 59

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COVER STORY analyses on 100 universities in 18 emerging economies of the world, Indian universities and colleges are in no way toppers.

The results have shown that out of the top 10 universities, 3 are from China, 3 are from Turkey, 1 is from Taiwan, 1 is from Russia, 1 from Brazil, and 1 from South Africa. There is not a single Indian university in even the top 20 universities. Only the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, ranks 25 on the list.

With the state of our premier institutes being such, one can imagine the research standards at private universities and colleges, and how much they have to improve.

But there have been notable exceptions.

Assam Don Bosco University, a top ranking private university in North East, has a full-time Director of Research, which has been a progressive step that got commended by a visiting team from UGC. Academically and professionally aggressive markets like USA are, however, making best of the general Indian weakness in research.

USA has plans to come up with a legislative proposal to award green cards for all those who complete a postgraduate degree in science, technology, engineering, or maths, the

The Government, regulators like UGC & AICTE, and accrediting bodies like NAAC should ensure that the academic standards in private universities are significantly overhauled so that affluent students are naturally drawn to these institutions, leaving the subsidized seats for the needy students.

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reated by the Jindal Organization in memory of their renowned industrialist founder OP Jindal, this private university is unique in other ways too. Its Chancellor is Naveen Jindal, who is a former MP and also the Chairman of the group’s flagship Jindal Steel & Power. JGU is academically led by its Vice Chancellor Prof. C Rajkumar LL.B. (Delhi), B.C.L. (Oxford), LL.M. (Harvard), S.J.D. (Hong Kong), a noted scholar. JGU has student exchange programs with many universities and colleges across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America, which enables students to study one semester abroad.

Naveen Jindal, O P Jindal Global University

Suneel Galgotia, Chancellor Galgotias University

Harvard and MIT have already made available their entire course materials freely accessible to any student anywhere using a computer or tablet through the web. Such Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) are not just revolutionising distance education, but conventional education too.

algotias University led by its Chancellor Suneel Galgotia and CEO Dhruv Galgotia have been very proactive in attempting near 100% placements for their students. GU is also very transparent in its placements with all the details of each student getting placed being published in their website. so-called STEM fields, from any US University.

There is no doubt about whom are all America targeting with this move. It is China and India.

America is awakening to the supreme realization that they need to steal young talents in STEM from the world over, and make them US citizens, if they are to sustain their global economic leadership that still now seems invincible compared with the rest of the world. Now, that is what is called foresight.

Focus on pilfering global STEM talent also reveals their real strategy. While America can take care of its own in other core developmental academic fields like economics, management,

business etc., affluent American youth is not keen to pursue academically tougher fields like science, engineering, medicine, & maths.

One way Indian universities can fight back is by maintaining focus on niche areas. A successful example in this kind of focus is Mysore based JSS University, a top ranking private university for medicine in Karnataka. Despite being promoted by JSS Mahavidyapeetha, one of the largest educational groups in the country which has got expertise in most disciplines, its JSS University has an exclusive focus on medicine and other health sciences.

Another example for a niche focus is Gandhinagar based Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information & Communication Technology (DA-IICT).

Promoted by Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, one of India’s largest industrial conglomerates, DA-IICT has emerged as a top ranking private university for ICT in Western India, due to this sharp focus on a sunrise field.

Anyway, the American message to the world is clear. Only merit is welcome.

And merit will continue to move in to America, if others like India and China are not cautious.

The world over, the best educational institutions were created on this simple premise that ’only merit is welcome’.

The same goes for India and its IITs and IIMs. In a way, the new private universities of India too have realized this truth and is espousing a slightly altered philosophy that ’merit is welcome‘.

Being self-financed, they can’t afford to say that ‘only merit is welcome’. But then the all important question in the private university context is whether ‘merit is moving in?’

Why this is not happening is a long and complex story to understand.

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COVER STORY India since 1857, when the year of India’s first freedom struggle also stood glorious witness to the foundation of three universities - University of Mumbai, University of Madras, & University of Calcutta.

British India went on to establish many more universities, and later free India would follow suit, under the vision of leaders like Jawaharlal, in an accelerated mode. So much so that, Indians never felt there were less universities than they needed.

And how can it be otherwise, with the nation home to 42 great Central Universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University, Benares Hindu University, Aligarh Muslim University etc., and 311 well-performing State Universities like National Law University, Tamilnadu Agricultural University etc.

The British model followed by these universities to spread out - that of affiliating colleges - was also perfect for the populous people we are.

And, in case any of us needed even better quality education, especially of the professional kind, there were the autonomous institutions coming under

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Santosh Choubey AISECT University

“

We, at AISECT University, have adopted a research oriented approach towards education covering all the major professional fields wherein we constantly keep an eye on creating a rich yet affordable academic environment at par with international standards of excellence and technical acumen. We are offering high quality yet affordable education in a non-urban area with the objective of empowering the semi-urban and rural youth of the region with skills-based education which will enable them to be as employable as the urban educated youth.”

”

Department of Higher Education, like Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs, formerly RECs), and Indian Institutes of Science, Education, & Research.

INDIA’S TERTIARY GROSS ENROLMENT RATIO (GER) 18-23 YEARS

We and our children studied under some of these facilities, paying fees not worth calling by that name, while our teachers and professors were always in glee, teaching barely 5 hours a week, and taking home conscience-pricking salaries, all under the auspices of that benevolent regulator, University Grants Commission (UGC), which was only too happy to burn public taxpayer money at a furious rate for the benefit of, well, the public itself.

The fact that a majority percentage of such beneficiaries came from the most affluent segment, or the fact that a good percentage of them forsake Indian citizenship forever, is another story altogether.

2005-06

2010-11

However, such universities and their affiliated colleges were not enough to raise our Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) to even a minimally acceptable level.

Bharat Hari Singhania JK Lakshmipat University

2014-15

2020 Target

KLU campus is very near to Jaipur’s Mahindra World City and Special Economic Zone spanning 3000 acres, making industry interaction programs of the university very productive. The university has invested heavily to create cutting-edge engineering labs like its Digital Electronics Lab, Communication Lab, Fluid Mechanics Lab etc. JKLU also has a unique Cloud Computing Lab with Thin Clients, which even many IITs & NITs are yet to have.

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COVER STORY Gross Enrolment Ratio is a UN created metric of students of a nation enrolled in a school/college to the total number of children of that level.

India’s GER at tertiary or higher education level is 19.4% (as of 201011 which is the latest official data), and it means that only less than 20% of students who should be going in for a college degree are now pursuing it for various reasons.

India’s 43 Central Universities, 16 IITs, 13 IIMs, 27 NITs, some early Deemed Universities like IISc, IIITs etc, and 311 State Universities as well as their thousands of affiliated colleges all come under the subsidized category.

They tend to be older institutions, and are the first choice of the most meritorious students due to obvious advantages like state-subsidised education, high reputation, long history, high academic standards, industry acceptability etc.

SS University accredited at A Grade by NAAC, is an exclusive health sciences university promoted

by SS Mahavidyapeetha, arguably one of the largest educational groups in the nation. Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamiji takes personal care in the wellbeing of JSS University and is also its Chancellor. BN Betkerur IAS (Retd.), Executive Secretary of the entire JSS Mahavidyapeetha empire is also the Pro Chancellor of JSS University, while Dr. B Suresh as Vice-Chancellor.

But merit has always been a relative thing. For long, merit for a course was decided by the availability of seats. But a country like India, known for its

Massive Tax-Free Endowments Drive American Universities Harvard University

$35 Billion

Stanford University

$21.4 Billion

Top 10 American Universities

$180 Billion

All 800 American Institutions

$516 Billion

burgeoning youth population soon ran out of options in the governmentfunded sector. Lot many students had merit for particular courses than there were seats.

Skyrocketing campus placements has been another reason why merit got redefined. If private universities became capable of delivering the kind of graduates that industry is demanding, who has the right to complain?

Employability emerged as the key here.

For example, Bhopal based AISECT University, a top ranking private university in Central India for ICT & Skills Development, has a successful strategy 64

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Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamiji JSS University

Ashok Mittal Lovely Professional University

ovely Professional University led by its Chancellor Ashok Mittal has forged placement tieups with global IT services majors that saw hundreds of its students being placed from the campus.

Additionally LPU also runs Pool Campus Placements for the benefit of hundreds of students from other universities.

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COVER STORY in ensuring employability of its graduates.

RP Mody, Mody University

Thus entered the self-financing model in higher education. The trend started with self-financing colleges and progressed to first autonomous colleges and then to self-financing universities.

They came in two broad categories Private Deemed Universities that are sanctioned by UGC / Central Government, and Private Universities that are sanctioned by the respective State Governments.

But today, when the tally of Deemed Universities has touched around 130, it is clear that Government has opted to grant Deemed University status to many large self-financing colleges or group of colleges.

Despite this elaborate infrastructure of 42 Central Universities, 311 State Universities, 130 Deemed Universities, the around 56 IITs/IIMs/NITs, the thousands of affiliated aided colleges, and even more of affiliated selffinancing colleges, the GER was nowhere near acceptable.

That is why in 1995, India decided that enough is not enough, and directed UGC to create an alternate structure Private University - and notified the first of this kind.

Private University, by definition, was a fully state affair, having nothing to do with the central government except for UGC approval.

Some of India’s state governments like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh etc competed with each other to allow private universities to aspiring edupreneurs.

India is today home to 205 private universities. The quantitative logic behind the move is sound, which is a low GER. An unofficial 2014 report puts the GER for tertiary education or the 18-23 group at 21.1, which is an improvement from 2011, but nowhere near many peer countries.

The successive governments including the present one have a stated goal to achieve a GER of at least 30% by 2020.

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ody University at Sikar Rajasthan is an exclusive girls’ University. Founded and led by its Chancellor RP Mody, this private university has relatively rare courses girls prefer like Fashion Design, Architecture, & Law. Mody University has world-renowned equal-opportunity employers like IBM & Deutsche Bank among its campus recruiters.

N Vinaya Hegde Nitte University

itte University, based in Mangalore, is promoted by Nitte Education Trust which is a leading professional education groups of Karnataka with campuses in Bangalore too.

Its Chancellor, N Vinaya Hegde is a noted technocrat in Karnataka.

The Government of India had conferred the status of Deemedto-be University to the institution under ‘A’ Category and Nitte University has also been accredited with ‘A’ grade by National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC).

Karsanbhai Patel Nirma University

Dr. SR Azmi Nadvi Integral University

Fr.Stephen Mavely Assam Don Bosco University

ssam Don Bosco University is the 16th global university promoted by Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), and clearly leads as a topper in not only the state, but in the entire North East of India. ADBU’s largest program is engineering and it also has several novel programs in humanities.

irma University is one of the oldest and most prestigious private universities of Gujarat.

True to its roots in the philosophy of legendary entrepreneur Karsanbhai Patel, Nirma University’s leadership is most evident in its management programs.

otal commitment for quality based value education is the touchstone of peace, progress and prosperity.

Mr.Satnam Singh Sandhu Chancellor, Chandigarh University

s Asia’s fastest growing university our aim and priorities are keenly set on the wholesome development of our academic structure, our industrial and global alliances and ultimately, our students. With new and innovative courses being introduced this year our focus is to create an environment of experiential learning.The doctoral research being carried out in the university is paving us towards new areas of research and innovation,” 67

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COVER STORY Today, despite having 712 universities & premium institutions and more than 35,000 colleges, India is still struggling with a low GER, mainly due to the burgeoning population.

The solution is of course more colleges and universities, and since the government can‘t or won‘t fund it, selffinancing institutions is the only way out.

But the model needs to be really flawless. It can’t be flawless when better education is available from the hundreds of state-funded universities and their thousands of affiliated colleges at subsidized rates. In higher education it is a given that any

Baba Iqbal Singh Ji Eternal University

ternal University is home to many rare streams of study including renewable energy, agriculture, food technology, & music. Structured as 15 Schools, Eternal University offers more than 25 undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Located in the breathtaking Baru Sahib, in the lap of mighty Himalayas, this state private university was founded in 2008 by Baba Iqbal Singh. Ji, who is also its Chancellor. institution is only as good as the students it attracts.

And to a lesser extent, the faculty and infrastructure. How can there be excellent faculty in a private university if they won’t pay better than the statesponsored UGC scale?

Some private universities like Phagwara based Lovely Professional University (LPU) has been trying to address this issue by recruiting a certain percentage of its faculty from IITs. LPU has been a top ranking private university for placements in Punjab.

Anyway, privatization is not the culprit here, but rather too fast privatization with too little forethought. When the society is allowing a private institution the supreme authority to grand 68

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Prof R Sethuraman Sastra University

astra University is a leading private university in Tamilnadu, especially in the engineering stream. Led by its Vice Chancellor Prof R Sethuraman, the university is noted for its transparent admissions, high level of placements, and research initiatives.

addi University of Himachal Pradesh has achieved almost 100% placements for its BTech students during the last two years. It is also a nodal centre for recruitment by Indian Defece Forces for the past several years. Baddi University’s placement focus begins from quality of admissions, and includes preplacement training, personality development, industry visits, and expert talks. Led by Chairman Ram Prasad Agarwala, Baddi takes care that quality of admissions is ensured at one end, and that preplacement training is provided at the other end.

Ram Prasad Agarwala Baddi University

Prof. R Nagaraj, DA-IICT degrees, and make a sustainable business out of it, these institutions have the responsibility to aid the needy among the society.

No one expects self-financing institutions like private universities and deemed universities to be selfless. But are some of them becoming too selfassured, too self-serving?

Basing all logic on GER is flawed, as it ignores why the other 80% are not studying in a college today. Though on paper there are many reasons, including dyslexia, in practice what social researchers have repeatedly found is that the reason is purely economical.

In other words, fee is unaffordable or they need to start earning now itself.

So, how will a student or his/her parents who can’t afford the regular subsidized college fee, afford the selffinancing fee of private universities?

The only other way is to prevent affluent students from getting subsidized education, and thus force them to opt for private universities with better infrastructure and luxuries.

As this is easily said than done in a liberal democracy like India, it should be the prime focus of the Government, regulators like UGC & AICTE, and accrediting bodies like NAAC to ensure that the academic standards in private universities are significantly overhauled so that affluent students are naturally drawn to these institutions.

Better discipline is another avenue that

A-IICT of Gujarat promoted by Reliance Anil Dhurubhai Ambani Group is a leader in Western India when it comes to engineering streams like Computer Science, IT, & ICT. The university has clearly benefited from the leadership provided by Anil Ambani, one of India’s most successful industrialists. private universities must focus to naturally attract students. Lucknow based Integral University has made reasonable headway on this front. This top ranking private university in U.P. for discipline and ragging-free campus, not only has a comprehensive zerotolerance to ragging policy, but has an actual track-record of zero ragging in its long history.

Private universities on their part should also start the process of moving up the value chain, and there is no other way than endowments to do that. It is a shame on the sector as well as on India Inc that not even a single university or institution (not just private universities) have sizeable corporate endowments backing it for subsidizing meritorious students.

In contrast, in a country like USA which leads most other nations in higher education standards, most private institutions are funded by huge industry endowments. Harvard University has an endowment of $35 billion from industry and wealthy donors, while Stanford University has a $21.4 billion endowment. The Top 10 American universities hold endowments worth $180 billion, while all the 800 colleges and universities across North America hold endowments worth $516 billion.

What the figures reveal is that it is industry endowments that create and sustain premium private universities.

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COVER STORY and of course, vice versa too in the long run. This is not a loss for the industry as the graduates from these institutions finally serve the industry requirements. There is an additional attraction for both the donors and the universities as none of these donations or endowments or the returns from it are taxed.

India too can explore this model under its corporate CSR initiative that is currently expanded with agendas like building solar/wind farms and toilets.

Only if such a model succeeds would we have the answer to the troubling question of how public are our private universities?

Private Universities need to address this issue for their own existence as it is only a matter of years, before the Central Government throws open the doors to international universities to set shop here. And what we will be admitting in won’t be just brands like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Oxford, or Cambridge, but revolutionary educational paradigms that can turn the whole educational system upside down by democratisation of educational content delivery.

S Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences is rapidly emerging as one of the leading private universities in Karnataka. MS Ramaiah Group of Institutions being one of the most successful educational groups in the country, this university is in safe hands.

Dr.M.R. Jayaram.

MS Ramaiah University

R.L.Gupta IEC University

Take for instance the approach of Harvard or MIT which have already made available their entire course materials freely accessible to any student anywhere using a computer or tablet through the web. Such Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) are not just revolutionising distance education, but conventional education too. For instance, it gives highest quality educational content to any aspiring private university.

Then comes the even more strange concepts like Flipped Classrooms, where students learn at home through video lectures and demonstrations, and come to conventional classes for doing only ’homework’. Strange as it may sound, Flipped Classrooms have already proven to improve student success rates across the board.

Private Universities need to embrace such digital delivery methods too to cut costs and emerge competitive in the unfolding global scenario.

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EC University is a young private university in Himachal Pradesh that has been designed from the ground up for providing a wide variety of courses in all popular streams. From its inception, IEC University has schools in all core sectors like Engineering, Management, Science, Humanities, Commerce, & Allied Health Sciences. The university offers both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in almost all its 14 schools.

T. R. Pachamuthu SRM University

RM University has three sprawling campuses in South India, all three near Chennai, South India’s largest metro city. Its main campus at Kattankulathur, in Kancheepuram District, around 50 kms from Chennai, is a 250 acres university township. SRM Campuses have dedicated leased line internet connectivity and wireless access with speeds ranging from 32 Mbps to 8 Mbps. SRM Campuses are connected to Chennai city through 65 dedicated buses run by the

ymbiosis Group of Institutions are more than four decades old, one of the oldest in Western India. Founded by an academician, SB Mujumdar SIU is a top destination for overseas students in Western India, with students from 75 countries studying here. The university offers a broad spectrum of 107 programmes across its 7 core faculties. SIU has 43 institutes under it, across 9 campuses.

SB Mujumdar Symbiosis Group of Institutions

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Presenting before you India’s top private universities in all the broad and niche categories that matter for students, and the reasons why these institutions rank at the top...

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Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Top Private University for Entrepreneurship Development What Makes Nirma University the Top Private University for Entrepreneurship Development NU is led by Dr. Anup K Singh, an Nirma University brings great innovators Nirma University is promoted by one of academician with deep industry knowledge, to campus to teach and mentor its India’s most illustrious entrepreneurs, who serves as its Director-General and students, an example being Mansukhbhai Karsanbhai Patel, and he serves as the Chairman of Academic Council as well as Patel, a grassroots level innovator.

President of Nirma University.

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Karsanbhai Patel

N

irma University’s founder and President Karsanbhai Patel has been a uniquely successful made-in-India entrepreneur who took on the might of MNCs in the FMCG industry. Nirma University is professionally led by an academician with unique industry knowledge, Dr. Anup K Singh, Director-General and Chairman of Academic Council as well as Finance Committee. Dr. Singh has been trained at University of Allahabad, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and Harvard University, and has taught at leading B-Schools, and done corporate training for several leading corporates. If Instagram has taken the mobile world by storm, forcing Facebook to buy it, a start-up by students at Nirma University is taking Instagrammed photographs to a new level. Printajoy is the name of this start-up venture and is already making waves. Printajoy prints Instagrammed photos on fine-quality matte paper, hand crafts it further, and delivers at your doorstep. The start-up attracted admiration at Ahmedabad‘s National Institute of Design’s Makerfest 2014.Nirma University has also produced talents like Abhijit Karnik, who went on from this campus, to pursue groundbreaking innovations like a shape-changing mobile phone. Nirma University is also inviting path-breaking innovators to teach and mentor its students. Mansukhbhai Patel, a grassroots level innovator has delivered a lecture at Nirma University on innovation. His invention of a cotton-stripping machine dramatically changed cotton cultivation in Gujarat and elsewhere.

Nirma University has produced talents like Abhijit Karnik, who went on for his higher studies in UK, and later invented a shapechanging mobile phone.

Nirma University has incubated noted startups like Printajoy.

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Galgotias University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh

Top Private University for Placements

G

reater Noida based Galgotias University (GU) has clearly benefited from the expertise of its parent, the Galgotias Educational Institutions (GEI), which has been in the professional higher education field for more than a decade. In GATE 2015, two Galgotias’ students have come in Top-10 ranks, while a GU student has come in at Rank 36 and three more GU students have come in at commendable national level ranks. Led by its Chancellor Suneel Galgotia and CEO Dhruv Galgotia, GU focuses on delivering productive education which is most apparent in its good track-record in career placements. The focus on placements at GU starts from the admission stage itself. Admissions are based on merit and there is no management quota. Galgotias favours students who have scored high in plus-two board exams

What Makes Galgotias University the Top Private University for Placements Galgotias Educational Institutions (GEI) has a track-record of 100% placements for interested students for the last eight years, starting from 2008 till 2015.

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Galgotias University (GU), started in 2011, has a track-record of 100% placements for interested students during the last three years.

Galgotias University is very transparent in disclosing its placement details, and publishes details of placements of each student in its website.

In 2015 batch, the largest three placements at Galgotias were by Tier-I IT firms Cognizant (583 students), Infosys (338 students), & Wipro (229 students).

Dhruv Galgotia & Suneel Galgotia

and state or national level entrances like JEE and CAT, as well as GU‘s own GEEE. To attract meritorious students Galgotias University has significant scholarship programs.

The most significant scholarship at GU is a 50% tuition fee waiver as scholarship for students securing up to the 4000th rank in the IIT/JEE Examination. Other excellence strategies at GU include co-designed degree/PG courses by IBM, KPMG etc; grooming programs by Toyota, Infosys etc; and exchange programs with international academic giants like Purdue, Goethe, Georgia Tech etc. GU encourages its students to pursue a multidisciplinary approach from the undergraduate level onward. It is one of the few universities to have implemented the Flexible Credit System (FCS) for undergraduate programs in engineering. The 180 credits of an engineering program are divided among the courses of Engineering (66%), Science (20%), Humanities (8%) and Management (6%). Galgotias University is academically led by its Vice Chancellor Dr. BV Babu, an internationally renowned researcher, author, consultant, & educator who took his PhD from IIT Bombay and taught at various prestigious institutions for more than three decades including BITS-Pilani.

GU’s major placement providers have been repeat recruiters, as in 2014 batch too the biggest names were Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, IBM, Cognizant etc.

Several major recruiters including Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Accenture etc have officially commended Galgotias’ and its students for their quality and attitude.

Galgotias’ recruiters come from not only IT industry but from all major industry verticals like banking, automotive, telecom, manufacturing, real estate development, entertainment, healthcare, NBFCs, e-Commerce, media, consumer electronics, financial services, insurance, retail etc.

In 2015 batch, other large recruiters included other Tier I firms like IBM and Tech Mahindra.

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Why Alliance University is Top Private University in India for Updated Curriculum

Alliance University, Bangalore

Top Private University in India for Updated Curriculum

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Alliance University is promoted and led by Dr. Madhukar G Angur, a professor and scholar of international repute.

Alliance University’s curriculum is in tune with industry demand as not only is Chancellor Dr. Angur a noted corporate consultant, but a successful entrepreneur.

Alliance University invests heavily in developing their own curricula for all subjects, to ensure that content delivered in the classroom is never outdated.

Alliance University hires some of the world’s finest experts in each subject to develop the curriculum.

Alliance University has a highly proficient Curriculum Review Committee comprising of senior faculty with significant academic and industry experience. They assess the entire curriculum every year and make it more contemporary and relevant to industry and society.

Alliance University’s curriculum gets updated faster also because it has several tie-ups with noted international universities to share and develop program contents.

Alliance University supports its updated curriculum with one of the largest libraries the 50,000 sq ft Alliance University Central Library.

Dr. Madhukar G Angur

A

lliance University is one of the rare private universities promoted by a thoroughbred educationist of international repute. Dr. Madhukar G Angur scaled the pinnacle of his career with the Lifetime Achievement Award of David M French Distinguished Professorship at University of Michigan’s Flint School of Management. Not only that, Dr. Angur is a noted international corporate consultant on strategy as well as a successful entrepreneur. While Alliance University offers a broad range of courses, its main hallmark has been rigorously updated and modern curriculum across all the streams. It has invested heavily in developing updated curricula by way of hiring world renowned experts in each field to develop the modern syllabus. This private university of Karnataka also has clear leadership in areas like academics and faculty resources. Alliance University encourages research based projects and the writing of case studies and empirically based papers which are published in international peer reviewed journals of a high calibre. A large percentage of faculty resources have doctoral degrees. And Alliance faculty actively encourage students to write papers for publication in national journals and present papers in conferences. AU is also noted for its impressive academic infrastructure, like its 50,000 sq ft Central Library. Its students across engineering, management, sciences, law etc also benefit from AU’s strategic academic alliances with many reputed universities worldwide.

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JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur, Rajasthan

Top Private University in Rajasthan for Infrastructure

Shri Bharat Hari Singhania, Chancellor 80

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Dr. Devi Singh, Vice Chancellor

What Makes JK Lakshmipat University the Top Private University in Rajasthan for Infrastructure JK Lakshmipat University (JKLU) is promoted by one of India’s oldest and largest industrial conglomerates, the JK Organization having annual sales of over $4 billion and home to diverse companies like JK Tyre, JK Lakshmi Cement, JK Paper, Fenner India etc.

JKLU campus on Jaipur-Ajmer National Highway No. 8 is very accessible by rail, road, & air. It is just 18.5 km from Jaipur Railway Station, 19.5 km from Jaipur’s State Road Transport Corporation Bus Stand, and 25 km from Jaipur International Airport.

Despite rapid accessibility from Jaipur, JKLU campus is vast at 30 acres, and is set in a green and scenic design.

JKLU campus is very near to Jaipur’s Mahindra World City and Special Economic Zone spanning 3000 acres, making industry interaction programs of the university very productive.

J

K Lakshmipat University (JKLU), set up in 2011, has clearly benefited from the expertise of its sponsor, the 125-year old JK Organization whose footprint spans six continents, and 22 manufacturing facilities across India. JK Organization is also active in education, running 14 educational institutions across India including JKLU. The university offers graduate and postgraduate programs in management and engineering & technology. JKLU’s placement track-record in MBA is 100% during the last three years. This private university of Rajasthan also offers a novel dual-degree - BTech + MBA - which is an integrated 5-year program. Industrialist Bharat Hari Singhania serves as the Chancellor of JKLU and noted academic scholar and international financial management expert Dr. Devi Singh (formerly Director IIM Lucknow and MDI Gurgaon) serves as the Vice-Chancellor while eminent researcher and leading academician Prof. Dr-Ing. Anupam Kumar Singh serves as the Director. Many of JKLU’s top leaders including Dr. Devi Singh, Prof. Anupam Singh as well as many among the faculty have studied or trained abroad or in IITs, IIMs, & NITs. The JKLU campus is fully WiFi enabled with enough WiFi hotspots, and every corner of the campus buildings are connected through a state-of-the-art gigabit network. JKLU’s classrooms are constructed in amphitheatre style and has features like air-conditioning, audiovisual equipments, multimedia, wireless LAN, and broadband Internet connectivity. JKLU campus also has facilities like hostels, cafeteria, bank, gymnasium, healthcare centre, utility store etc. It also has a well-equipped Language Lab for the benefit of all students.

JKLU has invested heavily to create cuttingedge engineering labs like its Digital Electronics Lab, Communication Lab, Fluid Mechanics Lab etc.

JKLU has a unique Cloud Computing Lab with Thin Clients, which even many IITs & NITs are yet to have.

JKLU has a Management Development Centre that conducts 100 to 200 seminars and shortterm training camps for corporate executives during an year.

JKLU has a state-of-the-art Library cum Learning Resource Centre where the latest offline and online technologies work together to provide its students with one of the largest academic and professional knowledgebases to learn from.

JKLU has several career-oriented academies run in collaboration with global IT majors like IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, and is an active member of Bentley Developer Network Community.

JKLU has Chapters of professional organizations in sunrise sectors like Solar Energy Society of India and Indian Society of Geomatics.

JKLU campus has one of the best sporting facilities with extensive infrastructure for all major outdoor sports including cricket, basketball etc, as well as facilities for many indoor sports.

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T R Pachamuthu

SRM University, Near Chennai, Tamilnadu

Top Private University for Engineering Placements in India

SRM University has three sprawling campuses in South India, all three near Chennai, South India’s largest metro city.

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SRM University’s second largest campus is its Ramapuram Campus, just 3 kms from Guindy, and spanning 27 acres. It also houses a 150 bedded hospital.

SRM Campuses have dedicated leased line internet connectivity and wireless access with speeds ranging from 32 Mbps to 8 Mbps.

SRM Campuses are connected to Chennai city through 65 dedicated buses run by the university.

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RM’s Founder and Chancellor TR Pachamuthu has transformed a simple self-financing SRM Engineering College in Tamilnadu’s Kancheepuram District and affiliated to Anna University, into today’s sprawling SRM University with four ultra-modern campuses. With four campuses, 1500 faculty, and 20,000 students, not many private universities are likely to come close to SRM in size. If tallied also by the breadth of professional or science/ arts streams offered, SRM should come in the first tier. It offers everything under the sun, from evergreen professional pursuits like engineering, medicine, & management, to almost all in-demand science and humanities including mathematics, biotechnology, bioinformatics, computer applications, languages, political science, commerce, economics, media studies, hotel management, education, and many more. No effort has been spared to create one of the most extensive educational infrastructures. Its main Kattankulathur Campus in Kancheepuram near Chennai is a 250 acres affair.

SRM University’s main campus at Kattankulathur, in Kancheepuram District, around 50 kms from Chennai, is a 250 acres university township.

SRM University’s third largest campus is at Vadapalani, which is an IT hub of Chennai, and spans six acres.

SRM’s main Kattankulathur Campus is noted for its smart classrooms, huge airconditioned auditoriums, large libraries, separate hostels for boys & girls, multiple canteens, multiple prayer halls for major religions, multiple ATMs, and numerous retail outlets.

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Naveen Jindal

OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana

Top Private University in North India for International Academic Alliances

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reated by the Jindal Organization in memory of their renowned industrialist founder OP Jindal, this private university is unique in other ways too. Its Chancellor is Naveen Jindal, who is a former MP and also the Chairman of the group’s flagship Jindal Steel & Power, which is the third-largest steel producer of the country behind SAIL and Tata Steel. An alumnus of University of Texas at Dallas, (which has renamed its Business School after him), Naveen Jindal has used his network effectively to forge tieups for OP Jindal University with international heavyweights. Due to its focus on non-engineering streams, the student strength of the university is relatively smaller than larger private universities. JGU is academically led by its Vice Chancellor Prof. C Rajkumar LL.B. (Delhi), B.C.L. (Oxford), LL.M. (Harvard), S.J.D. (Hong Kong), a noted scholar.

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Prof. (Dr.) C Raj Kumar

What Makes OP Jindal Global University (JGU) the Top Private University for International Academic Alliances in North India JGU has student exchange programs with many universities and colleges across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America, which enables students to study one semester abroad.

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JGU has forged research relationships with several institutions across the world for joint conference publications, seminars, symposia etc.

JGU has study abroad programs of longer duration in which students can spend more than one semester in select North American & European Universities.

JGU has tied up with many institutions in Asia, Australia, North America, & Europe for faculty exchange programs.

JGU has conducted Summer/ Winter Programs with reputed institutions like Somerville College, Oxford.

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SASTRA University, Thanjavur, Tamilnadu

Top Private University in South India for Quality of Placements

What Makes SASTRA University the Top Private University in South India for Quality of Placements During last placement season, SASTRA SASTRA University has been very University had companies like Amazon, PayPal, successful in placements, with Microsoft, Zoho, Freshdesk, MuSigma and companies like TCS favouring the Bosch recruiting its students even before the institution’s candidates year after year. bulk recruitment season started.

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SASTRA University’s focus on placements starts from the admission stage itself.

Prof. R Sethuraman, Vice-Chancellor

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amilnadu based SASTRA University has differentiated itself from the rest of the deemed and private universities, starting from a uniquely transparent admission process, which is the brainchild of Prof. R Sethuraman, ViceChancellor. While many private universities brag about “no management quota” or “no capitation fees”, even while relying heavily on hefty fees across the board, SASTRA follows a very different path. It has a well-defined management quota in all streams, which is less than half of the merit seats. In its core BTech program, the merit seats are 70%, and management quota is the remaining 30%. Industry too is taking SASTRA University seriously, with one example being the Microsoft Technical Services Lab inside the SASTRA campus by the software major, and the other being repeat recruitments by TCS. Founded in 2001, SASTRA University offers BTech, MTech, MCA, MBA, BCom (CA), BA, BCom, BBA, LLB, BSc, BCA, BEd, MEd, MSc etc.

SASTRA University bases its admission on JEE-Main and PlusTwo marks. Unlike most of its peers, SASTRA University runs no entrance test of its own, but bases its admission on a combination of the nationally benchmarked JEE-Main exam and plus-two marks, which is a very transparent process.

SASTRA University is growing its seats very conservatively. SASTRA is home to only around 10,000 students, despite having a commendable infrastructure of 30 lakh sq ft of built-up space, and over 700 staff. This translates to better faculty ratio compared with peers.

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Mody University of Science & Technology, Sikar, Rajasthan

Top Private University in Western India for Girls WHAT MAKES MODY UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY THE TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN WESTERN INDIA FOR GIRLS Mody University has a safe and secure campus spanning 265 acres, away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

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Mody University has relatively rare courses girls prefer like Fashion Design, Architecture, & Law.

Mody University has worldrenowned equal-opportunity employers like IBM, Deutsche Bank, Amazon, Accenture, Infosys, Ericson, Microsoft, Tommy Hilfiger, Trident, Honeywell, among its campus recruiters.

RP Mody

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ody University of Science & Technology is a private university of Rajasthan that has been set up exclusively for girl students. Founded by RP Mody, who also serves as its Chancellor, this university has a wide variety of subjects and courses to choose from, including relatively rare ones like architecture, fashion design, and law. Dr. Vishwanath Prasad, an internationally acclaimed academician serves as the President. Mody University also offers courses ranging from undergraduate degree to doctoral level, across almost all popular disciplines. Led professionally by the President and five Deans - Dr. JV Desai, Prof. Suresh Advani, Dr. JR Luthra, Dr. Satish C Shastri, & Dr. Meena Jhala - all of them educated or trained in premium Indian or foreign institutes like IITs, the university is noted for following public entrances like JEE for admission and attracts recruiters like IBM, Deutsche Bank, and many other MNC firms. Despite being an exclusive girls university, Mody University of Science & Technology has no biases and has created one of the most extensive sporting facilities spanning 17.5 acres including rare resources like Equestrian with 55 horses and an Olympian trainer, as well as flood-lit tennis courts. Mody University offers international internships and has several tie-ups with foreign universities.

Mody University is an exclusive girls’ University.

Mody University has courses ranging from undergraduate level to doctoral level, across almost all major disciplines including Engineering, Arts, Science, Humanities, Management, & Commerce.

Mody University has modern hostels with 24hours WiFi connectivity that ensures not only knowledge access but always-on connectivity with parents.

Mody University follows public entrances like JEE for undergraduate engineering.

Mody University has a state-of-theart clinic with 2 residential lady doctors and female nursing staff.

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Fr. (Dr.) Stephen Mavely

Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati, Assam

Top Private University in North East What Makes Assam Don Bosco University the Top Private University in North East Assam Don Bosco University (ADBU) is promoted by Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) which is one of the oldest and the largest NGOs operating in the educational and social sectors of India’s North East.

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Involvement in research and publications form an important part of the appraisal of faculty at ADBU. The university is unique in that it has a full-time Director of Research.

ADBU has a strong research focus with over 120 research scholars currently pursuing their doctoral studies in the university in about 20 odd fields.

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ssam Don Bosco University has almost all core departments and in-demand courses, with its flagship being the undergraduate engineering program. Almost half of the oncampus students pursuing their BTech. Placements have been good with around 80% of students getting placed. ADBU is also unique in that its off-campus or distance learning division - Don Bosco Global - is larger in student strength than its on-campus wing, and attracts students from the world over. While there are around 2000 students on campus, another 6000 pursue the online courses.

ADBU is promoted by Salesians, started by St. Don Bosco, and which is today the second-largest men’s Catholic congregation in the world.

Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) is arguably one of the most experienced higher education promoters in the world, running 15 universities worldwide. Assam Don Bosco University is their 16th global university and the first in the English-speaking world. All other Salesian universities are in the Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries, especially in South America. ADBU is led by its Vice-Chancellor Fr. (Dr.) Stephen Mavely, who is a leading educationalist with around 40 years of experience in North East. Thanks to the support from the global Salesian organization in bearing the capital costs of this university, ADBU can afford to charge relatively reasonable fees when compared to other private universities. ADBU follows the nationally recognized entrance tests, as well as state level tests, and their own entrance exams.

Admissions are based solely on merit, at ADBU. Not only that, ADBU ensures that the whole process of admission is 100% transparent.

ADBU has an unparalleled pedigree as its parent SDB runs 16 universities worldwide.

ADBU has been a pioneer in sunrise courses in sectors like convergent media.

ADBU is led by its Vice-Chancellor Fr. (Dr.) Stephen Mavely, who is a leading educationalist with around 40 years of experience in North East.

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JSS University, Mysore, Karnataka

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Top Private University for Medicine in Karnataka

ysore based JSS University is one among a handful of exclusive self-financing medical universities in the country. JSS University is promoted by JSS Mahavidyapeetha, arguably one of the largest educational groups in the nation. JSS Mahavidyapeetha is an initiative of Sri Veerasimhasana Math at Srikshetra, Suttur, near Mysore, and its 24th pontiff His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamiji. With more than 300 educational institutions under its fold, ranging from nurseries, schools and polytechnics to colleges. JSS Mahavidyapeetha counts among its visiting faculty, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, which is a rare honour. JSS University, being an exclusive medical university, is the height of achievement for JSS Mahavidyapeetha. Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamiji takes personal care in the well-being of JSS University and

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is also its Chancellor. BN Betkerur IAS (Retd.), Executive Secretary of the entire JSS Mahavidyapeetha empire is also the Pro Chancellor of JSS University. While these two leaders are from the sponsoring society, JSS University in itself has an array of professional leaders including Dr. B Suresh as Vice-Chancellor. Apart from the medical and dental colleges in Mysore, JSS University has two more constituent colleges, which are both pharmacy colleges, one in Mysore itself and the other in Ooty.

What Makes JSS University the Top Exclusive Private Medical University in Karnataka JSS University is promoted by JSS Mahavidyapeetha, one of the largest educational groups in India that runs over 300 schools and colleges.

Jagadguru Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamiji.

JSS University offers all core undergraduate medical courses in the Medical, Dental, & Pharmacy realms.

JSS University offers several postgraduate programs including MD, MDS, MPharm, MS, & DNB. JSS University has a unique teaching hospital in a rural setting that extends affordable care to patients, and diverse real world experience to its students.

JSS University is an exclusive medical & health sciences university, with no diversifications into popular courses like engineering, management, sciences, or humanities.

JSS University is accredited at A Grade by NAAC. BN Betkerur IAS (Retd.)

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AISECT University, Bhopal

Top Private University in Central India for ICT & Skills Development

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What Makes AISECT University the Top Private University for ICT & Skills Development in Central India AISECT University is promoted by one of India’s largest ICT skills development network, AISECT.

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romoted by AISECT, which is arguably one of the largest rural ICT training organization in India with over 12,000 centres, the university strives to make a difference, starting with its better qualified faculty. AISECT University has several PhD holders from IITs and NITs in their teaching staff. Its parent AISECT having developed its own core competencies in ICT based learning systems, such unique models are also employed at AISECT University. This selffinancing university’s Chancellor is noted social entrepreneur and AISECT founder Santosh K Choubey. The university’s students also benefit from the parent organization’s achievements in employability skills development, placement networks, e-governance etc.

AISECT University employs experts who coach students in essential skills like Logical Reasoning, and soft skills like Communication.

AISECT University has faculty with doctorates from reputed institutions in the public sector like IITs & NITs. AISECT University facilitates rigorous internships for students with several leading corporates.

AISECT University gives great importance in fostering innovation and competitive spirit in students which are essential in the market place.

AISECT University offers Personality Grooming, Counselling, & Training before organizing campus placements.

Santosh Choubey, Founder, AISECT

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Eternal University, Baru Sahib, Himachal Pradesh

Top Private University for Variety of Courses for Girls in Himachal Pradesh

Baba Iqbal Singh Ji

Dr. HS Dhaliwal

What Makes Eternal University the Top Private University for Variety of Courses for Girls in Himachal Pradesh Eternal University is the second oldest private university in Himachal Pradesh, which is home to 16 such universities.

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Eternal University has utilized this early-starter advantage to effective use, by offering one of the largest portfolio of streams in the state.

Eternal University is home to many rare streams of study including nursing, renewable energy, agriculture, food technology, & music.

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ocated in the breathtaking Divine Valley, Baru Sahib, in the lap of mighty Himalayas, this private university sponsored by Kalgidhar Trust was established by Baba Iqbal Singh Ji as its Founder Chancellor vide Himachal Pradesh Government Act No. 3 of 2009. The university as its name implies lays great focus on developing holistic professionals under the able guidance of Dr. HS Dhaliwal. Eternal University offers a wide variety of courses apart from its core engineering, science, and humanities subjects including music, nursing, agriculture, renewable energy, public health, commerce, and BEd. While BTech, MTech, & MBA admissions are through joint entrance tests, Eternal University has its own exams for other courses. The university is known for its emphasis on educating girls, and the safe, secure, and drugs-free environment provided to them in the campus and in the hostels.

Eternal University is structured as 6 Colleges namely Akal College of Arts & Social Sciences, Akal College of Science & Technology, Akal College of Economics, Commerce, & Management, Akal College of Agriculture, Akal College of Health & Allied Sciences, and Akal College of Education, to impart education in 35 undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Eternal University also offers add-on courses in 4 streams and vocational elective subjects in BA & BSc. All the undergraduate programmes in the 6 constituent colleges and postgraduate programs in nursing, music, & education, are for girl students only.

Eternal University offers more than 35 undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

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Top Private University in U.P. for Discipline & Ragging-Free Campus

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ounded in 2004, Integral University of Lucknow has grown to a remarkable size steadily, with even full-fledged medical and paramedical courses. Run by Islamic Council of Productive Education, this self-financing state private university is professionally led by Chancellor Dr. SR Azmi Nadvi and Vice-Chancellor Prof. SW Akhtar. For its core undergraduate engineering stream of BTech, admission is through Integral University Admission Test (IUET). Separate residential facilities are available for boys and girls, and the campus recruiters include TCS, Bosch, & HDFC Bank.

What Makes Integral University the Top Private University in UP for Discipline & Ragging-Free Campus Integral University has an actual track-record of zero ragging, with no ragging incident reported in its history.

Integral University has well separated residential facilities for boys and girls, making it safe for the girl students, and focused on development for both sexes.

Integral University has one of the most comprehensive ‘zerotolerance to ragging’ policies among all higher educational institutions in the country.

Due to its emphasis on disciplined development, Integral University has grown steadily in both students and streams during the last 10 years, with streams including MBBS.

Integral University is promoted and run by a religious affiliated body - Islamic Council of Productive Education - which ensures campus discipline from the ground up.

Integral University attracts corporate recruiters from the banking, tech, & automotive sectors who value discipline like HDFC Bank, TCS, & Bosch.

Dr. S. R. Azmi Nadvi Chancellor

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Anil D Ambani

DA-IICT, Gandhinagar, Gujarat

Top Private University for Information & Communication Technology in Western India What Makes Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information & Communication Technology the Top Private University in Western India for ICT. 102

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DA-IICT is sharply focused on disciplines like Information & Communication Technology (ICT), Information Technology (IT), Communication Design, and ICT in Agriculture & Rural Development.

DA-IICT offers BTech, MTech, MSc, MDes, & PhD in these disciplines.

Prof. R. Nagraj

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hirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT), based in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, is promoted

by Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, one of the largest and most diversified industrial conglomerates in the country. President of this private university is leading industrialist Anil D Ambani, who took his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. DA-IICT places great importance on recruiting highly qualified and research-oriented faculty. Director of DA-IICT is Professor R. Nagraj, who obtained his PhD from Visvesvaraya Technological University in the field of Fault Tolerant Flight Controllers using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Professor Nagaraj has twenty five years of experience in research, teaching and academic administration in reputed colleges of Karnataka like RV College, MS Ramaiah, & Oxford. DA-IICT has been a pioneer in the engineering domains of Information & Communication Technology (ICT). In addition to the B Tech (Information and Communication Technology) and B.Tech (Honours in ICT with minor in Computational Science) programmes, the Institute offers various postgraduate academic programs including MTech (Information and Communication Technology), MSc (Information Technology), MSc (ICT in Agriculture and Rural Development), MDes (Communication Design), and Ph.D (Information & Communication Technology and other related areas, Natural Science, Social Sciences and Humanities). A uniqueness of tall its ICT programs is that they are designed to develop skills and intellect that is in tune with the contemporary ICT needs of the industry, government, public sector and academia. The Institute has state-of-art infrastructure to support teaching and research which include a well-stocked and managed library, electronics and digital science laboratories supported by an array of modern computing facilities continuously upgraded to aid learning and research.

DA-IICT offers a unique program BTech (Honours in ICT with minor in Computational Science), which is a first in India.

DA-IICT has a robust placement trackrecord, with many of its graduates often picked up by industry before they graduate, through its Placement Cell. The salary offered to them now ranges from Rs.5.25 lakh to Rs.20.00 lakh per annum.

DA-IICT has research funding from industry for supporting PhD research scholars.

DA-IICT faculty and students have attracted a large number of sponsored projects, including collaborative projects with academic institutions in UK, France, Spain and Japan, with funding from government bodies such as DST and DIT. DA-IICT is a research-driven university led by faculty members who have authored quality books and research articles that have been internationally recognized.

DA-IICT houses a government supported Incubation Center to nurture and develop business ideas based on new technologies, which has ensured that a good number of its graduates are successful entrepreneurs.

DA-IICT has produced over 3000 engineers since its inception and they occupy prominent positions in industry, civil society organisations and academia.

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Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab

Top Private University for Placements in Punjab

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ovely Professional University (LPU) has rapidly become the largest single-campus private university in the country. The university is noted for its breadth and variety of courses, as well as one of the most modern campuses. Chancellor Ashok Mittal’s vision is thinking big and he wants LPU to become one among the Top-200 universities worldwide, by the year 2020. LPU’s strategies to reach there include recruiting heavily from IITs for improving the faculty standards. The strategies also include unique pool-campus initiatives that goes much beyond campus placements. LPU even invited students from other universities to take part in such pool-campus placements. Also deserving mention among the strategies is LPU’s sharp focus on following a single-campus model, unlike most comparable peers. And the strategies also include one of the largest scholarships programs in the sector.

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Ashok Mittal, Chancellor, Lovely Professional University

What Makes Lovely Professional University (LPU) the Top Private University for Placements in Punjab LPU follows a large singlelocation / single-campus model unlike many of its comparable peers by size, making qualitycontrol of its outgoing students uniform.

LPU’s large strength of 25,000 students and single campus model have made it the largest single-campus private university in the country, thereby enabling corporates to have easy access to a large contingent of students.

LPU actively recruits postgraduates and doctorate holders from IITs to be faculty at LPU.

LPU has forged a placement tie-up with global IT services major Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS), that resulted in 354 LPU students being absorbed last year.

LPU proactively reaches out to numerous corporates in technology, banking, services, & manufacturing sectors to facilitate placements.

LPU further went in for a Pool Campus Placement tieup with CTS which resulted in 591 students who graduated from other universities across the country getting recruited by CTS from the LPU campus.

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Chandigarh University, Mohali, Punjab

Top Private University in Chandigarh Area for Placements

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handigarh University is one of the larger private universities in Punjab, with student strength going near 23,000 in recent years. CU also has a large contingent of international students. Working from a modern campus on the Chandigarh-Ludhiana NH 95, CU’s campus is in the Greater Mohali area of the district. It has forged several tie-ups and SATNAM SINGH SANDHU Chancellor, Chandigarh University

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affiliations with internationally renowned academic alliances, and CU also fares well in placements with over 250 reputed companies visiting its campus during the past few years. Promoted by noted edupreneur Satnam Singh Sandhu as its Chancellor, the university is professionally led by renowned academicians like Dr. RS Bawa as Vice Chancellor and Dr. BS Sohi as Pro VC. Chandigarh University students also benefit from the success of group institutions like Chandigarh Group of Colleges, with one example being the Joint Placement Program with CGC.

What Makes Chandigarh University the Top Private University in Chandigarh Area for Placements CU has in recent years went in for a Joint Placement Program with CGC which has resulted in many CU students getting multiple offers from different companies to choose from.

Chandigarh University is promoted by Satnam Singh Sandhu, the noted edupreneur behind Chandigarh Group of Colleges (CGC), which has been leading placements in this educational hub for many years now.

Chandigarh University has utilized this track-record of Group Colleges in campus placements to good effect with over 250 corporates visiting the campus for recruitment.

Chandigarh University, located in the Greater Mohali region, is the largest - with 23,000 students - in the huge Chandigarh area which is capital to two states and adjacent to major industrial hubs like Ludhiana.

Corporates doing bulk recruitment like Tech & Banking firms find CU’s huge size attractive as they can meet their need from one campus.

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IEC University, Baddi, Himachal Pradesh

Top Emerging Private University in Himachal for Variety of Courses

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EC University, with its main campus in Baddi, of Solan District in Himachal Pradesh is a young university notified by state government in 2013. But within two years of its existence it has rapidly emerged as one of the top universities in the state for variety of courses. Spread over 14.5 acres on the foothills of the magnificent Shivalik Mountains, IEC University's Baddi campus is an ideal setting for the studious. IEC University also has campuses in Greater Noida in UP, and Alwar in Rajasthan. The main IEC Baddi campus is a perfect blend of greenery and pupose-built academic facilities. The Academic Block houses the two-floored digital library, acoustically designed auditorium, 80 lecture theatres, well equipped labs, engineering workshops, seminar halls and a computer center with broadband internet connectivity. The IEC Baddi campus also has excellent support facilities like canteen, gymnasium, health care centre, sports complex, transportation facility, banks, ATMs, post office & courier services, residential facilities for staff, hostels, students activity center, and hobby clubs. While Founder RL Gupta is the Chancellor of IEC University, Dr. Navin Gupta is its Pro-Chancellor, and Dr. Mahaveer Singh, a noted scholar is its Vice Chancellor.

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R. L. Gupta Chancellor

What Makes IEC University the Top Emerging Private University in Himachal Pradesh for Variety of Courses Though IEC University is only two years old, it has been designed for leadership in variety of courses, and is rapidly evolving in this model.

From its inception, IEC University has schools in all core sectors like Engineering, Management, Science, Humanities, Commerce, & Allied Health Sciences.

IEC University is structured as 14 schools which is impressive for a relatively young university.

IEC University has full-fledged schools in conventional but rare streams like Architecture, Law, & Pharmacy.

IEC University has schools dedicated to rare but sunrise streams like Hotel Management, Travel, & Tourism, and Journalism & Mass Communication.

IEC University has schools in emerging streams like Art & Fashion, and Vedic Science.

Dr. Navin Gupta Pro-Chancellor

Dr. Mahaveer Singh Vice Chancellor

IEC University offers both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in almost all its 14 schools.

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NITTE University, Mangalore, Karnataka

Top Private University for Health Sciences in Karnataka

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itte University, based in Mangalore, is promoted by Nitte Education Trust which is a leading professional education groups of Karnataka with campuses in Bangalore too. The brainchild of Late Justice KS Hegde, who was a Judge in Supreme Court as well as Lok Sabha Speaker, Nitte Education Trust rose to prominence under the leadership of his son and current Nitte University Chancellor, N Vinaya Hegde. The Chancellor is a noted technocrat in Karnataka, heading Lamina Group of Industries in Karnataka as its Group Chairman. Constituent colleges of Nitte University include KS Hegde Medical Academy, AB Shetty Memorial Institute of Dental Sciences, NGSM Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nitte Usha Institute of Nursing Sciences, and Nitte Institute of Physiotherapy. The Government of India had conferred the status of Deemedto-be University to the institution under ‘A’ Category and Nitte University has also been accredited with ‘A’ grade by National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC).

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N Vinaya Hegde Chancellor

Prof.(Dr.) S. Ramananda Shetty, Vice-Chancellor

Prof (Dr.) Shantharam Shetty Pro-Chancellor

What Makes Nitte University the Top Private University for Health Sciences in Karnataka Nitte University is promoted by NITTE Education Trust, one of the largest educational groups in Karnataka that runs over 30 institutions across 3 campuses.

Nitte University offers all core undergraduate medical courses in the Medical, Dental, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Pharmacy, & several Allied Health Sciences.

Nitte University has a speciality teaching hospital employing 200 doctors, which is one of the leading superspeciality hospitals of Mangalore.

Nitte University is accredited at A Grade by NAAC, and graded as an ‘A’ Grade Deemed University by MHRD, Government of India.

Nitte University offers several postgraduate programs including MD, MDS, MPharm, & MPT. Nitte University is an exclusive medical & health sciences university, with no diversifications into popular courses like engineering, management, sciences, or humanities.

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Symbiosis International University, Pune

Top Private University Overall in Western India

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u n e h e a d q u a rte re d Sy m b i o s i s International University is one of the oldest and largest private highereducation groups in Western India. Tracing its roots back to 1971, this is perhaps the oldest group of private institutes in Western India that turned into a deemed university.

SIU is mind-boggling in its size too - with 9 campuses, 7 faculties, 43 institutes, and 107 programmes. Despite the early mover advantage, and despite the breadth as well as reach, Symbiosis has resisted the urge to g row s t u d e nt s t re n g t h i n g e o m et r i c progression. SIU is the brainchild of Dr. SB Mujumdar and is run under the able leadership of Dr. Vidya Yeravdekar.

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Symbiosis Group of Institutions are more than four decades old, one of the oldest in Western India.

SIU is a top destination for overseas students in Western India, with students from 75 countries studying here.

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Why Symbiosis University is Top Private University Overall in Western India

SIU offers a broad spectrum of 107 programmes across its 7 core faculties .

SIU was founded by an academician, and led by academicians.

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SIU has 43 institutes under it, across 9 campuses.

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ITM University, Gwalior, M.P.

TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN M.P. FOR INDUSTRY LINKAGES

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WHY ITM UNIVERSITY GWALIOR RANKS TOP IN INDUSTRY LINKAGES MoU with Georgia South Western State University

Arrangement with Infosys for Enhancing IT Courses

Agreement with Dale Carnegie Training

Contract with OPR for Delivering Oracle Courses

Contract with OPR for Delivering Cisco Courses

Conducts Many Industry Seminars & Conferences

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ounded by Rama Shankar Singh as Chairman, this self-financing university is run by Samata Lok Sansthan Trust. Academically run by Dr. Yogesh Upadhyay as Vice Chancellor, ITM University offers a wide variety of courses in not only engineering and management, but in selective disciplines like physical education, agriculture, and fashion design. The university has a well-designed training and placement cell that takes the help of national and international agencies to groom their students.

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Dr. Ashok K. Chauhan

Amity University, 9 Cities

Top Private University in North India for Infrastructure & Facilities

A

mity University is differentiated by its vast and modern campuses more than anything else. This private university has campuses across 7 states, and it became a state university first in Uttar Pradesh and then in Rajasthan. Amity University’s Noida Campus is accredited at A Grade by NAAC. Amity University is clearly a leader in the self-financing higher education scene, with one thousand acres of campuses across 9 cities. It has 600 Mbps WiFi broadband connectivity, and amphitheatre style, airconditioned classrooms. Amity’s infrastructure of nearly 6 million sq. ft. of built up area, has been created in a purpose-built manner in a state-of-the-art style. Amity also excels in placements, with a high percentage of placements in most disciplines. Founder President Dr. Ashok K Chauhan and Chancellor & President Atul Chauhan have spearheaded this hard work that sets Amity apart.

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What Makes Amity University the Top Private University in North India for Infrastructure & Facilities Amity University has nine campuses - in Noida, Lucknow, Jaipur, Gurgaon, Gwalior, Mumbai, Greater Noida, Raipur, & Kolkata.

Amity University’s nine campuses are spread over one thousand acres, making them expansive in classic university campus style.

Amity University’s nine campuses together constitute nearly 6 million sq ft of built-up area that has been created in a purpose-built style.

Amity University’s select campuses have 600 Mbps WiFi Broadband connectivity.

Amity University’s select campuses also have amphitheatre style air-conditioned class rooms.

Amity University’s campuses have incampus residential facilities for its students and faculty with best amenities.

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KR Mangalam University, Gurgaon, Haryana

Top Private University in Gurgaon Area for Infrastructure & Facilities

What Makes KR Mangalam University the Top Private University in Gurgaon Area for Infrastructure & Facilities KR Mangalam University has a vast 26 acres campus on Sohna Road, Gurgaon, that is noted for its greenery as well as stately architecture.

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KR Mangalam University is promoted by the KR Mangalam Group that transformed premium schooling in Delhi with its KR Mangalam World Schools that became popular rapidly due to their superior infrastructure.

KR Mangalam Group is also an industrial house with global exposure as it has been an exporting firm having offices in USA, Mexico, Brazil, Panama, UAE, Hong Kong, & Ukraine, besides three manufacturing units in India.

Yash Dev Gupta, Chairman

K

R Mangalam University on Sohna Road in NCR, is a private university that has evolved from the expertise of the KR Mangalam Group in running educational institutions for many years, especially premium international schools. KR Mangalam Group was traditionally a garments exporter with over Rs. 2000 crore annual turnover before they ventured into premium schooling and higher education institutes. KR Mangalam University was set up in 2006 as a state private university of Haryana, and it offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in all popular streams like engineering, management, law, applied sciences etc. Like its more popular KR Mangalam World Schools in Delhi-NCR, KR Mangalam University too is on track to carve its own niche in the higher education space. KRMU is promoted by Yash Dev Gupta as Chairman, and academically led by Prof. KK Aggarwal as Chancellor and Prof. KN Tripathi as Vice Chancellor.

KR Mangalam University has airconditioned amphitheatre style classrooms, Wi-Fi broadband connectivity, modern tech-enabled auditoriums, and well-equipped labs and library.

KR Mangalam campus is designed as a micro township that is purpose-built with all necessary amenities including a cafeteria that sells subsidized food to students and a medical assistance centre.

KR Mangalam University runs International Summer & Winter Schools each year that attracts college students from many countries, partly due to the superior infrastructure and facilities in the campus.

KR Mangalam University has extensive on-campus sporting facilities for around 10 major sports, and it also has a state-ofthe-art fitness centre.

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VIT University, Vellore, Tamilnadu

Top Private University for BTech in South India VIT University was originally Vellore Engineering College for many years, revealing its roots in engineering education. VIT has two campuses at Vellore and Chennai, and its Bangalore campus fast racing to completion. Despite being a Deemed-to-be University for some years now, VIT University is more famous for its undergraduate engineering program. An estimated 1.93 lakh students had registered to write last year’s engineering entrance test. They competed for just 4197 seats, but counselling was there for ranks up to 20,000. VIT’s success is largely attributed to the vision of its founder G Viswanathan, its Chancellor and a former noted politician in Tamilnadu. Superior infrastructure is one area where VIT excels. VIT has a famed library, and it also ranks high in placements with the likes of TCS taking in many from VIT each year.

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WHAT MAKES VIT UNIVERSITY THE TOP PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOR BTECH IN SOUTH INDIA VIT University started off as Vellore Engineering College, and despite several diversifications into other streams, maintains BTech as its largest program.

VIT University’s undergraduate engineering entrance program attracted 1.93 lakh students last year.

VIT University offers BTech programs in as many as 14 engineering branches.

VIT University has a robust placement cell that facilitates over 215 companies visiting the campus for recruitment.

VIT University has successfully organized overseas placements for its Chinese students with Indian & MNC firms having significant operations in China.

VIT University has facilitated successful placements for numerous engineering and science graduates from other neighbouring colleges and universities, making use of its relations with corporate companies.

VIT University has been re-accredited by NAAC with an ‘A’ Grade.

G. Viswanathan, Founder and Chancellor, VIT University

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Baddi University, Baddi, Himachal Pradesh

Top Private University in Himachal for Engineering Placements

What Makes Baddi University the Top Private University in Himachal for Engineering Placements Baddi University has achieved almost 100% placements for its BTech students during the last two years.

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Baddi University has been a nodal centre for recruitment by Indian Army & Indian Navy for the past several years.

Baddi University had 89 companies recruiting BTech students from its campus in 2013, including Infosys, Wipro, L&T, Axis Bank, Godrej etc., apart from Indian Army, Air Force, & Navy.

T

he focus at Baddi University of Emerging Sciences & Technology has been on delivering high quality BTech students, which is evident from their good placement track-record. Though Baddi University, promoted

by CASE Society, offers management as well as pharmacy programs, the core focus remains on engineering, especially on the BTech course. Baddi University in fact has a lofty ambition of eventually being the best engineering institution for BTech in North India. Led by Chairman Ram Prasad Agarwala, Baddi takes care that quality of admissions is ensured at one end, and that pre-placement training is provided at the other end.

Ram Prasad Agarwala

Baddi University’s placement focus begins from quality of admissions, and includes preplacement training, personality development, industry visits, and expert talks.

Baddi University had a wider profile of corporate recruiters in 2014, including Cognizant Technology Solutions, HP, Oracle, TCS etc, apart from all three Indian Defence Forces.

Baddi University has been commended by corporates including Infosys for the knowledge level of its students.

Baddi University’s proactive nature in facilitating placements has been appreciated by companies including L&T and Hexaware.

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Assam Down Town University, Guwahati, Assam

Top Private University in North East for Nursing & Pharmacy

A

ssam Down Town University, at Panikhaiti, near Guwahati, is the brainchild of Dr. NN Dutta, MS (AIIMS), FICS, a renowned medical doctor, surgeon, & professor, who is also the Founder, Chairman, & MD of Assam Down Town Hospital. Being a noted teacher at Guwahati Medical College for 14 years, Dr. Dutta was inspired to first start a nursing college, then a paramedical and pharmacy college, which all was transformed into a private university in 2010. Currently, Dr. Dutta serves as the Chancellor of Assam Down Town University (ADTU). Dean of Studies at ADTU is Prof.

Bandana Dutta, who retired as HoD of Anthropology at Cotton College, Guwahati, after 35 years of teaching. The Vice Chancellor of ADTU is Dr. Nandita Choudhary MBBS, MD, DM, who has worked as faculty in five medical colleges before retiring as Principal cum Chief Superintendent of Assam Medical College. Prof. Dr. HK Das, a renowned engineering educator serves as the Pro Vice Chancellor of ADTU. One speciality of ADTU’s top management is that all four of these leaders have done their higher studies or professional training in UK. 124

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Dr. N. N. Dutta Chancellor

What Makes Assam Down Town University the Top Private University in North East for Nursing & Pharmacy Assam Down Town University is promoted by a Trust sponsored

by Assam Down Town Hospital, the first corporate multi-speciality hospital in North East.

While Doctors lead this Trust, there are professionals from other walks of life like Engineers, Educationists etc who provide the guiding vision to this private university.

ADTU’s in-campus Teaching Hospital Block is a sprawling 2,10,000 sq ft affair, incorporating the Teaching Hospital and modern classrooms, libraries, clinics, labs, lecture theatres, seminar halls, & auditorium.

The Trust also runs a rural charitable hospital near Guwahati to provide affordable care to common people, and the two hospitals provide the additional infrastructure for training students of Assam Down Town University.

Assam Down Town University’s Nursing College has been running its flagship BSc program for the last 7 years.

ADTU’s Pharmacy College offers an innovative 5-year Integrated BPharm plus MBA, apart from regular courses like Bachelor in Pharmacy (BPharm) and Diploma in Pharmacy (DPharm).

ADTU’s Nursing College has all popular courses like Auxiliary Nursing & Midwifery, General Nursing & Midwifery, Post Basic BSc Nursing, BSc Nursing, & MSc Nursing.

Prof. Bandana Dutta Dean of Studies

Dr. Nandita Choudhary Vice Chancellor

Prof. H.K.Das Pro Vice Chancellor 125

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Raffles University, Neemrana, Rajasthan

Top Emerging Private University in Rajasthan for Law & Management

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What Makes Raffles University the Top Emerging Private University in Rajasthan for Law & Management Raffles University is focussed on just three disciplines, with great stress on its Law & Management programs.

Founder President, Late. Mr. Vinod Gomber

R

affles University is the result of the unique vision of one towering individual - Late Vinod Kumar Gomber, a Harvard Business School alumnus who was the Group CEO of Emaar Properties, the Dubai based construction and realty conglomerate. While at Emaar, Gomber was instrumental with Emaar Chairman Mohammed Al Abbar in planning and constructing Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower. Raffles University has a well-planned 75 acres campus in the beautiful Japanese Zone, along NH-8 in Neemrana, of Alwar District of Rajasthan. Raffles University is today led by young Vivek Gomber, as its Chaiperson, and academically led by Prof. (Dr.) Bhagirath Singh, as its President. Raffles University is noted for providing many slabs of scholarships for inviting the meritorious candidates and assisting the needy students.

Raffles University’s School of Law has an MoU with Lisbon University of Portugal for student exchange and faculty exchange. Raffles students who undergo research at Lisbon University are awarded due credits.

Raffles University has a tie-up with University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property, which is a world leader in IPR. Raffles’ Law School represents Franklin Pierce Centre in India. IPR being a core emerging area of Law studies, Raffles students may gain from this initiative.

Raffles University’s Alabbar School of Management is named after and follows the business vision of Mohammed Al Abbar the legendary leader of Emaar Group, which constructed world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa besides many other international landmarks.

Alabbar School of Management offers contemporary specializations like MBA (Hotel Management) and MBA (Hospital Management), besides regular MBA, BBA, PG Diploma etc.

Vivek Gomber Chairperson

Raffles University is housed in a sprawling 75 acres campus, custom-built with all features befitting modern law & business schools.

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Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, Haryana

Top Private University for Hotel Management in Haryana

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What Makes Maharishi Markandeshwar University (MMU) the Top Private University for Hotel Management in Haryana

M

aharishi Markandeshwar University at Mullana, near Ambala, has a modern campus on 40 acres of land on the banks of Markanday River. This mammoth size and prime location have ensured that this diversified university, founded in the name of Maharishi Markandeshwar Ji, has already developed into a township with all amenities for students and faculty. Led by Chancellor Tarsem Garg, and run by MM Education Trust, the university is noted for accreditations by state, national, and international bodies, as well as placements by TCS, ICICI Bank, Airtel, Cipla etc. MMU also has a campus in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, and MM Group of Institutions also has a campus in Karnal.

Tarsem Garg, Chancellor

MMU’s Hotel Management faculty has completed over 13 years of existence, making it one of the oldest hotel management institutes in Haryana.

MMU has a wide variety of hotel management and associated degree/postgraduate programs including BHM&CT, integrated BHM-MBA, BSc (Hospitality Management), and MSc (Dietetics).

MMU’s Hotel Management faculty also offers Diploma Programs in Food Production, Bakery & Confectionery, Rooms Division Management, Health & Fitness Nutrition, as well as Certificate Programs in F&B Service and Food Production.

MMU tries to place its students in all possible avenues available for hotel management graduates like Hotels, Resorts, Fast Food Joints, Airlines, Hospitals etc.

Hospitality brands that have visited MMU for placements in the past include JW Marriott, ITC, Radisson, Sarovar, Ramada, Hilton etc.

For those hotel management students who prefer to start their own small ventures in the sector, MMU also offers the services of its entrepreneurship development cell.

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SHARDA UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Greater Noida for Faculty Quality

JAYPEE UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

Top Private University by an Industrial House in M.P.

JAYPEE UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Top Private University for Information Technology in Himachal

NOIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Top EMERGING Private University in NCR for Variety of Courses

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MAHARISHI UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGY

Top Private University by an International Indian Organization

MATS UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Chattisgarh for Variety of Courses

MEWAR UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Chittorgarh Region for Engineering

CALORX TEACHERS’ UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Western India for BEd 131

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SHIV NADAR UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in U.P. by a Businessman

CENTURION UNIVERSITY

Top Multi-Campus Private University in Odisha

DR.C.V. RAMAN UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Chhattisgarh for Research Outlook

APEEJAY STYA UNIVERSITY

Top Private University for Journalism in Gurgaon AZIM PREMJI UNIVERSITY

Top Private University For Teacher Training in Karnataka 132

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CHITKARA UNIVERSITY

Top Private University for Girls in Chandigarh Region for BEd INVERTIS UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Northern U.P. GANPAT UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Gujarat for Innovative Courses ICFAI UNIVERSITY

Top Private University for Engineering in Hyderabad AHMEDABAD UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Ahmedabad for Affordability AKS University

Top Private University in M.P. for Entrepreneurship Development BAHRA UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Himachal Region for Picturesque Campus 132

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BHAGWANT UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Rajasthan for Emerging Engineering Streams DIT University

Top Private University in Uttarakhand for Entrepreneurship Development Dr. KN Modi University

Top Private University in Rajasthan for Infrastructure Geetanjali University

Top Private Medical University for Campus Facilities in Rajasthan GLOCAL UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Western UP for Faculty Quality IIHMR UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Western India for Hospital & Health Management INDUS UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Gujarat for Aviation Technology 135

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JAGAN NATH UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Jaipur for Transparent Admissions JAYOTI VIDYAPEETH WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY

Top Women’s Private University in Rajasthan with Updated Curriculum JECRC University

Top Private University in Rajasthan for Variety of PhD Programs MADHAV UNIVERSITY

Top Emerging Private University in Rajasthan for Allied Health Sciences MAHARAJ VINAYAK GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Rajasthan for BDS MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES & TECHNOLOGY

Top Private University in Jaipur for Medical Sciences MARTIN LUTHER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Meghalaya for Allied Health Sciences 136

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NAVRACHNA UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Gujarat for Innovative Pedagogy OPJS UNIVERSITY

Top Emerging University for Rare Courses in Rajasthan PACIFIC UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Rajasthan for Variety of Courses POORNIMA UNIVERSITY

Top Emerging University for Engineering in Jaipur Area RAMA UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Kanpur Region for MBBS RK UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Gujarat for Physiotherapy RKDF UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Bhopal for Campus Infrastructure 137

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SANGAM UNIVERSITY

Top Private University for Power Plant Engineering SATHYABHAMA UNIVERSITY

Top Minority Christian University in Chennai SGT UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Haryana Led by Academicians SIKSHA ‘O’ ANUSANDHAN UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Bhubaneswar for Medical Sciences SINGHANIA UNIVERSITY

Top Private University for Law in Rajasthan SIR PADAMPAT SINGHANIA UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Udaipur Region for Engineering SRI GURU GRANTH SAHIB WORLD UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Punjab for World Religions & Culture Studies 138

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SRI SAI UNIVERSITY

Top Private University at a Hill Station of Himachal SRI RAMACHANDRA UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Tamilnadu for Teaching Hospital Quality SUNRISE UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in NCR-Rajasthan UKA TARSADIA UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Gujarat for Allied Health Sciences UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & MANAGEMENT

Top Private University in Jaipur for Engineering UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY & MANAGEMENT

Top Private University in Meghalaya for Tourism & Sports Management KIIT UNIVERSITY

Top Private University in Bhubaneswar for Engineering Placements 139

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IN-FOCUS

M.S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences

MSRUAS Aspires to be Asia’s Premier Innovation University Dr. MS Ramaiah has been a pioneer in higher education not only in Karnataka or South India, but in the entire nation. Dr. Ramaiah was a leader who proved his supreme abilities in different fields, being a success as an engineering contractor, an agriculturist, a journalist, an educationist, an industrialist, and as a philanthropist. Starting out in 1962, under the name of Gokula Education Foundation, MS Ramaiah Group of Institutions based at Bangalore rapidly became one of the

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largest higher education groups in the country, especially in the field of professional education. MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences (MSRUAS) today stands as the pinnacle of achievement of this pioneering group. Dr. MR Jayaram, son of Dr. MS Ramaiah, and current Chairman of Gokula Education Foundation(GEF), leads this private university as its Chairperson of the Board of Governors. Dr. SR Shankapal, a renowned academician, author, researcher, and consultant is the Vice-Chancellor of the university. The two Pro ViceChancellors are Dr. DC Sundaresh and Dr. Govind R Kadambi, both eminent leaders in their fields. Registrar & CFO of MSRUAS is Mr. NC Shekar, an efficient and veteran administrator. Under the vision and leadership of its eminent trustees and academic leaders, here is how MSRUAS aspires to be Asia’s premier innovation university.

The university has seven faculties, 34 departments, and six directorates offering 70 courses. The university faculty has developed outcome-based curricula for all courses and adopted global educational practices to develop its teaching modules.

The faculty members publish more than 200 research articles annually in national and international journals.

S Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences (MSRUAS) was created by an act of the Karnataka State Government.

The university, sponsored by Gokula Education Foundation (Medical) Trust, was created by integrating the M S Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies (1999), M S Ramaiah College of Hotel Management (1993), M S Ramaiah College of Pharmacy (1992), M S Ramaiah Dental College (1991) and the M S Ramaiah Advanced Learning Centre (2012).

MSRUAS has five verticals integrated horizontally. The academic vertical offers undergraduate and post-graduate courses in Engineering and Technology, Art and Design, Management and Commerce, Science and Humanities, Pharmacy, Dental Sciences and Hospitality Management. The research wing offers PhD programmes and undertakes sponsored research. Training and lifelong learning offers programmes leading to B Voc, Degree and PGD in Professional Practice and short-term courses.

The Techno Centre interacts with industries to provide solutions to complex problems posed by the industry and business.

The university has seven faculties, 34 departments, and six directorates offering 70 courses. The university faculty has developed outcome-based curricula for all courses and adopted global educational practices to develop its teaching modules.

The faculty members publish more than 200 research articles annually in national and international journals.

MSRUAS has been actively working with research organizations of the Indian government such as ISRO, DRDO, DST, DBT, and more than 100 companies in the public and private sectors. It has also participated in UKIERI and FP6 programmes. Faculty members have completed more than 110 funded research projects and filled more than 54 patents till date.

MSRUAS, in association with Development Commissioner MSME, of the Government of India, has established a Technology Product Incubation Centre on campus, which provides early-stage funding and technical support to innovative business ideas. MSRUAS has also signed MoUs with international universities for student and faculty exchange, and joint research.

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LUXURY

ROYAL HEIRLOOMS FROM WORLD OVER TO BE AUCTIONED AT SOTHEBY'S LONDON LEVEL TWO OFFERS A CHARITABLE CHICAGO RESTAURANT WEEK MENU Level Two at Hyatt Chicago Magnificent Mile makes the Chicago Restaurant Week a feel-good affair with a wonderfully tasting menu which is charitable too! Nestled on the second floor of the hotel, Level Two invites guests to dine in during the two-week restaurant celebration and have 50 per cent of the $22 prix fixe menu donated directly to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Level Two’s prix fixe lunch menu features starters such as Heirloom Tomato Soup with asiago crostini and fried basil or Mushroom Empanadas with Oaxaca cheese, cilantro and chickpeas. Entrées take it up a notch further with Three Grilled Cheese sandwich featuring manchego, gruyere and brie cheese, tomato, arugula, and parmesan sourdough. The Grilled Salmon gives competition with grilled asparagus, roasted potatoes and chimichurri sauce.

If you have space for dessert, go ahead with the White Chocolate Brownie and ice cream! Situated just two blocks from the hospital, Hyatt Chicago Magnificent Mile is dedicated to giving back to Lurie Children’s and its patient families. The organization has cared for more children than any other pediatric hospital in Illinois in 2014 with more than 174,000 individual patients.

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Following the great success of last year’s “Of Royal and Noble Descent” sale, Sotheby’s London will present a further selection of 250 exceptional royal and aristocratic heirlooms on February 24, 2015. Covering centuries of history and originating from the four corners of the world, including China, Latin America, Saudi Arabia and Europe, this group of furniture, paintings and precious objects not only boasts royal and noble provenance, but also exemplifies the creativity and craftsmanship of their era. João Magalhães, Sotheby’s Specialist in Continental Furniture, said, “Having survived through inheritance, many of the lots in the sale have fascinating stories to tell and will appear on the market for the first time.”

SOTHEBY'S TO AUCTION THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF THE DILLEE FAMILY Sotheby’s has announced an auction of the private collection of the Dillée family, a renowned Parisian dynasty of specialists and collectors of furniture and works of art, on March 18 in Paris.

Consisting of 450 lots, the sale will be divided into two sessions, including French decorative arts from the 17th to

the 19th centuries, Old Master paintings and drawings, bronzes, scientific objects and Antique arms. Mario Tavella, Deputy Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe and Chairman Private Collections, said, “Their [Dillée family’s] Cabinet d’Expertise has seen some of the most beautiful objects go through its doors before being passed onto collectors, auction houses and institutions. We are hoping that the Dillée sale will attract new and old generations of collectors, as well as the notable museums that the Dillée family has dealt with in the past.”

SOTHEBY'S TO AUCTION THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF THE DILLEE FAMILY

ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA DEBUTS NEW STORE IN THE MIAMI DESIGN DISTRICT

Ermenegildo Zegna, the luxury menswear brand, has opened its latest retail store in Miami Design District. Created by Zegna’s inhouse architects, the design is based on the creative concept developed by architect Peter Marino for the Zegna global store in Milan. Occupying 2,800 sq feet, Ermenegildo Zegna’s offerings are displayed within the store’s two floors, ranging from formalwear and sportswear to accessories and fragrance.

A key inspiration for the store design is the fabric created at Zegna’s eponymous wool mill in Trivero, Italy for over a hundred years.

Within the storefront windows, metallic strands echo the fabric’s warp and weft yarns. The masculine yet natural color palette is created using rosewood, mahogany and both gun and bronze metal. Towards the back of the store, clients can view a video installation with the seasonal Milan runway collections. Customers begin their experience on the ground floor, which is devoted to the Upper Casual and Z ZEGNA collections, complimented by textile accessories, leather goods, fragrance and eyewear.

ESTEE LAUDER INTRODUCES NEW DOUBLE WEAR STAY-IN-PLACE EYE PENCIL Luxury beauty brand, Estee Lauder, adding to its Double Wear makeup collection of long-wearing, stay-in-place products, has introduced the new and improved Double Wear Stay-In-Place Eye Pencil. Featuring the same formula, the Double Wear StayIn-Place Eye Pencil now includes a waterresistant claim, an improved silicone smudge tip and an updated collection of shades. The Eye Pencil’s creamy formula sets in quickly to provide an intense high coverage, color-true wear. Easy to apply, the pencil gives a smooth stroke with no tugging or skipping and practically melts into the skin. Long-wearing, this waterresistant eye pencil is easy to smudge, blend and apply due to a combination of unique technologies and carefully selected ingredients. The Color Brilliance Pigments incorporated into the formula add the purest color and intensity along with rich, bright luxurious pearls to provide intense, saturated color and extreme brilliance.

Formulated with Vitamin E and Jojoba Oil, the formula helps cushion and protect skin, and delivers a gentle application and wear.

Sotheby’s has announced an auction of the private collection of the Dillée family, a renowned Parisian dynasty of specialists and collectors of furniture and works of art, on March 18 in Paris.

Consisting of 450 lots, the sale will be divided into two sessions, including French decorative arts from the 17th to the 19th centuries, Old Master paintings and drawings, bronzes, scientific objects and Antique arms. Mario Tavella, Deputy Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe and Chairman Private Collections, said, “Their [Dillée family’s] Cabinet d’Expertise has seen some of the most beautiful objects go through its doors before being passed onto collectors, auction houses and institutions. We are hoping that the Dillée sale will attract new and old generations of collectors, as well as the notable museums that the Dillée family has dealt with in the past.” The name of Dillée has been inextricably linked with the art and auction world. Founded in 1925, the Cabinet has been headed by Guillaume Dillée since 1995, after a seven-year collaboration with his father. Over the last few decades, they have assisted Paris auctioneers and have taken part in important auctions staged in all the capital's legendary venues: the Hôtel Drouot, the Galerie Charpentier, the Palais Galliera and the Musée d’Orsay.

Recognised for their knowledge and expertise, they were also passionate collectors, building up works whose sale has been entrusted to Sotheby's France.

The primarily 18th century furniture, works of art, paintings and drawings show a precise, knowledgeable taste.

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LUXURY MICHAEL KORS OPENS ITS LARGEST GLOBAL STORE IN SOHO

MAC LAUNCHES LIGHTNESS OF BEING COLLECTION

Michael Kors has opened its largest store in the world. Located at 520 Broadway in New York’s SoHo, the store features multiple milestones for the luxury lifestyle brand: the debut of the men’s collection in the brand’s own retail stores; the first-ever instore presentation of men’s shoes; an entire floor dedicated to accessories from Michael Kors Collection and MICHAEL Michael Kors, including watches, jewelry, eyewear and fragrance; and the largest selection of MICHAEL Michael Kors ready-towear and footwear in the world, with the first dedicated shoe salon in the US. A number of menswear products are exclusive to 520 Broadway and michaelkors.com. The lower lever 4,000 sq ft men’s shop area features chevron flooring in gray oak bordered by white marble, black embossed leather wall coverings, custom-built, polished and blackened stainless steel fixtures with gray smoked mirrors and gray-marble display cases. Black-and-white photography, a Richard Serra painting and custom seating complete the effect.

MAC has launched a collection of poetic, whimsical shades, titled as ‘Lightness of Being’, which aims to take the focus away from the darkened shades of winter and lead towards happier seasons. Shades such as frosted lavender, pearlized champagne and pale mint green are a part of this collection. Eyes and cheeks explore a new lightness of being in sheer pastels, a perfect complement to rosy lips. Nails epitomize lightness through hushed beige and lavender shades.

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NYC RESTAURANT WEEK WINTER 2015 OPEN FOR DINING EXPERIENC NYC Restaurant Week Winter 2015 reservations are now open. The event is offering New Yorkers and visitors three weeks of dining experiences at a record-setting 340 New York City restaurants from February 16 through March 6, Mondays through Fridays, with Saturdays excluded and Sundays optional. Diners can enjoy threecourse prix-fixe lunches for $25 and three-course prix-fixe dinners for $38 (excluding beverages, gratuities and taxes). For menus, photos and reservations, visit nycgo.com/ restaurantweek. NYC Restaurant Week Winter 2015 features 54 new participants including Bar Primi, Narcissa, Root & Bone and STATE Grill and Bar, and welcomes back 287 restaurants such as Delmonico’s, Nobu New York, TriBeCa Grill, River Café and Water’s Edge.

JAGUAR AND LAND ROVER ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP WITH SPECTRE, THE 24TH JAMES BOND ADVENTURE Jaguar Land Rover has announced its line-up of vehicles set to feature in Spectre, the 24th James Bond adventure, from Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions, Metro-GoldwynMayer Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. These will include Jaguar C-X75s, Range Rover Sport SVRs and Defender Big Foots. The Jaguar C-X75 will feature in a spectacular car chase sequence through Rome alongside the Aston Martin DB10. The C-X75 vehicles have been built in collaboration with Williams Advanced Engineering facility in Oxfordshire, England. Scenes including the heavily modified Land Rover Defenders & Range Rover Sport SVR have already been filmed in Austria.

The Range Rover Sport SVR is the fastest and the most powerful Land Rover ever. The highly capable Big Foots were constructed by the Special Operations division with huge 37-inch diameter off-road tyres to tackle the extreme terrain.

ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA LAUNCHES MONTERUBELLO POWER RESERVE LIMITED EDITION WATCH

CLINIQUE LAUNCHES AROMATICS IN WHITE Luxury beauty, skin care brand, Clinique, has launched the new Aromatics in White, a women’s fragrance, that presents a signature scent to boldly set her apart. The perfume is an interplay of serene woods, transparent petals and warm amber notes. Clinique Aromatics in White opens with a bold and invigourating rush of crisp Violet Leaf accord along with ambery Cistus and Sichuan Pepper, which instantly draw you deeply into the scent. The middle notes center around the translucent petals of Rose Water Essential combined with lush Orange Flower and rich Patchouli Heart for a harmonious blend of colours, scents and textures. The bottom notes add a seductive layer with Amber Gris and Skin Musk, and the alluring power of Benzoin.

Bold yet feminine, the perfume is quite an innovation with its notes and fluidly designed packaging!

In 2010, the year of Ermenegildo Zegna’s centenary, the brand had partnered with watchmaker Girard Perregaux, to make elegant timepieces by combining the meticulous manufacturing prowess of Girard Perregaux, with the unique savoir fair of Zegna. To mark this anniversary, the luxury menswear company has launched the Ermenegildo Zegna Monterubello Power Reserve, a fitting celebration of half a decade in the watch business. An exclusive new limited-edition timepiece, only 50 of its kind will be made. The most arresting feature of the Ermenegildo Zegna Monterubello Power Reserve is the striking cocoa bean colored dial that is accented by the use of pink gold for the case, the applied numerals, and the sword hands that lend a further touch of boldness to the dial.

With its slim profile, the 38mm case diameter and the elegance of the Breguet numerals, the Monterubello Power Reserve is the quintessence of understated wearability.

VERTU AND BENTLEY COLLABORATE TO LAUNCH A SPECIAL EDITION SMARTPHONE Luxury mobile phones manufacturer, Vertu, has unveiled its first handset created in collaboration with Bentley.

The ‘Vertu for Bentley’ handset, is the first joint product release from the new five-year partnership of the two British luxury brands. The ‘Vertu for Bentley’ smartphone is swathed in quilted calf leather, in the classic Bentley shade of New market Tan, and stitched with a diamond pattern. The supple leather is encased in durable, yet lightweight, titanium, which features tactile diamond knurling. The traditional ceramic pillow has been subtly remodelled to feature a sleeker pillow trim, to reflect Bentley’s elegant and sophisticated style. Every ‘Vertu for Bentley’ phone sports a discrete, metal Bentley ‘B’ wings motif on the face of the handset. Mirroring the features of the Vertu Signature Touch, the ‘Vertu for Bentley’ handset incorporates the full breadth of the company’s expertise.

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LUXURY IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN OPENS FIRST UK BOUTIQUE IN LONDON'S NEW BOND STREET IWC Schaffhausen has opened its first UK boutique on London’s New Bond Street in Mayfair, which includes some of the most luxurious brands. “The new London boutique features a unique design concept; one which has been implemented in the UK first and allows our customers a dedicated brand experience, truly reflective of IWC,” says IWC’s UK Brand Director Simon Chambers. While the product presentation and furniture is globally consistent, the spatial environment has been adapted to the architectural style of the building, its heritage and the uniqueness of its location. In keeping with its Art Deco exterior, the new Bond Street boutique will feature Art Deco elements throughout, making it entirely unique in comparison to other IWC boutiques worldwide.

Logitech Bluetooth MultiDevice Keyboard The Logitech® Bluetooth® Multi-Device Keyboard K480 is designed for use with up to three devices, regardless of computing platform. Now, you can work on a report on your computer, and with the flick of the EasySwitch dial, respond to a message on your smartphone or type a tweet on your tablet – all from the Logitech Bluetooth Multi-Device Keyboard K480. Cost: $49.99

G-DRIVE ev SSD With a need for speed - take the power of the G-DRIVE ev SSD with you. With extreme solid-state performance connected with USB 3.0, you’ll get transfer rates up to 400MB/ s. The drive comes with 512GB of storage capacity and is compatible with Mac OS 10.6, Windows 7, 8 and Vista. It comes with a three-year warranty. Use it alone or with the G-DOCK ev with Thunderbolt and experience up to 480MB/s for the ultimate flexibility and expandability that today’s creative professionals demand. Cost: $499.95

Livescribe Echo Smartpen The Livescribe Echo Smartpen allows you to record audio while you’re taking notes, and then play them back later. You can save and share interactive notes to your computer, iPad or iPhone via a micro-USB connector that also allows you to recharge your pen. The memory storage holds 400 or 800 hours of recorded audio, depending on the model, and includes an OLED display that makes it easy to navigate smartpen apps.

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Logitech Type-S The Logitech Type-S is a thin and light protective keyboard case for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and protects both sides of your Galaxy Tab S from accidental bumps, scratches and spills. Its built-in Bluetooth® keyboard and wellspaced keys provide a fast and comfortable typing experience. The dual-view stand caters to different activities from typing to reading to chatting online, and includes an auto-wake auto-sleep feature so that the tablet wakes when you open the case. The Logitech Type-S is also now available in bright red.

Cost: $99.99

SyrenPro

LaCie RuggedKey

The SyrenPro is a wireless weather-resistant outdoor Bluetooth speaker with TrueWireless Stereo pairing, which lets you create your own stereo system wirelessly using two speakers. The speakers can be plugged into an electrical outlet or run by rechargeable battery for up to four hours, so you can enjoy your music anywhere. The speakers provide 360-degree sound, are weather/UV resistant, and work with most Bluetooth devices.

Cost: $129.99

The LaCie RuggedKey is built to withstand accidental drops from heights far above what you'd encounter on your way to the office. Its rubber construction is 100-meter drop-resistant. That means ultimate protection for your key – and your data – for all of life's little stumbles. The RuggedKey has a USB 3.0 interface and file transfer speed of up to 150 MB/s, but it's also backward compatible with USB 2.0. The USB also comes with AES 256-bit encryption for data security. Cost: Starts at $39.99

The Highfalutin Life of an Oscar Nominee Being an Oscar nominee star does have its perks. Over 1200 celebrities arrive at the 87th Academy Awards in true royal style. There are chauffer driven limousines with tinted glasses and in-car drinks to protect the celebrity from the crazy paparazzi. A single night of hiring these limos during the Oscars costs up to $5,000 (approx. INR 3 lakhs).

Experience Royalty at the Waldorf Astoria in Ras Al Khaimah

Fly Non-Stop on Gulfstream’s New Business Jet Taking their next big leap, luxury business jet manufacturers Gulfstream Aerospace Corp unveiled their longest journeying non-stop travelling jet—the G650ER. Mapping a distance of 8,010 nautical miles (14,835 km) non-stop, farthest in the history of flights, the aircraft model promises flyers a new flying experience, with speed and comfort.

Recently, it was tested by its first owner, Steve Wynn, CEO, Wynn Resorts. The hospitality tycoon flew from Singapore Changi Airport to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas with four passengers and three crew members on board. Flying nonstop for 14 hours and 32 minutes, at a speed of Mach 0.85 with tail winds of 76 knots, the flight broke its own record, including a new feature to its existing list of advantages.

“To be able to travel distances like this is remarkable, and it truly captures the essence of this aircraft. Its range and speed are just two of the many reasons for its success, and will continue to be the driving forces behind the demand for this aircraft,” says Larry Flynn, President, Gulfstream, at the unveiling of this incredible jet.

Sitting pretty like a jewel at the shore of a 350m private azure water beach, located 50 minutes away from the Dubai International airport, Waldorf Astoria in Ras Al Khaimah truly redefines luxury, thanks to its 346 classy palatial rooms, gastronomic destinations with the property, an 18-hole championship golf course amidst other luxuries, offering an experience that is unforgettable.

Seated amidst the majestic Hajar Mountains and vast expanses of desert, the resort cradles its guests in the lap of opulence. With the grassy plains of the Al Hamra championship golf course, perfect for a sunny-day game, and the crystal blue waters of the Arabian Sea, the best to go snorkelling in, Ras Al Khamiah’s Waldorf Astoria is a haven for adventures.

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LUXURY JAGUAR AND BREMONT ANNOUNCE TWO NEW WRISTWATCHES CELEBRATING THE E-TYPE Jaguar and Bremont have announced two new watch collaborations.

The British firms are cementing their partnership following an overwhelming response to the creation of six Bremont chronometers which complement each of the six ‘continuation’ lightweight E-Type sports racing cars currently being built by Jaguar. In working to capture the E-Type’s essence in a wrist watch, Jaguar’s Director of Design Ian Callum and the creative team at Bremont homed-in on another of its signature features - the dashboard. At its heart are the speedometer and tachometer (or ‘rev counter’) and it is these that inspired the look of the new Bremont Jaguar MKI and MKII watches.

The MKI is a more accessible version of the original ‘Lightweight’ limited edition watch by reproducing many of its design features but substituting the white gold and aluminium of the Lightweight’s case for a slimmer version in polished stainless steel. Save for the addition of a date window at the six o’clock position, the tachymetre-inspired dial is similar to that of the Lightweight, featuring an off-set small seconds indicator and a distinctive ‘red line’ quadrant between three and four o’clock. Behind the dial and domed crystal of the 43mm MKI watch lies a new movement with date functionality based on Bremont’s meticulously finished self-winding proprietary BWC/01. Turning the MKI over reveals the beautifully finished movement through the sapphire crystal case back, and also a striking automatic winding weight in the form of an exquisite miniaturisation of a three-spoke E-Type steering wheel, complete with the iconic Jaguar head its centre.

SHANTANU GOENKA OPENED "FASHIONING FAIRY TALES", A COUTURE EXPOSITION IN KOLKATA, INDIA Indian designer, Shantanu Goenka, showcased his elaborate and elegant collection through an exposition titled “Fashioning Fairy Tales”. The exclusive exposition, saw the fashion destination 85 Lansdowne, an 80-year-old mansion, transformed into a magical land of fairy tales. The fantastical inspiration manifested through the couture garments set against elaborate installations and themed décor elements from art, light and sound. The couture ensembles have been designed with a delicate usage of the new range of Swarovski crystals in tones of opals along with the crystal rose patina and crystal gold patina effects which bring alive a vintage look reminiscent of the fairy tales.

The exposition presented a series of curated displays that celebrate style and story, the relationship between narrative and fashion. Every component of the exposition was created and curated by the designer to represent fashion and couture through fairytales like Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and more. Speaking about the exposition, Mr Goenka said, “By converging fashion and technology one can play with fantasy to explore new ways of telling a story just as there is going to be a new dress, a new season, a new must haves, there must be new ideas, stories, and ways of telling them and this is exactly what I aimed at exploring through this exposition.”

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A SELECTION OF PERIOD AND VINTAGE PIECES AND A RARE COLLECTION OF 18TH CENTURY JEWELRY DESIGNS TO LEAD SOTHEBY'S LONDON SALE Sotheby’s London Fine Jewels sale on March 18, 2015 will present a stand-out selection of exceptionally crafted period jewels of and vintage pieces signed by some of the world’s greatest makers, including Cartier, Bulgari and Boucheron. Covering defining eras of jewellery design, from delicate creations of the 18th century, to the sophistication of Art Deco and the glamour of modern style, the auction is also distinguished with a rare collection of jewellery designs from the 1780s. The centerpiece of this spring’s sale is a rarity: a collection of 23 jewellery designs from the second half of the 18th century. These drawings, probably in life size, display an asymmetrical, serendipitous flavor and typify the light and open designs of the period. Utilizing flowers, leaves, ribbons and tassels, the format would suggest that they were assembled for potential distribution to goldsmiths (lot 24, est.

•54,000-80,500/ $60,000-90,000). The period jewel section comprises examples of late 19th century jewellery, including two emerald and diamond brooches/pendants. The first features a square step-cut Colombian emerald (lot 94, est. £20,000-30,000 / •26,80040,200 / $30,000-45,000), the second, of foliate and scroll design, set with a trapezeshaped emerald, also of Colombian origin (lot 95, est. £12,000-15,000 / •16,100-20,100 / $18,000-22,500). Another fine example of Colombian emerald is to be found in an early 20th century ring by Tiffany & Co., claw-set with a cabochon emerald between diamonds (lot 214, est. •26,800-40,200 / $30,000-45,000) Well represented in the sale are impressive statement jewels from the 1920s and 1930s.

FABERGE UNVEILS THE PEARL EGG Fabergé, the iconic artist jeweller, has revived its tradition of creating precious and coveted objets d’art. Paying homage to the forthcoming centenary of the last Fabergé Imperial Eggs ever delivered, Fabergé has crafted an extraordinary, one-of-kind egg objet in collaboration with the Al-Fardan family, one of the world’s most renowned collectors of pearls. The Fabergé Pearl Egg is the first egg created in the ‘Imperial Class’ since 1917 where the Fabergé name and the Fabergé family have been united. The Fabergé Pearl Egg draws inspiration from the formation of a pearl within an oyster, and the egg’s painstakinglycrafted mother-of-pearl exterior opens to reveal a unique grey pearl of 12.17 carats, sourced from the Arabian Gulf and exhibiting exceptional purity and a highly unusual shade of grey.

Harnessing 20 highly skilled workmasters, the objet embodies 139 fine, white pearls with a golden lustre, 3,305 diamonds, carved rock crystal and mother-of-pearl set on white and yellow gold. Each pearl in the Fabergé Pearl Egg was hand-selected by Hussain Ibrahim AlFardan from his private collection. An ingenious mechanism enables the entire outer shell to rotate on its base, simultaneously opening in six sections to unveil its treasure. The Pearl Egg is accompanied by a Fabergé necklace of white pearls, diamonds and mother of pearl featuring a scallop motif, and finished with an exquisite 19.44 carat white pearl drop.

Hussain Ibrahim Al-Fardan, Chairman of the Alfardan Group, said, “I have a passion for natural pearls and it took me many years to build my current collection gathering some of the most extraordinary pearls in the world.

Buccellati celebrates New York City flagship with jewelry exhibition inspired by Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masters Combining the opening of a new flagship store and appreciation of art, Milanese fine jewelry brand, Buccellati, celebrated its new Madison Avenue flagship space with a celebration entitled, Timeless Blue. The celebration also hosted an exhibition of five one-of-a-kind jewelry creations inspired by masterpieces from Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard, Winslow Homer, Mikhail Larionov and Odilon Redon, both displayed next to each other. While keeping the Italian Renaissance at the core of their design aesthetics, designers Andrea and Lucrezia Buccellati drew inspiration from the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism movements. These special jewelry creations, using the highest levels of craftsmanship, exceptional materials and quality standards, are a beauty to behold. If not around the exhibition, guests were seen exploring the new five-story townhouse including the High Jewelry lounge, private Family Vault of vintage creations as well as the multiple levels of Buccellati’s new residences at 714 Madison Avenue.

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LUXURY House of Marley Unveils its Premium Bluetooth Audio System Designed and engineered to accentuate a powerful bass line, the newly launched Get Up Stand Up speakers by The House of Marley are designed to enhance your musical experience. Taking flawless acoustics to the next level, the brand recently customised these speakers, adding the convenience of wireless audio streaming to it.

Crafted with a unique Bluetooth feature,

the dual woofer speaker-set resonate highend audio frequency ranging up to 60 watts.

The dual 4.5" speakers are made with dual 1" tweeters and a powerful amplifier engineer, they tune in to deliver the brand’s signature performance inspired from Marley’s audiology. Adding opulence to the woofer set is its FSC-certified walnut and birch wooden frame that can easily blend into your home décor.

Micromax Canvas Pep quad core smartphone launched at Rs 5,999 Micromax has yet again released a smartphone in the budget segment with decent features.

Micromax, which perhaps churns out more smartphones than any other handset maker in India, has launched another budget smartphone. The new handset, Micromax Canvas Pep, carries a price tag of Rs 5,999.

The Micromax Canvas Pep features a 4.5 inch touchscreen with 854x480 pixels resolution.

It has the 1.3 GHz Mediatek MTK6582M quad core processor, to assist which there is 1 GB RAM. This combination runs the Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system.

For storage, the Canvas Pep offers 8 GB of inbuilt memory of which about 5 GB is expected to be available. There is an expandable storage slot as well that can accommodate a micro SD card of up to 32 GB.

Samsung Galaxy S6 1440x2560 px display, Super AMOLED Android v5.0 (Lollipop) Octa core 2000 MHz processor 20 MP Primary Camera, 5 MP Secondary 3G, WiFi, NFC 32 GB Internal Memory, Expandable up to 128 GB 4 GB RAM 3300 mAh, Li-Polymer battery 19 best new phones you should be most excited about in 2015: best new phones coming from Apple, Samsung, Sony, HTC, LG, Xiaomi and others. We round up the 19 best new smartphones coming in 2015. If you're a Samsung fan but would rather stick to a phone than a phablet then the S6 will be just what you're looking for. With Samsung finally answering build-quality criticisms, we're expecting to see it follow in the trend of the Galaxy Alpha and Galaxy Note 4 with a metal body but still removable plastic rear.

Also expect to find a quad-HD screen, plus plenty of other radical new features, including a redesigned fingerprint scanner that works a lot more like Apple's Touch ID and, you know, actually works. Due to overheating concerns with the Snapdragon 810 it's

likely we'll see Samsung's own Exynos processor fitted, and paired with 3GB of RAM. We should see the Samsung Galaxy S6 unveiled at a Samsung Unpacked event on 1 March 2015. Read all the Samsung Galaxy S6 rumours here.

Best new smartphones 2015: Samsung Galaxy S6 mini A Samsung Galaxy flagship launch is traditionally followed by several variants, most importantly a compact version, but we've also seen variants that offer, for example, improved cameras or more ruggedised designs. The Samsung Galaxy S6 mini is likely to arrive a few months after the standard Samsung Galaxy S6, perhaps in late July/early August, and will be a more compact version of its bigger brother with a slightly slimmed down spec. We expect to see a 4.7in full-HD screen, a slower-clocked Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, perhaps 2GB of RAM and 16- and 5Mp cameras. You can read our Samsung Galaxy S6 mini predictions here.

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Canon launched MAXIFY series inkjet printers for small and home offices

Canon India Pvt. Ltd introduced the new “MAXIFY” range of business inkjet printers, which offers high-quality and economical colour network-printing solutions to SOHO customers.

MAXIFY inkjet printers enhanced features including high speed printing. low cost per print. cloud printing capabilities wireless connectivity to smart devices. Key Product Specifications High volume printing made easy Economies of scale and high productivity Colour network printing solutions for easy business operation Document Management & Security at your convenience MAXIFY Printing Solutions (MPS) app compatible with iOS and Android OS platforms allows printing of PDF, images and other office formats from mobile devices.

Scanning is also possible with the MPS app.

Buy Digiflip Headsets for better price at Flipkart.

DIGIFLIP BH002 BLUETOOTH HEADSET (WHITE) On-the-ear Headset 12 hrs of Talk Time Bluetooth Wireless Connectivity 2.1 EDR Bluetooth Versions Over-the-head Design Built-in Microphone DIGIFLIP BH001 Bluetooth Headset (Green) Built-in Mic In-the-ear Headset Wireless Connectivity In-ear-canalphone

Mitashi new 58-inch led tv launched for 84990 rs

As the Cricket World Cup 2015 comes closer, Mitashi launched new 58-inch LED television MiDE058v11 which priced at Rs. 84,990, and is available to buy from leading e-commerce websites and stores.

“In India, cricket is more than just a game and the World Cup is undoubtedly the most prestigious even that every cricket enthusiast looks forward to for years. Mitashi’s brand new TV is designed keeping the need for a thrilling large-screen experience in mind. The sound, picture and design – everything serves the specific purpose of simulating the cricket stadium atmosphere in your living room. You are sure to feel every moment of the excitement on your large screen. The TV comes at a very affordable price so that more and more people can experience its enormity. A great TV for a great sporting event – it’s the best time to upgrade!,” stated Rakesh Dugar, CMD – Mitashi Edutainment Ltd during the launch to media.

Ne w Mit ashi 58” LED TTV V Model no ations: New Mita no.:.: MiDE058v11 Specific Specifica 58 (146 cms) Screen DLED Technology with Super SLIM Panel Full HD – 1920 x 1080 Resolution 500,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio USB Movie Plug and Play – Plays over 27 movie formats HDMI Input x 3 PC Input 16:9 aspect ratio

Silver Paisley Clutch $95.00 Golden bag clutch.

Golden metallic wire work all over.

Clear crystals embellish the design.

Golden beaded strap with faux pearls.

Silver Grey Embellished Clutch $305.00 Featuring a Silver grey box clutch.

Greyish rhinestones cover the entire surface of the bag. Oxidized chain strap.

Featuring a Silver paisley shaped metallic clutch, accentuated with cut work and wire work.

Oval crystal at the center, outlined with rhinestones. Silver beaded strap.

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LUXURY Best new smartphones 2015: HTC One M9 We are massive fans of the HTC One M8, and we just can't wait for a better version of the phone. Full specs have leaked for the HTC One M9, and if these are to be believed it will have a 5in full-HD Super LCD3 display, a Snapdragon 810 processor, Adreno 430 graphics and 3GB of RAM. The HTC One M9 is expected to follow the HTC Desire Eye with a super-selfie 13Mp front camera, plus 20Mp at the rear. Rumour has it the M9 will also be ultra-thin at 7mm. The Android Lollipop- and HTC Sense 7.0-based HTC One M9 will arrive at an HTC event on 1 March 2015. Read all the HTC One M9 rumours here.

new Lenovo mobile sisley S90 looks like iphone6 Launched in india Leonovo launched New smartphone which looks like iphone 6 named “SISLEY S90?.

Price starts at 19,900. Now device available to buy at Lenovo’s own onlineStore .

Intex new aqua star 8 MP camera phone for 5999 Best new smartphones 2015: Sony Xperia Z4 Sony has traditionally updated its flagship handsets every six months, usually at IFA in September and MWC in March. Well not any more, if rumours are to be believed.

In fact, while we've been hoping to see the Z4 unveiled at MWC, many of the rumours point to a summer release, perhaps with the phone tying in with the new James Bond movie, with actor Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes expected to be involved in its design. Rumour has it that it will be a super-fast Android Lollipop smartphone with an octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor, potentially 4GB of RAM and a Quad HD screen. Check out all the Sony Xperia Z4 rumours here.

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Intex on Monday launched the Intex Aqua Star II in India Priced at Rs. 5,999 with 8MP rear camera. “Intex is known for innovation and we are pleased to announce our newest offering, Intex Aqua Star II. The smartphone boasts of distinguished sensor technology, 1.2GHz quad-core SoC and an 8-megapixel camera amid other features that makes it a device that rightly stands for the youth of the nation,” Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, Mobile Business Head, Intex Technologies said on the launch. Intex Aqua Star II marks the 6th smartphone in the Aqua Star series.

Best new smartphones 2015: Samsung Galaxy S6 Active Yet another rumoured Samsung Galaxy S6 variant, the Active should be a rugged version of the Samsung Galaxy S6. Korean sources suggest that the standard S6 will not be waterproof, leaving room in Samsung's line-up for an Active version. We're not convinced, given that both Samsung Galaxy S5 and S5 Active were both waterproof.

Nevertheless, with an S4 Active and S5 Active before it, we could well see an S6 Active, but probably not until the summer. We've rounded up all the Samsung Galaxy S6 Active rumours here.

JACQUARD OVERSIZED COAT The statement maker: a cocoon coat, transformed with texture. Our Jacquard Oversized Coat is a standout from the runway. Made of thick slubby cotton, its design references African woven blankets — with a graphic, broken-dash pattern based on tribal body art. The cozy, oversized silhouette has bracelet sleeves and hidden snaps for a clean finish. Super-comfortable and chic, it’s a unique alternative to a lightweight jacket and instantly adds an artisanal element to looks.

Ralph Lauren Brown Grey Sunglasses Polo Eyewear Collection captures the same refined, timeless sensibility. This high-end collection mixes classically emblematic shapes, such as the aviator, with fresh colors for designs that represent authentic, lasting style. Frame Style: Shield. Lens Feature: Mirrored

Keeping Up with Time Van Cleef and Arpels’ Charms Extrordinaire collection might not be a new one, however, watch enthusiasts are regularly treated to fresh interpretations and variations. Featuring the collection’s signature dangling charm, the newest addition to this range, the Charms Extrordinaire Désir watch featured a beautiful lilac motif on its dial. It glitters with pink sapphires, amethysts and yellow gold details. Its design is a reflection of the vivacity of a new romance and young love. The watch unveiled at the SIHH 2015.

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LUXURY Chronoliner—the Timepiece for Aviation Enthusiasts Swiss, luxury watchmaker Breitling has been a definition of opulence and efficiency for decades. It has now launched a new timepiece for flight enthusiasts and captains–the Chronoliner.

Breitling chronograph has an association with the aviation industry since the 1950s.

In fact, back then, it was the official supplier of watches to the world of aviation. The new Chronoliner, though inspired from the older models, has the latest features.

This timepiece features a broad bezel in scratch-resistant, high-tech ceramic, with a star-shaped cut-out and white ceramic numerals. The 46mm black dial has three displays at 12, 9 and 6 o’clock, as well as white luminescent hour-markers and oversized hour/minute hands. The second time zone is defined by the red-tipped hand and a rotating bezel. It has a polished steel case with a steel mesh strap. The rear has Breitling’s signature stylised planes embossed on it. This watch is officially a chronometer-certified by the COSC (Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute).

Available at major stores across the globe, the Chronoliner’s price is available

on request.

Gogoro—World’s First Smartscooter Innovated with the idea to redefine urban transport, Taipei-based Gogoro’s smartscooter is touted as the world’s first and only one of its breed. Sleek and futuristic, this electric two-wheeler seems like the innovation the world has been waiting for.

From its drivetrain to its dashboard, the smartscooter exemplifies precision and perfection. In order to deliver agility and power, the makers at Gogoro chose to recreate the entire riding experience so as to put together a smartscooter that boasts of a unique powertrain, chassis, suspension and electronics, offering a uniquely powerful yet smart ride to those who find the need for speed.

Panasonic launched fully rugged powerful tablet in india Panasonic launched its fully-rugged Android Tablet FZ-B2 in India for Rs 75,000. The device comes with a unique quick charging replaceable full-shift battery in addition to the standard 7hour battery.

Panasonic Rugged Android Tablet FZ-B2 Specifications: Android 4.4 operating system quad-core Intel Celeron processor, 7-inch multi-touch display, 5 megapixel rear camera with flash, HD front camera.

The most important aspect of this tablet is that it can withstand shock from falls from 5 feet. It has also IP65 certification and hence is water and dust resistant.

Meanwhile, expressing his views on the launch, Rizhkant Zha, director, system sales division, Panasonic India said, “This 7-inch Android rugged Tablet, with its world-class tough performance, connectivity, long battery life and advanced technology, this device is the perfect work companion for all business professionals working in extreme and rugged conditions.

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Graham Chronofighter Oversize Superlight GT Asia 2CCBK.B10A (Carbon) Limited to only 88 pieces and weighing less than 100 grams, this Superlight watch is a definitive must-have if you’re looking for an impressionable and unconventional timepiece. Made for the notable Chronofighter Oversize collection by Graham, this timepiece features a splendid 47 mm superlight black carbon nanotube composite case and smoked sapphire crystal case back with GT Asia, superlight inscriptions and limited edition serial number. The bezel is made of black ceramic.

The black dial features hours, minutes and seconds, 30-minute counter at six o’clock, small seconds sub-dial at three o’clock, ta-

6 Smartphones to Watch Out For Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona has seen the presentation of several new smartphones, including the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9.

1. Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge Due to launch in 20 countries on April 10, the South Korean giant’s latest flagship phone will be available in two versions: the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge. The latter model is the world’s first smartphone with curved screens across both the right and left edges. Samsung claims the S6 will be sturdier than its predecessors thanks to its special metal case, but the battery is no longer removable and there is no microSD memory card slot. Pricing details have yet to be officially announced.

2. HTC One M9

3. ZTE Grand S3

As usual, HTC has placed the emphasis on styling with its new One, which has an aluminum monobloc design with accents in steel grey, silver or gold. 4G+ ready (up to 450Mbps according to the manufacturer), the One M9 runs the latest version of Android under HTC’s customizable Sense 7 skin, which uses location data to adapt to the needs of the user with contextual widgets. The HTC One M9 will be available from April 2015.

The Chinese manufacturer ZTE came to Barcelona with the first smartphone equipped with the EyePrint ID technology, which allows the user to lock or unlock the device simply by looking into its scanner. Already available in China, the 5.5-inch Android KitKat (4.4) smartphone is due to launch in Europe and the US at the end of 2015.

5. Sony Xperia M4 Aqua The Japanese manufacturer took advantage of MWC to reveal its new midrange smartphone, which it claims is waterproof and has a battery life of up to two days. The Xperia M4 Aqua comes with Android Lollipop and is the brand’s first device equipped with the octacore Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor.

Its “smart” 13MP camera is said to be capable of detecting up to 52 different types of scenes. The smartphone will go on sale in Europe this June.

6. Microsoft Lumia 640 Rather than unveiling a new premium smartphone in Barcelona, the American company chose to introduce a more affordable device compatible with its forthcoming multi-platform operating system. Available in two versions — the 5-inch Lumia 640 and the 5.7-inch Lumia 640 XL — the new smartphone packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.2GHz and 8GB of (expandable) storage. To be delivered with Windows Phone 8.1, the new Lumia

4. Huawei MediaPad X2 Though it chose to turn the spotlight primarily on its new smartwatch, Huawei also presented a remarkable new smartphone in Barcelona. The MediaPad X2 is a phablet with a 7inch screen (1200x1920px) and a thickness of just 7mm. Also 4G+ compatible, the new device runs Android with Huawei’s EMUI layer.

Pricing and availability details are unannounced.

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