Benefits of RGNF Scheme Elude SC, ST Students

Thousands of students from the scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST) are yet to reap the benefits of the Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship (RGNF) scheme. More than 2,500 SC and ST students from the 2013-14 batch are still waiting for the monetary assistance that was promised under the scheme offered by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Under RGNF, students who belong to SC and ST group are provided financial assistance to pursue regular and full time MPhil and PhD degrees in science, humanities, social science and engineering and technology. Eligible students are entitled to a financial assistance of Rs 16,000 per month.

Alleging high-handedness on part of the University Grants Commission (UGC), students say that repeated attempts to get in touch with the officials have gone unheard. UGC, the apex body for higher education in India, is responsible for the disbursal of funds under this scheme.

Ministry officials too say that they have been unable to release the required funds because the UGC is yet to provide them with the utilisation certificates of the previous batch for RGNF. On the other hand, UGC says that RGNF being a government scholarship, the ministry should not break the continuity.

As per the scheme, 2,000 slots for SC candidates and 667 slots for ST candidates are available every year.

Source: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/08/benefits-of-rgnf-scheme-elude-sc-st-students/

Aug 29 2014 : Mirror (Pune)

Land raised walking fish explain evolution

Pune Mirror Bureau punemirror.feedback@gmail.com TWEET @ThePuneMirror





A study that forced a `walking' fish to live on land for a year caused anatomical changes that helped it walk better. The changes may explain how our fish ancestors adapted to walking

A bout 400 million years ago a group of fish began exploring land and evolved into tetrapods ­ today's amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. But just how these ancient fish used their fishy bodies and fins in a terrestrial environment and what evolutionary processes were at play remain scientific mysteries.Researchers at McGill University published in the journal Nature, turned to a living fish, called Polypterus, to help show what might have happened when fish first attempted to walk out of the water. Polypterus is an African fish that can breathe air, `walk' on land, and looks much like those ancient fishes that evolved into tetrapods. The team of researchers raised juvenile Polypterus on land for nearly a year, with an aim to revealing how these `terrestrialised' fish looked and moved differently. “Stressful environmental conditions can often reveal otherwise cryptic anatomical and behavioural variation, a form of developmental plasticity“, says Emily Standen, a former McGill student who led the project, now at the University of Ottawa.
“We wanted to use this mechanism to see what new anatomies and behaviours we could trigger in these fish and see if they match what we know of the fossil record.“
REMARKABLE ANATOMICAL CHANGES The fish showed significant anatomical and behavioural changes. The terrestrialised fish walked more effectively by placing their fins closer to their bodies, lifted their heads higher, and kept their fins from slipping as much as fish that were raised in water.
“Anatomically, their pectoral skeleton changed to became more elongate with stronger attachments across their chest, possibly to increase support during walking, and a reduced contact with the skull to potentially al low greater headneck motion,“ says Trina Du, a PhD student and study collaborator.
“Because many of the anatomical changes mirror the fossil record, we can hypothesise that the behavioural changes we see also reflect what may have occurred when fossil fish first walked with their fins on land“, says Hans Larsson, Canada Research Chair in Macroevolution at McGill and an Associate Professor at the Redpath Museum.
UNIQUE EXPERIMENT
The terrestrialised Polypterus experiment is unique and provides new ideas for how fossil fishes may have used their fins in a terrestrial environment and what evolutionary processes were at play.
Larsson adds, “This is the first example we know of that demonstrates developmental plasticity may have facilitated a large-scale evolutionary transition, by first accessing new anatomies and behaviours that could later be genetically fixed by natural selection“.

Aug 29 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

ET EXCLUSIVE - `If India Unleashes its Full Potential, It can Grow Faster than China'

Partha Ghosh & Ravi Teja Sharma

New Delhi:





Boston Consulting Group chairman Hans-Paul Bürkner is hopeful about Modi govt but is concerned about regulatory hurdles

The next 10 years could be India's decade and it is likely to beat even China in terms of growth, Boston Consulting Group chairman Hans-Paul Bürkner said.“I think there is no reason why India should not go back to 7% growth. I think if India unleashes its full potential, it can grow faster than China. China's growth rate will still be 6.5-7%, which is still very good,“ he said.
But India needs to open up its economy . “It requires significant investments in people, education skills, infrastructure and significant deregulation. It is a much-regulated market and its bureaucracy pushes papers around without really getting to decisions, which frustrates a lot of people,“ Bürkner, 61, said in an exclusive interview with ET. He hoped that the new regime under Prime Minister Narendra Modi will work towards changing this perception.
The Indian government has been making policy changes, pushing to get projects stuck in red tape moving again and trying to boost investor sentiment as it seeks to revive an economy that has slumped to decadal low rates of growth.
Bürkner said this decade would also see the rise of global Indian companies as they cross borders for acquisitions. On the other hand, a lot of companies globally are also waiting to enter India to tap into its demand as well as for its people. “We see more and more R&D centres, IT centres, and also more factories here. Ultimately, people want to build businesses here to export from India,“ he said.
These companies, however, are concerned about regulatory and other obstacles such as labour laws in India. “It is not always easy to set up a factory here. The infrastructure in some ways is an obstacle, there are lots of regulations,“ he said.
While Bürkner was enthused by the prime minister's recent announcements about a vision for local manufacturing in India and a stress on the `make-in-India' tag, he pointed out that getting permissions to set up businesses in India are a bit of a concern.
“To establish things here you need to have land, permissions from various agencies. If you have to deal with local, state and federal agencies, and there are dozens of them, and if everybody creates problems then that will be a challenge,“ he said. “And so are the labour laws. They need to become flexible.“
BCG works with several governments and on many socially relevant initiatives through its social impact initiative. At the global level, it works with the World Food Programme, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Save the Children, Teach for All and WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and also with several government bodies.
In India, for instance, it is working with the Haryana government on a transformation programme to improve the quality of teaching in 50,000 government schools in the state and had earlier helped reform the public distribution system (PDS) system in Odisha.
Bürkner said Modi has laid much emphasis on education and skill development, which is very important. “It's not just formal education, but vocational skills as well. We also need a lot of mechanics, electricians, plumbers and carpenters,“ he said.
Through its partnerships, BCG, he said, helps improve the quality of education and understands what works in different areas. In Haryana, the partnership with the government is not just an intervention at the school level -it is a complete system-wide transformation that looks at starting with the principal secretary , to the performance management down to change management, pedagogy changes.
It also ran pilot programmes in Odisha in partnership with the World Food Programme to improve the PDS that was riddled with leakages. “We created a holistic model after studying different issues and submitted it to the ministry of food, which then asked states to implement suitable parts,“ he said. BCG estimates that with these best practices, there was a potential to save anywhere between . 8,000 crore to ` ` . 10,000 crore in the country.

Aug 29 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Deferred Placements Buoy Student-Bizmen

Sreeradha Basu

Mumbai:





Clutch of IITs working on allowing Plan-B for graduating students who choose entrepreneurship over a career

Giving in to popular demand from graduating students smitten with entrepreneurship, a clutch of IITs across the country has decided to offer ‘deferred placements’ to students who would rather float a new business than sit for a job interview now.As many as 13 students from the Class of 2015 at IIT-Bombay have applied for deferred placements this year to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. Of these, eight are planning for-profit ventures and five are going for social ventures. The institute is likely to choose 10 from among the 13. It had toyed with deferred placements last year when only one student applied, but the idea has found takers only this year.
IIT-Madras, also encouraged by student demand, is rolling out deferred placements for the first time this year. IIT-Kanpur has also been considering the same. IITGuwahati General Secretary (placement cell) Manish Arora expects at least 7-8 students to opt for deferred placements this year compared with 2-4 last year. Deferred placements, as the name suggests, enables students to defer placements by a year or two to start their own ventures.They can come back and seek campus placement if their ventures fail.
They are quite popular at top IIMs, but are gaining traction in IITs only this year.
Such initiatives help spur the appetite for entrepreneurship and risk-taking among young graduates at the country's premier engi neering institutes.
Students are excited about entrepreneurship even though the job market is picking up once again.
This year, companies such as Goldman Sachs, Amazon and eBay are offering salaries that are 20% to 40% higher than last year.
“The number of students interested in pursuing entrepreneurial activities post graduation has gone up tremendously,” says Mohak Mehta, placement manager at IIT-Bombay. “By opting for deferred placement, a student is assured of a Plan B which acts as a safety net in case he fails to succeed in his venture.” Malegaon boy Abhijit Patil needed the deferred placement option to convince his parents to let him give entrepreneurship a shot. IITBombay’s Patil and his two friends run a 3D printing and scanning business. Patil and his partners have been conducting workshops and providing 3D printing services to IIT-B professors and students for the past few months, and have already broken even on their initial investment of about ` . 4 lakh.
“I come from a small town and both my parents are teachers, so entrepreneurship after engineering college isn't the most common route,“ he says. “Knowing that I had the option to come back for placements gave me -and my parents -the courage.“ At least 15-20 students at IIT-Madras are interested in startups, says Vishranth Suresh, academic affairs secretary .“We have had 7-8 students whose ventures didn't take off as expected. They had approached us to sit for placements later. We didn't have a policy in place then, which is why we want one now,“ he says.
At IIT-Bombay , Mahesh Rathore and Greeshma Unnikrishnan, both second-year MTech students, plan to produce novel biomedical devices. Dual-degree student Vaibhav Antil and six friends are working on a modern approach to the traditional Jukebox.

Aug 29 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

YOUR MONEY - Indian healthcare charts a global path

Aparna Ramalingam

Chennai:





Medical tourism from India to the West, a preserve of the affluent for years, is now accessible to the affluent middle-class, thanks to new high value covers designed by health insurers.For a premium ranging from Rs five lakh to Rs 13 lakh, an individual can get health insurance cover for as high as Rs 25 crore which covers treatment overseas. What's more, companies are willing to tailor this according to the paying capacity , while buyers can get a cover of Rs 25 crore.While recent trend has seen an increase in the number of foreign nationals coming to India for lower cost treatment, there are some proce dures in which healthcare in the West still have an edge due to technolgical advancements. “Such policies are extremely useful for mass affluent and high networth Indians who have to be frequently out of the country on work or business related matters. They have access to glob al health care in Indian currency,“ Rahul Aggarwal, chief executive officer of insurance advisory , Optima Insurance Brokers said.
Max Bupa's new heartbeat health insurance plan, offers Rs 1 crore cover for cashless treatment abroad of nine critical illnesses including cancer, heart attack, organ transplant, stroke, brain surgery . Claimants can access Bupa International's network of hospitals across 190 countries. “In case of a medical emergency abroad, Bupa International will pro vide medical evacuation assistance ,“ Manasije Mishra, chief executive officer, Max Bupa said.
“People who can afford are willing to travel to a global centre of excellence to access the latest medical technology,“ said Sandeep Patel, md & CEO, Cigna TTK Health Insurance . Cigna TTK covers 30 critical illnesses under its global cover with the sum insured ranging from one lakh to Rs 25 crore.
The in-build overseas cover has some advantages over an overseas travel policy .“An overseas travel health care plan entails filling up proposal forms again and elements like pre existing illness and the associated waiting period come into play when such pol icies are issued.,“ said Dr Renuka Kanvinde, associate vice president, health insurance, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. She added that many senior level executives and HNIs who travel frequently now opt for a seamless health cover. The company is currently working on an offering for the uber rich.
Public sector New India Assurance too is mulling a global health cover targeting the HNI segment. “We will be launching a global health cover for the HNI segment within the next four to six months.The product will be designed as a stand alone offering as well as an add on to existing health plans“ G Srinivasan, CMD New India Assurance said.

Aug 29 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Researchers find gene to help crops beat drought

Washington PTI





With scientists worldwide looking for ways to produce more food with less water, researchers have identified a thermostat-like gene that could help engineer drought-resistant crops.The gene, called OSCA1, encodes a protein in the cell membrane of plants that senses changes in water availability and adjusts the plant’s water conservation machinery accordingly. “It’s similar to a thermostat,” said Zhen-Ming Pei, an associate professor of biology at Duke University.
The findings could make it easier to feed the world’s growing population in the face of climate change, researchers said. Drought is the major cause of crop losses worldwide. A dry spell at a crucial stage of the growing season can cut some crop yields in half.
The gene was identified in Arabidopsis thaliana, a small unassuming plant related to cabbage and canola that is the lab rat of plant research.
The findings could lead to new ways to help plants thrive when water is scarce. The research appears in the science journal Nature.

Aug 29 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Big bang start: Record 1.5cr accounts opened in a day

New Delhi: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





Govt Kicks Off Mega Financial Inclusion Plan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched one of the biggest inclusion programmes, calling for an end to “financial untouchability“ and urged banks to connect every person across the country .Spreading the banking net wide is one of the key policy focus areas of the Modi administration and the launch of the scheme within 100 days of the government signals its commitment to take on the challenge of executing mega programmes.The Jan Dhan Yojana, the massive financial inclusion drive, aims to open 7.5 crore bank accounts and provide banking facility to the vast segment of the population which still remains cut off from the financial system.Under the scheme, a person opening an account will get a Rupay debit card, a Rs 1 lakh accident insurance policy as well as a Rs 30,000 life insurance cover.
The facility of an overdraft would be added to the accounts after keeping a watch on the credit history and operation of the accounts for six months.The Centre had to defer the facility as banks had expressed concern over the move. Minimum pension of `1,000month
The Centre has decided to implement two crucial decisions -minimum monthly pension of Rs 1,000 and a higher wage ceiling of Rs 15,000 for social security schemes run by retirement fund manager EPFO -from September 1.
f Mahatma Gandhi worked to I remove social untouchability, if we want to get rid of poverty, then we have to first get rid of financial untouchability ,“ PM Narendra Modi said in an extempore speech which drew loud applause. “We have to connect every person with the financial system. And for that this programme has been given impetus,“ he said, adding, “when a bank account is opened, it's a step towards joining economic mainstream.“
Modi took the opportunity to drive home broader message behind the programme to fight poverty . Using anecdotes from his life, the PM highlighted the importance of savings, financial discipline, shoring up governance and managing big ticket government programmes. Cabinet ministers and chief ministers fanned out across India on Thursday to launch the programme simultaneously from 600 locations.More than 77,000 camps were set up by banks to open accounts and finance minister Arun Jaitley announced that the government will achieve the target of opening 7.5 crore accounts before January 26, 2015, well ahead of the earlier schedule of August 15, 2015.
The PM said the nationwide success of the enrolment drive on Thursday would give confidence not just to the officials of the finance ministry and the banking sector, but also to those across the government, that they can achieve goals they set for themselves.
For the full report, log on to http:www.timesofindia.com