Sep 08 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Panel finds most deemed varsities don't fulfil criteria

Akshaya Mukul

New Delhi





A high-powered committee set up at the behest of the Supreme Court to look into 41 `C' category deemed universities has found that majority of them still do not fulfil the criteria needed to become deemed university .“It is likely that around 10 or so have been found fit to be upgraded to become deemed university . Rest of them can exist as educational institutions affiliated to universities. Basically , classification of `C' category institutions has been done in which a few pass the test of becoming deemed, a few lag behind on certain criteria and others have been found totally unfit,“ a source said, In 2009, the Tandon committee, while reviewing deemed universities, had put 44 of them under the `C' category and declared them unfit to be a university . These institutions went to the Supreme Court and the matter is being heard. In January ,a new committee was set up by UGC to assess `C' grade universities. UGC will discuss the new committee report on September 22 and 23.
Sources said the new committee headed by H Devaraj, vice-chairperson of UGC, after hearing 41 deemed universities extensively in July , raised several questions about the manner in which deemed university status was granted. Since the committee was also asked to examine other reports on deemed universities, namely one set up by UGC in 2009, Tandon Com mittee and Committee of Officers, it found many flaws.
One, how come many institutions got notified as deemed university on certain conditions. “There is no provision for conditional notification in the UGC Act. If some of the deemed universities had conditional status, did UGC or HRD ministry check if conditions were fulfilled after a certain period. Also, how come many of them with conditional status made it to the `A' category (high performing) of Tandon Committee,“ asked a member of the committee.
He also asked how deemed university status was given to one college which brought its sister institutions under its ambit without getting them separately assessed. The new committee also pointed out serious discrepancy in upgrading eight `B' category institutions to `A' category .
The report was written in the last days of August as Amita Sharma, additional secretary in HRD ministry and a member of the committee, was retiring. Sharma is being brought back as advisor in the HRD ministry .

Sep 08 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

India loses more foresters than any other country

Sivakumar B

Chennai:





India loses more forest rangers to poachers and attacks by wild animals each year than any other country. As many as 72 forest rangers were killed in India in the past three years. Other forested countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas lost less than 10 rangers in the same period, according to statistics made available to TOI by International Ranger Federation, a nonprofit organization to raise awareness of the work of park rangers.“We’re extremely concerned that rangers continue to face high levels of violence and are being murdered (by poachers) at an alarming pace,” International Ranger Federation president Sean Willmore said. Nearly 60% of rangers killed are in Asia, said the federation’s report.
India lost 34 rangers in 2012, a year in which the United States, which had the second largest number of forester deaths, lost only six.
India recorded 14 forester deaths in 2013 and 24 in 2014, the largest among all countries for both years.
The Philippines and Congo lost nine forest guards each in 2013, Uganda seven, and Kazakhstan and Chad six each. Kenya has recorded 10 forester deaths this year, Thailand six, and Tanzania three. Wild animals and poachers were responsible for most ranger deaths but some have also been claimed by diseases like dengue and malaria, as well as forest fires and road accidents. India's forest establishment must be the largest in the world,“ Wild life Conservation Society director Ullas Karanth told TOI. “We have thousands of forest officials, guards and rangers. Our tiger reserves are manned by thousands of people employed by state and central forest departments. They come in contact with wild animals while patrolling, so often their job involves putting their lives on the line.“
The country , by demarcating protected areas, has been successful in protecting wild animals from hunters but this has also led to officials coming under attack, he said. Armed poachers at times have no compunctions about gunning down forest rangers, Karanth said.
A report by International Ranger Federation, an organisation that works to spread awareness of the work of park rangers, says 72 forest rangers died in the country in the past three years. Other countries lost 10 rangers or fewer in the same period.
Ecologist AJT Johnsingh says in sanctuaries like Kaziranga in Assam rangers poachers of rhinos frequently attack forest officials who get in their way . “These officials take on poachers, who kill rhinos for their horns, and sometimes get killed,“ he said. “Forest officials are also vulnerable while on the trail of tigers or ele phants,“ Johnsingh added.
Wildlife activist and sports journalist Joseph Hoover says visitors to Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka killed a forest official called Naik two years ago. “Naik refused to give them permission to feed crocodiles meat. After an argument, they attacked him, leaving him in a coma from which he never recovered,“ he said.
“Although the world is slowly awakening to the dangers that forest rangers face, we need to turn this awareness into meaningful action on the ground and make sure that the dangerous work rangers do to protect our valuable wildlife receives the support and respect it deserves,“ Willmore of International Ranger Federation said. “This still remains our challenge.“
The federation has 63 ranger associations from 46 countries as members and collects data about the welfare of the rangers from these associations each year.

Wish You A Very Happy Teachers Day

“Teachers through education encourage young minds to discover their hidden talents and seek their own path. Great teachers build great human beings who build great nation. This Teachers’ Day We would like to thank all the teachers who direct their students along the right path and are the building blocks of our nation.”

HRD to put universities on digital learning track

To bridge the digital divide in the country, Union Human Resource Development ministry will launch University Network Initiative to Enhance Education (UNITE) on Education Day observed on November 11.

According to media reports UNITE envisages that 4.20 lakh classrooms – 20 classrooms in 21,000 colleges would be WiFi-enabled within a year, reaching out to 1.5 crore students. Access will only be for academically relevant websites. Around 600 universities have already been connected with 1Gbps bandwidth and each of these 600 universities will have a full campus WiFi LAN. Over 140 centrally-funded institutions will be WiFi-enabled. Moreover, web-based study portal SWAYAM offering free online courses will be launched on September 25, the birth anniversary of Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. In the first phase, IITs at Mumbai, Chennai & Guwahati, Delhi University, Manipur University, Punjab University and Banaras Hindu University will begin offering courses.

- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/09/hrd-to-put-universities-on-digital-learning-track/#sthash.EWnhPOma.dpuf

ISRO’s Journey to space. Turning Miles into milestones!

In 1963, in the midst of a coconut grove, where a catholic church served as the base center, the first Indian rocket took off from a newly launched station, in a small village called Thumba. 

The American Nike Apache that left the Indian soil vanished in thin air with a glowing tail that was visible from places far afield. 

This modest yet historic launch of India’s first rocket heralded the beginning of a long journey that established India as a space power and a rocket making nation. Over the next few years, India launched more than 350 small rockets with help from countries like US, UK, France, and Russia.

And this year, this great country is about to embark on a Martian milestone with the return of its first interplanetary voyage of the Mars Orbiter Probe. 

However, fifty years ago, the first artificial satellite Sputnik, reached its orbit and overshadowed the take off of a small rocket being fired from southern Kerala. Four years later, this was followed by the race to the Moon that took the first human into space. 

When the space age was at its prime all over the world, an Indian scientist Vikram Ambala Sarabhai perceived the benefits of satellites and space instruments in the development of a poor country. He was convinced about the growth momentum that space research could provide a developing country. So, he shared this vision with his mentor, Homi J. Bhabha who initiated research under the umbrella of Department of Atomic energy. And India had officially entered the space race with the rest of the world. 

India now makes its own satellites and rockets, specialized in weather, earth observation, communication and remote sensing. ISRO's achievements are something Indians should be proud of. Regrettably, ISRO is an occasionally noticed, inadequately celebrated silent engine of daring and change.

Here is a story of change, a story of strength, the story when India performed and the world stood up to applaud! 

On the 22nd day of October, 2001, ISRO's workhorse, the PSLV C3, soared into space. It had onboard, 1108kgs TES (Technology Experiment Satellite) and two fellow passenger satellites, Belgium's PROBA and Germany's BIRD.

This was the perfect launch of a Polar Satellite Vehicle, which the world had ever seen. The indigenously designed TES was successfully transmitting quality images and messages to and fro towards Earth and space. The TES apparatus had the state of art Indian eye in the sky with cameras of 1 meter resolution. 

Just few months before the launch, US denied India access to images from Ikonos satellite. But TES got better quality, high resolution and more than sufficient images soon after PSLV C3 concluded which we incidentally didn’t share. 

Finally PSLV C3 successfully demonstrated space photography technique to the world with panned HD cameras that keep moving on satellites and need their stare to be fixed on the target, on a pivoting axis for utmost precision. 

ISRO has significantly contributed to world development but its contribution to the Indian social and economic development has been immense. It has modernized India and equipped it with latest technology and social facilities. It has come a long way! 

Of course, ISRO’s space adventure has had its share of downfalls and dependence - but this year is a beginning of a series of stunning successes. Take a look!

Click here to enlarge.

September 05, 2014 /Apurva Bhelke

Sep 05 2014 : Mirror (Pune)

One person commits suicide every 40 seconds: UN study

GENEVA AFP





One person commits suicide every 40 seconds, an avoidable tragedy that fails to grab attention because of taboos and stigma, a UN report said on Thursday.The World Health Organisation also warned that media reporting of suicide details raises the risk of copycat behaviour.
“Every suicide is a tragedy. It is estimated that over 800,000 people die by suicide and that there are many suicide attempts for each death,“ said WHO chief Margaret Chan in the landmark report capping a decade of research.
WHO, which called suicide a major public health problem that must be confronted and stemmed, studied 172 countries to produce the report. South East Asia -which in WHO-speak includes countries such as North Korea, India, Indonesia and Nepal -made up over a third of the annual. Suicides in high-income countries, meanwhile, accounted for around a quarter of the global figure.
The most suicide-prone countries were Guyana (44.2 per 100,000), followed by North and South Korea (38.5 and 28.9 respectively). Next came Sri Lanka (28.8), Lithuania (28.2), Suriname (27.8), Mozambique (27.4), Nepal and Tanzania (24.9 each), Burundi (23.1), India (21.1) and South Sudan (19.8).
In 2012, India accounted for the highest estimated number of suicides in the world, said the study.





Sep 05 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Email `Inventor' Ayyadurai to Seek Public Support

Jayadevan PK & Varun Sood

Bangalore





Shiva Ayyadurai, the man in the middle of a rag ing controversy over his claims of being the inventor of email, doesn't want to go legal on his detractors but is looking for support from the public.“Lawsuits take a long time. If I have to pull the trigger I will.
But I have decided to go direct ly to the people,“ Ayyadurai said in an interview with ET.“When Deepak Chopra started talking of ayurveda in the US,he was attacked. His advice was to go directly to the people,“ he said.
Ayyadurai,an American of Indian origin who in sists that he is in fact the inventor of email, is once again right in the middle of a global controversy--not surprising given the grandiose nature of the claim. Did he, or did he not, invent electronic mail?
After hearing his talk at an event hosted by spiritual guru Deepak Cho pra, Huffington Post founder Arian na Huffington decided to commission a series of articles on the history of email, Ayyadurai, 50, said.
The controversy is one of those sto ries on the Internet that refuse to die, in spite of having been written about and argued over many times. Some experts including Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail, dismiss Ayyadurai's claims and say that email was developed by the Defence Advanced Research Pro jects Agency (Darpa) in the 1960s. (That US organization played a critical role in the birth of the Internet.) Ayyadurai says email was born in a city in New Jersey not exactly known for technological breakthroughs.
“In 1978, there was a 14-year-old boy working in Newark. He did in fact cre ate the inter-office mail system and called it email. What they did before 1978 was text messaging. The facts are coming out now in 2014,“ said Ayyadurai, referring to his younger self.
Credit for the invention has been appropriated by defence contractor Raytheon, which built a brand for itself based on the claim, he said. Raytheon declined to comment.
The controversy captured the public imagination first in 2012, when the Smithsonian Museum acquired some documents from Ayyadurai, following which articles calling him the inventor of email surfaced. His claims were promptly refuted by critics.
Computer historian Thomas Haigh was quick to point out in 2012: “Electronic mail, or email, was introduced at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1965 and was widely discussed in the press during the 1970s. Tens of thousands of users were swapping messages daily by 1980.“ His critics have said that in 1982, Ayyadurai merely copyrighted the term `email' and the code he wrote and that such messaging existed long before 1978. However, he says that it was the only way to protect software as patents didn't cover software in those days.
According to him, critics find it hard to believe that a 14-year-old Indian in a backwater like Newark could invent something as massive and socially significant as email.
“Fundamentally there is a narrative around where innovation can come out from... the innovators' spirit of America still exists. However, there is a narrative in America which goes like--you must go to MIT to get your calling card.Or you go to Harvard and then you drop out and then you've made it,“ he said.
Entrepreneur-turned-academic Vivek Wadhwa said there was no basis for such an argument. “There is no such discrimination between East Coast and West Coast. After all, Bell Labs--which was long the center of innovation--was from New Jersey . Also, IBM, DEC (Digital Equipment Corp.), and Unisys were East Coast companies and were big players around the time he made his claims. In those days, the East Coast was the centre of innovation--not West Coast.“
The Mumbai-born Ayyadurai has come a long way from New Jersey , having himself gone to MIT and obtained a PhD in biological engineering from the premier school. His personal website bears the motto `Know the truth, be the light, find your way' and bears a picture of him posing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi along his book, The Email Revolution.
Ayyadurai, who moved with his family to the US when he was seven, is currently running a new company that he believes will be bigger than email.He's raised $1.5 million for Cytosolve, which aims to build a new way to model molecular reactions of a human cell on a computer, he said.
“Now we can model molecular reactions on the computer to revolutionise the entire process of multi-combination therapeutics,“ said Ayyadurai. “Cytosolve is a big innovation and is going to be the next billion dollar company,“ he said.