Mizo Varsity Staff Come to Top Brass' Rescue

Aizawl, May 20 : Mizoram University (MZU) staff members today condemned the demand for resignation of the university Vice-Chancellor A N Raiand the Registrar Benjamin following the Mizoram University-Mizo Students Union impasse on recruitment matters.

''We condemned in the strongest term the demand for resignation of our Vice-Chancellor and Registrar, which is uncalled for in a civilized society,'' MZU Officers' Association said in a statement.

''We are proud of our Vice-Chancellor and Registrar. Their contributions to the university in particular and Mizoram in general have been unparalleled,'' the statement added.

The officers lauded the MZU top brass for securing sanction for 106 teaching and 182 non-teaching posts during the Eleventh Five Year Plan period. ''Their commendable contributions have been benefited by none other than the people of Mizoram,'' their statement said.

''We, therefore, strongly condemn those people who demand others to resign or leave the state and turned a blind eye to their laudable roles,'' the statement said.

The Mizoram University Teachers' Association (MIZUTA) in a separate statement expressed solidarity with the Vice-Chancellor and the registrar.

Condemning undue interference of non-governmental organization in the university's matters, the MIZUTA requested the Mizo Students' Union to withdraw its ultimatum given to the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar.

Exam Bribe Gains Currency

HSLC examinees attach money, prayers to answer scripts

By Daulat Rahman

Guwahati, Apr 20 : Currency notes, personal letters and medical certificates. All are found inside answer-scripts in Assam. Even neighboring West Bengal appears to be keeping pace, though its examinees are far more thrifty with cash!

Thousands of evaluators of this year’s High School Leaving Certificate examination in Assam are amused to find “something” they did not expect inside answer-scripts of nearly four lakh examinees.

The secretary of the Board of Secondary Education, Assam, (SEBA), Dhanadev Mahanta, told The Telegraph that though the candidates used to attach personal notes and currency notes to answer-scripts in previous years too, the number of such incidents had gone up significantly.

He said instances of medical certificates attached to answer-scripts to earn pass marks had even come to the light.

“There are reports that candidates have attached currency notes of different denomination totaling Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500. While the board has strictly instructed the evaluators not to succumb to the examinees’ tactics of alluring them, money found inside the answer-scripts is being used to sponsor snacks, tea and lunch for the evaluators,” Mahanta said.

“It was really a surprising as well as an amusing experience for me when I found a personal letter along with Rs 1,000 inside an answer-script of general science. The candidate in the letter wrote that he had found mathematics and science very tough to comprehend and considered the subjects as a curse on his life. He would be grateful if the evaluator gave pass marks to overcome the curse,” an evaluator said.

The principal of Cotton Collegiate Government HS School, Pabitra Kumar Deka, said such incidents prove the candidates’ total loss self-confidence to come out with flying colors in the matric examination.

He said there had been cases when beautiful and charming girls clipped their photographs on the very first page of their answerscripts to impress the examiners.

“A rise in the number of such cases is, however, a matter of concern and reflection of the negative side of society. Resorting to such practice must be seen as bribery. As corruption has become rampant in every sphere of society, students must have started thinking that attaching currency notes to answer-scripts would bring them success at important examination like matric without any study,” Deka said.

The principal of B. Borooah College, Dinesh Baishya, likes to add a different angle to such incident.

“Matric is the target of thousands of guardians for their children, particularly in rural Assam. For them passing matric is the way to get a job, even to get a good bride/groom. So matric has psychological and social implications.”

S. Dasgupta of Loreto College, Calcutta, who is a regular examiner, says she has come across instances of currency notes (not more than Rs 500 though) being attached to answerscripts. “These are usually accompanied by a “prayer” on the last page to help them clear the exam because they are from poor families.

“The pleas generally come from girls in rural areas, who say they will not be able to find a good husband unless they have cleared school. We hand over the cash to head examiners.”

The headmaster of a school in West Bengal’s North 24-Parganas district, D. Sen, who examines Higher Secondary papers, says it is pretty common to find pleas from students in answer-scripts. So far, he has come across only entreaties and prayers, but has heard of Rs 100 notes being attached.

Letters inside answer scripts written by students requesting examiners to give them pass marks are found almost every year in school-leaving exams like Madhyamik and Higher Secondary as well as in undergraduate exams of Calcutta University.

The examinees generally do not give money. In most cases, those who write the letters plead for pass marks in a desperate attempt to get through the exam, Onkar Sadhan Adhikari, president, West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education, said.

Currency notes are found usually attached to answer scripts only in undergraduate exams held by Calcutta University. Noting this increasing tendency among the students, the university authorities have issued an instruction to examiners: that they should deposit the amount — no matter how small it is — with the university’s cash department.

Students writing university exams sometimes also write letters threatening the evaluators with dire consequences if they do not give them pass marks.

(with inputs from Mita Mukherjee in Calcutta)

[via Telegraph India]

IIM-Shillong First B-School to Webcast Convocation

Shillong, Apr 4 : The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Meghalaya is set to be first business school in the country to webcast its first convocation ceremony live April 3.
“We will be the first business institute to webcast our convocation ceremony to attract students to join the institute,” Director of IIM-Shillong Ashoke Dutta said.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has consented to be the chief guest for the first convocation of the youngest IIM named after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

That apart, Dutta said, the postal department will also release a special cover to commemorate the historic convocation ceremony of the institute, which got job offers for its students, with an average annual salary of around Rs.10 lakh and the highest pay package worth a whopping Rs.34 lakh.

Top recruiters included Deloittes, E&Y, KPMG, PwC, Ogilvy & Mather, Viacom, Warner Brothers, AC Nielsen, Cadbury, Citigroup, HDFC, Standard Chartered, Axis Bank, Tata AIG, SBI Cap, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Siemens, Bosch, Ford, Honda, Lafarge, Hero Group and ONGC.

“We are already surging ahead with long and strong strides towards sustainable development, keeping its commitment intact towards development of society and environment,” Dutta said.

He said IIM-Shillong’s convocation is going to reflect the high-spirits of the institute as 63 students of the two-year flagship post-graduate diploma programme are going to be awarded their diplomas and certificates in presence of the board of governors, the director, the faculty members and the proud parents. Four students will also be awarded medals.

IIM Shillong follows a unique concept of winter internships. Under this, students go for internships in the months of January and February.

The institute took in its first batch of students in July 2008 and is looking at increasing the number of seats to “anything between 90 and 120″ this year. It started in 2008 from a makeshift campus and still functions out of an interim facility.

Surrounded by pine trees, lush green lawns and mountains in the backdrop, the institute is functioning from the Mayurbhanj Complex — the erstwhile summer palace of the kings of Mayurbhanj, Orissa.

The Meghalaya government has allotted a 120-acre plot on which work is under way for a state-of-the-art academic-cum-residential campus.

The institute will also hike its annual fees for the next academic session. The board of governors will take the decision in April.

“Our main thrust is on innovation, inclusiveness, adaptability, hunger for entrepreneurship, energy, agility, drive, networking, technology leadership and to achieve excellence by synergising complementary competencies within the team and the organisation charged with the aspiration for a broader vision and a higher purpose,” Dutta said.

Mizoram Hopes to Upstage Shillong as The New Education Destination

High literacy state dreams big

New learning curve

Aizawl, Apr 1: Mizoram is planning to build an education empire, making its sterling literacy rate the capital.

The Congress government is planning to turn the hill state into the new education hub of the Northeast, upstaging Shillong, which has so far been the learning destination, by establishing a number of institutes.

Mizoram minister for education and law Lalsawta today said over telephone from Aizawl that these new institutes would aim at drawing students from various states of the Northeast, apart from neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal.

He said among a fresh crop of “classy” higher educational centres, which the Mizoram government has proposed to set up, are a National Institute of Technology (NIT) and a university in collaboration with a group of education entrepreneurs from Singapore.

At present, Mizoram only has a Central University, which has its campus in Thanril, a bustling new neighborhood of Aizawl.

Currently, the Northeast boasts of only two NITs — one in the Silcoorie area on the southern fringes of Silchar and another in Agartala.

Lalsawta said four more polytechnic colleges would also spring up in the state with central grants.

Mizoram now has two government polytechnics — one in Aizawl and another in Lunglei, the second most populous town in the state’s southern flanks, bordering Myanmar.

Regarding the new NIT in Mizoram, the education minister said its entire cost would be borne by the Centre.

The site and the possible cost of this new institute are yet to be planned, and a team of specialists has been engaged to arrive at a consensus on the issue.

Lalsawta said a few sites in and around Aizawl town are now being considered for the proposed NIT.

The NIT in Nagpur, Maharashtra, has been given the responsibility to act as the intermediary for building the model, formulating subjects and courses and estimating the possible costs for establishing the high-tech NIT in Mizoram.

To begin with, Rs 100 crore will be pumped in to raise the infrastructure for the institute, the minister said.

A team of the educational entrepreneurs from Singapore had also visited the state and met state chief minister Lalthanhawla to discuss the possibility of setting up of the second university in Mizoram, which Lalsawta said would be named after Rajiv Gandhi.

The team would make some more trips to Mizoram before evolving a blueprint for the new university.

[ via The Telegraph India ]

100 Percent Job Placement at Shillong IIM- Cheers Allover

By Syed Zarir Hussain

Shillong, Apr 1 : All the 63 first-batch graduates of the youngest Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Meghalaya have got job offers, with an annual average salary of around Rs.10 lakhs and the highest pay package worth a whopping Rs.34 lakhs.

The mood is upbeat and one of utter jubilation at IIM Shillong (IIM-S).

“We are indeed very happy with the placements considering the fact that we are the youngest IIM and had to overcome several odds like logistical problems,” Arijit Majumdar, the institute’s corporate relations and external affairs head, told IANS.

Not many outside India’s northeast probably know that there is an IIM in the Meghalaya capital named after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. It started in 2008 from a makeshift campus and still functions out of an interim facility.

Surrounded by pine trees, lush green lawns and mountains in the backdrop, the institute is functioning from the Mayurbhanj Complex — the erstwhile summer palace of the kings of Mayurbhanj, Orissa.

“We may be logistically handicapped in terms of the distance and location, but we can boast that IIM Shillong is one of the best tech savvy campuses in the country and more than 35 percent of the recruiters offered jobs by way of video conferencing,” Majumdar said.

In the just concluded placements, recruiters, both domestic and foreign, offered good pay packagaes to the young managers.

“The highest domestic offer annually was around Rs.1.8 million. A few of the students were offered jobs by foreign firms with salaries ranging from Rs.3.3 to 3.4 million,” Majumdar said.

The recruiters include big names such as Deloitte, Infosys, Power Finance Corporation, Jumbo Electronics of Dubai, Hewlett Packard, Essar, Shipping Corporation, TELCON, Tata Motors and Escorts.

The job categories were varied - from IT to finance, human resources to marketing, besides other domains.

“I am thrilled to be part of the first batch and get a reasonably good job offer. The facilities or other logistic support may not be at par with the other IIMs in the country, but the faculty here is simply exceptional,” said a graduate from Assam, requesting annonymity as his recruiter demands privacy.

The institute offers a two-year post- graduate programme in management (PGP) and plans to offer other courses like the fellow programme in management (FPM), management development programmes (MDPs) and research and consultancy, along with some short-term certificate courses.

“Our goal is to achieve excellence in the field of managerial education, training and research. Beginning with the meticulous short-listing of candidates till the finalizing of electives for the students to specialize in, there is just one word to describe the methodology here - rigour,” Ashoke K. Dutta, director of IIM-S, said.

“The 63-strong student force, an army of corporate generals, has been trained under ‘eight day’ weeks, in cutting edge finance and economics, as well as on sustainability and governance,” Dutta added with pride.

The Meghalaya government has allotted a 120-acre plot on which work is under way for a state-of-the-art academic-cum-residential campus.

(Syed Zarir Hussain can be contacted at zarir.h@ians.in)

Northeast Woman Makes Computer Learning Easy

Indrani Medhi

Guwahati, Mar 29 : A young woman from Assam has achieved honors in the challenging realm of computer literacy. What is more she, along with two co-workers, have earned a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office last year.

Indrani Medhi, an associate researcher with Microsoft, has developed text-free user interfaces designed to help illiterate and semi-literate users for whom the computer appears as an alien tool. Her design, according to experts, “would allow any first-time illiterate person…to immediately realize useful interaction with minimal or no assistance.”

The achievement was important enough to gain attention of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and she was featured in the Technology Review, the institute’s magazine on innovation. In the March 2010 edition, Medhi’s work has been described in some detail.

The magazine’s TR 35 list, in which she is mentioned, recognizes just 20 individuals under the age of 35, whose work shows exceptional brilliance in fields such as biotech, materials, computer hardware, energy, transportation and the internet. Medhi’s contribution is in the area of computer and electronics hardware.

Significantly, Medhi’s work was exemplary in its land-to-lab linkages. An architect trained in NIT Nagpur and Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Medhi spent long periods in the slums of India, Philippines, and South Africa understanding the genuine needs of the under privileged communities.

According to the Technology Review, during her research Medhi discovered that illiterate people with no experience with computing were intimidated by technology. The young innovator surmounted the problem by preparing full context videos with a storyline that made the technology easily comprehensible to the user.

Speaking to The Assam Tribune, Indrani’s mother, Meera Medhi, said that her daughter was always keen to develop something that would benefit the poor and marginalized. “Now her innovation has made her realize a dream,” the proud mother remarked. She said that the creative imagination that enabled Indrani to develop the new product could have its roots in her childhood spent in drawing and reading.

Indrani’s father, Bimal Medhi, revealed that despite a busy schedule, she offers voluntary service in a Bengaluru-based animal welfare facility.

It is worth mentioning that the TR 35 list was prepared by a distinguished panel, which included K Vijay Raghavan, Director, National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, PK Sinha, Chief Co-ordinator, CDAC, and Viswanath Poosala, Head of Bell Labs India, among others.

via The Assam Tribune

NIDians Find 6 Places For Design School - Mizoram Included

Mizoram is Best in India For Designs

Ahmedabad, Mar 29 : If given the opportunity and support to set up design schools on the lines of the National Institute of Design (NID) across the country, students of NID would choose Chandigarh, Surat, Puducherry, Bhopal, Jamshedpur and Mizoram as the right places.

In a programme called Design Concepts and Concerns (DCC), which is a part of the one-year foundation course for the undergraduate students of NID, the students were assigned projects to stimulate their vision of various design schools contextually suitable for different parts of the country.

Six teams were assigned six different zones in the country including the east, west, north, south, central and the northeast zones. Using their understanding and talent of design thinking taught in the DCC course, the teams were required to conceptualize the details of the design institutes in their assigned zones, including the location, structure, curriculum, functioning, objectives and other details of each institute.

Explaining how they decided on their location, a student who is a part of the team handling the northeast zone, Ritwick Nandi said: "We made great efforts to understand, research and analyze the backgrounds while choosing the location. We considered the pros and cons of various places in the seven states of the north-east, including factors like safety and security, vibrancy in craft and culture, literacy and openness of the local people, connectivity, climate and so on.

We found Mizoram as the best place as it has the second highest literacy rate in the country, it has been getting a 'peace bonus' from the central government for being the safest and the most peaceful state for the past 10 years, it has an airport, is strategically located with an upcoming trade route to south-east Asia, a liberal society and low cost of living."

It should be noted that the government had shown interest in Jorhat in Assam for setting up a design institute like NID in the northeast. A student of the team said, "Jorhat does not have a pleasant climate like Mizoram.

As students from across the country and abroad are expected to study and reside in the institute, safety and security are of prime concern and Mizoram is thus a comparatively better place."

Meghalaya Approves Salary Hike For College Teachers

Ampareen Lyngdoh, D.D. Lapang

Shillong, Mar 3 : The Meghalaya cabinet today approved the implementation of the revised UGC payscale and DA to college teachers with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006.

Chief minister D.D. Lapang said after the cabinet meeting that considering the demand of the college teachers, they had decided to implement the new UGC payscale.

State education minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said the financial implications for the arrears alone would be Rs 70 crore.

The additional annual expenditure for the Meghalaya government after the implementation of the UGC scale for teachers would be Rs 16 crore.

The state would account for 20 per cent of the expenditure and the remaining 80 per cent will be borne by the Union ministry of human resource development.

The last revision of pay for the college teachers was in 1996.

Lyngdoh said the government was working on the ways and means to increase pay and allowances to other categories of teachers as well.

The cabinet also decided to change the guidelines of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for its smooth implementation to help the poor in the rural areas.

The state community and rural development minister Martin Danggo said the cabinet has decided to do away with the Area Employment Councils so that wages can be disbursed to the Village Employment Councils at the block levels.

At present, the blocks distribute the wages to the Area Employment Councils.

The employment councils in turn disburse them to the Village Employment Councils.

The purpose of changing guidelines is to speed up the effective implementation of the rural employment scheme.

The cabinet also decided to reduce VAT on the sale of cashew nuts from the current 12 per cent to 4 per cent to help cashew growers.

Taxation minister A.T. Mondal said at present 65,000 quintals of cashew nuts are produced in Garo hills every year, but the cashew growers are the worst affected because of the high rate of VAT.

Non-Elite Schools Are India's 'Greenest'.

New Delhi, Feb 22 : India's schools and their students are doing a lot for the environment, but the real action is not happening in the 'elite', big-budget, up-market schools, concludes an annual environmental audit of schools that Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) directs.

Rather, semi-urban and mid-rung institutions are leading from the front. They are the real change makers, says the audit.

Based on this environmental audit, CSE confers the Green Schools Awards to those schools which excel in their natural resource management. The 2009 Awards were given away here Saturday by Shiela Dikshit, chief minister of Delhi and Sharmila Tagore, film personality and chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification.

The awards are being given out since 2006 under CSE's Green Schools Programme (GSP). Under this programme, schools across India carry out rigorous self-audit on environmental practices within their own premises, following a set of guidelines issued by CSE (see attached material or the website for details).

Among this year's winners are the DAV Public School (Thermal Colony) of Panipat (Haryana); Anubhuti School from Jalgaon (Maharashtra); and St George's School at Alaknanda in Delhi.

"About 5,000 schools from all over India have participated in the programme this year. The 20 'greenest' of them have been awarded here today. Also, the ceremony this year is being held in collaboration with the state government of Delhi, and the winner in the capital has been given a Chief Minister's Rolling Trophy. Ten schools from Delhi had been shortlisted for the honor," said Sumita Dasgupta, coordinator of the programme.

Accordingly, the awards have been divided into two main categories - national and state. The 20 national awards have been further sub-divided into two segments of 10 awards each - the new schools (those which have done the audit for the first time and have excelled) and change makers (those which have already done the audit once before and continue to excel).

Of the 20 national toppers this year, nine belong to the semi-urban, mid-rung category. These include institutions such as a government secondary school in Reshi, Sikkim; a government girl's school from Dakha in Ludhiana, Punjab; and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas from Prakasam and Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh. Six of the national-level winners are from Delhi (see attached winners' list).

"What is interesting is that in Delhi, some of the 'elite' schools do join our programme with great fanfare, but fail to carry it through. In 2006, for instance, 60 per cent of the capital's so-called top-bracket schools participated in the programme, but none could break through into the top ranks. Their resource consumption rate was disproportionately high compared to their conservation initiatives. It's the same story this year," said Dasgupta.
Most of these schools resort to token programs and gestures like eco-clubs, eco-tours, vermi-composting etc, without generating any real long-term impacts, says Ashish Shah, deputy coordinator, GSP.

Compared to this, mid-rung schools have participated in large numbers every year and swept the awards. Almost 60-70 per cent of them repeat the audit every year, improving on their performance each time. Some, like Salwan Public School in Gurgaon, have registered impressive changes in mobility practices - discarding personal transport (cars) for commuting in favor of walking and cycling. "These schools, because of their commitment and persistence, are the ones that are really making the difference," said Dasgupta.

Among the key innovators, mention must be made of St George's School from Delhi, which has bagged the top state-level prize, for its exemplary water management practices. The school reuses all its grey water to irrigate its playfields and green areas, and has a rainwater harvesting system with a 100 per cent harvesting capacity.

The Government Girl's School in Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar Islands) has been judged the best waste manager: it recycles 95 per cent of its solid wastes and conducts awareness campaigns among the region's hotels (as tourism is the single largest source of waste generation in Port Blair).
Deepalaya, a Kalkaji (Delhi)-based school for underprivileged students has earned kudos for its balanced land-use policy. Another winner in this segment has been the Government Primary School of MachakimalSingh in Ludhiana - a rural school, it has turned its grounds into a biodiversity hotspot with 67 varieties of medicinal plants!

Jalgaon's Anubhuti School sources almost 15 per cent of its energy from solar power, using it for water heaters, street lights and cooking. The DAV Public School of Panipat stands out for its all-round effort to ensure wise-use of natural resources. It treats 100 per cent of its wastewater, harvests 80 per cent of rainwater, and ensures that the emission levels of the vehicles plying within its premises are minimal.

"All the shortlisted schools this year have shown exemplary performance in terms of managing their water, wastes and mobility. Hopefully, this recognition of their efforts will help highlight the distinction between real and token action, and encourage other schools to actually design actions to make change," said Dasgupta.

IGNOU To Promote Social Service in Nagaland

New Delhi, Feb 22 : Aiming to invoke youth through teachings of Bapu, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is coming up with Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education and Development to train professionals in social service.

The institute, to be set up in collaboration with Nagaland Gandhi Ashram (NGA) in Chuchuyimlang, Nagaland, will offer undergraduate and postgraduate programs in social work, university Vice Chancellor V N Rajasekharan Pillai today said.

The proposed campus will consist of various schools of Social Work, Agricultural Development, Teacher's Training, Community College, Cultural Resource and Training Centre-Naga Arts and Crafts and Study Centre with Gandhi Museum.

The postgraduate programme, that envisages an interdisciplinary approach to education and development, is expected to be launched in July 2010 with an intake of around 25 students in the first year, an IGNOU spokesperson told UNI.

He informed that it would include ICT enabled learning and full-fledged library support and regular faculty under Educational Development of the North East (EDNERU). Virtual classrooms will also be used to broadcast lectures from Delhi, directly to students at the MGIDE campus.

He noted that earlier this week a two-day expert meet was also held to finalize the curriculum for the new programs attended by various scholars from both Delhi and northeast. The campus, coming up on a 20 acre land donated by the Village Council of Chuchuyimlang, is the brainchild of noted Gandhian and Founder of Nagaland Gandhi Ashram Natwar Thakkar.

Manipur to Have New Industrial Training Institute

New Delhi, Feb 8 : Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will lay the foundation stone of an Industrial Training Institute (ITI), at Lilong in Manipur's Thoubal district tomorrow.

Thoubal is one of the six Minority Concentration Districts (MCDs) of Manipur, where the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs is running the Multi-sectoral Development Programme ( MsDP ) for the welfare of Minorities.

District plans of all these six MCDs have already been approved by the Ministry.

ITI at Lilong has been approved for Rs 7.91 crore under MsDP. Half of the approved amount for this ITI has already been released as the first installment to Manipur Government.

Meghalaya Bids to Attract Thai Students

Shillong Projected as Prized Destination For Education

Shillong, Feb 3 : Meghalaya has decided to attract Thai students to Shillong giventhe potential the Meghalaya capital has in providing quality education.

Thai ambassador Krit Kraichitti and officials of the Investment Promotion Bureau interacted with Meghalaya chief minister D.D. Lapang, Governor R.S. Mooshahary and other senior government officials last evening.

Additional chief secretary in charge of planning, Barkose Warjri, who attended the meeting, said today that Meghalaya is looking to attract Thai students to study in the English medium schools here. Thailand can send their students to pursue English medium education and the Shillong schools can fulfill their aspirations, Warjri said.

Many students from Bangladesh are already pursuing their studies in various educational institutions here.

The spoken English of the Thai students can also improve once they are in Shillong, Warjri said. He pointed out that the Prime Minister of Thailand, Abhisit Vejjajiva, was a student of St Joseph’s School, Darjeeling.

The Governor told the Thai ambassador that there are more than 600 Thai students in various parts of the country. He said Shillong is as good as Darjeeling in providing quality education.

Shillong was once known as the education hub of the Northeast, Mooshahary said, adding that there is also a need to have educational exchange programs between the students of Thailand and the Northeast.

Another area of mutual concern discussed at the meeting with the Thai delegation was the need to develop tourism circuit connecting the Northeast, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia. This can only materialize if there is regular flight from Guwahati to Bangkok.

Considering the potential Meghalaya has in the field of horticulture and floriculture, the state is exploring the possibilities of exporting horticultural produce and flowers.

“There is a huge potential of exporting Meghalaya orchids to Bangkok,” Warjri said.

ICICI Fellowship

Some of you might find this a neat opportunity.

ICICI Fellows is a social leadership programme.

This programme nurtures the leader in you by enabling you to envision a future, mobilise people, thoughts and resources to create a brand new India

It's the first ever comprehensive leadership programme in India which has the right balance of management training, experiential learning and personality development.

It's a 2 year intensive, experiential learning programme that will equip you to take on any professional challenge. It will bring about a 360 degrees change in the way you think about the world, challenge your existing belief systems and redefine your ideologies.

At the end of 2 years, as an ICICI Fellow you will be a professional who will lead India into a better tomorrow.

ICICI Fellows is structured to have 3 tightly interlinked components.

Management Training

The fellowship will commence with a one month management training programme designed by Institute of Financial Management & Research (IFMR), one of the leading business schools in India. The principles learnt here will then be applied to development issues in a real world classroom - amidst the Niligiri Hills in South India.

Experiential Learning

As the entire programme is designed for you to gain a true pulse of the country, there are many modules which focus on experiential learning.

After the management training you will be deployed with a leading NGO in a managerial capacity anywhere in India, to gain a deeper understanding of rural sensitivities of the country. Here, you will work closely with an experienced team of senior professionals from the organization on various issues faced by the local community. Every 6 months you will join other ICICI Fellows on a journey to far and wide corners of India - in the North east, amidst the Himalayas and in the Thar Desert. These outward journeys will bring you close to your inner self. And this will bring about an unfathomable self transformation.

Personal Development & Mentoring

At the beginning of the programme, you will be assigned a personal coach for a period of 2 years. The coach will interact with you on a fortnightly basis helping you put together a personal development plan, enabling you to achieve it and helping you overcome roadblocks in between. To shape the leaders in you, you will also be mentored regularly by senior professionals from the organisation.

More Here

Handique Sermon For Pupils, Teachers

DoNER minister tells varsity students to abide by law

DoNER minister B.K. Handique lights the inaugural lamp of the Manipur University convocation in Imphal on Monday as chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh looks on. Imphal, Jan 12 : DoNER minister B.K. Handique urged the teaching community to tackle the problems in Manipur “without fear” and asked graduating students to “stay committed” to the obligation of upholding the law. Addressing the 11th convocation of Manipur University at the centenary hall in Canchipur of Imphal West, Handique said the primary task of the teaching community was to impart knowledge in the true perspective. The students were advised to become morally good and work for sustainable development. The DoNER minister’s call to the teachers and students of the university to take the bull by the horns came in the backdrop of the chaotic situation and lawlessness in Manipur. On his arrival at Imphal airport yesterday, Handique said the Northeast was the only region in the country where turbulence and violence ruled the roost. Handique, in his hourlong speech today, touched on the challenges because of the increase in population, depleting natural resources, changes in the environment, which resulted in the extinction of species and global warming. “Sustainable development of bio-diversity of ecology is a must. The university should achieve this. It should also have the capacity to form judgement on opinions through discussions. To achieve all these, the most important task is human development,” he said. Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, who also attended the meeting, urged the university to take bold steps to find solutions to the problems faced by the state and also work towards peace and prosperity. Manipur University, a central one, will introduce three more departments of sociology, environmental science and foreign languages in the future. The university now has 27 departments. Of the three, the foreign language department will come first. “Appointment of teachers and infrastructure development will be completed this year. We are planning to open the session for foreign languages next year. The faculty will first teach Korean and Japanese. More foreign languages will be introduced,” said C. Amuba, the vice-chancellor of the university. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the convocation, Handique assured the students that he would look into their demand to shift the Assam Rifles post from the university campus elsewhere. Chancellor P.N. Shrivastava, who also attended the programme, told reporters that he would also look into the matter. The chancellor appealed to all groups not to repeat the act of killing economics professor of the university, Md Islamuddin, in May 2007 by cadres of the Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup on the campus. “The killing of a professor on the campus is unthinkable,” he said.