Education - Current Affairs for August, 2016

Gujarat government is planning to set up India’s first textile University at Surat with investment of INR 800-900 crore.

• Textile industry will support the government in the endeavour
• State government will fund the investment for university which is expected to be operational in 1.5 years
• Aim of the university is to provide support including technology, research and development, skilled manpower and more
• Land has been identified near Surat
• Purpose of the university will be the creation of a complete ecosystem for the textile industry in Gujarat and India
• It will guide the government in policy making for the industry
• University will be spread over 250 acres

Well known scientist PD Gupta was appointed as VC of Mumbai based Homi Bhabha National Institute.

• He has been appointed to the post for five years according to an order issued by DoPT
• HBNI is an aided institution of DAE and is a deemed university according to the UGC Act
• Institute is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in sciences including engineering and maths.
• This institute aims to further indigenous nuclear technological capability
• It is one of the institutes of excellence as per section 4b of the Reservation in Admission Act 2006
• It has been placed by MHRD task force in category A institutes

AYUSH Ministry has established a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library in collaboration with CSIR. According to the information provided by CSIR, TKDL comprises more than 2.90 lakh medicinal formulations of Ayurveda, Siddhi and Unani available in the public domain, in 5 international languages namely English, Japanese, French, German and Spanish.

• To facilitate protection of country’s traditional knowledge, access of TKDL has been provided to International Patent Offices under the International Agreement.
• Pre-grant opposition on patent applications along with prior art evidence from TKDL are submitted on a regular basis.
• Implementing agency of the TKDL project is CSIR; total cost incurred on this project is INR 20 crores.
• TKDL has prevented the grant of wrong patents in 220 cases

Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru has a massive share of the medals with 5 of the faculty members being awarded the Indian National Science Academy Medal for Young Scientists, 2016 making it the institute with more awardees than any other.
- INSA presents Young Scientist Awards to young scientists who have made notable contributions in the field of science and technology.
Winners this year include:

• Prabeer Barpanda.
• A. Siva Gorthi.
• Chandan Saha
• Anshu Pandey
• Praveen Kumar.

University Grants Commission has informed that it has constituted a standing committee under Member UGC Shri VS Chauhan for creating a list of journals under clause 6.0.5(i) of the UGC

• This clause is for minimum qualification for appointment of teachers and other academic staff in universities and colleges and measures for the maintenance standards in higher education(4th Amendment Regulations 2016)
• According to these regulations only those research papers that are published in the journals included in the “List of Journals” are eligible for scoring on the research and academic contribution category of the Academic Performance Indicators (API) for teacher and academic staff.

Country’s first ever National Teacher’s Congress will be held in Pune from September 23 to 25.

• This is being organised by the National Teachers Congress Foundation Pune whose Chief Patron is CM Devendra Fadnavis
• Event is being organised by MIT School of Government, in association with AICTE, Association of Indian Universities, Maharashtra State Principals Forum, Government of Maharashtra and UNESCO Chair of Human Rights, Democracy, Peace and Tolerance, Pune
• More than 8000 teachers from across the nation will deliberate on numerous issues regarding past, present and future issues pertaining to the Indian education system.

Called Project Vishwajeet which means Conqueror of the Universe, it may suggest itself to be a defense mission, but is not.

• Project aims at boosting Indian Institutes of Technology to the top league of global academic rankings
• The project will back IITs with the greatest potential to climb the ladder and focus on them, backing them with funding to excel on all parameters.
• IIT council is set to discuss the plan with all IITs
• IITs are currently at 200 and below on QS World Rankings

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with IIT-Kharagpur for research project on Laboratory and Field investigations on Paneled Cement Concrete Pavements for Highways.

• The duration of the research project is 3 years and NHAI have paid Rs. 1.25 crore for the project, excluding cost of construction of trial pavement section on NH.
• NHAI in collaboration with IIT Kharagpur shall promote to develop a technology to construct Panelled Cement Concrete (Pre-fabricated in a small panel size) which can replace the design of construction of existing cement concrete road.

The National Defence University, first conceived in 1967 was later recommended by the Kargil Review Committee and GoM in 2000

• Land for setting up the Defence University was acquired at Manesar in Gurgaon district in 2012.
• INDU or Indian National Defence University will soon be established; the draft Indian National University Bill 2015 is going online on MyGov.in portal and MoD website for six weeks for public consultations.
• Bill aims to establish a world class autonomous institute of National Importance under Ministry of Defence.

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur is instituting a chair professorship award in the name of late alumnus Avinash Gupta in the department of Architecture and Regional Planning.

• Award amounts to INR 20000 er month in addition to usual institute salary
• A donation of INR 2.4 lakh will be made to the IIT by Ron Gupta for 5 years to cover the chair award expenses for the chair position for 12 months

Out of these Central Institute of Hotel Management, Guwahati, Central Institute of Hotel Management, Shillong, State Institute of Hotel Management, Gangtok and Food Craft Institute, Nawgaon are operational.

• The State Government/Union Territory Administrations have been advised by the MoT to set up Hospitality Development Boards if the same do not exist in their respective States/Union Territories.
• The State Government of Maharashtra has reportedly setup Hospitality Development and Promotion Board.

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur has collaborated with MIT for an course on urbanisation in the current developing world, where the concept is no longer limited to the precincts of what are administratively defined as “cities.”

• Course will see a partnership between IIT's Department of Architecture and Regional Planning and the MIT's School of Architecture and Planning.
• The course will be organised at Shanti Niketan in WB.
• IIT Kharagpur has also found a new way to raise funds to Learn-Earn-Return fund scheme where students will not have to pay fees if they pledge to donate money after getting a job.
• There has been a positive response from the alumni for this scheme.
• Students scoring in the top 100 will get a chance to be part of this scheme.
• Students may also be asked to teach under the Peer Assisted Learning programme or opt as Research assistance at the Institute or other institutional work as intern.
• The fund raised for this campaign will be partially channelized to support students+ and partially to build corpus to ensure self-sustainability of the scheme, officials said.

Microsoft has equipped more than 7.7 lakh government school teachers with IT skills across 12 states in India under Project Shiksha programme launched in 2003.

• The Microsoft India Citizenship Report 2015-2016 highlights the attainments of Microsoft citizenship initiatives including Project Shiksha, Project Saksham, Project Jyoti and YouthSpark.
• Project Saksham has reached out to 81 central/state universities through 24 states training 3800 faculty members since 2011.
• Project Jyoti helped to establish over 1700 enterprises by youth in the country.
• Microsoft is also running digital literacy initiative under the YouthSpark programme for marginalised communities with critical focus on young girls and women.

Government of Himachal Pradesh, NTPC Limited and NHPC have signed an MoU for establishing a Hydro Engineering College in the state of Himachal Pradesh to promote technical education in the state.

• NTPC and NHPC are committed to contribute INR 37.50 crore (totalling INR 75 crore) in the first tranche for establishing the Hydro Engineering College in Badla District Bilaspur, HP.
• NTPC and NHPC will consider to release INR 12.5 crore each (total INR 25 crore) in the second tranche.
• NTPC and NHPC will contribute INR 2.5 crore each (total INR 5 crore) per year for 5 years towards operating expenses.
• NTPC, NHPC and Ministry of Power, GoI will be represented in the Governing Body of the College which will have affiliation with the Himachal Pradesh Technical University.