Uttar Pradesh Kanya Vidya Dhan scheme for girl children Under the state government’s Kanya Vidya Dhan programme announced on August 22, girl students who clear the intermediate (Plus Two) or equivalent examination from 2012 onwards, will be awarded a lumpsum Rs.30,000. According to a government order, every girl student who qualifies for this scheme subject to the proviso that the total income of her family is less than Rs.35,000 per year, is eligible to submit her application at an office designated by the district magistrate. The last date for receiving Kanya Vidya Dhan applications for the inaugural year is September 20. District magistrates have been directed to ensure that annual income certificates are issued to parents of eligible girl children. Odisha Nalco full scholarships Nalco Foundation, the CSR (corporate social responsibility) arm of the Bhubaneswar-based National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco), has signed memoranda of understanding with the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Bhubaneswar; Koraput Development Foundation (KDF), Jeypore; and Bikash Vidyalaya, Koraput, under which children from remote villages of Damanjodi in Koraput district will receive full scholarship education in their schools. Nalco will foot all expenses including tuition, board and lodging and other expenses. This full scholarship residential education programme for which the foundation has made a provision of Rs.70 lakh per year, will enable 450 children from the backward villages of Damanjodi to enrol in KISS, KDF and Bikash Vidyalaya schools. Meanwhile a second batch of 210 tribal children to be enroled in KISS has also been selected. Punjab Entrance exam language row Punjab education minister Sikander Singh Maluka has voiced strident objection to cancellation of the Punjabi language entrance exam of Punjab University (PU) and has invited intervention of vice president Hamid Ansari, in his capacity as ex-officio chancellor of the university, to reverse the decision. According to university rules, all M.Phil entrance exams are obliged to be written in English. According to Maluka, this is a “dangerous and strange” decision against Punjab and the Punjabi language by PU which has a “systematic plan to decimate the Punjabi language”. He said the state government will not tolerate neglect of Punjabi by PU, which receives state government aid to fund 60 percent of its annual expenditure. “Protection of Punjabi language is the duty of the university administration. Even the country’s highest civil services entrance exams are permitted to be written in Gurmukhi,” he said, inviting the vice president’s intervention. Tripura Theatre-in-education study programme The National School of Drama (NSD), Agartala has introduced a new study programme ‘Theatre-in-education’ — a first-of-its-type in Asia. The initial batch of 20 students admitted to the 12-month programme includes eight students from Tripura and the rest from other states. An interview board — headed by the course coordinator Kirty Jain, a former director of NSD — selected the candidates, said Anuradha Kapur, director of NSD. The new programme was inaugurated by Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar on August 9. NSD intends to send its graduates to stage theatre productions countrywide next year, says…
