Colleges Flooded With Applications For Vocational Courses
Most of the colleges under Magadh University (MU) have been flooded with the applications seeking admissions to vocational courses. The general refrain is that a majority of the students, including girls, are opting for vocational courses at the Degree level rather than the three years conventional courses.
College of Commerce, one of the premier colleges of the university, has received a large number of applications for vocational courses in BCA, BBM, biotechnology, functional English and other courses. The college will consider admission to vocational courses on merit, said college principal Subhash Prasad Sinha, adding the applications are being sorted out by the departments concerned.
B D College, which has introduced various vocational courses at the degree level, too has received a large number of applications for vocational courses. The college has been imparting vocational courses in BBM, BCA, IT, microbiology and industrial microbiology at the degree level. The college intends to increase seats in BBM and IT to cope with the rush of admission seekers, said college principal Sita Ram Singh.
He admitted that students seem to be more inclined towards vocational courses compared to three-year regular courses. Keeping in mind the job opportunities, both girls and boys who are career minded, are opting for vocational courses, he said.
Admissions Begin In Patna University (PU) Colleges
With the reopening of Patna University (PU) and its colleges on Wednesday after a month-long summer vacation, the entire campus reverberated with academic activities. Even as regular classes in most departments are yet to commence, boys and girls turned up in large numbers to find their names in the lists of candidates selected for admission to different undergraduate and post-graduation courses.
Almost all the colleges of PU have come out with their first selection list for admission to Degree Part I honours class in Arts, Science and Commerce streams. Patna College has already started admitting students to BA Part I honours classes while others are to begin this exercise on Thursday.
In Patna Science College, the cut-off for admission to BSc Part I honours class for general category students is 248 (mathematics) and 227 (biology) out of 300 marks. Under non-guaranteed list, the cut-off is 240 (maths) and 217 (bio). Admissions will be taken on July 2 and 3 after counselling of selected candidates.
For the first time in several decades, students admitted to the college would be allotted hostel accommodation on the spot. An extension counter of a bank has also been set up at the admission counter, said college principal Kashi Nath.
3 Companies Contend For Franchise Power Distribution In Patna
Projects Today reported that CESC, Reliance Infrastructure and Mumbai based Glodyne Technoserve are in fray to be franchise power distributor in Patna, Bihar.
Financial bids are expected to be opened on June 30th 2009.
Bihar had invited bids for franchise power distributors in Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur circles. As per the bid regulation, the contenders for Patna were required to bid for at least 1 additional circle out of the residual 3. While R-Infra bid for all 4 circles, CESC bid for Patna and Muzaffarpur and Glodyne bid for Patna and Gaya.
Apart from R-Infra and Glodyne, Enzen Global is the third contender for Gaya. Muzaffarpur received 2 bids and Reliance Infra is the sole bidder for Bhagalpur.
Meanwhile, the contracts are expected to be awarded within the next 6 months. Bihar State Electricity Board has appointed IL&FS for bid evaluation.
Indian Job Mkt Better Off Than Western Countries, More Than 60 pc Of Cos In India Are Still Hiring
CHEER UP
The global economic slowdown has also led to many job losses around the world. While India is better off than western countries, people have still suffered immensely.
Job loss is one of the worst fallout of any economic slowdown. What began as a housing mortgage crisis in the US last year quickly sipralled into a global economic meltdown and from September 2008 companies across the world began downsizing their workforce to cut losses.
Citibank cut 50,000 jobs globally; British Telecom cut 10,000 while Hewlett Packard cut 24,000 jobs.
India too felt the tremors with close to 50,000 laid off in a span of two months, according to executive search firm Redileon Search Partners.
Sectors that have witnessed the axe include real estate and construction whic saw 79 per cent cut in its workforce. Job is export and trade, too, are down by 79 per cent while IT and hospitality sectors have witnessed a dip of 50 per cent. Banking and financial sector saw job cuts by 22 per cent.
But numbers alone don't explain the full story.
''One afternoon when I went to office… I was suddenly called by the editor and all of a sudden he said that you have to go,'' says Barid Baran, who worked as corporate communication manager.
IT professionals in this tech hub are battling the global downturn with the help of doctors. Living under the constant fear of losing their jobs or trauma of seeing their colleagues getting the pink slip, the techies are increasingly seeking medical help to survive what experts call the "layoff survivor syndrome".
The intensity of the syndrome could become severe when a team member working on a project is benched or sent out, a leading psychiatrist said.
"It's a mental situation where IT professionals who of late have seen their colleagues, who are often friends, too, being laid off," B.N. Gangadhar, professor of psychiatry at the premier National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) here, said.
"First, it is the anxiety that the axe may fall upon them the next time and, secondly, a sense of remorse, with a tinge of guilt that they have survived, whereas their colleagues sitting next to them have lost jobs," Gangadhar said.
Two million people were employed in the Indian IT and BPO industry in 2007-08, according to the IT industry body Nasscom. The BPO sector employed more than 7 lakh persons.
"These are bad times. Recently two of my colleagues, who are also close friends, were fired. I am feeling terrible after the episode," said Sundar Gopal working with a reputed Indian IT company.
UNITES-Professionals (Union of Information Technology-Enabled Services Professionals), says there is no clear estimate of the job loss in these sectors in the wake of the global economic meltdown.
Singapore To Help Bihar Tackle Drinking Water Shortage
Singapore will help the Bihar government tackle the severe water crisis in the state, officials said here. Experts from the Public Utility Board (PUB) of Singapore will use latest water management and technology for the purpose.
"A team of experts from Singapore will visit Bihar to study the problem of drinking water and would suggest to sort it out. The team of PUB would visit half a dozen of Bihar's cities including Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga to study the ground situation related to problem of drinking water," Bihar's Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey said.
"After studying the problem of drinking water, the Singapore team would submit a report to the state government with detailed plans and programmes to get rid of it," he added.
Choubey finalised the plan while attending the Singapore International Water Week June 22-26. He told IANS that he had discussions with experts of PUB about the problem of drinking water in the state and they promised to help.
A large part of Bihar is facing scarcity of drinking water due to depletion of groundwater after delay in monsoon and unprecedented heat for over a month.
By ugesh sarkar, Section Water
Posted on Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 11:25:16 PM EST
Youth Training Centres To Be Opened Within This Year In Bihar
In an attempt to train more than 50,000 youths every year to be self-employed, a training institute would be opened in each district of Bihar by the end of this year, the state government said on Monday.
Replying to a short-notice question of senior RJD MLA Abdul Bari Siddiqui in the state Assembly, Deputy Chief Minister S K Modi said although the project of setting up the Rural Development Employment Training Institute (RUDSETI) was launched long back, they have so far been successful in opening the institutes in hardly eight of the 38 districts in the state.
RUDSETI, a programme of NABARD to be run by nationalised banks, would start training programmes in rest of the 30 districts towards the end of this year, he said.
"We want more and more youth to undergo the training programme for self-employment, for which banks have agreed to extend loans," he added.
State officials would help the banks in obtaining private houses on rent till they acquire land for constructing their buildings, he said.
By ugesh sarkar, Section News
Posted on Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 11:24:06 PM EST
Patna Second Best City to Start Business: World Bank Report
Despite national media's, both print and electronic, best attempt to portray Bihar in negative lights, Patna, in a report jointly published by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, emerged as the second best city in the nation in terms of a hassle-free path to start a new business.
In its report titled 'Doing Business in India 2009', Patna ranked second only to New Delhi followed by Jaipur, Hyderabad, and Bhubaneshwar where entrepreneurs could start a new venture without much bureaucratic hassle or government interference.
Furthermore, Patna ranked 14 out of 17 cities included in the report ahead of Chennai and Kolkata for providing an atmosphere conducive to conduct business in a metro area.
The rankings were based on seven criteria including ease in starting a business, ease in obtaining building permits, property registration, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business.
Bihar Govt Announces Reservation In State Judiciary
Bihar government today announced reservation for backward classes in state judicial services conducted by Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC).
The benefit was extended to the backward classes in higher judicial services -- additional district and sessions judges directly appointed by the high court, Cabinet and coordination secretary Girish Shanker told newspersons after a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The reservation for backward classes will not cross the fifty per cent quota limit, he said.
The constitution bench of the apex court in Indira Sahani and others vs Union of India and others in 1992 held quotas for backward classes in government jobs constitutionally valid, he said.
Shanker said earlier there was reservation for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the appointment of civil judges (junior division) but not for the backward classes. Now the candidates of backward classes will also be entitled to such benefits, Shanker said.
Several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, provided reservation to the backward classes in judicial services and all- India services, he added.
By ugesh sarkar, Section News
Posted on Fri Jun 26, 2009 at 03:19:26 AM EST
Footwear store in Geneva uses Buddha statue to hang shoes
Sight-seeing in Switzerland does not leave a vacationer horrified, but Patna's Prabhat Choudhary, his wife and daughter were shocked to
Buddha's statue in Geneva strore
see a Lord Buddha statue garlanded with a pair of shoes at a footwear shop in Geneva.
"We were strolling on shopping street when my 15-year-old daughter insisted that we got into 'Anne Fontaine', a designer footwear shop. There in the shop, we saw a 4-ft statue of Lord Buddha on the shelf displaying shoes and slippers, garlanded with a pair of shoes," Prabhat, a realtor, recalled.
The family was shocked. Prabhat's daughter, was furious. Though her parents were a bit frightened, she persuaded them to let her shoot the sight with her videocam. The girl, a student of Patna's prestigious Notre Dame Academy, accomplished her mission without anyone - the shop staff or the crowd of customers - knowing about it.
Back home, Prabhat has sent a letter to the ministry of external affairs, requesting it to take up the matter with Swiss authorities.
The Bihar government move to increase undergraduate seats in three government medical colleges-- Patna Medical College and Hospital
(PMCH), Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH), Patna, and Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) -- appears to have hit a road block.
The Medical Council of India (MCI) team, highly placed sources in the health department told TOI on Tuesday, in its report submitted to the Union health ministry has cited faculty shortage as the main hurdle in increasing the undergraduate seats in these medical colleges.
The MCI teams had earlier visited the said medical colleges following a request of the state government, as it wanted to increase undergraduate seats from existing 100 to 150 in PMCH, 90 to 150 in DMCH and 50 to 100 in NMCH from coming academic session (2009-10).
"Though the Union health ministry has not communicated the MCI report to us, yet we have information about the content of the report," a senior health department official said, adding, "The department would soon send a letter to the Union health ministry to sound it about state's stand over the faculty position and other steps being taken to meet the requirement for increasing undergraduate seats."
By ugesh sarkar, Section News
Posted on Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 10:37:26 PM EST
Rail Projects Worth Rs 30,000 crore To Be Shifted From Bihar To West Bengal: Reports
With Lalu Yadav decimated and nobody from Bihar Congress capable enough to take up the issue, railway projects worth Rs 30,000 crore are likely to be shifted from Bihar to West Bengal, the home state of the new railway minister, Mamata Banerjee. This includes the setting up two new locomotive manufacturing units--one in Chapra and the other in Madhepura.
According to media reports from Delhi this follows an internal review by the Indian Railways after Mamata Banerjee took charge as the new minister. The project could now come up in partnership with the private sector.
It was the outgoing railway minister Lalu Prasad, who had proposed that a diesel locomotive factory be set up in Marhaura near Chapra and an electric one in Madhepura. It was never a smooth ride for Lalu as he had to face several contentious internal debates and differences with other ministries.
A top railway official has been quoted in media as saying that "the cabinet has the power to decide where these projects should be situated. A decision on shifting the location of these factories would be a political decision and they can take a call on relocating the two projects, if required."
By ugesh sarkar, Section News
Posted on Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 02:35:28 AM EST
Bid To Help House Owners Pay Holding Tax
The state government is introducing the practice of self-assessment regarding holding tax (house tax) that the owner of a house has to pay
to the municipal bodies concerned. Besides, the government has envisaged that all the municipal bodies would complete computerisation of all the holdings by August 15 to facilitate e-payment.
Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi issued necessary directives in this regard at a meeting held on Sunday to review the functioning of the urban development department.
Modi has asked the municipal bodies to identify various roads running through the municipal area in the categories of "chief main road, main road, and other roads" so that Annual Rental Value (ARV) of various holdings could be fixed through self-assessment.
The fixation of ARV has to also take into account
if the house concerned is used for completely residential purpose or completely commercial and industrial activities. Accordingly, the holdings concerned lying along the graded roads have to be identified as fully residential, partially residential, partially commercial or industrial, or fully commercialindustrial.
During fixation of the ARV, all these factors have to be taken into account. Modi directed the urban development department to seek the opinions of the municipal bodies on certain matters -- like the time of payment of holding tax, provision of the quantum of discount during timely payment of ARV, and the quantum of fine that could be imposed if the delay is made in the payment of holding tax.
The computerisation of all the holdings and ARVs fixed through self-assessment would help in motivating the owners of houses to pay the holding tax on their own, including through the e-payment facility, Modi said.
By ugesh sarkar, Section News
Posted on Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 02:06:24 AM EST
IT Layoffs: The Fall of the Software Professional
Thirty-five-year old Sampath Tilak Vegi first started working on the Lehman Brothers account a few years ago. At that time, he had no idea how closely his fortunes would get entwined with that of the now defunct investment bank. The tango started almost two years ago. Vegi was living the great Indian IT dream. He had 10 years' experience. He was working for TCS, India's largest IT services company in Bangalore, servicing a marquee customer. He had just received a 25% pay hike and was contemplating buying a house in his hometown, Visakhapatnam. Life was good.
A few continents away, the New York-headquartered Lehman Brothers had just posted record revenues and profits, and was handling assets of over $275 billion. At that time, Vegi was sitting on multiple job offers. One was from American outsourcing giant EDS and the other from Wipro, India's second largest IT company. Both offered to pay him substantially more than what he was earning at TCS. But EDS was willing to pay a little more than Wipro.
Multiple job offers and generous pay hikes were nothing unusual in the IT industry. Talent was hard to come by. Companies had to pay plenty in cash, bonuses, perks and stock options to retain existing employees, and attract new hires by the thousands. New contracts from US clients were flowing in easily and IT companies had a simple formula for success: they could grow as much as they could hire. They often behaved like sharks in a feeding frenzy. They hired indiscriminately.
Vegi chose to accept Wipro's offer ahead of EDS. "I thought my job would be more secure with an Indian company," he recalls. Soon after, on September 14, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. In three months, the bank would be just a footnote in financial history. When Vegi heard the news, he was in Vizag for his housewarming ceremony. "Good I moved out of that account," he thought. But he had no inkling of the catastrophe awaiting him the next day.
On September 15, Vegi was summoned to his supervisor's cabin. He had been a part of Wipro's `free pool' (the bench, IT industry lingo for people without any work to do) for a few months. "The supervisor asked me to resign as there were no projects," recalls Vegi. If Vegi were to be assigned a project during his notice period, the supervisor promised to reinstate him. The supervisor then pushed his laptop across the table and asked Vegi to type out his resignation letter. Flustered, Vegi asked for time.
Patna University (PU)'s resolve to start classes of fresh batches of undergraduate and post-graduate students from July 1 is likely to be
upset following the extension of the last date for submission of application forms for admission by a week.
PU dean of students' welfare K N Paswan said now students can submit their applications for admission to the three-year degree and post-graduation courses till June 27. Earlier, the last date for submission of application forms was June 20.
The decision to extend the date for submission of applications has been taken in view of the delayed publication of Intermediate examination results and also due to the delay in publication of results of BA, BSc and BCom (Part II) examinations of PU. Results of Degree Part III examinations of several students were pending as their Part II examination results are yet to be declared.
The entire process of admission is likely to be delayed following the extension of the date of submission of forms. Now, in any case, classes of newly-admitted students would not commence before July 7, feel academics.
Meanwhile, PU launched an eviction drive on Friday to flush out students occupying the university hostels in an unauthorized manner. PU pro-VC S I Ahson, dean of students' welfare Paswan and proctor Ras Bihari Prasad Singh visited Jackson Hostel of Patna College and asked the students to leave the hostel without any further delay. They would visit other hostels shortly.
Earlier, PU had asked all the boarders residing in different hostels to vacate their rooms immediately after their examinations are over. While a majority of students followed the university's directive, others are still occupying their rooms on one pretext or another.
New Focus: Bailouts, Govt Spending Have To Create Jobs
The policy notes that unemployment is highest among the youth, women and college graduates, and new opportunities can be created in both labour-intensive and new sectors
In a bid to put job creation at the centre of its economic policies, the government plans to make it mandatory for all development programmes to generate employment, through a first-ever National Employment Policy (NEP).
The same goal will also be embedded in future bailouts or concessions to private sector companies, said a labour ministry official, and will also apply to special economic zones, the tax-free export hubs on which no consolidated survey reports on job potential exists.
Critics of Indian growth since the advent of reforms have often pointed out that job creation has not kept pace with economic expansion, unlike in many other Asian countries such as Taiwan and South Korea. India's average annual employment growth rate between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 grew 3%. But during this period, the unemployment rate also went up from 2.2% to 2.3%, according to labour ministry statistics.
About 10 million people are expected to enter the labour force each year. The policy notes that unemployment is highest among the youth, women and college graduates, and new opportunities can be created in both labour-intensive and new sectors, such as construction and tourism.
Around five dozen un-aided colleges, which also conduct +2 classes, face the threat of de-recognition from the Bihar School Examination
Board (BSEB) following detection of largescale irregularities allegedly committed by these colleges during the IA examination conducted earlier this year.
The irregularities came to light after a probe was instituted when the BSEB, while declaring the IA results on June 4, found that a large number of students of such colleges had secured very high marks and most of the top ranks were grabbed by them.
"During verification of answer-sheets of over 1,900 such students, it was found that the answers were same. This indicated malpractices during the examinations," BSEB chairman A K P Yadav on Wednesday said and added that even some evaluation centres were influenced as in some answer-sheets examiners appeared to have made entries.
"We would not only blacklist such examination and evaluation centres but would also take steps against the colleges which allowed malpractices and one of these steps may be de-recognition by the BSEB," Yadav said.
He also released the merit list of IA examinee according to which 160 students, including 99 girls, have secured the top 20 positions.
Physically challenged people have reasons to cheer up. The railways, which has been the largest employer in government service, has
decided to re-start recruitment process under the disabled category. In the first phase of recruitment process, the railways would fill up vacancies of about 4,254 posts in group C and D categories across the country.
According to sources, the railways have fixed a time frame for completing this recruitment
process. In fact, the railways would launch a special drive to fill up backlog of vacancies of physically challenged persons in the railways.
The special recruitment process would be completed in about 19 months from now as per requirements of the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995, sources said.
Confirming it, a Railway Board official said that the railways have also decided to fill up the backlog of vacancies under disabled category on non-technical ministerial posts in the Indian Railway Personnel Service and Indian Railway Accounts Service with 50 per cent seats to be filled up this year and the rest next year, he said. The backlog of the recruitment under disabled category had accumulated since 1996 due to some technical reasons. Thus chances of getting recruited in the railways seem to be more bright now for the physically challenged persons, sources said.
Under the three per cent quota identified for the physically challenged people, the railways have reserved one per cent each for orthopaedically handicapped, hearing impaired and the visually challenged category.
The railways would expedite the recruitment process as per rules and the eligibility of candidates under the Disabled Act 1995, said a board official.
It may be recalled that the All India Confederation of Blind had moved the Delhi High Court recently seeking directive to the railways in this regard.
By ugesh sarkar, Section News
Posted on Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 04:01:48 AM EST
Patna University (PU) Plan To Ensure Fairness In Admission
Once bitten, twice shy. Following the detection of some irregularities in admission of students in a few self-financing courses last year,
Patna University (PU) has devised a foolproof mechanism for ensuring fairness in admission.
PU has been running nearly three dozen self-financing courses at undergraduate and postgraduation levels in its different colleges and postgraduate departments. Each institution running self-financing courses has been asked to select students for admission through duly constituted admission committee. Panel of paper setters, examiners and experts for group discussion and viva voce would have to be approved by the chief coordinator of self-financing courses and the vice-chancellor. Three sets of question papers for entrance examination in each course would have to be submitted to the VC who would pick up any one.
The admission charges for students admitted to different courses and the rates of remuneration to be paid to resource persons and other staff along with course directors and coordinators have also been made uniform from the current session.
It has also been decided to close down such courses which fail to fill up at least 50 per cent of their sanctioned seats. Needless to say, a number of self-financing courses would have to be closed this year as they have failed to attract the desired number of applicants.
It may be mentioned here that only a few courses like BCA, BBA, MBA, Mass Communications, Functional English and Biotechnology are crowd pullers, the remaining ones find it difficult to attract the desired number of applicants due to lack of infrastructure and placement facilities.
The last date for submission of application forms for admission to all the self-financing courses was June 6. Several departments have already conducted the entrance tests and the process of group discussion and interview is in progress. All the admissions are to be completed by June 30.