Delhi High Court allows CFAI to conduct exams in India

New Delhi, May 31 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Thursday allowed the US-based Chartered Financial Analyst Institute (CFAI) to conduct its examination in India from June 3.

Considering the fact that about 7,000 students would be affected, Justice B.D. Ahmed said the CFAI has been allowed to conduct the examinations only for this year.

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had recently decided to ban Indian operations of the CFAI. On Wednesday, the high court reserved its order on the AICTE decision.

The matter would be taken up for further arguments in July after the summer vacation.

On May 18, the AICTE, a government body regulating technical and specialised education in India, had served notice on CFAI to cease its operations in India as it was "flouting regulations".

The CFAI filed a petition in the high court seeking a stay on the notice, to be allowed to conduct the examinations.

The AICTE, on a complaint filed by the Hyderabad-based Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India, had asked the CFA Institute to stop its operations in India, as it had not taken the council's clearance.

The CFAI is a correspondence course and had been operating in India since 1987.

On Monday, the Agartala bench of the Gauhati High Court, in an interim order, upheld the notice sent by the regulatory body for technical education asking the foreign institute conducting the course to immediately stop all operations in India.

Students who clear the CFA examinations are mostly employed as financial analysts by investment banks and broking houses. This year, more students from India will appear in the examination than from either the United Kingdom or Canada.

12 new engineering colleges for Rajasthan

Jaipur, June 6 As many as 12 new engineering colleges will be opened in Rajasthan in the new academic session and will account for an increase of 3,000 engineering seats.
"One government engineering college each would be opened in places like Bikaner, Bharatpur, Ajmer and Jhalawar while one private college each would be opened in Jodhpur, Ganganagar, Pilani, Kota and Alwar," Vasudev Devnani, the minister for education, told IANS.
Jaipur will see three new engineering colleges in this session.
Sources in the technical education department said the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has given an in-principal approval for opening these colleges.
Currently there are around 50 engineering colleges in the state of which around five are in the government sector while about 45 are in the private sector accounting for 16,000 engineering seats in the state.

Star exposes Exam fraud: MPs Deora, Jindal, Panda pass Class 10!

New Delhi, June 6 -The names of three young MPs figure in the list of students who passed this year's Uttar Pradesh Class 10 examination, it has been revealed in a TV sting operation conducted to expose corruption in the state education board.
They are Lok Sabha MPs Milind Deora and Naveen Jindal and Rajya Sabha MP B.J. Panda - all of whom actually completed their education several years ago, said STAR News. The channel clarified that "the honourable MPs had nothing to do with the operation except that their identities were used.
"Their candidature was pushed into the system to expose the level of corruption in the Uttar Pradesh Education Board," said STAR News, which conducted the sting along with investigative portal Cobrapost.
The TV channel claimed that the sting exposes the connivance of school officials, board invigilators and board officials.
In the exposé, "Star News and Cobrapost show just how the copy-mafia operates in Uttar Pradesh. All three MPs were registered as genuine students for this exam. School officials of local schools were only too keen to register these 'MPs' as regular students of their school in exchange for money. The necessary documentation to prove that they had studied in the school was comfortably 'forged'," said the TV channel.
"During our investigation these officials readily admitted to filling out numerous such forms illegally every year. A district school invigilator also accepted money on the promise that he wouldn't conduct surprise checks while the exams were being held.
"A board official posted in Meerut readily accepted money, promising to improve their marks if they did not get enough to pass the exams," said STAR News. When the exams drew near, the greedy school officials changed the photographs on the hall tickets and sent dummy candidates to write the Class 10 exam.
"Thus the three MPs, who had nothing to do with the Uttar Pradesh school board, managed to clear these exams without applying or appearing for these examinations," said the Star News/Cobrapost team.
Their names were used to demonstrate just how deep the rot in the school board exams is and how easily officials connected with the High School and Intermediate Board can destroy the sanctity of examinations.

Assocham to provide free MBA education to 300 girls

New Delhi, June 22 (IANS) Leading industry lobby the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) Friday said it would provide free Master of Business Administration (MBA) education to 300 underprivileged girls.

Assocham said it would provide 300 Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe girls having a family income of less than Rs.5,000 a month, free education along with boarding, lodging, clothing and books at MBA level and help them to provide jobs.

"ASSOCHAM and Rai Foundation (a private higher education institution) would be implementing the decision with immediate effect. The eligible candidates could approach ASSOCHAM on singh@assocham.com," an official statement said.

The statement further said that Assocham should train entrepreneurs from socially and economically backward SC and ST communities at district industry centres in association with the local industries and corporates.

The industry body has also proposed to help establish coaching programme in universities to lower dropout rates amongst backward class students.

Dual degrees - a rising trend in Delhi

New Delhi, June 23 (IANS) Dual degrees seem to be catching on among youngsters in Delhi. Thousands of students seeking admission into vocational courses also want a conventional academic degree in hand as a pragmatic ploy to keep all options open.
Neha Phull is studying for a Bachelors degree in Mass Communication from Guru Jambeshwar University in Hisar as a distance-learning student. At the same time, she is pursuing a Bachelors in English Honours through a correspondence course from Delhi University."I don't know whether I will go for a job in journalism after my mass communication course or appear for the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) competitive exams. So I am studying for both," said Phull.Keeping one's options open is not the only motivation behind doing two degrees - it's a way of balancing out a vocational diploma or degree from a lesser-known university."I felt very uncomfortable doing a course from a comparatively lesser-known university in the first year. Therefore I joined a BA pass course in Delhi University in the second year," Sharad Vats, a student of Indraprastha University, told IANS."All my family members are graduates of Delhi University ... how could I have done without it? Now I am at peace with myself," he added.Vats joined Delhi University in his second year of graduation but there are many who are unable to cope with the pressure of studying two courses - and quite a few drop out of one after a year or so."My family was after my life to do two courses and submitting the fees for both. But one day I announced that I couldn't manage both and would do my best in one," said Kritika Bushan."I have already bagged a job as an event manager and I am not missing my Delhi University degree," she exclaimed.According to the human resource development ministry, out of 458,884 students who have taken up vocational courses - apart from medicine, engineering or Bachelors of Education - 38,216 students are also pursuing a bachelor's degree from Delhi University.How do Delhi University colleges perceive this trend?Said Ramesh Sharma, principal of Moti Lal Nehru College, Delhi University: "Morally this is wrong. No one can do two courses from Delhi University. But studying for a regular degree from one university and pursuing the other through a correspondence course from another university is generally taken no notice of. No complaint has been received about this trend but it is common knowledge."There has always been an obsession with degrees in India but whereas some decades ago people would put the letters 'BA' as a suffix to their name, this has now graduated to 'PhD'.Earning two degrees in the same time-span seems to be an easier option to add weight to one's academic qualifications now - a trend that looks set to increase in the years to come...