Four year for Nursery is ok but the Delhi Government wants to implement the idea throughout the country. Over 80 percent students of CBSE belong to Delhi only as more than 900 schools in the city are either affiliated with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) or follow CBSE curriculum. “We welcome the move of the Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal to raise minimum age for admission in nursery classes as it will be beneficial for both children and parents. But this should be uniformly implemented across all the states of the country”, Delhi’s Education Minister, Arvinder Singh told fachcha.com.

Reacting upon the recent proposal to raise minimum age for admission in schools, mooted by Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, the Education Minister said that nothing could better for parents and children if all the states implement the proposal but if the proposal is limited for Delhi it is not good for Delhi’s students. “We will not let our students to lag behind for one year in terms of 10+2 or graduation in comparison with students of other students”, Arvinder Singh Said adding that in most of the cases Delhi normally used to follows Centre’s norms in this regard.

It is notable that except Central schools and some other schools, affiliated with CBSE, follow centre’s regulations in this regard but schools in other states (excepts Delhi) follow the regulations of state boards. It is normally discretion of State government in this regard as education comes under the concurrent list of the constitution. And, 85% students come from states’ schools only.

“HRD Minister should also try to increase the age bar for Civil Services, IITs, IIMs and other competitive examinations too”, Arvinder Singh told fachcha.com.

“Imagine the situation if a student of other state completes graduation in just 20 years and our students complete it in 21 year it will affect our student’s competitive edge as well as their career promotion and so many things”, he adds.

The Kalinga Chair for the year 2009 has been awarded to Prof. Yashpal, Chancellor, JNU and former UGC Chairman New Delhi and Prof. Trinh X. Thuan, Department of Astronomy, USA. The awards have been given for their extra-ordinary contributions in communicating science to people, who have jointly won the International UNESCO Kalinga Prize for Science Popularization for the year 2009.
National Council for Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC), Dept. of Science and Technology (DST) announced its annual national awards for Science communication for the year 2009 to recognize the outstanding work in the field of Science communication. The awardees in different categories include Dinesh C. Sharma, DD Ozha, Manas Pratim Das, Takhellambam Robindro Singh and N. Ramadurai. The awards have been given away by Science and Technology Minister Prithvi Raj Chavan on Friday in a function.

The Union Budget has provided a booster to create a better environment for research and development. While the income of approved research association shall be exempted from tax several other measures has been suggested to provide better environment for research and development.

Presenting Union Budget 2010-11 the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has proposed weighted deduction on expenditure incurred on in-house R&D has been enhanced from 150 per cent to 200 per cent.

Weighted deduction on payments made to National Laboratories, Research Associations, Colleges, Universities and other institutions for Scientific Research has been enhanced from 125 per cent to 175 per cent.

Payment made to an approved association engaged in research in Social Sciences or Statistical Research will be allowed as a weighted deduction of 125 per cent. The income of such approved research association shall be exempted from tax.

R B Mankar has been appointed as the new Vice-Chancellor of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University, Raigad. Mankar, a Chemical Engineer and Ph.D. from IIT has been Director of Laxminarayan Institute of Technology, Nagpur till now. 48-year old Mankar has written one book and 18 international publications on various topics. He has been appointed Vice-Chancellor for next five years.

Though the education is the primary focus for the government but the Union Budget has increased the budgetary allocation about 16 percent for the primary education for the year 2010-11. It has been increased from Rs.26800 crore to Rs. 31300 cr. Several other measures have been taken in the field of education and creation of new jobs for younger generation in the budget.

Bundelkhand, which have been a centre of focus for AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, has been given Rs. 1200 crore for job creation in the area. Rs. 40100 crore has been allocated for the National Rural Employment Scheme and Rs. 48000 crore for Bharat Nirman scheme to create more employment in the country.

The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has proposed to increase post matric (10th standard) scholarships for SC categories. Promise has also been made for creation of more rehabilitation centres in the country for physically challenged people.
A National Clean Energy Fund has also been proposed for innovation and development of clean energy.