D. P. Chandrashekar is the Hyderabad-based chief operating officer of the Bangalore-based Jain Group of Institutions (JGI, estb. 1990) which owns and/or manages 21 education institutions including the Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain University, MATS School of Business and IT and the state-of-the-art Jain International Residential School (JIRS), Bangalore, with an aggregate enrolment of 40,000 students.Newspeg. […]
Pune-based musician Shrirang Umrani, winner of a Maharashtra state award for the background track of the Sunil Sukhtankar and Sumitra Bhave-directed Marathi film Dahavi F (2002), lets his musical talent flow outwards to positively impact other people’s lives. It’s an experiment that has paid him rich dividends because for the past 24 years that Umrani […]
Gurgaon-based music professionals Lorraine Fiona and Aubrey Aloysius are wholly convinced that music education needs to be fully integrated into school education towards holistic development of children. To enable this symphony as also to teach western music, they moved from Mumbai seven years ago to Gurgaon, the new satellite city of Delhi where they promoted […]
UK-based Pearson Group, the global media, education and publishing behemoth (annual revenue $8 billion or Rs.36,000 crore), which inter alia owns the Financial Times, Pearson Education and Penguin Books, is deepening its engagement with Indian education. Fast on the heels of the launch of several products, services and joint ventures including Pearson VUE, Edexcel, Clinical […]
Fresh from its triumph in persuading the Union HRD ministry to amend the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (aka RTE Act) to entitle the country’s estimated 10 million children with disabilities to free and compulsory inclusive education, and for them to be included in the definition of “poor neighbourhood children” whom private […]
When Pune-based Shrinivas Bhats mother gifted him a replica of the first coin issued by independent India in 1947, he was just eight years of age. But it catalysed an enduring passion for coins collection which has now grown into a valuable treasure chest of 5,000 distinct and separate coins from around the world, winning […]
Of late the Indian Institute of Cartoonists (IIC), Bangalore (estb.2001), a first-of-its-kind 2,000 sq.ft gallery sited in the garden citys tony M.G. Road has gone into overdrive, staging exhibitions display-ing the doodles of several of the countrys small but influential community of newspaper and magazine cartoonists. A few months ago it showed the work of […]
For over 25 years, V. Ranganathan (72), a retired automobile engineer, cherished the dream of educating underprivileged young children in rural Tamil Nadu. But it was not until his retirement in 2002 that he could realise his dream, when he established the Vidyarambam Trust, a non-profit organisation which provides basic, free-of-charge education to poor and […]
Since the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was famously written off as a “basket case nation-state” by the former American secretary of state Dr Henry Kissinger in 1971, despite suffering military coups and political instability, and often ravaged by floods and cyclones, this low-lying nation has surprised India and the world by pioneering several innovative socio-economic […]
Once every eagerly anticipated fortnight, children in classes VI-VII from several schools in Pune gather together to watch socially relevant documentaries dealing with issues such as child labour, women’s empowerment, water harvesting, racial bias, communal disharmony and so on. The screening is followed by an intense discussion led by Dr Satish Rajmachikar, the man behind […]
Theres a buzz of excitement in the modest office of YOCee (Youth of Chennai, energetic, enthusiastic) — a Chennai-based proprietary firm which manages YOCee.in, a childrens website in the port city. On Childrens Day (November 14) YOCee plans to launch a video news bulletin on its You Tube channel featuring student-centric news and events reported […]
The globe-girdling Dubai-based Varkey Group-promoted Global Education Management Systems (GEMS), which made a soft launch entry into India in 2004, is aiming to emerge as one of the top five K-12 education providers countrywide in the next three-four years, with at least 100 schools under its management. The Varkey Group, which owns 100 schools worldwide, […]
The first Indian president of the World Crafts Council (WCC), elected for a four-year term in 2008, Usha Krishna has committed her time and influence to the cause of crafts and craftspersons, thus ensuring that governments and policy makers around the world give them due recognition and rewards. WCC is a non-government organisation established in […]
Enthused by the stupendous success of her first book Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish (2008), which recounted the secrets of several first generation business entrepreneurs and has reportedly sold over 150,000 copies in eight languages, Mumbai-based author Rashmi Bansal formally released her second title Connect the Dots (2010) at a crowded press conference in the citys […]
Dr. Kalyan Gangwal has very definite ideas and preferences about healthy nutrition and healthcare. Non-vegetarian fare, tobacco and alcohol are strictly taboo, says this Pune-based activist and medical practitioner who was felicitated by the Pune Municipal Corporation in July for spearheading a drugs de-addiction movement and promoting vegeta-rianism for over 40 years. Also adjudged ‘Vegetarian […]
A heavyweight — and undoubtedly welcome — advertiser on several national 24×7 English language news channels, the Noida-based Sharda University (SU, estb.2009) is riding high on the professional education boom. One of the new genre private universities empowered by state government legislation, SU is the brain child of Pradeep Kumar Gupta (44), a first generation […]
Pune-based Jesuit cleric-cum-academic Cyril Desbruslais believes in popular theatre as a medium of public instruction. For the past 39 years, he has been scripting and producing stage plays to promote the integrated development of young people and sensitise them to the needs of the marginalised and poor through his NGO Searching and Service in Unity […]
Just 16 months after assuming office as president and chief operating officer of the Orlando (USA)-based American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute (AH&LEI), Robert Steele III visited India to assess the prospects and development needs of this country’s booming hospitality industry. “Currently, India has 100,000 international standard hotel rooms. This number is expected to double […]
Sepp Blatter, president of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA), describes India as the sleeping giant of world football. Bangalore-based Adhip Bhandary (29) has made it his mission to wake this sleeping giant. To this end in 2007 he re-located from Mumbai to promote the Bangalore Youth Football League Academy (BYFL) which has 50 […]
Residents and visitors to Lonavla, the salubrious township sited midway between Mumbai and Pune, are likely to come across film stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and even Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, in typical attitudes. But a fixed stare will be the inevitable response if you attempt any verbal interaction. That’s because […]
In an innovative tri-city partnership with the International Institute of Career Development, Tiruchi and Divya Knowledge Process Management Ltd, Bangalore, the Coimbatore-based Hi-end Software Integrated Ltd has signed an agreement with the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Career Development (IECD) of Bharathidasan University in Coimb-atore, to offer its School University Tie-up Scheme (SUITS) programme to classes […]
An alumna of Lucknows highly-rated La Martiniere Girls School and currently a Houston (Texas, USA)-based correspondent of TV Asia and promoter-chief executive of an online multimedia enterprise titled Lights, Camera, Action, Ruchi Mukherjee has dismal memories of her school years. She grimly recalls experiencing verbal abuse, partiality and extreme lack of patience. Her unhappy school […]
An engineer by profession and Punes ‘railway man by popular reputation, Dr. Ravi Joshi has combined his skills and knowledge of mechanical and electrical engineering to build one of the biggest and most ‘active railway museums in the country. The Joshi Museum of Miniature Railways in Kothrud, suburban Pune, is served by a huge platform […]
Mumbai-based marketing communications consultant, career strategist and author Pushpendra Mehta, has transformed into an online media entrepreneur with the promotion of VCherish.com, an e-publishing website for and by the youth of India. VCherish.com offers a forum and soundboard for creative minds to network globally, get their writing published and get paid for it, says Mehta.VCherish.com, […]
A mix of motivations — hands-on experience of cutting edge information technologies, love of mathematics and dissatisfaction with the way young children are being introduced to the subject — has prompted Vadodara-based Kannan and Bharathy Bharadwaj to opt out of high-flying corporate careers and focus on developing maths learning programmes for class I-VIII children in […]
For seven years, Prakash Thosre worked in the Melghat forests of south-western Maharashtra before he stumbled upon the realisation that for the area to remain green, it would be better to win friends and influence among children, rather than adults. Today, he is doing just that. As director of the social forestry department of Maharashtra, […]
The historic economic liberalisation and deregulation initiative of 1991 which lifted production restraints imposed upon Indian industry by the ubiquitous licence-permit-quota system, has dramatically transformed India into a major exporter of goods and services. But with Indian academia still mired in the licence-permit-quota mindset, it hasnt been able to supply foreign trade specialists in adequate […]
When Pune-based computer science student Rizwana Shaikh (18) first saw a white patch develop on her left arm, she wasnt unduly worried. Nor were her family members, easily attributing it to an insect bite or a food allergy. But after another patch appeared on her face, she was rushed to a doctor and tests diagnosed […]
Ghaziabad-based Manoj Kumar Gohil, screenplay writer and theatre artist, made his directorial debut this year with Accept Me, a film on albinism, an inherited group of disorders resulting in the absence or decreased production of melanin, the colouring pigment present in the skin, hair and eyes.The 144 seconds silent film which took only a day […]
Armoogum Parsuramen is the new head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco, estb. 1945) in New Delhi, supervising this highly-respected bodys operations in India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka.Beginning his tenure in the national capital in September with a flurry of activity, on November 16 Parsuramen flagged off Unescos 64th anniversary […]
With the Indian media and entertainment industry comprising film, television, radio, music and the evolving gaming and animation industries witnessing explosive growth, theres a commen-surate demand upsurge for skilled professionals capable of developing content for new age digital media.Anticipating this demand and lacuna in quality media education in India, Chennai-based entrepreneur Rathish Babu promoted Access […]
Long before the idea of a computerised unique identity number for all Indians dawned upon the Union government, Asias first DNA Bank promoted by IQRA Biotech Services had been set up in Lucknows Biotech Park in June 2008, with the objective of providing every Indian with a DNA identification tag.Saeed Ahmed, Lucknow-based director of the […]
Internationally acclaimed environmentalist Vandana Shiva delivered the 4th annual Henry Volken Memorial Lecture to a packed audience at the Indian Social Institute (ISI) in Bangalore on September 16 on the theme of ‘Global warming and climate change: ecological consequences for the poor countries and the possible responses. The lecture was instituted by the Society of […]
With the global economic meltdown forcing corporates worldwide to cut costs, Indias once-booming IT sector, which increased its headcount to over 1 million in 2008, can no longer afford to spend millions on in-house training for new recruits. This ill wind for the IT industry is blowing favourably for the innovative Bangalore-based upskilling company A […]
An educator who believes that primary education should be life and skills-oriented rather than purely content driven, Mumbai-based Nupoor Kanchan recently (January 2009) registered ILEAP (Integrated Learning Enrichment Achievement Programme), a first-of-its-kind learning centre for children in the age group four-12.The mission of the ILEAP is to create an engaging, stimulating education environment in which […]
The Indian army, which boasts its own 123 schools countrywide, inaugurated its first primary-secondary school — The Golden Palm Army School (GPAS) — in the port city of Chennai on May 26, to educate children of serving army officers, as also grandchildren of ex-servicemen. The new school is expected to end the uphill struggle faced […]
A private sector pioneer in the provision of high-quality professional (engineering, medical, business management, pharmacopeial, nursing etc) education, and perhaps India’s sole higher education multinational with campuses in Nepal, Malaysia, Dubai and Antigua (West Indies), the Bangalore and Manipal-based Manipal Education Group (MEG) has taken a great leap forward in new technologies-enabled distributed, aka distance […]
Ramanujam Sridhar, chief executive of the Bangalore-based Integrated Brand-Comm Pvt. Ltd (estb. 1998), a well-known public relations firm, is a multi-skilled missionary of brand management. Apart from overseeing his firm, which has 80 employees on its muster roll and boasts blue-chip corporate clients including Omega Healthcare, Indus League, Manipal Education and Big Bazaar, Sridhar delivers […]
Two months ago, six-year-old Sushma Walimbe, a cherubic girl who carries a broken doll with her wherever she goes, spent her mornings playing on heaps of gravel and sand on the construction site of a huge residential complex in Pune. Now, she has a fixed routine and from 9.30 a.m to 12.30 p.m, does her […]
For Avnita Bir, principal of Mumbais prestigious CBSE-affiliated K-12 RN Podar School (estb. 1998), the purpose of education is to encourage learning to learn and not learning to know. Therefore the schools management prides itself on providing balanced holistic education to its 2,700 students. Its strong focus on academics apart, RN Podar School has […]
- Mita Mukherjee Nearly 25 lakh persons working as pre-primary facilitators and caregivers in the country will be offered training to equip them with the .....Read More
Businessmen Elon Musk has established a new Montessori preschool ‘Ad Astra’ in Bastrop, Texas, a one-of-its-kind, endorsing his and US President-elect Donald Trump’s views on .....Read More
