Women of Spirit Award for Grace Pinto

Well-known educationist and managing director of the Ryan International Group of Institutions which includes 120 K-12 schools countrywide, Mme. Grace Pinto was conferred the Kelvinator GR8! Women of Spirit Award 2012 on February 15 for her outstanding contribution to education and social work. Bollywood actors Dikshita and Manisha Khadwady presented the award to Mme. Pinto in the presence of cinestar Vidya Balan, entrepreneur Anushka Ranjan, choreographer Saroj Khan, musician Richa Sharma, and politician Smita Thackeray.The annual GR8! Women Awards — an initiative of GR8! TV magazine, and the Indian Television Academy — confers honour and recognition on women achievers from all walks of life. This year the Mumbai-based Asmi Diamond Jewellery and ‘Beti — A Movement, a campaign against female foeticide, in association with GR8! TV magazine, observed this day to honour women of spirit in the fine arts, literature, music, politics and public life, sports, medicine, business, entrepreneurship, education, cinema and television. YES Banks Vision 2020 report released Vision 2020: Education and Employability, authored by the strategic initiatives, government and advisory division of YES Bank Ltd, was released at the India Education Summit 2012 organised by Network 18 on February 24 in New Delhi. The report highlights the challenges of integrating the skills development and formal education systems to improve employability of students and availability of trained manpower. The report also presents a roadmap for closing the gap between the vocational and formal education systems and calls for greater private sector participation in the vocational education space. There is a need to create sustainable public-private partnership models, based on the principles of social equity, to overcome the infrastructure gaps existing in this sector, said Tushar Pandey, president of the strategic initiatives, government and advisory division of YES Bank Ltd, while participating in a panel discussion at the summit. British Council Young Global Citizen Summit 2012 Shri Naveen Patnaik, chief minister of Odisha (formerly Orissa), inaugurated the British Council Young Global Citizen Summit (YGCS) 2012 convened on the premises of SAI International School (SIS), Bhubaneswar on Republic Day (January 26). The summit was organised for the first time by British Council (India) in partnership with SIS. It attracted the participation of over 500 students and teachers from 115 schools countrywide, together with eminent personnel of the British Council and facilitators from the UK and Europe. Speaking on the occasion, Charlie Walker, programmes director of the British Council (India), highlighted the importance of internationalisation of education in the rapidly globalising world. The commitment of the council will be firmly focused on respecting cultural diversity and improving communication skills of children and youth, he said. The three-day YGCS 2012 included several creative workshops, enlightening addresses and entertainment progra-mmes together with sightseeing tours for participants. The creative workshops were conducted by renowned partners of the British Council such as The Tony Blair Foundation, 100 Words, BBC World Class, Royal Shakespeare Company, Big Dance, Youth Music Voices, Forum Theatre, Art Education, among others. The Global Citizen Summit was also addressed by Dr. B.K. Sahoo,…