Management schools get interim relief with SC stay order

Chaturvedi is alternative president, Education Promotion Society of India, which along with the Association of Indian Management Schools, had petitioned the apex court against the notification. He says he is in possession of the minutes of the meeting held on 20 September 2010 when the controversial provisions were put on the table. Chaturvedi claims that the meeting was held and the crucial decision was taken "without a quorum".

Interestingly, the dearth of regulations in management education in India has been a cause for worry. According to figures provided by Career Launcher, a management test preparation company, there are approximately 3000 MBA colleges in India. "Very optimistically, only 150 of these provide quality education," says chairman and co-founder, Gautam Puri.

FICCI general secretary Dr Rajiv Kumar proposed a self-regulatory mechanism which can be adopted by management institutions at will. "It is just a beginning of an idea; an intermediate step to avoid both no regulation and over regulation," he says. However, with a wide disparity between demand and supply and countless sub-standard colleges, self-regulation doesn't actually seem to a viable option.

Consider this. According to KPMG, the total number of seats in top 40 B-schools is around 10,500. The number of seats available in the good ones is for less than 5% of the MBA applicants. An increasing awareness and the premium commanded by management students in the job market have led to spurt in demand for management education in India.

The number of students who took the common admission test ( CAT) conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) has been steadily rising till 2009, touching almost 2.5 lakh. After the test went online, the number went down in 2010 to approximately 1.86 lakh candidates. The number of Graduate Management Admission Test (for foreign MBA) applicants from India is also growing. In 2009, 30,633 Indians appeared for GMAT, a 128% increase in five years.

As is well known, the country's corporate sector wants MBA executives, even at the lower levels, to have an overall knowledge of the corporate world. But how to ensure students don't fall into swindlers' trap?

TV Mohandas Pai, board member and director-HR, education and research and administration at Infosys Technologies, offers some unique suggestions which go beyond self, over and under regulation.

"The AICTE can keep a watch on new institutions for the initial years. These and the old institutes can be regularly rated by an independent body like Crisil. To tackle the menace of high fees, AICTE can come up with scholarships." Looks like a workable suggestion indeed!
ET

SC orders extended second counselling for medical seats

New Delhi: A Supreme Court (SC) bench has ordered to conduct an extended second counselling on September 13-14 for the all-India quota seats after it found that several medical and dental colleges did not furnish information about vacant seats.A petition filed by a number of students through Counsel A.D.N. Rao, alleged that this year, medical colleges across the country did not contribute as many as 700 seats to the all-India quota.Many students who cleared the common entrance examination missed out on a seat in an institute of their choice after the second counselling for the all-India quota seats in medical and dental colleges was over. Moreover, there was no provision for a third conselling.Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam agreed with the petitioners saying that 70 out of 117 medical colleges and 22 out of 27 dental did not furnish information about the vacant seats.The Bench comprising Justices B.N. Aggarwal, H.S. Bedi and S.G. Sighvi ordered the Director General of Health Services (DGHS), which conducts the counselling, to find out the exact number of vacant seats from each college latest by September 5.The Bench said, "The DGHS will compile the information latest by September 12 and will conduct an extended second counselling on 13th and 14th September at Delhi".

Source: http://indiaedunews.net/Medical/SC_orders_extended_second_counselling_for_medical_seats_5861/

SC orders extended second counselling for medical seats

New Delhi: A Supreme Court (SC) bench has ordered to conduct an extended second counselling on September 13-14 for the all-India quota seats after it found that several medical and dental colleges did not furnish information about vacant seats.A petition filed by a number of students through Counsel A.D.N. Rao, alleged that this year, medical colleges across the country did not contribute as many as 700 seats to the all-India quota.Many students who cleared the common entrance examination missed out on a seat in an institute of their choice after the second counselling for the all-India quota seats in medical and dental colleges was over. Moreover, there was no provision for a third conselling.Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam agreed with the petitioners saying that 70 out of 117 medical colleges and 22 out of 27 dental did not furnish information about the vacant seats.The Bench comprising Justices B.N. Aggarwal, H.S. Bedi and S.G. Sighvi ordered the Director General of Health Services (DGHS), which conducts the counselling, to find out the exact number of vacant seats from each college latest by September 5.The Bench said, "The DGHS will compile the information latest by September 12 and will conduct an extended second counselling on 13th and 14th September at Delhi".

Source: http://indiaedunews.net/Medical/SC_orders_extended_second_counselling_for_medical_seats_5861/

Prakash and Mandakini Amte get Magsaysay Award

Nagpur: Prakash and Mandakini Amte, the physician couple who have won this year's Magsaysay Award for community leadership, have been running a hospital, a school and development centre in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district since 1974. Prakash is the son of renowned social worker Baba Amte, a Magsaysay award winner himself.
Prakash, 60, and Mandakini, 62, who studied at Government Medical College, Nagpur, plunged into social work immediately after getting their degrees, starting a health centre at Hemalkasa in the middle of an area inhabited largely by the Maria Gonds tribesmen.
For decades, they have worked under the shadow of Murlidhar Devidas Amte, revered as Baba Amte, who died on Feb 9 this year.
Shunning the attractions of private medical practice, the couple opted to live and work among the 100,000-strong Maria Gonds.
The area in which they serve includes parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh in the very centre of India.
Mandakini told sources on phone from Hemalkasa on Thursday afternoon that although they never hankered for any recognition, "we are glad that our efforts are acknowledged".
"This award will help us take our work even further, and even inspire our children and others to work with renewed dedication for the tribals here," she said.
The children have already joined them. Older son Digant and his wife Anagha are, like Prakash and Mandakini, a physician couple. They work at the Hemalkasa hospital. Younger son Aniket looks after the school which now has 600 residential students, including 200 girls.
A high-ranking government official who knows the couple, toldsources on Thursday that although Prakash and Mandakini could have served in Anandvan, the rehabilitation centre for lepers founded by Baba Amte, they decided to go to Hemalkasa where they faced a tough life, hardships at every step, shortages of food, medicines, risks of diseases and threats from Naxalites.
Often called the 'Albert Schweitzer couple of India,' Prakash and Mandakini have spent their lives treating, completely free, about 100 patients on an average day. The injuries they treat sometimes include those inflicted by wild animals.
They also set up a shelter for orphaned wild animals at their Hemalkasa home, which became a magnet for people from miles around.
Completely in empathy with the residents among whom they live, the Amtes made a hospital ward open to the skies. Some of the treatment is held out in the open too.
Mandakini said that when they first went to Hemalkasa and set up the hospital, the tribals were illiterate. "There was only one person, that too a migrant from a neigbouring state, who was SSC (high school) pass. Then we decided to start the school since education would help the tribals assimilate themselves faster into the social mainstream."
Later the government helped start other small schools and medical clinics, and several non-governmental organisations followed suit. "But there's still a long way to go," Mandakini said.
The Amtes provide a host of services - medical, education, awareness of hygiene since the area is vulnerable to epidemics like malaria, and helping the adults get jobs.
Last year, they were refused a US visa on grounds of being "too poor, with no known sources of income". They had been invited as guests of honour at the biennial convention of Bruhan Maharashtra Mandal of North America in Seattle.
Following a public outcry, they were given the visas and managed to attend the convention. IANS

Source: http://www.maharashtraeducation.net/

Prakash and Mandakini Amte get Magsaysay Award

Nagpur: Prakash and Mandakini Amte, the physician couple who have won this year's Magsaysay Award for community leadership, have been running a hospital, a school and development centre in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district since 1974. Prakash is the son of renowned social worker Baba Amte, a Magsaysay award winner himself.
Prakash, 60, and Mandakini, 62, who studied at Government Medical College, Nagpur, plunged into social work immediately after getting their degrees, starting a health centre at Hemalkasa in the middle of an area inhabited largely by the Maria Gonds tribesmen.
For decades, they have worked under the shadow of Murlidhar Devidas Amte, revered as Baba Amte, who died on Feb 9 this year.
Shunning the attractions of private medical practice, the couple opted to live and work among the 100,000-strong Maria Gonds.
The area in which they serve includes parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh in the very centre of India.
Mandakini told sources on phone from Hemalkasa on Thursday afternoon that although they never hankered for any recognition, "we are glad that our efforts are acknowledged".
"This award will help us take our work even further, and even inspire our children and others to work with renewed dedication for the tribals here," she said.
The children have already joined them. Older son Digant and his wife Anagha are, like Prakash and Mandakini, a physician couple. They work at the Hemalkasa hospital. Younger son Aniket looks after the school which now has 600 residential students, including 200 girls.
A high-ranking government official who knows the couple, toldsources on Thursday that although Prakash and Mandakini could have served in Anandvan, the rehabilitation centre for lepers founded by Baba Amte, they decided to go to Hemalkasa where they faced a tough life, hardships at every step, shortages of food, medicines, risks of diseases and threats from Naxalites.
Often called the 'Albert Schweitzer couple of India,' Prakash and Mandakini have spent their lives treating, completely free, about 100 patients on an average day. The injuries they treat sometimes include those inflicted by wild animals.
They also set up a shelter for orphaned wild animals at their Hemalkasa home, which became a magnet for people from miles around.
Completely in empathy with the residents among whom they live, the Amtes made a hospital ward open to the skies. Some of the treatment is held out in the open too.
Mandakini said that when they first went to Hemalkasa and set up the hospital, the tribals were illiterate. "There was only one person, that too a migrant from a neigbouring state, who was SSC (high school) pass. Then we decided to start the school since education would help the tribals assimilate themselves faster into the social mainstream."
Later the government helped start other small schools and medical clinics, and several non-governmental organisations followed suit. "But there's still a long way to go," Mandakini said.
The Amtes provide a host of services - medical, education, awareness of hygiene since the area is vulnerable to epidemics like malaria, and helping the adults get jobs.
Last year, they were refused a US visa on grounds of being "too poor, with no known sources of income". They had been invited as guests of honour at the biennial convention of Bruhan Maharashtra Mandal of North America in Seattle.
Following a public outcry, they were given the visas and managed to attend the convention. IANS

Source: http://www.maharashtraeducation.net/