After several incidents of ‘technical snag’ in the online examination system of CAT the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (HRD) has asked a detailed status report from CAT organizers. Though the ministry has refrained from making any comment on the issue but sources say that it is unhappy and concerned by the manner the online examination of Combined Admission Test (CAT) has been conducted.

Meanwhile, the a meeting of the directors of the IIMs has held today along with the US-based firm, who has been given the responsibility to conduct the online examination. The directors have shown their unhappiness with the company on the poor management of the examination. It is notable that today few centres were affected due to ‘technical snag’.

Maharaja Agrasen College of Delhi University is going to be the first ‘Green College’ in the university. College’s new 10-acre campus will have all the eco-friendly facilities like water harvesting, sewage treatment plant (STP), solar lighting and a huge green campus.

Former Chairman of the College Siddharth Mishra, who initiated the plan, told fachcha.com that the idea to make building green actually came during his visit to Bahal, a place situated at the Rajsthan and Haryana border. “We learnt there that how we could fulfill our water related needs without depending upon outside supply. On the basis of demand made in this regard the city government approved the plan of green campus and allocated a budget of rupees 44 crore for the building”, Mishra said. The foundation stone of the building was laid by the Chief Minster Sheila Dikshit in 2006.

“The proposed campus is under construction at Vasundhara Enclave in East Delhi. Fifty five percent area of the campus will be green only 45 percent area will have concrete structure”, said Sunil Sondhi, Principal, Maharaja Agrsen College. Plantation drive has already started and 11000 plants will be planted in the campus of the college, he added. The whole public lighting will be completely based on solar power. Apart from public lighting some office lighting will also be based on solar power, he told fachcha.com.
According to him the new campus will have the facilities like AC auditorium, sports related facilities, eco-club and several others. The campus will be started by July 2010. “There was some delay due to delay in getting permission from different authorities. As these had been sorted out the construction work started last year. But by the next session we will be able to shift the college in the new and green campus”, he said.

A large number of IIM-CAT aspirants in the cities like New Delhi, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Lucknow, Kolkata, Nagpur and some others have been disappointed on Sunday too as some of the centres were closed by the CAT organizers citing the reason of ‘necessary repair’. This is second consecutive day when entrance examination of premier B-schools of the country has affected due to bad management of the online-examination system.

Though number of affected students yet to be decided but candidates have been told to stay in touch with their e-mail and sms to know their new schedule for the examination. The CAT online test system was crashed on Saturday too on various centres affecting thousands of candidates aspiring a seat in the prestigious IIMs.

The much-hyped online examination system and debut attempt of Common Admission Test to convert traditional examination system into online have come under doubt as the a large number of CAT aspirant affected as the computer system crashed at several examination centre.
Candidates of at least six cities including Kolkata, Bhopal, Pune, Banglore and Mumbai have been reportedly affected due to the crash in the system. Though the number of the affected candidates has yet to be announced but it seems that the premier B-schools have not learnt any lesson from the recent crash of IGNOU’s online examination for engineering.
Over 2.5 lakh students were appeared for the CAT examination to get entry in the top B-schools including IIMs and several other B-schools. It was the first time the CAT was conducted online throughout the country at 115 centres and 32 cities.

Sunita Nanda is a different kind of fashion designer. The fashion world may not be aware of her name but she had walked on the ramp at United Nations in New York last year. She used to go five-star hotels and attend high level seminars to share her experience as an international fashion designer.
But at the same time she also sells papad, pickles, handicrafts at the stalls of these five-star hotels. Her life in the tinsel town is not glamorous like a professional designer. But she is happy and contented. She does not even remember that top models like Indrani Das Gupta, Jessy Randhawa, Mehar Ali, Aryan Vaid, Sheetal Malhar, Carol Gracia had wore dresses stitched by her and women like her.
They learned fashion designing from one of the best fashion designers Abdul Halder, who used to design dresses for Michael Jackson.
These are old stories for her and over a two dozen women who also walked on the ramp in United Nations but when you start talking about these you will find a victorious spark on their faces.

Talking to fachcha.com at Delhi’s famous hotel Lalit (earlier known as hotel Inter-Continental) Sunita Nanda says that she is very happy now. She earns about rupees 2500/- to 3000/- per month now. Her husband is a photographer and he also earns 5000/- to 6000/- per month. Speaking about past life she says that she could hardly earn rupees 500/- to 600/- per month through scavenging at various homes. It was a demeaning and humiliating practice for her and her friends. She is among those who have been liberated from inhuman practice of manual scavenging last year. She and other women came here this month on during a function of Sulabh International.

Sharing her experience about the UN visit Usha Choumar, another woman liberated from scavenging at Alwar, says “It was a funny experience for us. Most of the women had dressed in short skirts and nobody appeared in sari. We were laughing on them and they were laughing on us.”

Sushila Chauhan, who also visited UN says that it is better to forget past life of scavenging rather than making it a memory. According to her now they are regularly getting work for designing of sari, and other dress materials. The work includes stitching, embroidery and others. But sari takes much time as it needs collective efforts. The rate for sari is ‘high’ too (about rupees 2000 to 3000). According to Sunita Nanda it takes about eight days to finalize a sari and it needs five to six persons to complete the task.

Was the showcasing of skill of fashion designing on ramp at UN just token? Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder of Sulabh International, says no. “All of us were busy in the Herculean task of making Alwar completely scavenging free. As it has completed now they will go back on the ramp again and you will find them in fashion week too”, says Pathak.
(Pix courtsy: Sulabh International)

“Sanskrit scholars should learn English to make the spread of the language easier and better”, IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Prof. Rajasekharan Pillai today said while inaugurating a seminar on Sanskrit. Stressing on the need to revamp Sanskrit education he said that IGNOU is planning to launch various advanced programmes in Indology and Vedanta. He said that the university will soon start Certificate courses in several Indian language.

Addressing the seminar, chief guest K N Shrivastava, Director General of Archaeological Survey of India said that ‘Sanskriti’ and Sanskrit are inter-linked. He said that Indian culture and Ayurveda can not be understood without proper knowledge of Sanskrit. According to him preserving our heritage and culture is important for economic development of the country.

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) School of Interdisciplinary and Trans-Disciplinary Studies (SOITS) today organized a Sanskrit seminar in the convention centre of the university. An Online certificate programme in Sanskrit, jointly offered by IGNOU and Chinmaya International Foundation(CIF), was also launched on the occasion. Several Sanskrit scholars too participated in the seminar.

As the date of Commonwealth games is coming closer the government is putting stricter norms for the participation in the games and to stop any kind of fraud. In the latest move the government has issued a guideline to check age fraud and advised all the federations including Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and Sports Authority of India (SAI) to treat age fraud on the same lines as anti-doping measures.

According the communication, released by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, both age fraud and doping amount to cheating and violates basic spirit of sports. The Ministry has also made it mandatory to produce athlete identity card, mentioning his name, age and other details, to participate in any state level and national games. This will come into effect from 1st February 2010. The Ministry has admitted that some incidents of age fraud had come into notice of the ministry during various tournaments and selection trials and said that that it is a matter of serious concern for the government. The Ministry has also said that a National code to check such frauds in sports would also be brought soon.

Meanwhile, the government has told all National sports federations to introduce a mechanism to provide identity cards, mentioning age, name and other details, after proper verification of certificates and medical examinations to check such kind of frauds. Those who are found guilty for such kind of frauds will be banned for two to five years.