Haryana-Magic Bus partnership

Gurugram, August 9. Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad, implementing agency for Samagra Shiksha (secondary school programme) of the government of Haryana, has partnered with Magic Bus India Foundation to empower government school teachers to deliver life skills education for fostering holistic development of adolescents in Panchkula, Gurugram, and Yamuna Nagar districts.

Under its teacher-led program, Magic Bus Foundation will train 1,400 teachers to benefit 80,000 adolescents in 700 government schools. These teachers will impart 21st century life skills including self-awareness, self-management, collaboration, empathy, decision-making, problem-solving, communication, negotiation, assertiveness, and adaptability to adolescents in classes VI-X.

“The partnership with Magic Bus is a significant step towards providing life skills education to our adolescents, enabling them to become self-reliant and contributing members of society,” said Sanjay Kumar, consultant, Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad.

Internshala-NSDC agreement
New Delhi, August 1. Internshala, a Gurugram-based career-tech platform, has signed an agreement with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), under which the latter has authorised Internshala to empower India’s youth with futuristic skills. The partnership will impact 300,000 learners over a period of three years and invest them with practice-based, new-age skilling including data science, electric vehicle, digital marketing, machine learning, programming, web development, UI/UX design, IoT, among others.

The partnership will also facilitate paid internships for young learners and will encourage placement-linked skills training at affordable price with the flexibility to learn from anywhere and at any time. On successful completion of training, learners will get prestigious co-branded certification from NSDC and Internshala under the Skill India initiative.

“Early exposure to the world of work through internships has empowered students to understand the importance of practical skills early on in their college lives to prepare themselves for enriching careers. Internshala and NSDC share a common vision to encourage career outcomes-based training and skill development in students to help them get the best start to their careers,” said Sarvesh Agrawal, founder-CEO of Internshala, speaking on the occasion.

Cambridge-Edureka online courses
Chennai, August 22. University of Cambridge Online has signed an agreement with Edureka, a subsidiary of the Chennai-based Veranda Learning Solutions, to bring three higher education online courses, led by Cambridge academics, to India.

The three courses uploaded on the Edureka platform are: Human-computer interaction for AI systems design, led by Prof. Per Ola Kristensson, an expert in interactive systems engineering; Leveraging big data for business intelligence, under guidance of Dr. Russell Hunter, professor of computational neuroscience, and senior software engineer at Cambridge; Creativity, problem solving and design thinking, led by Prof. Nathan Crilly, a professor of design, department of engineering at Cambridge.

“Upskilling is the real need of the hour. As we offer courses from the University of Cambridge Online in India, it exemplifies how committed we are to offering unparalleled world-class courses that blend academic brilliance with real-world applications,” said Vineet Chaturvedi, CEO of Edureka, speaking on the occasion.

Avidii olympiad
Mumbai, August 14. Avidii, an on-demand EdTech platform, announced the launch of an Olympiad for marginalised communities in association with the West Bengal Headmasters Association (WBHA). The Olympiad programme aims to empower students in 150 schools for marginalised communities in Assam and West Bengal. To facilitate the Olympiad seamlessly, Avidii has also signed up with institutions including Scordemy, Lalan Coaching Classes, School on Web, and School e-diary.

“This Olympiad aims to provide students with an opportunity that can uplift their lives, open doors to higher education, and get exposure to the competitive world by sharpening their learning skills to national and international levels,” said Deepak Subbarao, co-founder, Avidii.

BITS-Pilani’s Ph D-Drive
Delhi, August 19. BITS-Pilani has launched an innovative Ph D program that will result in promotion of startups based on Ph D students research. The program will focus on development of deep tech and deep science startup ventures to solve some of the most critical challenges confronting business and society.

The new program, named Ph D-Drive (deep-tech research, innovation, value generation & entrepreneurship) will admit students with expertise in technology and science, with clear intent to promote startups. The program will include courses in entrepreneurship, incubation and fund-raising for solutions/products.

“The target is to incubate 100 startups by 2030. Thus far, BITS-Pilani alumni have promoted over 7,400 startups of value including 13 unicorns and a decacorn worldwide,” said Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, vice chancellor, BITS-Pilani, addressing the media.