US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Judith McHale will visit India on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the US-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) to strengthen educational and academic co-ooperation. The USIEF is the nodal agency for scholarships like Fullbright, Fullbright-Nehru and other scholarships. The foundation is celebrating its 60th anniversary on 2nd February.

During the visit McHale will travel to IIT Mumbai and other educational institutions apart from meeting Minister of External Affairs S M Krishna and other dignitaries. She will meet educational, cultural leaders and Bollywood personalities too.

National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), the apex institution for food processing industry will start its academic session from this year. The institution, established to cater the needs of different stakeholder like entrepreneurs, industry, exporters, policy makers and others, is going to offer various courses – short term diploma to Ph.D. level courses.

These include courses in management, packaging, biotechnology, nutrition, food standard and safety, dairy products, beverages, animal protein and several others. The NIFTEM will also be used as national referral laboratory for food standard and safety.

Delhi will have government public school soon. The city government is working on the proposal. According to highly placed sources the city government has planned to open three public schools in the capital city. These schools will be situated in North Delhi, South Delhi and East Delhi.

“The idea behind opening such schools is to provide best education and facilities to the students that normally available to the public school children. Though the admission in these schools will be open for everybody but the fee structure of these schools will higher as such schools will be based on self finance model”, told a highly placed government source to fachcha.com. This will also remove the common perception that government school can not provide public school type education, he adds.

The UK Border Agency announces that, with effect from Monday 1 February, it will temporarily stop accepting student visa applications under Tier 4 of the Points Based System at visa application centres in New Delhi, Chandigarh and Jalandhar. This is a temporary suspension and the UK Border Agency will begin accepting Tier 4 visa applications again as soon as possible.

The UK Border Agency has taken this decision in response to unexpectedly high numbers of student visa applications in these areas at this time of year. The temporary suspension will allow the UK Border Agency to continue to scrutinise applications thoroughly and to manage the visa process efficiently for all our customers in North India.

Customers who have already made appointments at the visa application centres in North India to submit their Tier 4 visa applications from 1 February onwards will have their appointments suspended until the UK Border Agency begins accepting Tier 4 visa applications again in these areas, and will then be given priority. Visa application centres in Western and South India will remain open for Tier 4 visa applications. Appointments will be necessary in these centres from 1 February.

Customers who are making applications in other visa categories are unaffected by this announcement

source:http://ukinindia.fco.co.uk

Delhi will provide 10,000 school guides for the inaugural function of CW Games. Delhi
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit announced it inaugurating the first world-class wrestling training venue for Commonwealth Games at Ludlow Castle Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya today.

The construction of Ludlow Castle Training Venue has been completed in a record time with a cost of Rs.13 crore. The Wrestling Training Venue is a multipurpose sport venue in the legacy. Centrally air-conditioned building has athlete lounge, change rooms, sport equipment room, medical & physiotherapy, fitness/gym, cafeteria, conference room, etc. at ground floor. Maple Wood Sports Flooring at First Floor would accommodate six Wrestling Mats. Two storeyed Service Block with water tanks, Pump Room, AHUs, HT/HT panels, Air-conditioning Plant facilities would also be available at this Venue.

According to Dikshit all projects related to Commonwealth Games, would be completed well-in time. She said that additional Rs.1300 crore has been enhanced under Plan Outlay for the current year and construction works of both Thyagraj and Chhatrasal Stadiums are on full-swing and likely to be completed in March, 2010