The Pakistan High Commissioner Mr. Aziz Ahmed Khan called on the Union Minister of Human Resource Development and Science & Technology Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi in New Delhi on November 17, 2003 (Monday).
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE TO COME UP IN FOUR REGIONS
The government proposes to set up National Institutes of Science (NIS) in the four regions of the country, in a bid to give a greater boost to research and development activities in these parts. To cover the Western region there will be one NIS located in Pune, for the Eastern region it will be based in Utkal, the southern in Chennai and the Northern region will have it in Allahabad. These Centres are coming up as part of expansion of technical education in the country. This was disclosed by the Minister for Human Resource Development and Science & Technology, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, while chairing a conference of State Education Secretaries (Technical) over the week end.
Underscoring the need to strengthen and expand technical education in the country, to produce a huge technological manpower, Dr. Joshi said that this not only to meet our requirements but also to meet the global demands. Under the new initiatives in human resource development, a National Programme for Bio-sciences and Bio-engineering Education is being evolved with the objective of building up a strong academic and research base in the fields, in select technical institutions of the country.
A number of institutions though have already started the programme in bio-sciences and bio-engineering and related areas, these lack in coordination. Equipment and facilities being expensive for this programme, they are also under-resourced. Hence, the main objective of the national programme will be to support creation of advanced teaching and research lab facilities in these institutes for accelerated and coordinated development of teaching and research in the two fields. These facilities should be accessible to the students and the teachers of other institutions for academic purposes. The Rs.96 crore programme also aims at sensitising the engineering institutions and academics, towards opportunities in the fields (keralamonitor.com)
INDIA, AUSTRIA KEEN TO ENHANCE TRADE & INVESTMENT TIES
9th SESSION OF JOINT ECONOMIC COMMISSION MEETING BEGINS
India and Austria have expressed their keenness to enhance trade and investment relations in order to increase the current level of bilateral trade given the scope and possibilities for joint ventures that existed in various sectors. This was indicated at the inaugural session of the 9th India-Austria Joint Economic Commission meeting by Shri S. N. Menon, Special Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry and the leader of the Indian delegation and Mr. Josef Mayer, Vice Minister, Austrian Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs & Labor and the leader of the Austrian delegation, here today. The two-day meeting (17-18 November) is discussing mutual cooperation in sectors of steel, railways, agriculture, environment, including that of the progress of the bilateral working groups on tourism and energy.
Shri Menon, in his inaugural address, said that Austria was a strategic link in India’s relationship with Europe and informed that the bilateral trade at US $ 245.48 million recorded a very impressive growth of about 60% during the year 2002-03. He highlighted areas such as steel, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, food processing and environment as having immense potential for joint ventures. Regarding investment, Shri Menon said India has one of the most liberal policy frameworks for foreign direct investment and asked Austrian investors to take advantage of it. Mr. Mayer gave a brief overview of the Austrian economy with 26% of country’s GDP coming from exports alone and inflation level being well under the control. He highlighted the current reform process going on in his country in sectors of healthcare and railway systems and emphasised the importance of close business-to-business interaction between the two countries. In this regard, both the leaders termed the recent signing of the MOU between the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (AFEC) to promote economic relations between the business communities of India and Austria as a step in the right direction.
India is hosting the 4th India-EU Summit including the Business Summit in New Delhi during November 28-29, 2003, which is expected to give a further boost to India-Austria economic relations. The agreed minutes of the India-Austria Joint Economic Commission would be signed here tomorrow (18th November). Major items of export to Austria are cotton yarn/fabrics/made-ups/RMG, RMG manmade fibers, gems & jewellery, machinery & instruments, leather garments/goods etc whereas major items of imports from Austria are electronic goods, machinery, professional instruments, organic chemicals, iron & steel, textile yarn/fabrics/made-ups etc.
VIETNAMESE DELEGATION IN NEW DELHI
The Vice Defence Minister of Vietnam Senior Lt General Nguyen Huy Hieu held delegation level talks with the Defence Secretary Shri Ajay Prasad in New Delhi today. The main thrust of the talks was on further strengthening the bilateral defence cooperation. Both sides briefed each other about the existing challenges to regional security in South Asia. Issues of imparting training to Vietnamese defence personnel and the need for increased interaction between the Navies and Coast Guard of both the countries figured in the talks.
The other members of the Indian delegation were Shri Ranjit Issar Additional Secretary (Defence), Shri Gautam Mukhopadhyay Joint Secretary (PIC), Shri Tapan Ray Joint Secretary (Defence Production and Supplies), Major General RK Mehta Additional Director General Army Headquarters, Rear Admiral Ajit Tiwari Assistant Chief of Naval Staff, Air Vice Marshal BN Gokhale, Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Inspector General P Paleri Deputy Director General Coast Guard and Shri RK Parmar, Director International Cooperation.
The Vietnamese delegation comprised of Lt Gen Nguyen Ngoc Van, Director Military Strategy Institute, Senior Col Phan Thai Minh, Deputy Director External Relations Department, Senior Col Nguyen Hong Sinh, Secretary of the Vice Minister, Senior Col Le Ho Can, Head of External Relations Section and Senior Colonel Nguyen Van Vui, Defence Advisor. in the Vietnamese embassy in New Delhi .
EDUCATION FOR ALL: CONCERNS AND OPPORTUNITIES
S C Tripathi*
India is going to host an international meet on education with focus on girls’ education. The meet is to evolve strategies to bridge the gender gap at elementary school level by 2010. India is committed to not only impart elementary education to all children of 14 years by that year but also to ensure that girls do not lag behind the boys in education.
At the time of India’s Independence, out of every 100 males, only 18 could read and write. Worse, only 8 women out of 100 were literate. We have come a long way since then. Today over 76 per cent men and 54 per cent women can read and write.
But problems remain. With a population growth rate of about two per cent a year, almost two crore children get added to the population which needs to be educated. Therefore, the task of bringing down the percentage of illiterates in the population needs multi-pronged strategies and constant attention to all groups of population. We need to educate the existing illiterates and ensure that no child remains without getting at least elementary education. Then, there is the problem of reaching out to the most disadvantaged sections. Today every adult, even when he or she is illiterate, understands the value of education. Yet a great number of parents are unable to educate their children. Also, there are children in difficult circumstances for whom survival itself is a major concern. Education is hardly a priority for them. Even if some States have a good record of literacy, some others and a few social groups have ignored education for various reasons. Unless this disparity is tackled, even a hundred per cent literacy in some pockets will not make India fully literate.
Does it all mean that we are not in a position to achieve full literacy at all levels in the near future? Are we at the risk of not achieving the goals of sarva shiksha i.e. universal education?
That takes us where we stand today in terms of preparations to achieve the goals, especially for the elementary education. India is committed to achieving the goal of elementary education for all children by that year. This means we need to appoint 12 lakh teachers for primary and secondary schools, provide for their training, build lakhs of classrooms, arrange drinking water and toilet facilities, check absenteeism in schools and provide dresses, mid-day meals and books where needed. In fact, keeping these massive requirements in view, the Centre has sanctioned about Rs. 6000 crore under its Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to the States. The States are required to contribute Rs. 3000 crore for the programme. We hope to create not only an environment in which every child is sent to school, but also provide education of a reasonable standard at least upto the elementary level to every child. We intend to achieve this target latest by 2010.
Since Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has become the umbrella programme to achieve universalisation of education, the Centre is constantly monitoring its progress. Besides official meetings, the Minister for Human Resource Development is taking keen interest and has been impressing upon the Chief Ministers of the laggard States about the long-term benefits of education. It is encouraging that the level of State participation this year is much more than the last year. Among other major initiatives taken in the recent years, the 86th amendment to the Constitution to ensure education to every child as a right is the most important one. Right now a Bill has been prepared to operationalise the ‘right to education’, which is likely to be placed in Parliament in its coming session.
Special programmes have been chalked out to remove the gender gap, especially at the elementary level. In 2656 blocks female literacy is below the national average and the gender gap in literacy is above the national average. Two new schemes are being implemented in these blocks during the Tenth Plan.
The national programme for education of girls at the elementary level (NPEGEL) is meant to work through women and community groups at the village level to build an environment for girl’s education. Community groups regularly monitor the achievement. Based on the findings of the community monitoring, the groups would be able to recommend specific village-wise interventions to prevent any dropouts from the system.
The villages are grouped into clusters for of NPEGEL. At the cluster level, one school implementation is developed as a model gender-sensitive school.
The second major initiative proposed to be undertaken is the Kasturba Gandhi Swatantra Vidhyalaya Scheme. Under it residential schools are being set up in the educationally backward blocks. This scheme specially targets those areas that have small, scattered habitations with no schools. Large distances make it impossible for girls to attend the formal primary schools. These schools also target communities where girls are more disadvantaged, i.e. SCs/STs, OBCs and the minorities.
Then there is the on-going Mahila Samakhya programme under which Mahila Sanghas have been formed. These Sanghas or women’s groups have become focal points for women where they can ask questions fearlessly, think, analyse and, above all, feel confident to articulate and address their needs. As a group they have the strength to overcome obstacles and to articulate demands for themselves and their daughters, which individually they cannot. The Sanghas are active partners in the diverse innovative educational initiatives of the programme. The centres in Gujarat, the Bala Mitra Kendras, Jagjagi centres for girls in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar and the Udan Khatolas in Uttar Pradesh provide a creative learning opportunity. The Sanghas assist in selecting teachers, monitoring the centres, mobilising the community for education and in some cases make certain financial contributions as well. An innovative initiative in the area of girls’ education has been the Mahila Shikshan Kendra. These are centres aimed at developing a pool of trained and literate women at the village level. They range from a curriculum developed in partnership with the learners imparting life skills and skill development to enable the learners join the mainstream education system. The Kendras have been able to draw in girls, especially adolescent girls who, for a variety of reasons, do not benefit from the formal schools.
Investment in education is a long-term one - the results come to the fore only after a few years. The steps taken in the past decades have started bearing results now. The results are indeed promising in the case of girls. In the 6-14 year age group, over 43 per cent of the children enrolled in schools are girls as compared to only 28 per cent five decades back. The gender parity index, which measures gender equality on a 0-1 scale, has risen from 0.41 to 0.83 in the same period. The dropout rate for girls is down from 71 per cent in 1961 to 41 per cent now, a sign that more and more girls are able to pursue studies beyond the basic levels.
The momentum generated by the recent initiatives for universalisation of education, together with the interventions for adult literacy, are likely to further accelerate the growth of literacy in the coming years. India may well achieve the targets much before the due dates it has set for itself. (PIB Features)
*Secretary, Elementary Education and Literacy, Government of India
Features
A Candid Phone With A Camera Eye
S.C.Pandya*
Calendars, especially the glossy ones, and wall clocks are still a craze for an average Indian household for checking the date or time besides displaying them as decorative wall hangings. But, both are conspicuous by their absence in the homes of phone-savvy Japanese, South Koreans and Taiwanese. Teenagers from these as well as many developed countries have already given a go-by even to the ubiquitous wristwatch. After all, with a mobile phone displaying day, date and time, who needs another contraption?
The latest fashion statement is a fantasy gizmo – a mobile phone with an integrated camera. Weighing around hundred rams, the camera-phone works both as a combination as well as independently i.e. either phone or a camera. All, because of the revolutionary novel technological feature, called multimedia-messaging service (MMS).
Besides normal conversation and sending messages, MMS enables camera-phone owners to unobtrusively click photographs through a digital camera attached to their mobile phone. These photographs can be sent anywhere, anytime to another mobile phone having MMS facility.
One can even store these photographs in the camera, and later download them at leisure, on a personal computer (PC) and send the same through e-mail. MMS-enabled phones can also receive and transmit pictures from Internet.
MMS, an advanced version of short messaging service (SMS), allows users to enhance the quality of their messages by incorporating images, photographs and sound, transforming it into an emotionally charged audio-visual message. In fact, just when SMS started making waves, and was about to break the glass ceiling, MMS arrived on the scene and played the spoilsport for SMS in India.
Though still in infancy, MMS has caught the imagination of the rich and the not-so-rich simply because it establishes an emotional link between the sender and the recipient.
By the end of October 2003, more than 19 million Indians had become the proud owners of a mobile phone. And those who fancy a cellular phone that can double up as a camera have already started making a niche for themselves. Going by the market study of Japan and South Korea, one in every five mobile phone owners, all over the world, are going to have a camera-phone in the coming four to five years. As of now, South Korea is breaking all records. During last year, three-quarters of its 48 million people lapped up more than four million camera-phones.
Realising its potential, three leading cellular operators in India have not only started providing MMS but also forged an alliance to route MMS through each other’s network. This means that nearly one lakh MMS subscribers are, now, able to send and receive video and audio messages through their mobile phones. For wooing potential subscribers, some cellular operators are even offering the service almost free, to begin with.
Globally, the scene is mind-boggling. More than 40 operators, worldwide, have launched MMS in the last six months alone. Industry analysts point out that by 2010, about eight out of every 10 handsets will be MMS-enabled. By 2006, MMS is expected to generate a revenue of $ 44 billion for these operators. In Europe alone, MMS growth will be worth $ 10 billion by the year 2006.
In just about two years, 20 billion MMS i.e., nearly 40 per cent of all messages are expected to be sent every month, across the world. In India, more than 50,000 users are already sending around two lakh MMS messages per month.
According to a study made by Strategy Analytics, an Anglo-US research agency, the surging demand in Japan and South Korea have resulted in a shipment of around 25 million handsets with built-in cameras, world-wide in the first half of the year 2003, by leading mobile phone manufactures. Unfortunately, this has crippled the international market of the conventional cameras that registered a sale much lower than camera-phones, for the first time since the simplest form of camera was invented in 1930.
That is why, most cellular operators in India are of the view that this is the right time for MMS to take off. In fact, mobile phones have become indispensable in the modern age. They are being used for location finding, Internet access, enjoying live TV shows and settling business transactions while one is still shopping or driving home.
Camera-phone is also emerging as an ideal diagnostic tool for surgeons, especially when they want to tender advice on an emergency basis by physically looking at the injury of a patient who has met with an accident many miles away and suffered multiple or even a minor fracture.
In the last one year or so, camera-phones have helped the police, in India as well as many other countries in crime fighting, as well. In a number of hold-ups, alert bystanders quietly captured the photograph of the gangster who had forced counter clerks and bank managers to part with cash and valuables. These photographs were later handed over to the police who could nab the criminal with utmost alacrity.
These cameras have also become highly prized tools for journalists to cover the assignment in the absence of a photographer. With the help of camera-phones they can photograph an event instantly and transmit the same to a newspaper in seconds.
But there also exists a negative side to the growing proliferation of camera-phones. With their arrival another chapter has been added to the art of spying. These tiny electronic balls attached to the camera, though look innocuous, have tremendous capacity for mischief making. In fact, these phones have already become a nasty tool in the hands of anti-social elements and criminals who are using them for surreptitiously taking voyeuristic photos, targeting celebrities in particular.
It is not only unethical but a blatant invasion on an individual’s privacy. Unscrupulous ladies are known to have taken photographs of their unsuspecting friends having a sauna bath, and selling them to equally unscrupulous web site operators for a hefty price. Therefore all leading health clubs in Britain and USA have banned these cameras. Overnight, the show-off piece has become an object of suspicion.
The most disastrous consequence, however, of this technology is its growing use for industrial espionage. In fact, the very Korean company which pioneered the technology of sticking a tiny lens on a small handset, has banned these cameras, not only on their factory floors, but even in office corridors. Scotland and Ireland have already banned these cameras in all government buildings.
Another Korean company engaged in hi-tech research and design of automobiles, has set up X-ray detectors at all entry points to block camera-phones and also to trace visitors possessing them if they have, somehow, sneaked inside undetected.
We all know that spying has been in vogue from times immemorial, and it has always been a dirty word. Punishment for spying has also been excessively harsh, including beheading and hanging till death. But, it has failed to serve as a deterrent. In fact, spying has become a flourishing profession, more so if it is related to industrial espionage.
Highly perturbed over its ramifications, legal experts are already drafting new set of laws to deal with this menace. Hopefully, individuals will have the right to sue the offenders for such infringements.(PIB Features)
*Freelance Writer
