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ABEA-Johns Hopkins scholarships

Mumbai, February 9. The Aditya Birla Education Academy (ABEA) has signed a collaboration agreement with the US-based Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) to offer scholarships in India for CTY’s online programs for advanced learners. Under terms of the agreement, ABEA and CTY will identify and support bright young learners in India through these online programs at reduced fees — a 5 percent reduction on tuition and application fees — until August 2021. This fee reduction is available to the first 50 advanced learners who apply to ABEA. Students in classes II-XI can qualify for the scholarships by participating in the CTY Talent Search test conducted by ABEA. CTY offers more than 200 challenging, engaging and enjoyable digital courses conducted by expert instructors who specialise in teaching advanced concepts to advanced learners. Courses are available in real-time, independent and student-driven, collaborative formats in computer science, critical reading, engineering, history, mathematics, science, social science, world languages. “We are dedicated to offering unique, rigorous and relevant courses to learners in India who are looking to upskill themselves in this fast changing world. We are happy to work with the Johns Hopkins CTY and provide special scholarships to fulfil the learning needs of bright young minds,” said Neerja Birla, founder and chairperson of the Aditya Birla Education Trust, speaking on the occasion. TMY-Shiv Nadar Foundation M&A Delhi, February 4. Shiv Nadar Foundation, the philanthropic venture of IT entrepreneur Shiv Nadar, founder-CEO of HCL, a US $10 billion global IT conglomerate, has acquired The Magic Years (TMY, estb.1978), Delhi’s top-ranked standalone pre-primary which will prepare youngest children for the foundation’s K-12 Shiv Nadar School, Noida. However, Shirley Madhavan Kutty, the founder-principal of TMY and her team of educators will continue to lead the pre-primary renamed ‘The Magic Years, a Shiv Nadar School’. “Over the past four decades, TMY has emerged as the torch-bearer of preschool education, inculcating in children the joy of learning while helping them to develop critical social and emotional skills. The Shiv Nadar School has also emerged as one of the most respected K-12 schools in Delhi NCR in a short time span. I am happy to partner with the Shiv Nadar Foundation to continue to provide an engaging, caring and fun learning environment for pre-schoolers,” said Madhavan Kutty, commenting on the merger. CEDP scholarships Mumbai, February 1. Council of Education and Development Programmes (CEDP, estb.2010), a Mumbai-based skill development institute, is to provide free training for 500 eligible students. The selected students can choose from the 50-plus skill development courses run by the institute. Courses offered include certified training for the hospitality, aviation, automobile and healthcare industries. Commercially, course fees range from Rs.15,000-6 lakh which will be waived for the selected students. To avail scholarships, applicants should register for the online AICST (All India Career and Scholarship Test) Entrance Test. Eligibility for writing the test is class X certification and beyond. Comments Shaheen Khan, founder and CEO of CEDP Skill Institute: “Much has been discussed on the impact of…

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CyberPeace Foundation initiative

New Delhi, January 12. CyberPeace Foundation, a think tank and NGO promoted by cyber security and policy experts, launched a cyber security training programme in collaboration with the Union ministry of education and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for the benefit of industry, academia, government and civil society. The objective of the programme is to address problems such as cybercrimes, harassment, abuse and radicalisation and to build secure ecosystems of cybersecurity communities. “Cybercrimes have increased in India and globally during the pandemic. On National Youth Day, we are delighted to partner with the ministry of education and AICTE to upskill half a million youth across India in critical cybersecurity skills. With rising digital adoption, these skills will form the bedrock to create more cyber-aware individuals, a pool of cyber security experts and a secure and resilient society,” said Vineet Kumar, founder-president of the CyberPeace Foundation (estb.2013), addressing the media. Amazon Academy debut Delhi, January 13. Amazon India announced the launch of the Amazon Academy to help students preparing for the IIT-JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) for admission into the country’s 23 IITs and other engineering colleges. The academy will equip students with in-depth knowledge and practice routines required for writing IIT-JEE through curated learning material, live lectures and comprehensive assessments in math, physics and chemistry. “Amazon Academy intends to bring high quality, affordable education for all, starting with students preparing for engineering entrance examinations. Our mission is to enable students to achieve their aspirations while also empowering educators and content partners to reach millions of students. Our focus is on content quality, deep learning analytics and student experience. This launch will help engineering aspirants prepare better and achieve the winning edge in IIT-JEE,” said Amol Gurwara, director (education) of Amazon India. IPV backs Mindler New Delhi, January 18. Mindler Education Pvt. Ltd, the well-reputed Delhi-based comprehensive career guidance platform for educators and students, announced $1 million (Rs.7.2 crore) pre-series-A round funding from a consortium led by Gurugram-based Inflection Point Ventures, an angel investors network. The newly raised funds will be utilised for expanding Mindler’s base of institutional partnerships and alliances. “We are very excited to get the support of IP Ventures and its network of C-Suite leaders from around the world. Apart from IP Ventures, we are also in the final stage of talks with a few high net worth individuals for this round of funding. Despite all its challenges, 2020 has been a good year for us,” said Prateek Bhargava, founder-director of Mindler Education, speaking on the occasion. Added Mitesh Shah, co-founder of IPV: “IPV will help Mindler access a large unexplored market base and expand its network exponentially while enhancing its tech capabilities.” Instrucko-EtonX concordat Mumbai/Delhi, January 20. Instrucko Ltd — a UK-based edtech company (estb.2020) which has innovated a one-to-one languages (English, French, Spanish and Hindi) learning platform using storytelling pedagogy — has signed a partnership agreement with EtonX, an online subsidiary of Eton College, UK (estb.1440), globally reputed as Britain’s best public (i.e, independent) primary-secondary…

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Cambridge-Enguru’s Upskill

Bengaluru, December 17. Cambridge Assessment English, a department of Cambridge University (UK), has teamed up with the Bengaluru-based Enguru Live English Learning to launch Upskill, a new smartphone-based test of English. Upskill will enhance the employability of graduates aspiring for entry level jobs in corporate organisations and covers four skills — speaking, listening, reading and writing. Built around users’ lifestyles, this affordable, flexible test can be taken on the Enguru app on an Android device anytime, anywhere. It focuses on levels A1-B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference, to show potential employers that candidates have work-ready English skills. “Our mission is to help people to learn English and prove their skills to the world. We’ve developed Upskill as a quick, flexible, easily accessible, mobile based test which will boost the employability of graduates and entry level working professionals,” says T.K. Arunachalam, regional director — South Asia, of Cambridge Assessment English. Hyundai launches Saksham Mumbai, December 7. Hyundai Motor India Foundation, the CSR arm of Hyundai Motor India Ltd, launched ‘Saksham,’ a skills development initiative to boost employment opportunities in diverse sectors, starting with healthcare. Commenting on commencement of the programme, S.S. Kim, MD & CEO, Hyundai Motor India Ltd said: “Our Saksham initiative is aimed at empowering youth in vulnerable sections of society to become self-reliant. The initiative is a step towards providing skilled and trained support staff including medical attendants and janitors. The courses are certified by the National Skill Development Corporation.” The first project in the healthcare domain will run in two phases — the first covering states of Maharashtra, Delhi and Haryana — and Bihar and some other states in the second phase. The project will provide theoretical and on-job training modules to individuals followed by placement. Post training, students will be absorbed as patient attendants, janitors, general duty attendants, etc. The project is expected to place about 580 trainees by end-December 2020. Imagine Cup 2021 New Delhi, December 3. Microsoft India and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) have combined to launch the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2021, an innovation challenge for technology students. Imagine Cup is a global competition designed to motivate students to apply artificial intelligence and other technologies to solve some of the world’s most critical social and sustainability problems. This year’s Imagine Cup will be held online with students competing to solve global challenges in four categories — earth, education, health and lifestyle. “The Imagine Cup competition is a platform for youth of India to couple technology with innovative ideas and build something that matters to them, makes a difference in their communities and creates societal impact. Our partnership with NSDC has been formed to empower young people across the country to collaborate, innovate and build for a sustainable future,” said Dr. Rohini Srivathsa, National Technology Officer of Microsoft, speaking on the occasion. National entrepreneurship contest Mumbai, December 3. The Mumbai-based Callido Learning Pvt. Ltd has partnered with IIT Roorkee’s e-Summit program to launch an entrepreneurship competition for school students. The competition…

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Kara4Kids-Penn Hub agreement

Bengaluru, November 17. Kara4Kids, a group of premium preschools and daycares in Bengaluru, signed an academic collaboration agreement with The Pennsylvania Global and Education Hub (Penn Hub), a joint initiative of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education, a consortium of independent universities and public community colleges. This agreement for early education will equip Kara4Kids teachers with cutting-edge skills and modern tools to enhance their capabilities and modes of teaching. “We are aware that Penn Hub offers excellent teacher training and our children will benefit immensely through this initiative,” said Prachi Mehrotra, executive director, Kara Learning, speaking on the occasion. Mindler Scholarships Hunt New Delhi, December 2. Mindler Education Pvt. Ltd, the well-reputed Delhi-based career guidance and mentorship company, announced the launch of its Mindler Scholarships Hunt. This pioneer initiative will enable an estimated 100,000 class XII school-leavers from over 1,000 schools in India and the Middle East to win scholarships valued at Rs.25 crore from India’s top-ranked universities. Under this Scholarship Hunt programme, applicants will be tested for aptitude, leadership and emotional quotient, personality traits, working style etc, by Mindler and toppers will be recommended for scholarships. Some of the private universities who have signed up with Mindler to award scholarships under their programme are O.P. Jindal Global University, NMIMS, Shoolini University, Jagran Lakecity University, Vijaybhoomi University, Shiv Nadar University, Jain University, and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, among others. “The objective of the Scholarship Hunt programme is to select meritorious students for award of scholarships,” says Prateek Bhargava, promoter-CEO of Mindler Education. “This initiative of Mindler will be a tremendous boost for students and will create opportunities for over 100,000 students to continue their education. I am sure students in need of financial assistance will come forward and leverage this amazing opportunity,” said Gerry Arathoon, CEO and secretary-general of the CISCE exams boards, while inaugurating this merit scholarship programme. JAGSOM’s LFH programme Bengaluru, November 17. The Jagdish Sheth School of Management (JAGSOM, hitherto IFIM Business School), a globally-ranked AACSB-accredited B-school, launched an exclusive Learn from home PGDM (LFH PGDM) programme. This AICTE approved programme is India’s first online MBA, providing over 500 hours of live faculty teaching, tutorial support and one-on-one office hours with faculty. It also provides hands-on industry experience through industry mentor sessions, placement support and a range of professional certifications. The total fee for the programme is Rs.4 lakh with financing options starting at Rs.8,000 per month. “The PGDM programme of JAGSOM, recently listed in the QS World Rankings, is a testimony to the strength of our curriculum and its alignment to groom professionals for Industry 4.0. We have designed this online programme to impart futuristic knowledge and skills,” said Dr. Atish Chattopadhyay, director, JAGSOM. B4S scholarship drive New Delhi, November 4. Buddy4Study (B4S) which bills itself as India’s largest scholarship platform and student empowerment network, has partnered with several new corporates including Tata Capital, Xiaomi, Piaggio, Vivo, and Shriram Capital to provide scholarship support to more than 10,000 school and college students in the…

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Sportz Village fitness webinar

Bengaluru, November 6. The Bengaluru-based Sportz Village and EducationWorld recently hosted a ‘Maintaining fitness and good health during the pandemic’ webinar moderated by Summiya Yasmeen, managing editor, EducationWorld. The eminent educators’ panelists included Dr. Ashok Pandey, director, Ahlcon Group of Schools, Delhi; Dr. S. Bhavanishankar Subramanian, senior principal, Lalaji Memorial Omega International School, Chennai; Saumil Majmudar, co-founder/CEO, Sportz Village, Bangalore; Venkat Raman, senior vice-principal, CHIREC International School and Praveen Raju, founder-director, Suchitra Academy, Hyderabad. Speaking during the webinar, Sportz Village’s Saumil Majmudar warned that with schools shut down for over six months and classes being held online, there is high risk of a spurt in obesity and mental health problems of children. “Sportz Village introduced an online once-a-week health and fitness programme for primary school children in June. Within a short time we’ve witnessed a huge improvement in the well-being of children and parents who participated in our online classes. Fitness and good health doesn’t require equipment and external devices. Whatever is available at home is good enough for children to keep fit and going,” says Majumdar. (see www.educationworld.in) Super computer for Marwadi University New Delhi, October 6. The state government-promoted Gujarat Council on Science and Technology has installed a unit of the indigenously developed Param Shavak supercomputing system at the Rajkot campus of Marwadi University. “Setting up a supercomputer centre will stimulate cross-sectoral collaboration at scale. For example, medical researchers and computer scientists may collaborate to discover application advanced technologies to research complex medical issues making actionable data available in the process,” said Dr. Y.P. Kosta, vice-chancellor of Marwadi University, speaking on the occasion. Added Ketan Marwadi, founder-chairman of this new greenfield private university (estb.2016): “The establishment of a supercomputer centre is pivotal for government, industry and academia to converge, and develop collaborative solutions to tackle some of the biggest issues affecting society today.” Pearson Classroom New Delhi, October 7. In partnership with the Australia-based E2Language, “the world’s most popular and trusted English Language test preparation company,” Pearson India announced the launch of Pearson Classroom, a fully online teacher-driven platform for students to prepare for English language exams. The platform is designed to support institutes, teachers, students and administrators. The Pearson Classroom programme provides students with practice, assessments and mock tests and also enables teachers to overcome the challenges of online delivery with quality teaching and learning content, proven methodologies, and skill-building. “We are confident that Pearson Classroom, powered by E2Language, will help students writing PTE-A, IELTS-A, IELTS-G, & OET for nursing and medicine exams,” said Ramananda S.G, vice president (sales), Pearson India, speaking on the occasion. Microsoft Innovative Educators India, October 5. Microsoft welcomed 4,366 Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts (MIEE) on board its Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) programme for the Asia region. This is a two-fold increase over the previous year. In India, 2,669 experts joined the ranks of certified MIE experts in the year ended March 31. The MIEE programme, initiated in 2014, certifies educators who have successfully completed online professional development courses, accessed resources, and shared learnings…

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AVVU’s second Unesco chair

New Delhi, September 8. The Coimbatore-based Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University (AVVU) has been awarded a Unesco chair for Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation & Development. Through this chair, the university will design a curriculum based on experiential learning which will enable the academic community to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to implement sustainable solutions among vulnerable and rural communities. The chair will be held by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham for the next four years under the leadership of Dr. Maneesha Sudheer, dean of the university’s international programmes and director of its Centre for Wireless Networks & Applications. “This is the second Unesco chair awarded to AVVU in the past four years after it received India’s first-ever Unesco chair on Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment. We will now be able to take our experiential learning concepts to the entire world in collaboration with other Unesco chairs and universities around the world. Through this chair, AVVU will develop an experiential learning framework to enable an understanding of the challenges faced by remote communities, and design sustainable solutions in collaboration with them,” says Dr. Sudheer. Webex Classrooms preview India, September 3. Cisco Collaboration announced a preview of Webex Classrooms, which adapts the US-based Cisco Inc’s highly secure platform to meet the specific online learning needs of hybrid classrooms. According to a Cisco spokesperson, Cisco Webex Classrooms is a “secure go-to place for teachers, students, and parents to connect more naturally”. It provides a classroom structure where students and teachers can organise classes, review syllabuses, schedule and launch classes, host virtual office hours and more. Students can easily connect with each other or simply access course resources, and parents can stay involved too — by easily scheduling virtual parent-teacher conferences. LEAD Teachers Academy Mumbai, September 3. Leadership Boulevard Pvt. Ltd aka LEAD School launched its online LEAD Teachers Academy on Teachers’ Day (September 5). The programme and certification under this initiative are free of charge for all teachers. LEAD School has already trained over 10,000 teachers in its partner-schools. “The LEAD Teachers Academy programme is free and open to 2.5 million teachers across India. Applicant teachers will be trained in batches during the three-part certificate programme designed to improve their teaching skills, update them about best pedagogies and practices and encourage them to deliver better results,” says Sumeet Mehta, co-founder and CEO of the company. Teachers can enroll for the programme by visiting join.leadschool.in/teachers_day and submit their applications. Urban development partnership Roorkee, September 4. The National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-R) for collaboration in areas of universal design principles and inclusive development under its ‘Building Accessible Safe Inclusive Indian Cities’ (BASIIC) programme. The MoU lists cooperation in field policy research, technical support and knowledge creation and dissemination. “This partnership will strengthen emerging possibilities towards urban inclusion through exchange of research, capacity development and other partnerships with India’s emerging cities,” said Prof. Ajit K. Chaturvedi, director, IIT-R, speaking on…

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Cyber security programme

Bangalore, August 19. In association with HackerU, Israel’s premier cyber security training provider, Jigsaw Academy, a Manipal Global investee company, announced the launch of a new Masters certificate in cyber security (Blue Team) study programme. According to Jigsaw Academy spokespersons, cyber security has become an important subject since most organisations have started functioning remotely. There are over 3 million job openings for cyber security experts worldwide, they say. “Defensive cyber security is one of the most secure and high-income professions of the cyber world. 85 percent of the job openings in the cyber security domain are for cyber defenders, also known as Blue Team professionals. Our Masters certificate in cyber security programme will help learners build and protect the infrastructure of companies while also helping them thwart cyber predators,” said Ariel Cohen, CEO, HackerU Global Education, speaking on the occasion. Kido Home launch Mumbai, August 5. The London-based global preschool chain Kido Schools announced the launch of its online learning initiative, Kido Home. This home-based learning programme is for children aged 2-6 years who will be administered age-appropriate programmes curated by experienced early education experts. “The coronavirus pandemic has altered education. While there is no substitute for learning in enriched physical preschool environments, we have created a programme tailor made for online delivery, for youngest children. Our curriculum is a holistic balance of interactive personalised interaction between children and teachers,” says Aniruddh Gupta, founder-promoter of Kido Schools, a global network of preschools in London, Austin, Houston, Hong Kong and Dubai with centres in Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Gurgaon in India. UN Millennium fellowships New Delhi, August 26. Twelve students of Ashoka University, Sonipat (Gurgaon) have been awarded the prestigious UN Millennium Fellowship programme, a collaborative initiative of United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) and the Millennium Campus Network (MCN), a Boston-based global non-profit. The objective of the one semester on-campus programme is to develop young leaders worldwide. “Under the fellowship programme, our students will be working in diverse projects such as educating visually challenged people through audio calls during the pandemic; developing a telemedicine platform that connects volunteer doctors with at-risk migrant workers; cleansing water bodies; writing a policy framework for instituting waste paper recycling units in Indian universities, etc,” says Ali Imran, vice president (external engagement) of Ashoka University. For the 2020 programme, 15,000 students from 1,400 campuses in 135 countries applied for fellowships. Of them, 1,438 from 80 campuses were awarded fellowships for this year. Pearl Academy-IED agrrement Bangalore, August 1. The Delhi-based Pearl Academy has entered into an exclusive academic collaboration with the Milan-based Istituto Europeo di Design (IED), a highly reputed creative education institute with nine campuses across Europe. Under the collaboration agreement, IED will provide a 50-contact hours international module programme to Pearl Academy’s postgrad students who will be assessed by IED faculty prior to being awarded certification. “We are proud of this exclusive collaboration with IED, which has more than 50 years of experience in design, fashion and visual communication education, and campuses in Milan,…

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Ashoka U workshop

New Delhi, July 1. The Sonipat (Haryana)-based Ashoka University hosted a ‘Shaping Organisations of the Future’, a virtual conference on June 27. The conference was addressed by business, finance and industry leaders including Pramod Bhasin, Genpact; Amitabh Chaudhry, Axis Bank; Deep Kalra, MakeMyTrip, and Ashish Dhawan, Ashoka University. The conference was attended by over 2,000 corporate leaders, professionals, students and a variety of audiences in 26 countries. “The virtual conference brought human resource development communities, corporate leaders, global thinkers and stakeholders to discuss the future of work practices including work anytime, anywhere, virtual internships, redesigning of workplaces and developing skills such as critical writing, analytical thinking, effective communication and social responsibility that will be essential in the post Covid-19 era,” says an Ashoka University spokesperson. A recording of the conference can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=fepsECie4GM EIF training initiative Mumbai, June 22. EdIndia Foundation (EIF, estb.2019), an edtech non-profit supported by the Mumbai-based Sterlite Power — a power transmission and solutions company — hosted a two-day online training workshop for 8,000 teachers on June 17-18 in partnership with the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC). The workshop was designed to help teachers of TMC’s 850 schools adapt to new digital technologies and ensure learning continuity in the post Covid-19 era. “All schools have been disrupted by the pandemic. Therefore, it is imperative for all stakeholders to work together for our children’s education and well-being. The workshops encourage teachers to embrace technology, nurture child well-being and prepare for post Covid-19 challenges and innovations,” says Sonakshi Agarwal, founder, EIF. Over the past two years, EdIndia Foundation has impacted 30,000 teachers and 500,000 students. MBD Group Scholarships New Delhi, July 10. The Delhi-based MBD Group of companies engaged in the businesses of publishing textbooks, eco-friendly notebooks, e-learning apps and online skill development programmes, paper manufacture, ICT infrastructure, hospitality, real estate and mall development and management in India, the UK, South Africa and Sri Lanka, disbursed 100 scholarships to mark the 75th birth anniversary of MBD Group founder Ashok Kumar Malhotra. “Malhotra Ji was a visionary who always believed in making a difference in the lives of people by bringing positive changes. Keeping in mind the welfare of MBDians during the pandemic, medical insurance has been almost doubled for them. We are also implementing a work-from-home strategy to safeguard our workforce during this pandemic,” said Smt. Satish Bala Malhotra, chairperson MBD Group, speaking on the occasion. IB 2020 results Mumbai, July 7. The Geneva/Haguebased International Baccalaureate exam board announced the IB Diploma Programme and Career-related Programme results on July 6. 174,355 students around the world have been awarded certification. The number of students who received their results in India this year is 4,662, a 9.5 percent increase over last year (4,217). “An IB education has always been about more than results and, this year, students have had to deal with a level of global disruption that has never been experienced before,” says Dr. Siva Kumari, director-general at International Baccalaureate. Following cancellation of the May 2020 examinations due to…

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Covid-19: Challenge & Response

The silver lining of the Covid-19 crisis and the susbequent lockdown of all education institutions from KG to Ph D is that it has stimulated innovative ICT solutions to ensure continuity of teaching-learning. Here’s how several randomly selected education companies and institutional managements are responding to the Covid-19 Challenge & Response. Covid-19 Challenge & Response: Shemford Futuristic School, Burdwan Shemford Futuristic School (SFS), Burdwan (West Bengal) in collaboration with its strategy and communications partner Rite Angles, has confronted the Covid-19 pandemic challenge by introducing an innovative School at Home programme to sustain uninterrupted learning of students. The features of the School at Home online learning programme are: Teacher training. Teachers are trained by ICT experts through interactive and informative training sessions to enhance online teaching on Zoom and other apps. Structured learning. Live classes are conducted for every class through Zoom and WhatsApp platforms according to weekly time-tables. Students post their homework on WhatsApp groups for periodic assessment. Online assessment. Google Forms is leveraged for online assessment of students. Teachers also provide regular assignments and worksheets as part of the school’s continuous learning system. Student-teacher connect. Students interact with teachers in dedicated WhatsApp groups to clarify doubts and coordinate daily assignments and homework. Class teachers note absentees, their reasons of absence, and send study material to them. Sports & co-curricular education. Given SFS’ strong focus on sports and co-curricular education, online health and fitness, yoga, music and dance classes are also being conducted online on a regular basis. Management motivation. Teachers are provided with eBooks and all the requisite resources to provide high-quality online education. “Witnessing the transformation of our teachers and students into digital savvy online learners is a very satisfying experience. Our path-breaking online teaching-learning initiative has transformed my attitude and outlook towards digital learning. I am looking forward to ideating more innovative ways to respond to changing times,” says A. Stephan Raj, principal, SFS. Covid-19 Challenge & Response: First in Math India Pvt. Ltd Mumbai-based First in Math India Pvt. Ltd (FIMI, estb.2014), a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania (USA)-based Suntex International Inc (estb.1988), has launched its Global No Cost Programme to ensure students continue to learn maths during the prolonged lockdown of schools following outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since mid-March, 12.3 million worksheets have been uploaded online in 80 days and students around the world have solved over 25 million problems on the First in Math platform from the comfort of their homes. Moreover, 63,000 new classrooms in India have enrolled with FIMI. The features of the Global No Cost programme are: interactive guided maths practice, embedded assessment and remediation learning cycles aligned to learning outcomes, and immersive maths learning and self-assessment in real-time. “Ed-leaders have talked about moving away from lectures and standardised assessments, but the leap was too far to take. By default, Covid-19 pushed all schools and parents to adapt to flipped/blended learning. Each day, I see schools mounting the steepest learning curve that education has seen,” says Monica Patel, CEO, FIMI. Covid-19…

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Covid-19 Education Warriors: K.V. Arjun Rao; Debika Chatterji; Vardan Kabra

Covid-19 Education Warriors: K.V. Arjun Rao, principal, JBCN International, Oshiwara, Mumbai Under the leadership of principal K.V. Arjun Rao, the Cambridge International (UK) and IB (Geneva)-affiliated JBCN International School (JBCNIS), Oshiwara has designed innovative online teaching-learning solutions by leveraging ICT and digital platforms to ensure learning continuity of its students during the Covid-19 induced national lockdown. “Our teachers have stepped up to challenges of the pandemic by putting students’ interests first. Within days, they tested multiple digital platforms to upload successful online teaching-learning pedagogies. Credit must also be given to our technical and administrative teams for facilitating our smooth transition to digital education. They have been quickly fixing technical glitches and working with service providers to resolve issues immediately and effectively,” says K.V. Arjun Rao, an alum of Delhi University, IGNOU and University of St. Andrews (Scotland) with close to two decades of teaching and admin experience in the country’s top ranked (The Doon School, Dehradun, Oakridge International, Bangalore and Hyderabad) schools. Synchronous virtual learning. Synchronous live classes for secondary and IBDP students commenced on the first day of the nationwide lockdown and were gradually extended to class VI-X students. Primary learners also switched to live, synchronous classes within two weeks of the lockdown. Counseling support. The school’s Enrichment Team regularly conducts online optimism classes for students and parents. A weekly newsletter with positive affirmations and exercises is also circulated to maintain the mental health and psychological balance of students. The school’s career counseling department also publishes a monthly newsletter focusing on career relevant information for senior students. Class X learner initiatives. With cancellation of the global IGCSE exam of Cambridge International (UK), class X students are encouraged to ideate video tutorials for skills training in sports, art and design, music, fitness and knowledge for the benefit of younger learners. Virtual PTM. A record 142 online parent teacher interactions were conducted over a span of six hours. “All our stakeholders have responded to the pandemic lockdown with great resilience. Our parent community has aided the school to ensure smooth transition from school-based to home learning. Moreover, our students have shown extraordinary commitment to learning, dedication to tasks and cheerful good spirits. Through it all, we have been strongly supported by our ever-enabling board of governors. Managing the Covid-19 crisis has been a team effort!” adds Rao.   Covid-19 Education Warriors: Debika Chatterji, director-principal, JBCN International School, Borivali, Mumbai Debika Chatterji, director-principal of the CISCE (Delhi) and Cambridge International (UK)-affiliated JBCN International School (JBCNIS), Borivali, has supervised a swift transition of the school’s teachers and students to digital and online pedagogies following outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic which has forced closure of all education institutions countrywide since mid-March. “While technology integration has been instrumental in the successful switch to digital education, skillful use of multiple online teaching resources by our teachers has ensured that virtual classes don’t lack the tangibility of actual classrooms,” says Chatterji, a founding member of the One World International IB School (Singapore) with over two decades of…

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Covid-19 education warriors

Rohit Bhat, CEO, Children’s Academy Group of Schools With three campuses in Mumbai’s northern suburbs of Kandivali and Malad, the Children’s Academy Group of Schools (CAGS, estb.1970) is in the vanguard of the digital technologies-driven education revolution. The group led by CEO Rohit Bhat is providing engaging and personalised online learning to 8,500 nursery to class-X students. Teacher training. To ensure continuity of the teaching-learning process, Bhat has initiated training sessions for the group’s 450 teachers through the Zoom video conferencing app. Teachers are acquiring proficiency in using digital tools such as Screencastify, Screencast-o-Matic, Screen Recorder and Mobizen.  Community engagement. The CAGS official website and Facebook page is regularly updated with useful information on Covid-19 and school counsellors are available for consultation, not only for the group’s teachers and students, but also the general public. Online assessment. The group is preparing to roll out online assessments in June. “CAGS has partnered with MICM Net Solutions to prepare robust real-time assessment software for objective and subjective questions assessment,” says Bhat. “This has been a great learning experience for our entire school fraternity. It has driven us to ideate innovative solutions to ensure continuity of learning for students. The rich repository of video lessons created during the lockdown period will be useful and beneficial for students who miss classes because of sports and cocurricular pursuits,” adds Bhat. Shishir Jaipuria, Chairman, Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group With a network of 12 K-12 schools, five preschools and two business schools in north India, the Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of Education Institutions (SAJGEI) is in the forefront of the switch to online education precipitated by the Covid-19 pandemic crisis and national lockdown. Under the inspiring leadership of Shishir Jaipuria, chairman of SAJGEI, group teachers and staff have designed engaging online curriculums to ensure smooth transition of the teaching-learning process to digital online platforms. “At SAJGEI we believe in transforming the Covid-19 adversity into an opportunity to prepare our teachers and students for the online world. Over the past two months our teachers and students have embraced new pedagogies such as flipped classrooms and blended learning,” says Jaipuria. Among the several initiatives launched by SAJGEI: Virtual classes. The online curriculums of the Seth Anandram Jaipuria Schools (SAJS) offer a blend of scholastic and co-scholastic learning including arts, dance, yoga, meditation and sports. Conducted through the Zoom video conferencing app and Microsoft Teams virtual collaboration platform, online classes have been enthusiastically welcomed by students and parents. Teacher training. SAJS teachers are provided regular training in using digital platforms and learning the nuances of online teaching-learning. “Within a short time period our teachers have quickly mastered digital technologies and new pedagogical techniques to ensure continuity of the knowledge delivery process,” says Jaipuria. Blended learning. The schools follow an optimal blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning wherein students benefit from real-time online interaction and have the flexibility to access off-line recorded presentations, videos, group projects and collaborative assignments. Social Emotional Learning. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is a special focus area of…

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Covid-19: Challenge & response

The silver lining of the Covid-19 crisis and the susbequent lockdown of all education institutions from KG to Ph D is that it has stimulated innovative ICT solutions to ensure continuity of teaching-learning. Here’s how several randomly selected institutional managements are responding to the Covid-19 challenge. Anchorwala Education Academy, Mumbai Among the first schools in Mumbai to introduce virtual learning solutions following outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Anchorwala Education Academy (AEA) has drawn upon the expertise of its faculty in leveraging digital technologies to deliver quality online learning in several innovative ways. Staff orientation and training. AEA managers and teachers were familiarised with online pedagogies through an intensive one-week workshop. In particular, teachers were trained to use Zoom for conducting online classes and creating digital resources. An orientation session on using Zoom was conducted also for parents. Online classes. Daily online classes are being conducted according to time-tables and attendance musters are being marked. A one-point contact for resolving technical glitches and communication issues was shared with parents and teachers. Virtual classes went live in end-March after digital resources, including class and practice work and projects, were posted online. “We have received positive feedback from students and parents for our online classes. There is growing appreciation among all stakeholders that AEA staff and management have quickly introduced a smooth switch to online learning in these challenging times,” says Shilpa Kenia, secretary, AEA. Mount Litera Zee School, Amritsar Mount Litera Zee School, Amritsar (MLZSA) has steadily introduced new technologies in teaching learning over the past decade. After the nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, the management and staff have smoothly transformed MLZSA into an engaging virtual school. Innovative initiatives taken by the management to ensure teaching learning continuity include utilisation of e-learning tools such as Skype, Google Meet and Google Classroom specifically designed for teachers and students, and teachers’ training in e-tools usage. The school’s in-house IT specialists and Microsoft Google master trainers have formulated e-learning schedules for each class, allotment and submission of assignments and disbursal of students’ work completed through Google Classroom and other e-learning resources installed in every classroom. “Our parents and students have been very supportive. None of our students has missed even one online virtual class. All of them are very enthusiastic about online learning and regular about completing their assignments. Our switch to online learning has been quick and successful,” says Manjot Dhillon, director, MLZSA. Sat Paul Mittal School, Ludhiana The management of Sat Paul Mittal School, Ludhiana (SPMS) — a Microsoft Showcase school — is committed to providing all students virtual learning amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown through its Remote Learning Work Plan (RLWP). The plan is being implemented through: Student orientation. A detailed roadmap outlining RLWP and expected outcomes has been sent to all students. Virtual classrooms. SPMS teachers are leveraging MS Teams, Flipgrid, Wakelet, OneNote and Office 365 programmes to create and share e-learning resources with students. Software suites used include Presenter, eWhite Board, Screencast-o-Matic, and Wondershare Filmora to enrich teaching-learning…

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Covid-19: Challenge & response

With a third of the global population and K-12 and higher education institutions in 185 countries including India, locked down since mid-March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus aka Covid-19 pandemic, educators worldwide are confronted with the greatest disruption since the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918. Consequently, education institutions are responding to this disruption by shifting from traditional classrooms to online teaching learning and installing new ICT (information communication technologies) software and downloading two-way video conferencing apps to adhere to their academic calendars. The silver lining of the Covid-19 crisis is that it has stimulated education institutions and edtech companies the world over, to innovate ICT solutions to ensure that the teaching-learning process continues. Here’s how several randomly selected institutional managements are responding to the Covid-19 challenge. Riverside School, Ahmedabad Students of this Cambridge International, UK-affiliated school chose to continue their on-site volunteer work with the elderly in retirement homes and with children in paediatric cancer centres under the school’s unique Callinteer programme. Every morning Riverside volunteer students continue to engage with and provide online comfort and good cheer to the elderly and child cancer patients in specified old age homes and childcare centres. Their calls — often made through Facetime or Skype — last for 10-30 minutes and include playing online games. “The feedback from caregivers and nurses is that the elderly and children look forward to these interactions which liven their day,” says Kiran BirSethi, founder-director and principal of this top-ranked co-ed international day school.  Arya Gurukul School, Mumbai Thane (Mumbai)-based Arya Gurukul School has completed final examinations of classes V-VIII students by switching to the online mode. An online portal was promptly created for scrutiny of science (class V), Sanskrit (class VI), social studies (class VII) and math (class VIII) papers. The digital platform was developed by the school’s technical support team working round the clock.  The parents of all 546 classes VVIII students responded positively for conducting these exams online. Students were given weblinks to write the exams online at a time of their choice within a 48-hours time window. LEAD School@Home programme The Mumbai-based Leadership Boulevard Pvt. Ltd (estb.2012), a company that provides integrated technology, curriculum and pedagogy as a complete learning solution for classes I-IX to over 800 schools countrywide, has designed a new LEAD School@Home solution for all English-medium schools countrywide to start their new academic year in April. Over 100,000 students of the company’s 800 partner schools began their new academic year on April 2, learning four critical subjects — English, math, science and social science — online. In a special offer to enable children to continue learning, Leadership Boulevard offers seven days free trial of Lead School@Home to all schools countrywide, followed by a price offer of Rs.200 per student per month to continue learning the four subjects.  “Our learning system and technology ensures that if children can’t come to school, we can take school to their homes. Now any school can begin its academic year every Monday starting April 6 by accessing LEAD School@ Home. All they need is to register on the LEAD School portal and our team will help them started quickly. Subsequently, parents can monitor their children’s progress through…

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Sampark’s Top 100 entry

Noida, February 21. Sampark Foundation’s Sampark Smart Shala programme — a disruptive, inclusive programme to transform the learning outcomes for millions of children — has been selected one of the Top 100 entries of the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation 100 & Change Competition. The winner to be selected from among the Top 100 will win a single $100-million (Rs.71 crore) grant. “We are proud to be included among the Top 100 in the 100 & Change competition. Poor learning outcomes of children is one of the biggest problems confronting the education system in India, and we are committed to solving this problem through our frugal, tech-driven interventions. We have already transformed learning outcomes for 7 million children in six states across the country, and are well on our way to reaching 20 million children in the coming years,” says Vineet Nayar, founder chairman, Sampark Foundation. Pramerica Awards winners Gurgaon, February 24. The 10th Annual Pramerica Spirit of Community Awards, hosted by Pramerica Life Insurance Ltd — a joint venture of the US-based Prudential Financial and DHFL Investments (India) — felicitated 30 school students for extraordinary achievement in community service. These finalists were selected from 3,200 applications received from a nationwide search for the country’s top student volunteers. Top honours in the individual category were awarded to Aranyo Ray, a class XI student of Kalyani Public School, Kolkata, for inventing safe pesticides to help jute and soyabean farmers defend their crops from pests and fungal diseases, and to Vaishnavi Pandey, a class X student of the Tagore International School, Delhi, for her project to support acid attack survivors and ensure equal opportunities for them in society. Both winners were presented with a gold medallion, certificates of excellence, a cash prize of Rs.50,000 each and a return trip to Washington D.C. Addressing the finalists, Anoop Pabby, MD & CEO, Pramerica Life Insurance said: “You have taken the initiative to find causes to support and have not let age come in the way of your contribution. Each of you has done an outstanding job that has impacted the lives of many.” Atria U’s hydroponics monitor Bangalore, february 25. Students of Atria University, Bangalore have designed a Hydroponics Monitor, an IoT-based device to support plant life and nutrient supplements. Hydroponics is a farming technique for growing plant life in water and nutrients without soil. This method of farming promises greater yields than soil-based agriculture and also reduces pesticides usage. The Hydroponics Monitor can be set up in workplaces or at home. “One can grow farm produce closest to point of consumption, eliminating storage and transport costs while harvesting nutrient-rich horticulture produce without harmful pesticides. In Atria University, we plan to set up a hydroponics farm to prove that the agri-produce required for our hostels and students can be grown right here by utilising our unutilised spaces,” said Kaushik Raju, director, Atria University. Mindler introduces SaaS New Delhi, February 20. The Delhi-based Mindler Education Pvt. Ltd, a comprehensive career guidance and…

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STEM stimulation competition

New Delhi, January 10. Honda Cars India has partnered with Juana Technologies to launch India Innovate — Wheels to Fly, the India chapter of an international STEM (science, technology, engineering & mathematics) and a ‘Race to the line’ competition. This fun-win-learn initiative is the country’s first STEM-based Model Rocket Car Making and Racing competition which proposes to attract 5,000 students from over 100 schools in 25 cities. The competition consists of two programmes — Fly to the Line (air glider design) for children in classes IV-V and Race to the Line (car design) competition for children in classes VI-X. Introduced in the UK in 2015, the broad objective of the competition is to promote innovative thinking and inspire students to pursue careers in STEM-related vocations. Comments Swati Ganguly, CEO & co-founder of the Delhi-based Juana Technologies: “We are thrilled to partner with Honda Cars in bringing this global competition to India. We hope with this integration of industry and academia, students will be inspired to pursue careers in STEM and learn to devise innovative solutions to manage complex life challenges.” Adani-KISS School Baripada (Odisha), January 8. Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the Adani-KISS Residential School for tribal children at Bankishole, Baripada, Mayurbhanj, Odisha. The Adani-KISS Residential School is established on 50 acres of land with financial support of the Adani Foundation. In the first phase, 1,500 students from Mayurbhanj district will be enrolled in classes I-XII. Speaking on the occasion, Patnaik thanked the Adani Foundation and the KISS management for promoting this modern school for socially disadvantaged children. “Empowerment and change is only possible through education,” he said. Addressing the gathering, Dr. Priti Adani, chairperson, Adani Foundation added: “Education is the most powerful tool for social transformation. The Adani Foundation is happy to strengthen the educational scenario in the remote tribal areas of Odisha by partnering with the prestigious Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences.” GISB’s UMass Week lectures Mumbai, January 20. Under a partnership announced last August between the Mumbai-based Global Institute of Sports Business (GISB) and the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the first UMass Week lectures on sports marketing, market research, consumer behaviour and sponsorship were delivered in Mumbai by Dr. Elizabeth Delia. Commenting on the experience, GISB program director, Neel Shah, said: “Dr. Delia’s sessions educated our students by applying the right mix of theory and practical learning for a number of core sports management subjects. In addition, this project enables our faculty to apply this global best practices curriculum in the Indian context.” GISB claims to offer India’s “first and only industry designed and internationally certified sports full-time study programme” of 15 months duration. Infinity 2020 winners Mumbai, January 11. Over 100 students from more than 30 Indian and overseas schools participated in ‘Infinity 2020 — The Ultimate Math Championship’ hosted by the Aditya Birla World Academy in association with BITS, Pilani in Mumbai. Infinity is a prestigious annual two-day inter-school mathematics competition held since 2014.…

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JGU’s Oz connectivity

New Delhi/Sydney, December 6. O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), one of India’s Institutions of Eminence, signed MoUs (memoranda of understanding) with seven highly-ranked universities in Australia, viz, Macquarie University, University of New South Wales, University of New England, University of Newcastle, University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney and Western Sydney University. “These partnerships will benefit Indian and New South Wales students and faculty members, who will gain opportunities to deepen their educational and cultural connections, while also promoting important links that will foster academic excellence in our two nations,” said Margaret Beazley, governor of New South Wales, speaking on the occasion. Added JGU’s founding vice chancellor Prof. (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar: “These collaborations will create stronger people-to-people linkages and research cooperation between students and faculty in India and Australia. India’s demographic dividend has created new opportunities for higher education to become the strongest pillar of the partnership between both our countries.” Tekla festival workshop Mumbai, December 4. On the occasion of the five-day state visit (December 2-7) to India by their Majesties King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, a two-day STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)-based workshop for 45 girls from Mumbai’s municipal schools was held on December 4-5. The annual Tekla festival was founded by Swedish pop music recording artist Robyn in 2015, and since then has had 1,200 girl participants in Sweden. In response to the festival’s growing popularity, this year the initiative went transnational with workshops held in Washington, USA and Brazil besides Mumbai. Over the next two years, Tekla will convene workshops in Egypt, Indonesia, South Africa and Nigeria. “The objective is to inspire a larger number of women to study STEM subjects at university level and work in and rise to high positions in industry. The enthusiasm and interest exhibited by Mumbai’s girl children was very encouraging and we are hoping that by participating in our workshop, we have piqued their interest in STEM,” says Caroline Dahl, a technology innovator at RISE, a Swedish public sector organisation mobilising research and development resources to stimulate inventions and innovations in Sweden. RPG Blizzard 2019 Mumbai, December 12. RPG Blizzard 2019, one of India’s most popular inter B-school quiz competitions backed by the RPG Group, attracted 2,790 participants from 11 B-schools across India this year. RPG Blizzard 2019 also included a digital contest for the first time, generating unprecedented interest and excitement among premier B-school campuses across India. To qualify for the final round, all participants had to complete several intellectually stimulating activities on a digital platform. The finalists — 18 individuals in nine teams — were flown to Mumbai to attend a Grand Quiz in early December. All finalists spent a full day at RPG headquarters interacting with the group’s management board members. The three winners of the Grand Quiz were hosted to lunch with RPG Group chairman Harsh Goenka. Presenting IISM Edge New Delhi, December 26. To provide working professionals opportunities to improve their life skills, the Mumbai-based International Institute of Sports…

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Infosys Prize 2019 awardees

Bangalore, November 7. Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) announced winners of the Infosys Prize 2019 in six categories — engineering and computer sciences, humanities, life sciences, mathematical sciences, physical sciences and social sciences. The prize for each category awardee is a pure gold medal, a citation and a prize purse of US$100,000 (Rs.72 lakh) this year. A panel of accomplished jurors comprising renowned scholars and professors selected the winners of Infosys Prize 2019 from 196 nominations from around the world. Winners of the Infosys Prize 2019 in the six categories are: Sunita Sarawagi of IIT-Bombay for engineering and computer science; Manu V. Devadevan, assistant professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi for humanities; Manjula Reddy, chief scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad for life sciences; Siddhartha Mishra, professor, department of mathematics, ETH Zürich for mathematical sciences; G. Mugesh, professor, department of inorganic and physical chemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore for physical science; and Prof. Anand Pandian of the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, USA, for social sciences. Band-It Season 3 winners Mumbai, November 19. The G-Minor band of the Gopalan International School, Bangalore, was adjudged the winner of Band-It Season 3 music festival grand finale of the Furtados School of Music held on November 16 in Mumbai. Unsatisfied Musicians (Oberoi International School, Mumbai) was adjudged runner up. The festival received a record number of entries across categories including band competition, solo vocals, solo instrumental, choir/group singing and beatboxing from across the country. The grand finale was judged by a jury comprising India’s original boy band, A Band of Boys. “Music is regaining popularity in India, not just as a profession but also for its positive impact on mental health. More and more schools are adding music to their curriculum to give students a chance to unleash their creativity,” said Dharini Upadhyaya, co-founder of the Mumbai-based Furtados School of Music (estb.2011). Added Tanuja Gomes, co-founder and CEO: “Our objective is to promote music education and the talent of our young population. We pride ourselves on the talent we discover every year.” Manipal-SFL agreement Mumbai, November 26. The Manipal Global Academy of BFSI (banking & financial services and insurance), a division of Manipal Global Education Services Pvt. Ltd (MaGE), signed an agreement with the Chennai-based Sundaram Finance Ltd (SFL) to jointly conduct a 12-month learning programme to develop the skills of SFL employees. The programme, commencing in February next year, will train over 100 SFL professionals to strengthen their functional knowledge and negotiation skills, and improve productivity. “This tie-up with SFL will enable us to bridge the skills gap of SFL professionals engaged in mutual funds, housing finance, general insurance, IT, BPO and retail distribution businesses of the company. Our programme has been fine tuned to suit their niche requirements,” said Robin Bhowmik, chief business officer, Manipal Global Academy of BFSI. Firstcry.com acquires Oi Playschools Hyderabad, November 26. Hyderabad’s LoEstro Advisors (LLP), exclusive financial advisor to Oi Playschools (Oi Ps),…

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FLAME – Amherst MoU

Pune, October 30. FLAME University (estb. 2015), a pioneer Pune-based liberal arts varsity, signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with the top-ranked Amherst College, Massachusetts (USA) for collaboration on academic and student initiatives, sharing best practices and generating cutting-edge research. “This partnership signifies an important step forward in our mission of making FLAME a truly global institution. As liberal education gets acknowledged as the game changer of the future, we aspire to exchange knowledge and best practices that will allow us to contribute to the advancement of liberal education globally,” said Prof. Dishan Kamdar, vice chancellor of FLAME University, speaking on the occasion. The FLAME-Amherst collaboration agreement is for an initial period of five years. Under the terms of the MoU, Amherst students will study with FLAME students for one semester. Similarly, FLAME University students will also spend one semester or an entire year studying liberal arts courses in Amherst. This exchange programme is for undergraduate students. Moreover, the MoU covers faculty and staff exchanges, research collaboration, curricular development, conduct of experiential learning programmes, pedagogical innovations, academic conferences and colloquium series. BrainGain-Cambridge workshop Mumbai, October 23. Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), a comprehensive capacity building in east and central Asia initiative supported by UK Research Councils (aka the GCRF COMPASS project) and the Mumbai-based BrainGain Academy, has scheduled, a ten-day ‘Leadership Programme On Global Challenges’ at Cambridge University (UK) in December 7-17. The workshop will focus on global challenges and sustainability. The deadline for admission into the programme is November 10. BrainGain Academy offers short-term, cohort-based, curated learning experiences at top-ranked universities around the world. It curates, develops and markets experiential learning programmes in partnership with universities abroad to devise new ways of learning. This project is jointly presented by the universities of Kent and Cambridge in the UK; ADA University, Azerbaijan; Belarusian State University, Belarus; Tajik National University, Tajikistan and University of World Economic Diplomacy, Uzbekistan, in partnership with BrainGain Academy. “We are honoured to collaborate with such a prestigious university for this short-term programme. In BrainGain, we strongly believe that the programme tackles all relevant issues that need urgent attention. With its reputation for academic excellence and scholarly tradition, Cambridge University, which has produced 109 Nobel laureates, 11 Fields medallists, seven Turing award winners, and 14 British prime ministers, will offer our students impressive learning outcomes,” says Harjiv Singh, founder-CEO of BrainGain Academy. FT ranks IIM-Calcutta #1 Kolkata, october 28. The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C, estb.1961) is ranked #17 globally in the Financial Times Masters in Management Rankings 2019 for its two-year MBA study programme. Advancing by six ranks this year, the institute is ranked #1 in India, higher than five other Indian B-schools listed in the FT rankings. The annual FT global rankings evaluate B-schools worldwide under the parameters of current salary, weighted salary, salary percentage increase, career progress, involvement of international faculty, inclusion of international board members, percentage of female faculty and student gender diversity ratio. “With the internationalisation of our curriculum over the…

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Erasmus+ scholarships

New Delhi, August 2. Nearly 450 Indian students and faculty have been awarded Erasmus+ scholarship and mobility grants funded by the European Union to study in top-ranked universities across Europe this year. With grants also offered by EU member states, more than 50,000 Indian students are pursuing higher education in Europe. Of the 450 Erasmus+ Indian students awarded scholarship/grants this year, 89 have been awarded fully-funded scholarships for the Erasmus Mundus joint Master’s degree programmes (EMJMD), which enable them to attend classes in two different countries of Europe. With a 23 percent jump in Indian nationals bagging Erasmus+ scholarships compared to last year, India remains one of the Top 5 recipients of Erasmus scholarships. In addition, 350 students and faculty from Indian higher education institutions have been given scholarships under Erasmus’ International Credit Mobility (ICM) programme which funds mobility agreements between European and Indian universities. “Europe has much to offer in terms of globally ranked universities with high academic and research standards. European universities offer a unique blend of tradition and innovation, state-of-the-art facilities and cutting-edge research opportunities,” says Tomasz Kozlowski, ambassador of the European Union to India. Taj-Les Roches concordat Mumbai, August 2. The Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL, aka Taj Group), South Asia’s largest hospitality company, and the Switzerland-based Les Roches Global Hospitality Education, ranked #3 for hospitality management in the QS World University Rankings 2019, are joining forces to address the skills gap of India’s travel and tourism industry. “We look back on a long-standing presence in India and are thrilled to associate Les Roches’ Swiss model of education with IHCL, developing necessary skills and promoting career opportunities in the hospitality industry,” said Dr. Christine Demen Meier, managing director of Les Roches, addressing a press conference in Mumbai. A dedicated initiative titled ‘The next General Manager of India’ designed for young hospitality professionals, will award one full scholarship to study Les Roches’ MBA in global hospitality management programme in Switzerland, followed by a fast-track intern programme at an IHCL hotel. Additionally, Les Roches will offer 50 percent scholarships to five runners up. Shortlisted applicants who meet the programme’s admission requirements will submit a business case study and compete at a final selection event in Mumbai. Embassy-Cerner CSR initiative Mumbai, August 14. Embassy Group, one of India’s largest real estate developers and the US-based Cerner Corporation, a global health platform and innovation company, have promoted a consortium of corporates and NGOs to improve health and hygiene conditions in 62 government schools of Bangalore. Under its Corporate Connect Program, Embassy Office Parks will build a coalition of its business park tenants with aligned corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandates and experienced NGOs to address a diverse number of challenges faced by government schools. Since 2016, Cerner and Embassy together have provided free health check-ups and maintained medical records of more than 4,000 students of 14 Embassy adopted government schools. “At Embassy, we strongly believe that collaboration in the CSR space is key to creating sustainable and in-depth impact among our…

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First index of Service Excellence

Bangalore, July 30. IFIM Business School, Bangalore (estb.1995), one of the few AACSB accredited management institutes in India, in association with the Academy of Indian Marketing (AIM) launched the first-ever index of Service Excellence in India (iSEI) and unveiled the IFIM-AIM Parasuraman Centre of Service Excellence in Bangalore which will function under the guidance of Dr. A. Parasuraman. Prof. A. Parasuraman’s pioneering work in the area of service quality measurement and improvement, is globally acclaimed in academic and practitioner circles. Eventually iSEI is expected to become a national benchmark for assessing and improving service excellence across all sectors of industry. “The launch of India’s first iSEI will positively impact the country’s GDP which is heavily dependent on the services sector. A credible index to measure service quality will help businesses win customers by meeting their expectations and aligning with their perceptions,” said Dr. Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt, professor of marketing at Emory University, Atlanta, USA, speaking on the occasion. Online career skills programme Delhi/Mumbai, July 10. TCS iON, a strategic unit of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s premier IT services, consulting and business solutions company, announced a collaboration with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) — the country’s apex advisory and regulatory body for technical education — to provide students a jointly curated digital learning programme to equip them with career skills. According to Venguswamy Ramaswamy, global programme head of TCS iON, many graduates fail job recruitment tests despite strong academic credentials because of lack of soft skills such as effective communication and interpersonal relations management. To bridge this gap, TCS iON has designed a free, 20-hour career skills course covering subjects such as corporate etiquette, effective email writing, impactful presentations, IT awareness etc. The course will be available to students free-of-charge throughout the duration of their degree programmes. “As a responsible recruiter, we would like to collaborate with education institutions to help students develop better career skills. We are delighted with AICTE’s support of this initiative. The course is available on the TCS iON Digital Learning Hub at https://learning.tcsionhub.in/courses/career-skills/, and can be accessed anytime, anywhere, and on any device,” says Ramaswamy. ILSO registration invite New Delhi, July 9. Skillizen Learning Foundation, a Singapore-based global socio-education company, invites registrations for its International Life Skills Olympiad (ILSO), 2019. “ILSO is the world’s first and only Olympiad that tests young children’s life skills and aptitudes. This global test is specifically designed for school children — including home-schooled students — from classes III-XII. This test evaluates real-world skills and competencies critical for young children to manage and succeed in their personal, professional and social lives. The most unique feature of this Olympiad is that it gives participants an opportunity to make decisions about real-life situations by applying critical life skills such as leadership, ethics, teamwork, communication, empathy, goal setting, etc,” says Sidharth Tripathy, chief convener of the Skillizen Olympiad Foundation. According to Tripathy, parents and schools can register students on www.lifeskillsolympiad.org by paying a nominal registration fee of US $7.99…

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IET-SSF project

Bangalore, June 25. The Institution of Engineering and Technology India (IET) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Saraswati Seva Foundation (SSF), a non-profit organisation committed to serve underprivileged communities to use new knowledge, tools and technologies. The MoU aims to deliver STEM-C (science, technology, engineering, maths-computer) programmes to upskill teachers of schools that specifically cater to underprivileged children countrywide. IET will support SSF initiatives by providing intellectual content from its Faraday Programme and by providing national and international experts to facilitate SSF’s STEM-C learning programmes. “Skill gaps in STEM are not restricted to students, but are found in teachers as well. Together with SSF, we will provide the right exposure to teachers and students and upskill them. With the government’s focus on reskilling and upskilling and our commitment to developing industry- ready engineers, IET looks forward to working on our collaborative project and making it a success,” said Shekhar Sanyal, director and country head of IET India, speaking on the occasion. Cisco-Pratham partnership Gurgaon, June 21. In partnership with Cisco India, a subsidiary of US-based Cisco Inc, Pratham Books Foundation will service over 100 government schools in the Gurugram (Gurgaon) district with mobile STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) libraries. Each library kit will comprise over 100 books in English and Hindi to provide children with experiential learning platforms, and to encourage the reading habit. “Through this partnership with Pratham, we wish to fill classrooms with colourfuly illustrated books with localised content to provide children with exposure to simple concepts that are important in the new digital era. This is aligned with our commitment to positively impacting 50 million beneficiaries in India by 2025 and will help children overcome barriers to reading and become lifelong learners,” said Harish Krishnan, managing-director of Cisco India, speaking on the occasion. ANZ-Embassy School Mumbai, June 7. ANZ, one of the world’s largest multinational banks, and Embassy Office Parks, India’s first and only listed REIT (real estate investment trust), have joined forces to support primary education in local communities in their neighbourhood. ANZ occupies 300,000 sq. ft office space in Embassy Manyata Business Park, Bangalore. In collaboration with the government of Karnataka, the two entities have constructed a state-of-the-art primary school for 650 pupils at Hegdenagar, Bangalore. The building was constructed in a record time of ten months with an investment of Rs.2.86 crore. It houses 15 classrooms, a multipurpose hall, library, computer lab, well-maintained toilet blocks and easy access for differently-abled children. “We are excited to announce that this school has been selected by the Karnataka government to offer English-medium instruction. This endeavour of Embassy Group and ANZ through their community outreach programmes by contributing their corporate social responsibility funds is laudable. I hope they will lead other corporates to follow their example,” said S.R. Umashankar, principal-secretary of primary and secondary education, speaking on the occasion. Ashoka YIF convocation New Delhi, June 22. Over 290 Young India Fellows of the top-ranked Ashoka University, Sonipat (AU, estb.2014) received their diplomas at a solemn convocation ceremony.…

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Jindal Global Law School: Record placements year

Sonipat, May 16. The 2019 graduating class of Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) has broken a new record with employment offers from over 57 corporate law and 24 litigation firms and 30 world-class universities for higher study. The top recruiter of JGLS’ graduating class of 2019 is corporate law firm Trilegal (10 offers) followed by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (9) and AZB & Partners, Luthra & Luthra, Khaitan & Co, Anand & Anand, Argus Partners, P&A Law Offices, Tempus Law, Bharucha Singh Mundkur and Economic Laws Practice. Among the corporate recruiters of the graduating class were RBL Bank, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co, Kotak Life Insurance & Morae Global. Moreover, JGLS graduates have secured positions in top think-tanks around the country, judicial clerkship, and in-house legal departments of top-ranked companies. Higher ed institutions which have welcomed JGLS graduates include Oxford and Cambridge universities (UK) and Cornell and U-Cal, Berkeley (USA). “JGLS has crossed a historic milestone in its tenth year with so many of our graduates receiving outstanding opportunities to pursue meaningful careers in India and abroad. This has been made possible by the dedicated mentorship of our committed faculty members and the hard work and determination of our students,” says Prof. C. Raj Kumar, founding vice chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University and dean of Jindal Global School. upGrad-DCE online program Mumbai, May 20. upGrad Pvt. Ltd — a Mumbai-based online higher education services provider (estb.2015) — and the Duke Corporate Education (DCE), the executive education subsidiary of Duke University, USA, launched a five-month product management certification program (PMCP). The program blends rigorous hands-on learning with case studies and offers students exposure to product management experts from leading brands including Zomato, PayTM, BookMyShow and Myntra. “Product management is an area of great potential for India’s booming technology and start-up sectors. Our PMCP co-certified by upGrad will give working professionals the opportunity to build the right skills required to excel in this domain. With upGrad’s highly effective online learning pedagogy, local industry knowledge and DCE’s world-renowned academic capabilities and expertise in executive education, we are confident of delivering a powerful program experience for all students,” said Michael Chavez, CEO of DCE, speaking on the occasion. “upGrad’s PMCP in partnership with Duke can help to bridge the gap between what product managers need to do and what they are taught, by providing not only structured coursework but also a mentorship framework,” added Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder of upGrad. Nominations invited Mumbai, May 16. The Big Little Book Award, an unprecedented award instituted by the Parag Initiative of Tata Trusts and Literature Live! invite nominations for its fourth edition. The award acknowledges and honours Indian authors and illustrators of children’s literature. Every year, one Indian language is chosen for the awards with Hindi selected as the language for 2019. Authors with a proven record in children’s Hindi literature are eligible for nomination. However, the award for illustrators is not language-specific. Nominations (self-nomination is not permitted) are open until June 30. “Market dynamics and costs…

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British Council summer programme

Bangalore, April 12. British Council is set to introduce its annual Summer Programme for children in nine cities countrywide between April 30 and May 25. Programme fees are Rs.4,000 for library members and Rs.5,500 for non-members. The programme offers children opportunity to learn contemporary life skills such as creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving and improve their confidence and communication skills through interactive lessons. “This is a unique fun-filled, theme-based programme designed to equip children with 21st century skills through English language training. This year, the programme will focus on enhancing world knowledge, develop life skills and improve fluency in English to give children in the 7-14 years age group confidence to become future ready,” says a council spokesperson. India-Sweden research agreement Delhi, April 11. India and Sweden announced an India-Sweden Collaborative Industrial Research & Development Programme on the occasion of the Sweden-India Innovation Partnership AI for All Summit. The programme will address a range of global challenges through technology and innovation. The joint programme is co-funded by India’s Department of Science & Technology (DST) and Sweden’s Innovation Agency Vinnova. The new programme brings together the world-class excellence of Sweden and India to address challenges in the areas of smart cities and clean technologies and digitalisation/Internet of Things (IoT). Full-scale R&D projects focused on co-development of new products, processes, technologies and product adaptation projects will be funded under this new programme. Vinnova will provide funding to Swedish participants of up to 2,500,000 Sw Krona (Rs.1.8 crore) as grants. On the Indian side, conditional grants of up to 50 percent with a limit of Rs.1.5 crore per project will be provided to Indian project partners. “I am delighted about Vinnova’s enhanced collaboration with India,” said Joakim Appelquist, deputy director-general of Vinnova, speaking on the occasion. ITARI’s new graduates Bangalore, April 19. The Indus Training And Research Institute (ITARI), Bangalore, which offers the postgraduate diploma programme in international education (PGDIE) and Cambridge international diploma programme in teaching and learning (CIDTL), hosted its graduation ceremony on April 16, This year ITARI graduated 100 teachers who were felicitated at a solemn ceremony presided by Lt. General (Retd) Arjun Ray, PVSM, VSM, chief executive of the Indus Trust, and Dr. Simon Spencer, deputy head, School of Education, Birmingham City University, UK. The latest batch of graduating teachers have been campus recruited by Indus International schools in Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad and other international schools of repute countrywide. Launched in 2009, ITARI has trained and certified over 900 teachers who have been placed in premier international schools. ITARI’s teacher development academic programmes are offered in association with reputed British universities and the Cambridge International, UK. Unisys Cloud 20/20 contest Bangalore/blue bell (pennsylvania), April 5. Global IT major Unisys Corporation announced winners of the 10th annual Unisys Cloud 20/20 contest, one of India’s largest and most popular student innovation programmes. This year’s contest attracted entries from more than 270 colleges and over 300 projects for adjudication. A project titled Vesa-Blockchain-Based Supply Chain Management by a team representing the…

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GSEF 2019

Dubai, March 22. Peter Tabichi, a science teacher of the Franciscan order in Kenya, was awarded the US $1 million (Rs.6.9 crore) Global Teacher Prize at the 7th Global Skills and Education Forum (GSEF), a three-day conference in Dubai hosted by the Varkey Foundation (estb.2010). Over 2,000 delegates from around the world felicitated Tabichi, who teaches at the Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School in Pwani village, Kenya, where 95 percent of students are from socio-economically disadvantaged households and one-third are orphans. During the three-day conference, delegates from 144 countries debated and shared ideas on innovative ways and means to reach quality education to every child worldwide. One head of government, 40 ministers of education, 297 speakers and over 100 teachers from around the world participated in the conference. “Education is facing a global crisis with technology and bureaucracy overshadowing teachers. Education technology promised much but has not delivered its potential because in all the conferences I’ve been to around the world, I never saw a teacher invited to be part of discussions. A world of constant reinvention will be the future of our children and teachers are best placed to guide them,” said Sunny Varkey, founder of the Varkey Foundation and GEMS Menasa Ltd which owns and/or manages over 70 K-12 schools in 11 countries, addressing GSEF. A jury and delegates at GSEF 2019 also voted three edtech start-ups — Ubongo, Tanzania, Praxi Labs, Egypt and Dost, India — as winners of the foundation’s second Next Billion Edtech Prize. All these start-ups were awarded $25,000 each. TDS Summer School Dehradun, March 23. The sixth residential Summer @ Doon Leadership Programme of The Doon School (TDS), Dehradun, will be held during May 21-June 3. The programme is open to all children (including girls) in classes IX-XII “who are passionate about making a positive impact on the world around them”. “The Doon School has long been associated with innovative thinking and leadership and is passionate about being at the forefront of educational opportunity for our students. Summer @ Doon offers a very special experience that will enable a wider student body of senior school students to discover essential qualities within themselves that will help them on their journey of action, leadership, service and fulfillment. The two-week long programme will be an adventure that promises to be challenging and intellectually demanding, enabling students to meet and make like-minded friends, and to learn from each other,” says Matthew Raggett, headmaster of TDS. Applications for this year’s programme close on April 30. Pearl’s new Bangalore campus Bangalore, March 19. The Delhi-based Pearl Academy announced the launch of a greenfield campus in Bangalore. Expected to admit its first batch in August 2020, this will be the institute’s fifth campus in India and sole campus in peninsular India. It will begin offering the academy’s flagship courses in fashion, communication and product design and over time, add other industry-oriented study programmes. “Bangalore houses some of the best fashion and design companies of India which offers a huge opportunity…

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Diplomathon UAE 2019

Mumbai, February 3. More than 330 students of 30 schools across the United Arab Emirates and seven schools from India attended a two-day inaugural Diplomathon UAE 2019 conference in Dubai city on February 1-2. “Diplomathon is a unique platform for constructive leadership and engagement of youth in real time dialogues via new technologies to become ‘world-ready’ in the new age of globalisation,” explained Niyati Khanna, co-founder and international head of the Mumbai-based Apogeeoh Education Pvt. Ltd, which organised the two-day conference for class V-XII students in the UAE and India. “Diplomathon is a student leadership conference that promotes a different approach towards learning global affairs through simulations of the United Nations and other international organisations to enable students to develop a variety of skills such as leadership, role play, sandboxing, public speaking, critical thinking, negotiation and diplomacy.” The top six schools of Diplomathon UAE 2019 were The Winchester School, Jebel Ali, Dubai; Oxford School, Dubai; Podar International School, Khar (Mumbai); Podar International School Powai (Mumbai); Gems Modern Academy, Dubai with the Best School Delegation trophy awarded to Sri Sri Ravishankar Vidya Mandir, Borivali, Mumbai. Honda Foundation awards 2018-19 New Delhi, February 4. Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL) presented the 12th edition of the Young Engineer and Scientists (Y-E-S) Award for 2018-19 to 14 students of India’s Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in New Delhi. The Y-E-S awards were instituted in India by the Honda Foundation in 2007 and are facilitated by HCIL to nurture students who have excelled in science and technology. The awards are conferred annually upon the best IIT students after a rigorous evaluation by a panel of senior Honda executives and prominent Indian scientists. Scholarships of US $3000 were presented to the 14 students selected from six IITs — Bombay, Madras, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Roorkee and Guwahati — on the basis of their cumulative grade point average (CGPA), essays and two rounds of personal interviews with the selection committee of senior Honda executives and Shirish Garud, director of TERI, the chief assessor of the selection committee. “We received tremendous response and enthusiasm from students this year. Thus far, we have awarded 154 IIT students in 12 years. The Y-E-S Awards are a small contribution to encourage them to fulfill their academic dreams,” said Gaku Nakanishi, president of HCIL, speaking on the occasion. GIIS scholarships offer Mumbai, February 5. The Singapore-based Global Indian International School (GIIS), which has a network of 19 campuses in seven countries, announced generous scholarships of Rs.4.75 crore for students in India. Now in its tenth year, the Global Citizen Scholarship will enable ten awardees to study for two years (2019-2021) at the GIIS Smart Campus in Punggol, Singapore. GIIS, which has established six campuses in India, has invested SGD 7.5 million (Rs.39.3 crore) in this programme and enabled 80 Indian students to enter top-ranked universities worldwide. To apply for this two-year scholarship programme, students in India can log onto www.giisscholarships.org and register before March 17. “We have always been committed to India. Our Global…

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TTF’s ISELF curriculum

Bangalore, January 18. The Bangalore-based The Teacher Foundation (TTF, estb. 2002), a nationally reputed not-for-profit which has trained over 75,000 teachers during the past 16 years, launched its Indian Social and Emotional Learning Framework (ISELF), a curriculum for developing social-emotional competencies in children of the 6-18 age group. “There are no existing well-researched and articulated standards for social and emotional learning of Indian school children. Despite the high importance accorded to social and emotional education in NCERT’s National Curriculum Framework 2005, this domain has been largely ignored and sidelined by schools. TTF has designed a contextualised framework incorporating some major international SEL frameworks including the Collaborative of Academic Social and Emotional Learning of USA and Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning from the UK and WHO life skills. ISELF can be included in school curriculums through integration into the academic curriculum or taught separately as a subject,” said Maya Menon, founder-director of TTF, speaking on the occasion.   Fujitsu Scholarship Programme Bangalore, January 16. Fujitsu India Pvt. Ltd — a subsidiary of Fujitsu Ltd, Tokyo (annual revenue: $39 billion or Rs.280,800 crore) which provides a full range of ICT (information communication technologies) products, solutions and services for the global market — announced the launch of the 40th edition of its Fujitsu Scholarship Programme for India. Selected participants will attend the Fujitsu-JAIMS Foundation’s Global Leaders for Innovation and Knowledge (GLIK) 2019 study programme, conducted in four countries — Japan, US (Hawaii), Singapore and Thailand. To qualify for consideration applicants should have a bachelor’s degree, at least three years full-time work experience, and over 750 points in the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) examination. The scholarship covers tuition for the Fujitsu-JAIMS Foundation’s study programme. The application deadline for the programme starting on August 23, 2019, is March 8. GLIK is a three-and-a-half-month certificate programme providing continued education for experienced business professionals. “In Fujitsu-JAIMS Foundation’s business management programme, our objective is to provide practical knowledge to participants to transform into leaders in innovation. This intensive training will help them push their boundaries towards shaping a prosperous tomorrow. There is a great chance for cross pollination of knowledge and skills as we select participants from all over the world,” said Andy Stevenson, managing director of Fujitsu India Pvt. Ltd. Thus far 190 participants from 17 countries including India, Japan, the US and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region have completed the programme, which the foundation has been offering twice a year since April 2013. Byju’s buys Osmo Bangalore, January 17. The Bangalore-based Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd aka BYJU’s, has acquired the US-based Osmo, an award-winning playful learning system for creating healthy screen time experiences for US$120 million (Rs.864 crore). According to BYJU’s press statement, Osmo will continue to scale as a standalone brand as BYJU’s taps the company’s physical-to-digital technology and content to expand and enhance its current product and service offerings. “Our vision is to make learning fun and engaging across all age groups and geographies. I strongly believe that…

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Honda skills training initiative

DELHI, DECEMBER 4. Honda Cars India Ltd, the well-known passenger cars manufacturing company, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Delhi-based Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC) for accreditation of its premier training centre, the Honda Vocational Training Institute (HVTI), in Alwar, Rajasthan. HVTI (estb.2011) is Honda’s state-of-the-art technical training centre promoted to develop skilled manpower with automobile specific training to create job opportunities for class XII school-leavers and students of India’s 13,105 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). ASDC accreditation will enable HVTI to deliver vocational training to youth following curriculums and protocols preset by ASDC. Students completing HVTI courses will multiply their job options and improve their employment prospects. “Since inception through our HVTI initiative, we have trained almost 14,000 students creating a pool of skilled manpower to meet the needs of a growing automotives industry. This initiative reiterates Honda’s commitment to youth development. By joining hands with ASDC, we will be extending support to local communities and become an enabler of positive transformation,” said Praveen Paranjape, vice president and director (general affairs) of Honda Cars India Ltd. ASDC is the first sector skill council of India promoted by representative organisations of automobile and components manufacturers and dealers together with the Union government. Shell launches NXplorers NEW DELHI, DECEMDER 18. Shell (India) launched a global science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education programme titled NXplorers in the presence of Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister, Delhi at a programme attended by students, school principals, teachers and media. According to company spokespersons, NXplorers will become operational in 30 schools in New Delhi. NXplorers is a programme developed to nurture young minds to design sustainable solutions to ease the pressure on food, water and energy supply, using a unique combination of systems thinking, scenario planning and theory of change. The programme is being rolled out across four states in India and aims to reach 3,000 schools and 260,000 students between ages 14-19 years by 2020. The NXplorers programme is already operational in 14 countries including Brazil, Egypt, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Australia, Oman, Qatar, UAE, China, Brunei, Singapore, Philippines and Trinidad. “Food, water and energy systems form the foundation of national growth and development. Water is needed to extract energy and generate power; energy is needed to treat and transport water; and both water and energy are needed to grow food. Our NXplorers programme aims to instill complex and creative thinking skills in young Indian minds to bring about a positive change to our country’s food-water-energy nexus,” said Nitin Prasad, chairman, Shell India, speaking on the occasion. Next-Amazon conferences NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 20. The Hyderabad-based Next Education India Pvt. Ltd announced the rollout of nationwide conferences on ‘EdTech solutions for 21st century schools’ in 25 cities across India. The conferences will be held in association with Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon.com which provides on-demand cloud computing platforms to individuals, companies and governments, on a paid subscription basis. The conferences will highlight and debate latest trends in education technology and their significance for K-12…

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UoW-Swaroop Sampat partnership

Mumbai, november 27. Renowned as one of Britain’s best universities for teacher education, the University of Worcester (UK) has teamed up with former Bollywood star and educationist Dr. Swaroop Sampat-Rawal — an alumna of UoW — to offer its in-service teacher training programmes in India. A diploma programme in personal social education will be launched at a special event in Mumbai on December 3. “Dr Sampat-Rawal’s work has had a massive impact worldwide and we are delighted working in partnership with her to deliver this new diploma programme. Dr Sampat-Rawal’s work based on inclusion and ensuring achievement for all in India aligns perfectly with our ethos at UoW,” said Ann Jordan, head of UoW’s school of education, speaking on the occasion. OUP’s English-Kannada Dictionary Bangalore, november 15. Oxford University Press (OUP) launched the Oxford English-English-Kannada Dictionary at an event hosted in the city. Prof. S.G. Siddaramaiah, chairman, Kannada Development Authority, Government of Karnataka, was chief guest at the launch event. “We are delighted to bring out our second English-English-Kannada dictionary, following the landmark Oxford Compact English-English-Kannada Dictionary that has a large user base in Karnataka. Our second bilingual dictionary in Kannada is not only pedagogically more advanced but designed in sync with contemporary methods of learning and teaching languages, enabling speakers of Kannada to also learn English seamlessly,” said Sivaramakrishnan Venkateswaran, managing director, Oxford University Press India, speaking on the occasion. Added Prof. S.G. Siddaramaiah, chairman of the Kannada Development Authority: “OUP India has been conducting its dictionary work in a scientific manner for multiple regional languages, and I positively believe that the Oxford English-English-Kannada Dictionary will prove to be extremely useful for readers of all ages.” Tech 2018 Visakhapatnam, november 15. UNESCO-MGIEP launched its second edition of TECH (Transforming Education Conference for Humanity) 2018 in collaboration with the government of Andhra Pradesh in Visakhapatnam. TECH 2018 showcases the role of games and digital learning in enabling a shift from “transmissive pedagogies to transformative pedagogies” to create peaceful and sustainable societies. The three-day education conference was inaugurated by N. Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of AP. “TECH 2018 brings together global experts from 60 countries including education ministers, scientists, data, legal and business experts. The conference will be a place to train teachers in digital pedagogies through workshops and building partnerships,” said Ganta Srinivasa Rao, human resource development minister. Research upgradation initiative Mumbai, november 20. Editage, a division of Cactus Communications Inc, USA — a global scholarly and medical communications company — has released a comprehensive report showcasing perspectives of research scholars on a broad range of topics related to academic publishing. The report, titled Author Perspectives on Academic Publishing: Global Survey Report 2018, provides insights into various aspects of research publishing and challenges authors face in manuscript preparation, communicating with journals, and responding to peer review comments. “India currently accounts for 5 percent of the global research output, ranking higher than Germany, the UK, and Japan. However, our survey indicates that our researchers have poor understanding of ethics-related issues like…

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Education Briefs

MaGE-Equifax concordat

Bangalore, October 4. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Manipal ProLearn, a professional learning arm of the Bangalore-based Manipal Global Education Services (MaGE), and Atlanta (USA)-based Equifax Inc, a global information solutions company. The MoU aims at creating industry-ready professionals specialised in data science and analytic skills for the banking financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector. Manipal ProLearn will enhance the learning experience of its students by updating its curriculum with case studies and other industry inputs. Equifax will also convene regular webinars and classroom sessions to train Manipal ProLearn students about data analytics in the BFSI industry. Equifax will also continuously evaluate students of Manipal ProLearn for placement in their analytics team. “Today, the largest requirement of data analytics professionals — about 40-45 percent — is from the BFSI sector. The agreement with Equifax will update and contemporise Manipal ProLearn’s study programmes and qualify our students for global employment,” said Ravi Panchanadan, managing director & CEO of MaGE, speaking on the occasion.   Khushwant Singh Lit Fest 2018 Kasauli, October 15. The seventh edition of the Khushwant Singh Litfest (KSLF) was held in Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh) — the summer vacation hill station frequented by the late editor-author Khushwant Singh (1915- 2014), on October 12-14. The theme of KSLF 2018 was ‘Strength of a Naari — The Rise of Women in an Age of #MeToo’. Several ‘Joy of Learning’ contests were simultaneously conducted in 1,000 K-12 schools in Himachal and Punjab and winners from over 10,000 children who participated in drawing and essay writing contests were awarded prizes by eminent artist Jaideep Mehrotra, film makers Saeed Mirza and Sudhir Mishra and author Anuja Chauhan. In the art competition, the winners were Simran, Blossoms Sr. Sec. School, Patiala; Phurichaya Ruangthong, Auckland House, Shimla; Palakpreet Kamboj, Pinegrove School, Subathu; Sanjana, Blossoms Sr. Sec. School, Patiala. In the ‘Strength of a Naari in the age of #MeToo’ essay competition, the winners were: Prakriti, Auckland House, Shimla; Sharlene, Auckland House, Shimla; Ankur, Kasauli International Public School and Muskaan, St. Mary’s Convent School, Kasauli. Cash prizes of Rs.1,000-4,000 were awarded to the winners of the art and essay competitions by the Bangalore-based EducationWorld — The Human Development Magazine.   CENTA-EducationWorld accord Bangalore, October 21. The Bangalore-based Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA, estb. 2015), a not-for-profit teacher training, development and accreditation social enterprise which has accredited 35,000 K-12 school teachers over the past three years, has concluded an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with EducationWorld. Under the terms of the MoU the two parties agreed to examine ways and means to grade schools implementing best teacher training and professional development practices for inclusion in the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings. CENTA will assess and rate schools implementing best practices in teacher training and professional development. Moreover, winners and awardees in the CENTA Teaching Professionals’ Olympiad (TPO), scheduled to be conducted countrywide on December 8, will be profiled and interviewed on EducationWorld’s social media sites under www.educationworld.in portal. “We are very excited to collaborate with EducationWorld…

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Education Briefs

New ISL campus

Bangalore, September 4. The Indus School of Leadership (ISL, estb.2010), which offers outbound experiential learning programmes to inculcate leadership qualities in students, teachers and corporate executives, has shifted base from Yellagiri in Tamil Nadu to a campus in Kanakapura (Ramanagara district), 70 km from Bangalore. Equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure for over 400 outbound adventure activities such as high, mid and low rope courses, pistol shooting, paintball, archery, mountain biking and rappelling activities supervised by 12 full-time facilitators certified by the Association for Challenge Course Technology, USA and Project Adventure, USA, the new campus provides accommodation for 80 students and 35 teachers and executives. Thus far, ISL has trained over 20,000 individuals including students and 4,300 teachers/executives in its three-days-two-nights residential programmes. “Our customised leadership development programmes comprise various experiential learning activities to develop competencies such as innovation, critical thinking and communication. Our approach is based on the principle of transformation through guided reflection,” says Col. (Retd.) Sathya Rao, director of ISL.   ACT-MeritTrac agreement Mumbai, September 10. The USA-based ACT, a trusted name in college readiness examinations and assessment, signed an agreement with the Bangalore-based MeritTrac Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of the transnational Manipal Global Education Services. MeritTrac has been designing, developing and delivering tests for over 400 corporate customers in more than 350 cities through 2,000 certified test centres for almost two decades. “Our partnership with MeritTrac, a subsidiary of Manipal Global, cements our commitment to India. It expands our test centre network and greatly increases the availability of high quality ACT test preparation materials and opportunities in India,” said Simmy Ziv-el, vice president of ACT, speaking on the occasion. Added Gopal Devanahalli, CEO, MeritTrac: “ACT brings the premier college screening test from the US to students in India. MeritTrac offers test centres closer to test takers, especially in tier-2 and tier-3 cities of India.”   Neev Childlit Fest 2018 Bangalore, September 29. The Bangalore-based Neev Trust (regstd. 2011) which has promoted and manages five top-ranked eponymous pre-primaries and the IB (Geneva)-affiliated K-12 Neev Academy, Yemalur in Bangalore, hosted its second Children’s Literature Festival on the campus of the academy. On the occasion, three authors of children’s fiction were presented the Neev Book Award 2018. The awardees were Rinchin (Tulika Books, Chennai) in the picture books category, Mitali Perkins (Duckbill, Chennai) in the young readers category and Devika Rangachari (Duckbill, Chennai) in the young adults category. “As teachers, we need to develop the reading habit in children which is central to their growth and development into successful professionals and good citizens. The objective of the annual Neev Literature festival is to encourage and celebrate writers of children’s books,” says Kavita Gupta Sabharwal, founder and managing trustee, Neev Academy.   NSE-Wharton tie-up Mumbai, September 10. NSE Academy Ltd (NSEA), a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India and Knowledge@Wharton, the online journal of research and business analysis of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide financial knowledge and…

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Education Briefs

Vidyashilp joins Fairtrade network

Bangalore, August 14. On the eve of Independence Day (August 15), Vidyashilp Academy, Bangalore, signed up to join the global Fairtrade Schools network. Students of Fairtrade Schools in Germany, Australia and UK welcomed Vidyashilp students into the Fairtrade network. Moreover Sarvaiya Pravinkumar Nagajibhai, a Fairtrade cotton shareholder of Soundarya Farmers Producer Co, Gujarat, from whose cotton Vidyashilp School uniforms are made, inaugurated a two-week Fairtrade activities programme on the school campus. “The Fairtrade network works with farmers and workers all over the world to ensure they have access to better prices, fair wages, and better soil-water-waste management techniques. We want to make our students aware of the farming crisis in India and of the power that consumers have to empower people in our food and fashion supply chains,” says Kalai Selvi, head of school at Vidyashilp Academy.   Khan Academy launches LearnStorm New Delhi, August 14. The Delhi-based Khan Academy India (KAI) launched its LearnStorm India (learnstormin.khanacademy.org) free-of-charge six-week online learning programme for class III-VIII students countrywide. LearnStorm combines practice problems and mindset activities to help students master core academic subjects, motivate classrooms and build student confidence, according to a KAI spokesperson. Teachers can sign up for the LearnStorm programme starting September 5 through October 19, using their free Khan Academy account, or by creating one at www.khanacademy.org. “With Khan Academy’s teacher-specific tools, educators can leverage technology to deliver the dream of personalised learning for every student. We’re excited to give teachers a fun way to engage students with LearnStorm India. It has a rewards system that will have students across the country leaping out of their chairs, no matter where they are in their educational journey,” said Sandeep Bapna, managing director of KAI, addressing the media. “LearnStorm is an inspiring programme for students to learn to embrace challenges and understand that tenacity, effort and grit have a huge impact on their success in the classroom and the rest of their lives,” added Salman Khan, the legendary founder of the Khan Academy Inc, USA. Khan Academy India is a not-for-profit organisation founded by Khan Academy Inc and the Tata Trusts.   Mindler ICCC programme New Delhi, August 20. Forty participants of the first three-month International Certification Course for Career Counsellors (ICCC) were felicitated on completion of their study programme at a ceremony presided over by institutional representatives of Mindler. A Delhi-based enterprise providing technology-enabled career guidance, Mindler is a division of the Delhi-based Taxmann Education Pvt. Ltd. Designed by Mindler in collaboration with Career Development Alliance (CDA), USA, the three-month ICCC programme enables counselling professionals to learn international best practices in career counselling. The first batch commenced classes in April with 40 participants from India, Dubai and Oman. The certification programme including 80 credits was delivered through classroom learning, online webinars, case studies, assignments, live projects and final evaluation. “The programme imparted coaching and counselling skills to prospective career coaches and empowered them with state-of-the-art guidance tools. This will help millions of students in need of robust career guidance. This…

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Education Briefs

RNSL sports marathon carnival

Noida, July 7. The Ramagya School, Noida (estb.2005) organised its inaugural Ramagya Noida Sports League (RNSL) marathon in India. The RNSL marathon started on July 7 at 5 p.m and ended the next day i.e, July 8 at 7 p.m. The uniqueness of the RNSL marathon is that it is the first sports programme open to everyone — teams, individuals, corporates, children, adults and senior citizens — enabling huge and enthusiastic participation in an array of indoor and outdoor sports, says Utkarsh Gupta, managing director of the Ramagya Group of education institutions. The RNSL marathon carnival was inaugurated by former India test cricketer Madan Lal, a member of the 1983 World Cup winning team, and Alka Tomar, the first woman wrestler to win a bronze medal in the Senior World Championship. The sports carnival was also supervised by an adjudicator from the India Book of Records, which has accepted the RNSL marathon of 27 hours of continuous sports as a record. According to Gupta, RNSL was a huge success because participants could enjoy sports such as swimming, table tennis, badminton, volleyball, shooting, chess, lawn tennis, football and cricket at a venue with state-of-the-art infrastructure. LIBAs new study programme Mumbai, july 2. The Chennai-based Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA, estb.1979) inked a collaboration agreement with Virginia Tech India Research and Education Forum and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA, to design its Postgrad Programme in Business Analytics (PGPBA). The programme designed to create game changers in industry will begin this month. Candidates should have a bachelors degree in engineering, computer science, IT, business and commerce. Over the past few years, we have seen an emerging trend in the data management and analytics area enveloping every sphere of business. Analytics and business intelligence will rapidly change the industry landscape over the next five years. As the role of information technology in industry shifts from enabler to strategic partner, there is a great demand for specialists in this area. Our association with LIBA will meet this demand through our unique PGPBA course, said Dr. M.K. Padmanabhan, director of Virginia Tech India, speaking on the occasion. New Helen OGrady Preschool Bangalore, July 25. Founded in Australia in 1979, Helen OGrady International which offers personal development programmes for children in 40 countries, recently inaugurated its Helen OGrady International Preschool, Coimbatore. Speaking at the launch, Arpita Mittal, co-founder and CEO, Helen OGrady International Preschool said: After running the Helen OGrady International EduDrama Academy in India and implementing its programme in 20 cities countrywide, it was natural to start this preschool. Over the years we have become aware of the importance of early childhood care and education and our curriculum is structured accordingly. Our well-qualified teachers are intensively trained to ensure better outcomes in early childhood education. James Dyson Award 2018 Gurgaon,July 2. The US-based James Dyson Foundation (JDF) has announced the second edition of the James Dyson Award, 2018. JDF gives students and recent graduates of engineering and design, a unique opportunity to…

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Education Briefs

Istituto Marangoni’s India debut

Istituto Marangoni, Milan (estb.1935) inaugurated its first educational facility in India in Mumbai recently. The new school will offer a wide set of training resources and tools designed to provide fashion students and industry professionals the most qualitative learning experiences. The institute offers broad (i.e, 24 weeks) and short-term (one week) courses focused on fashion design, fashion business, brand management and fashion buying, while also “instilling a rich sense of Italian flair and design thinking” in its study programmes. The Mumbai facility will have some notable permanent faculty members from Italy, including fashion professionals and industry veterans. Their focus will be to ensure the same qualitative teaching experience offered in the other campuses in Milan, Florence, Paris, London, Shanghai and Shenzhen. “Given the shifts in global trends, India represents the next fashion frontier and the establishment of our new school here in Mumbai will allow Istituto Marangoni to train, guide and mentor talented students, who will positively influence the best of Indian fashion and design as well as play a vital role in the global market,” said Roberto Riccio, group managing director of Istituto Marangoni, speaking on the occasion.   Green Talent award winners Rama Kant Dubey (BHU, Varanasi), Jayati Trivedi (CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun) and Pratiksha Srivastava (CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar) are among 25 scientists shortlisted for the Green Talents Award 2017 instituted by the Federal ministry of education & research, Germany. The awards ceremony provides young researchers with a platform to share their views on green concepts to make the world a better and cleaner place. A high-ranking jury selected 25 promising young scientists out of 602 applicants from 95 countries who submitted papers on ‘sustainable production and consumption’. The awardees won an all expenses paid trip to the Green Talents — International Forum for High Potential in Sustainable Development ceremony which will be held in  Berlin, presided over by Prof. Johanna Wanka, research minister of the Federal government, in the near future. Their visit will include a two-week science tour which will provide Green Talents with insights into the German research landscape and the opportunity to meet green experts and visit some of the most renowned ecology and environment sustainability research institutions in Germany.    ClassEdge-CMS concordat For the first time in India, Tata ClassEdge has introduced a measurement-driven model, MATE (Managed Adoption of Technology in Education), for effective usage of technology in classrooms. MATE will be introduced in 877 classrooms of the City Montessori School, Lucknow, and will be the “largest measurement-driven school education initiative anywhere worldwide”. According to Tata ClassEdge spokespersons, MATE is a platform for schools to improve their teaching-learning practices “through data-based feedback loops”. In this collaborative partnership, MATE will serve as an end-to-end service agreement under which Tata ClassEdge takes complete responsibility for teacher training, acceptance, adoption and effective usage of technology in classrooms. “After receiving feedback from teachers and our research team, we decided to introduce MATE for improving technology-enabled teaching and learning in the school’s classrooms.…

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Education Briefs

Khan Academy’s Mega Debut

Khan Academy (India, estb. 2016), the Delhi-based subsidiary of the globally acclaimed Khan Academy, USA, has aligned the maths library containing thousands of videos, exercises and commentaries of its parent not-for-profit company to the classes V-XII syllabus of the Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) — India’s largest national school-leaving examinations board with 18,635 affiliated primary-secondary schools.  “With this alignment with the CBSE syllabus, students who have missed a class or are confused about a concept can go to the relevant chapter directly and learn from a Khan Academy video. Students consistently say that the simple, to the point and friendly style of these videos makes even the most confusing concepts easy to grasp and an enjoyable experience,” says Sandeep Bapna, the Delhi-based CEO of Khan Academy (India). According to Bapna, the vast majority of Indians access the Internet through low-cost smartphones and to help them learn anywhere anytime, Khan Academy has made all its content including videos and exercises available on its Android app. “The app has over 250,000 Indian students already using it and this number is growing rapidly as the awareness about this great free resource spreads,” adds Bapna.    NPSC’s 44th convention The theme of the 44th National Progressive Schools Conference (NPSC, estb. 1973) 2017, convened in Delhi’s India International Centre on February 16-17, was ‘Schools of Tomorrow… the Tomorrow of Schools’. Over 300 promoters, principals and senior teachers of 160 CBSE-affiliated schools in Delhi NCR (national capital region) and 11 states, attended the two-day conference.  Dr. Anant Agarwal, professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston and CEO of edX — the world’s largest online higher education learning platform promoted by MIT and Harvard University — was the chief guest, Prof. C. Rajkumar of Jindal University, Sonepat, Delhi NCR was the keynote speaker and Dr. Yajulu Medury, vice chancellor of Bennett University, Greater Noida, the guest of honour. “Our 44th national conference was a great success and provided our principals and delegates valuable insights on the shape of things to come in education and Indian society. The excellent keynote addresses inspired our member-delegates to prepare students of our schools for the challenges of promoting peace and environmental sustainability in the increasingly complex inter-connected world of the 21st century,” says Ashok Pandey, principal of Delhi’s Ahlcon International School and chairman of NPSC.   KPIT Sparkle 2017 winners The Pune-based KPIT Technologies Ltd, a global technology company specialising in IT consulting and product engineering, announced the winners of its KPIT Sparkle 2017 national design and innovation contest for engineering and science students on February 20. The theme of the competition in this edition was Smart Cities, and required participating students to ideate solutions for civic transportation and infrastructure using technology. The 35 shortlisted teams exhibited their solutions through working prototypes at a grand finale held on February 18-19, at the Deccan College, Pune.  The winners of KPIT Sparkle 2017 are: Team AlphaGears of the Mangalore Institute of Technology and Engineering, awarded the Platinum…

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NIIT’s new China project

The Delhi-based NIIT Ltd (estb.1981), a global leader in ICT skills and talent development, inaugurated its biggest Big Data talent training base at Guiyang City, China on January 9. It will conduct IT (information technology) and Big Data training for university graduates, working professionals and government employees in Guizhou province. The centre will also help government professionals to upskill themselves in digital technology.  “The launch of NIIT’s training base is a brand-new start towards much larger cooperation between Guiyang City and NIIT. It’s a milestone in two years of our working together to develop Big Data IT talent in Guiyang. The cooperation with NIIT is the largest international talent development cooperation for Guiyang City and we look forward to greater cooperation between China and India,” said Xu Hao, vice mayor, while inaugurating the NIIT centre in Guiyang City. “The launch of a flagship centre in Guiyang is a result of initiatives taken by the leadership of Guiyang municipal government and NIIT under the guidance of the provincial government to develop Guizhou into a leading Big Data destination for the digital economy of the future. With our understanding of the changing skills requirement of industry, NIIT is committed to support China in its human capacity building initiative,” added Rahul Patwardhan, CEO of NIIT Ltd, speaking on the occasion.   Social Start-up Fellowship Progamme 2017 The School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) India, an initiative supported by PwC (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers), which enables social entrepreneurs to start social impact projects, invites applications for the second batch of the Social Start-up Fellowship Programme 2017. The announcement was made at a function in Delhi on January 5, hosted by Jagriti Yatra, a 15-day journey which takes potential leaders across India, “to understand and build the India of small towns and villages through enterprise”. “SSE India partners with several organisations to recruit fellows. We look for individuals capable of tackling complex social problems and help them develop business models with lasting social impact,” said Jaivir Singh, chairperson, SSE India, speaking on the occasion and adding that SSE India invites highly motivated individuals in the 18-70 years age group, and helps them transform their ideas into real social outcomes through sustainable solutions for poor and disadvantaged communities.  Founded in the UK by Michael Young in 1997, SSE India was launched in February 2016 with support from development partner PwC India. Thus far SSE, UK has helped over 1,500 social entrepreneurs to develop sustainable social impact programmes.   AU-CUP partnership  Avantika University (AU), India’s first design-centred university based in Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh), signed an academic and institutional partnership with Cambridge University Press (CUP) India on January 11 to facilitate the inflow of world-class, well-researched learning materials for Avantika students. Under the agreement, CUP India will provide educational resources and development programmes to empower AU students and teachers with better learning experiences. As the first step in this association, a continuous professional development (CPD) programme for AU faculty members will be started shortly to help teachers develop internationally-benchmarked teaching programmes. …

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Education Briefs

Lego’s Robo Shiksha Kendra initiative

Techtronics Education India Ltd, an affiliate of the Denmark-based Lego A/S (annual sales: Rs.36,720 crore), and the Gurgaon-based NGO Indian STEM Foundation inaugurated a Robo Shiksha Kendra (robotics lab) at the Kendriya Vidyalaya-1, Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) on November 24.  “The Robo Shiksha Kendra lab will facilitate the learning of science and maths on a robotic platform. It offers a hands-on, enjoyable environment to learn science, maths and the emerging science of robotics,” said Rajesh Arora, vice president of Techtronics Education. Since 2012, the STEM Foundation, which promotes robotics, computer science, science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, has established ten such kendras (centres) in local government schools in Delhi NCR. “Through partnership with the STEM Foundation, launching international robotics olympiads and conducting workshops in education institutions, we intend to stimulate interest in robotics science in India,” said Brian Dam, regional manager (Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa) of Lego A/S, speaking on the occasion.    DSU Talent Search 2016 Dayananda Sagar University (DSU), Bangalore has launched its DSU Talent Search 2016 initiative to identify and reward talented high and higher secondary school students countrywide. Under the rules of this competitive programme, registered ([email protected]) class IX-XII (science/engineering) student teams (of three-five) from schools across India are invited to train in specific domains with partner companies (Autodesk, GE, IBM, Bosch among others) and subsequently present a plan and develop a project in DSU.  These projects will be demonstrated and exhibited on the DSU campus on January 7. Cash prizes of Rs.1 lakh will be awarded to winning teams. Last date for registration is December 20.   Springer Nature Upcoming Scientist Award     Macmillan Education (India), a well-reputed name in academic publishing and education, announced its annual Springer Nature Upcoming Scientist Award which aims to expand scientific literacy in India and promote research and innovation for sustainable development, in New Delhi on November 2. The award open to all students in India aged 12-16 years will be given to the student “found to best exhibit intense curiosity and application of scientific thinking in response to a real challenge (health, environment or resources) in the student’s own environment”.  Entries for The Springer Nature Upcoming Scientist award will open on National Science Day (February 28, 2017), observed annually to mark the discovery of the Raman Effect by Indian physicist Sir C.V. Raman.     NIIT’s workforce multiplier NIIT.tv — a disruptive innovation of the Delhi-based NIIT Ltd — celebrated its first anniversary on October 6. During the past year, NIIT.tv has registered over 500,000 users from 172 countries for over 20 skills-based training programmes in IT, banking and finance, retail and management. These live and on-demand courses are offered free-of-charge to school and college students and working professionals in several languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Oriya, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Bengali, Telugu and Assamese.  “In NIIT, our mission is to create skilled workforces across multiple sectors to meet the trained manpower requirements of our economy. Today, as NIIT.tv completes one year of successfully empowering…

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BJFSI Academy’s Mumbai kick-off

Boca Juniors Football School India (BJFSI), an affiliate of the Argentina-based Club Atletico Boca Juniors, one of the premier football clubs in the world, launched its Mumbai academy in collaboration with The Sports Gurukul, Mumbai on March 1. The BJFSI Academy was launched by Club Atletico’s technical director Petros Sideris, who announced that Antonio Lopez will be the head coach of the Mumbai academy. “We are in the third year of franchised operations in Bangalore, and very impressed with the talent we have seen so far. There is so much talent in India with limitless potential that we would like to tap it early. We want to create a unique experience for all the youngsters in and around Mumbai, and greater expansion of our operations is on the cards,” said Sideris, speaking on the occasion. “We are proud to bring the best football coaching practices to Mumbai. We have already selected a talented child who will be sent for international coaching to Argentina and we look forward to scouting for more children from the schools of Mumbai,” says Jay Shah, co-founder and director of The Sports Gurukul. Bayer Science Camp scholarships The Calgary (Canada)-based Bayer Science & Education Foundation will award 25 scholarships for the Bayer Science Camp to be convened in Denver, Colorado, USA from July 25-August 8. Ten scholarships will be awarded to school students from Germany, five each to teens from the US and India, and for the first time, another five to students from Africa. “Through our Science Teens Program, we want to get talented junior scientists excited about medical advancements and network them internationally,” explains Thimo V. Schmitt-Lord, executive director of the foundation. According to a press statement, the theme of the science camp is ‘Life Science and Medical Health Issues’. The camp will be conducted this year in partnership with the prestigious STEM Harmony Education Center of the University of Colorado. The selected teens will research scientific and medical health issues under professional guidance, interact with scientists and conduct experiments in the mountains surrounding Denver. Students in the 14-16 years age group with good grades in science subjects, strong interest in medical health issues and good command of the English language are eligible to apply.  The application form should be downloaded from www.bayer.in and submitted together with a one-page English language essay on the ‘Role of the life sciences in health and society’. The deadline for applications is March 31. Education UK Alumni Awards The British Council, Delhi, honoured the achievements of distinguished Indian alumni of British universities of the past ten years. Awardees were selected from three categories: professional, business and social impact. The Education UK Alumni Awards 2016 were presented in Delhi on March 19 at a gala event attended by distinguished guests including Lord Jeffrey Mountevans, mayor of London, and Baroness Amos, director of the School of Oriental and African Studies. “Indian students have been studying in the UK for over 100 years, and 160,000 have graduated from British universities over…

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Manipal University convocation

The 21st convocation of the top-ranked Manipal University was held at the varsity’s state-of-the-art 600-acre campus in Manipal over three days — November 21, 25 and 28 — during which over 3,294 graduating students were awarded undergrad, postgraduate and doctorate degrees. The impressive ceremony was presided over by chief guests A.S. Kiran Kumar, chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation; Srinivas Prasad, CEO Philips Innovation Campus, Bangalore and Faizal E. Kottikollon, founder and chairman, KEF Holdings, Dubai, UAE. In his convocation address, Kiran Kumar advised the graduating students to “innovate to remain competitive”. “Innovation and technology have become the hallmarks of modern society. We need to think exponentially, not linearly. We should remain flexible enough to adapt innovation processes and not be afraid to break things, to remain competitive in this fast changing world of technology advances,” he said. Faizal Kottikollon, a graduate of the Manipal Institute of Technology, recalled how a world-class engineering education and the values of hard work and discipline acquired in Manipal had helped him transform into a successful entrepreneur. Ranked #3 among private universities countrywide in the EducationWorld India University Rankings 2015, Manipal University comprises 19 institutions with an aggregate enrolment of 28,000 students instructed by 2,500 faculty. Cambridge professional development workshops Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd concluded a series of Cambridge Professional Development Day workshops across India for teachers of 415-plus CIE-affiliated schools in India. The workshops were conducted by Simon Lind, professional development manager at Cambridge University Press, UK. The workshops — held in Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai — engaged with over 350 teachers across India. The seminars were conducted interactively to encourage teachers to explore CIE’s philosophy of teaching. “The workshops were highly interactive with teachers fully involved in experiential learning. They were inspired, enthused, motivated and ready to initiate new innovations in their classrooms. It was an absolute pleasure working with so many passionate teachers willing to learn and dedicated to improving the learning experiences of their pupils,” says Lind. Next-Genius Olympiad winners Next-Genius Olympiad 2015, an online critical thinking competition conceptualised by Edukul Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai, a company promoted by career counsellor Neeraj Mandhana, attracted participation of 17,600 students from 1,080 schools across India. After careful statistical analysis of their test performance, webcam data and personal interviews, conducted by a jury comprising Dr. Dennis Hanno, dean of admissions at Wheaton College, Grant Gosselin (USA); Naveen Mandhana, director, Videocon; marketing consultant Nobi Gupta and Dilip Yawalkar, chief technology officer of Samsonite, 250 students were awarded merit scholarships valued at Rs.2.5 crore together with certificates. Among the winners: Anoushka Agarwal of Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai, Arjun Choudhary, Army Public School, Pune and Shraavan Prahlad of Podar International School, Kalyan. “I am delighted to see such a strong display of intellect and critical thinking by the 17,600 teens who participated in our Olympiad this year. I would also like to thank all the 1,080 participating school principals and Olympiad coordinators for bringing this unparalleled opportunity to bright students at…

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RIGI student exchange programmes

To promote international peace and harmony in an increasingly globalised world, the Ryan International Group of Institutions (RIGI), a countrywide network of K-12 schools, sent three student delegations abroad this summer. RIGI students spent a fortnight at the Seven Oaks School, Thames Valley, UK. The purpose of this visit was to prepare RIGI students for the Trinity English speaking exam organised by the Thames Valley Summer School, and strengthen cultural understanding and bonds with students from Spain, Russia, France and Italy who also attended the summer school. Yet another delegation of students from Mumbai and Navi Mumbai visited Finland and attended theatre workshops and plays of the Youth Floppy Theatre, Joensuu. Moreover, another RIGI students’ delegation visited Germany under an exchange programme with the Leipzig Tanz theatre. “We believe cross fertilization of ideas and teaching processes enrich our children’s education experiences and prepare them to face the challenges of a fast-globalising world,” says Mme. Grace Pinto, managing director of RIGI. New Sesame preschools in Garden city Sesame Street, which claims to be America’s largest preschool chain, inaugurated two new pre-primary schools in Bengaluru (at Sarjapur Road and Kaggadasapura) for children in the 1-6 age group, on June 27. These preschools follow two primaries (Bilekahalli and HSR Layout) established in 2012. “We hope the education imparted in our preschools in Bengaluru will influence this generation of kids to become global leaders of tomorrow,” says Mona Singh, vice president of Sesame Schoolhouse, India.          According to Singh, Sesame Street preschools are operational in ten cities: Delhi, Ghaziabad, Dehradun, Alwar, Patna, Meerut, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Pune and Udaipur, offering early childhood education and care services including parent-toddler, playgroup, nursery and Prep I and Prep II programmes for 1-6 year-olds. Nasscom-HP mission partnership The NASSCOM Foundation, promoted by the National Association of Software Companies (NASSCOM) India, and the US-based Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), signed an agreement to promote the Central government’s National Digital Literacy Mission, in Mumbai on July 2. Under the agreement, HP will donate five portable and easily deployable future classrooms to be sited in Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru and Jaipur. These classrooms will benefit 6,000 children who will be given digital literacy and HP LIFE (Learning Initiative For Entrepreneurs) training in the first year of operations.  “This partnership is our support to the government’s National Digital Literacy Mission. It will empower learners with digital literacy, entrepreneurial and vocational skills. HP is committed to leverage our technology leadership towards social transformation through such innovative programmes,” said Neelam Dhawan, managing director of HP (India), speaking on the occasion. IET Innovation Awards 2015 The London-based Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) launched its 11th annual Innovation Awards programme in Bangalore on July 25. The IET Innovation Awards acknowledge and celebrate breakthrough innovations in engineering, science and technology across 15 categories, from energy and sustainability to transport and healthcare. Entries are invited in the following categories: assets management, built environment, communications, emerging technology design, healthcare technologies, information technology, intelligent systems, manufacturing technology, measurement in action, model-based engineering, navigation…

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EduSports launches MILES

The Bangalore-based S.V. EduSports Pvt. Ltd (estb. 2009) which provides sports and fitness education to over 300,000 students in 400 K-12 schools countrywide, launched a new integrated sports education programme on March 4. Christened MILES, the programme is designed to develop the sports, social and emotional skills of children in class VI upwards. “Children are increasingly dropping out of specialised sports in middle school, leading to visible patterns of higher obesity and unhealthy social choices in these impressionable years. Miles is designed to get children playing and physically active again. It achieves this by enabling children to choose, design and lead their sports programme resulting in higher and sustained engagement levels. Miles also incorporates the patented ‘Leading2Play’ pedagogy designed by San Francisco-based former NBA basketball star and sports psychologist Dr. George Selleck,” says Saumil Majmudar, promoter-director of EduSports.   Pearson presents PAC India Pearson India — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pearson Plc, UK, a global leader in education — announced the launch of its Pearson Assessment Centre of Excellence (PAC) India division, in Delhi on March 3. According to Pearson India spokespersons, PAC India will “leverage the power of assessment to drive personalised learning with curriculum, assessments, and certifications that are globally benchmarked and prepare learners for their future”. “Assessment plays an important role in achieving and measuring the efficacy of our products and services, and having a dedicated centre of excellence in India will expedite the process. We want learners to reach their educational aspirations through meaningful feedback. Our team of experts will measure student performance and ensure validity and reliability of test scores which will help schools modify their teaching methods appropriately, and ensure better learning outcomes,” said Deepak Mehrotra, managing director, Pearson India, speaking on the occasion. 24MRC Network education awards 24MRC Network Pvt. Ltd (estb. 2010), a Delhi-based company engaged in  market research and organisation of exhibitions, conferences, seminars and awards events, staged its 24 MRC Network 2015 Leadership Awards (Education) at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Delhi on February 25. “Every year, 24MRC Network celebrates educators who have contributed significantly to improving the quality of education, research and development and innovations to enhance students’ education experiences. In India, several colleges and institutions in the states offer world-class programmes in engineering, medicine and business management. The awards celebrate their contribution to the development of Indian education,” says Avinash Singh, co-promoter and director of 24MRC Network.  Among the award winners were BALC (Bharatiya Academy of Linguistics and Communication), Bengaluru; Council of Information & Broadcasting, New Delhi; Cyberfort Technologies, Bhagalpur; Cimage, Patna; Dalal Global Institute of Technology, Jhajjar; Hotel & Catering Management Institute, Chandigarh; HRIT Group of Institutions, Ghaziabad; Indian Institute of Finance, Greater Noida; Jamia Group of Institutions, Nandurbar; KCG College of Technology, Karapakkam; KIPM College of Engineering & Technology, Gorakhpur; Kshitij Education India, Gurgaon; Networkers’ Guru Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Gurgaon; Pace Institute of Technology and Sciences, Ongole (AP); Rathinam Technical Campus, Coimbatore; Rising Kids Preschool, Ahmedabad; the Ryan International Group of Institutions, Mumbai; Swami Devi Dyal Group of…

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