The US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is fond of Indian food. So much that she even eats Indian food whenever she gets chance. But to maintain the extra calorie she goes on diet when she returns US.
The disclosure was made by Hillary Clinton herself during her address at Delhi University. The US Secretary of State was in India recently to discuss several issues including economic, agricultural, foreign and other affairs.
During her address at Delhi University on July 20 she said “I have long been an admirer of India. I feel very much at home here. I eat way too much of the food at every chance I get. And I have to go on a diet when I get back home, back to carrots and celery.”
In her interaction she also strongly advocated for student exchanges, better relationship for educational programmes and entry of young people in politics. As she said, “What I see today (in India) is thrilling to me, and what I hope is that the partnership that we are developing together will truly change the future for all of the children in both of our countries. My abiding condition is that those of us in politics or diplomacy or truly any other walk of life should be doing all we can to ensure that every child has the potential and the opportunity to live up to what God gave him or her, to realize the full extent and to have the positive result of effort and opportunity come together”.
After the attacks on Indian students in Australia a report regarding efforts for the welfare of the students will be submitted by December. This has been revealed during a meeting today between Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal and Senator Chris Evans, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Australia. The HRD Minister has mooted the raising of the level of the Joint Working Group for Education between India and Australia to ministerial level. Social welfare of students, mutual recognition of degrees, academic cooperation etc will be purview of the Joint working group. Sibal also said that the sub-group on social welfare of students must meet soon.
Both Australia and India could have a dedicated nodal officer at both ends to enable the free flow of information required related to students welfare and related issues. This could be particularly useful when there are doubts regarding quality of degrees being offered by an institute etc. Both sides discussed at length the issue of recent incidents of violence on Indian students in Australia. The Australian Minister emphasized that the Australian government sees this both as a criminal issue and a public policy issue and his government is dealing with this on both accounts.
Kapil Sibal said that India was today at the cusp of opportunity and he is of the view that once the education sector in India opens up, what the world saw India become in services and manufacturing, will happen in the years to come in HR development. He said that he was saying this because in India the output dividend in education is greater than the input costs. He informed the Australian delegates that the Ministry was considering a regulatory framework for attracting foreign investments in higher education in India. He suggested that the foreign universities could set up their campuses in India in future. This model would be mutually beneficial as it would generate large number of skilled professionals who could meet the needs of the growing Indian economy as well as the global market.
G.N.Venkataraman has been elected as the new President of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) – India’s premier professional management accounting institute linked to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs . The election for the post was held today in Kolkata. B.M.Sharma will be the new Vice President of the Institute.
ICWAI is the largest institute of Cost and work accountants in the country. The institute was established in 1945 and an act was passed in the parliament in 1959 in this regard. It also regulate policies and rules related to the cost accountants of the country.
The outgoing President of the Institue Kunal Banerjee has wrote in his last message to the institute “In my final communiqué to you as President, I look back at the speed with which a memorable and eventful year which launched our profession into a higher orbit has gone by. The time has come for me to hand over the baton on 22nd July, to the new President and his team bubbling with new ideas and zeal to work for the profession; and every member of the Council looking towards a brighter future with continuity, dedication and commitment to the common cause…”
To take stock of the preparedness or the Commonwealth Games 2010. Chairman CW Games Federation Mike Fennel along with Chairman Indian Olympic Association and Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee Suresh Kalmadi today called on Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in her office on Tuesday at Delhi Secretariat.
At the onset, Dikshit stated that her government has been entrusted to make arrangements of power, water and street-scaping during Commonwealth Games 2010. She further stated that there would be no shortage of power during the Games as the city, in fact, would be a power-surplus state by the time CW Games takes off. The city is destined to get power from Dadri in October, 2009 and from Jjajjar in July, 2010 and from Bawana before commencement of the CW Games. All elaborate arrangements have been made for beautification of places outside selected venues. Dedicated routes upto different venues have also been finalized. It has been decided to place millions of pots with greenery and flowers on different routes and surroundings along the venues.
Mr. Fennel stated that the city of Delhi is doing extremely well to make ensuing Commonwealth Games a grand success. Fennel expressed his satisfaction with all the preparations and confident that all ongoing projects would be completed in time. The stadia would also be ready for the test events which are likely to start in June 2010. He wanted to know about the training programmes for the volunteers, cultural events to be organized during CW Games and availability of accommodation for visitors. Fennel stated that the city of Delhi would definitely be benefited with the CW Games and solid preparations are on in Delhi. Fennel added that he has seen a presentation on “Look of the City During Games” which is quite satisfactory. Dikshit intervened to inform that banners and other games related publicity material would be displayed on various routes from Airport to different venues from January 2010 onwards.
He further stated that security is a matter of concern for all countries. He further informed that a General Assembly Meeting of Participating Commonwealth countries is scheduled in New Delhi October, 2009. Executive Members of the CWGF would also participate in the meeting. The participants would also be visiting different venues and ongoing construction sites of stadia.
The Commonwealth Games 2010 Baton Relay would arrive in Delhi on 29th September 2010 which would be taken in various localities in the capital city before it reaches opening venue of the Commonwealth Games 2010 on 3rd October 2010. He further stressed upon the need of coordinated efforts between various agencies.
Government is planning to introduce new courses in Indian Maritime University (IMU). The ministry of Shipping has sought fund approvals through the Expenditure Finance Committee to strengthen the University. The intake of the seats in the existing courses in the IMU is also being increased.
The new courses in B.Tech in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, MBA in Port and Shipping Management, MBA in International Transportation and Logistics and P.G. Diploma in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering have been introduced, said GK Wasan in Lok Sabha today.
IGNOU will be the partner with the TERI to co-host the “International Conference on Digital Libraries” . It will organize its event – “Tutorials & Workshop”. The Third International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL) is being organized during 23-26 February 2010 which is also a Silver Jubilee year of IGNOU establishment. The theme of the Conference is “Shaping the Information Paradigm”.
Prof. Pillai, the Co-Chairperson of the Conference. He announced that certain number of participants shall be nominated by IGNOU in the Conference as delegates of ODL system without registration fees.
Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, VC, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has called upon all distance learners’ community and institutions viz. State Open Universities, Distance Education Institutions (DEIs/CCIs) to come forward and contribute on the theme of the forth coming International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL) .
IGNOU partnership in organising ICDL 2010 shall provide opportunity to extend global best practices of the theme to strengthen its arena of ICT, web based methodologies, and digitalisation for providing seamless access to all, including hitherto un-reached by the development of a national resource centre as a proactive role model for high quality and learner-centric open and distance learning system and this shall increase presence and impact in international ODL institutions
Special conference sessions and tutorials shall be devoted on the theme related aspects to the technologies applicable in open and distance education system. Apart from other covered aspects, this conference has special focus on web-based methodologies in teaching and learning, academic programmes, information services, multi-media content, m-learning, open archive initiatives & open educational resources, e-learning & e-resource management, and virtual support to distance learners.
Digital Libraries are emerging as a crucial component of global information infrastructure and bring the physical library and information resources to the users in digital form. These adapt the latest ICT tools and techniques to promote an organization structure that encourage communication between researchers across nations to transcend disciplinary boundaries.
Interested persons may contact
ICDL2010 Conference Secretariat, IHC Complex, Lodhi Road, N Delhi.
All universities and deemed universities of the country, recognized by UGC, have been told to make public all the information regarding their institutions. These include from fee to availability of seats to physical infrastructure, assets to everything. The decision has been taken in a meeting today at the Ministry of Human Resources Development, chaired by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal. Later on a directive too has been issued in this regard.
According to the directive issued by the government, direction for information disclosure by universities and higher educational institutions is a question of policy in the national interest.