IGNOU entrance exams to start from Aug 21

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will be organising entrance examination for its courses on August 21.
More than 1,74,987 students will be appearing for the entrance exam. The test will be held in 311 centers across India.
IGNOU Regional Director Dr H Sangita said admit cards have already been dispatched to the students.
Sangita said those students who have failed to receive their admit cards can download them from official website of IGNOU.

Repayment of education loan may be extended up to 15 yrs

Students availing education loan could get longer a repayment period of up to 15-years if the Union finance ministry agrees to a suggestion given by Indian Banks Association (IBA). At present, the repayment period varies from seven to 10-years. A committee of IBA headed by T M Bhasin, chairman and managing director of Indian Bank has suggested that this repayment period be extended and it is up to the the finance ministry to accept it.

M Narendra, chairman and managing director of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) in an informal chat with reporters on the sidelines of a function organized by Mangalore University here on Thursday, where IOB donated Rs 14 lakh for campus beautification project of the university, said banks will lend only to students of recognized educational institutions and universities. Extension in repayment period would address issue of educational loan defaults, he noted.

IOB is the leading bank in Tamil Nadu in terms of lending to education, he said, adding that the bank disbursed Rs 2,000 crore by way of education loans in the last fiscal to around 1.05 lakh students. The move to donate Rs 14 lakh to campus beautification programme was in sync with the bank's theme during its platinum jubilee year celebration, which was touching the hearts and spreading the smile. "We are indirectly aiding education even here," he noted.

The bank, Narendra said, will also partner Mangalore University in its future endeavours by way of instituting scholarships/medals or setting up study centres or chairs. Narendra at the same time urged the university to patronise his bank, which would spur the bank to give more for the region. "We have plans to set up 21 new branches in the recently set up Mangalore region, to complement the existing network of 25 branches," he said.

T C Shivashankara Murthy, VC, who presided over the function said the university which has excelled academically and was improving on the infrastructure front was lagging in terms of overall campus aesthetics. "We have chalked out extensive campus beautification programme over the next one year at a cost of Rs 1.2-crore and around six banks have agreed to donate Rs 80 lakh. The university will meet the rest of the cost from its internal funds," he noted.

Common Management Aptitude tests(CMAT) trigger debate - Whats Your View Point

After proposing a National Aptitude test (NAT) — a single entrance test for all engineering courses and BSc, BCom and BA undergraduate programmes, the ministry of human resource development is planning another similar single entrance examination Scholar Aptitude Test (SAT) for similar courses.

Also from 2013 AICTE will be holding single test for MBA admissions. Like the American education system, these entrances will rank students across the country and enable them to seek admission according to their rankings.
As common entrance tests seem to be the way ahead for the Indian education system, many students welcome the new initiative; while some others feel it will make education more competitive.
Smitashish Sengupta, Class 11 student of DPS Rohini, says, “This would mean students can stop losing sleep over the crazy cut-off percentage system for admissions and instead try and get good rankings in the new aptitude test. It’s a good initiative.”
The test will be conducted twice a year so that those who fail to make the cut once can get another chance. But Dhruv Dhalla, student, first year Maths (Hons), Delhi University feels it will increase the competition. “With only two attempts in a year, students will have to bank on these common entrances to get admissions. It will make it tougher. Each child has a different aptitude. Having a common entrance test just doesn’t make any sense.”
Even parents and teachers support the initiative wholeheartedly. Vandana Sundra, a mother of Class 11 student, “In India as compared to foreign universities, the education system is quite stressful and 100 per cent college cutoff is the evidence. This will make the admission process smoother and easier.”

Sharda University’s SBS commences new academic session

The program was undertaken by Sharda University’s School of Business Studies (SBS) at the SBS auditorium in the university campus.

Sharda University, an institute of excellence, inspiring value-based education, research and development, today commenced its new academic session by organizing an Orientation Program for the fresh crop of students entering in its MBA, MBA (Hosp. Admin.), BBA and B.Com courses. The program was undertaken by Sharda University’s School of Business Studies (SBS) at the SBS auditorium in the university campus. The Orientation Program saw the congregation of well-known industry experts and key figures from Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), faculty members and trainers. At the orientation  Anjan Das, Director, CII, New Delhi shared his views on "Industry Growth and Business Perspective in Emerging Technologies in Globalized Economy". Other experts like  Rajiv Sahdev, Director, Moser Baer and  Anil K. Varshney, Vice President (Corporate Affairs), Reliance Energy addressed the students on   "Expectations of Industry from the Management Students" and "Business opportunities and challenges in the Service Sector in India"  respectively. Speaking on the occasion,  Pradeep Kumar Gupta, Chancellor Sharda University, said, “Sharda University takes pride in commencing the new session for MBA, BBA and B. Com courses. We have organized this special Orientation Program to brief our students about the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead of them during the pursuance of their courses and further when they join the industry. It is a pleasure that many industry experts are present here today to share their experiences with our new students and give them their best wishes for the college life ahead.” As part of the orientation, the students were also sensitized on the academic requirements and curricula of their respective course(s). They were briefed on the choices of specializations available and research projects to be undertaken.  Also presented were talks on rejuvenation of self esteem and personality development.

IIM Ranchi Director reveals its DNA at Conclave 2011

Over the past one year we have seen the new IIMs coming up, which are IIM Ranchi, IIM Rohtak, IIM Raipur and now IIM Trichy, IIM Kashipur and IIM Udaipur. The question that is arising in the minds of MBA education community is: Are these new IIMs following the footsteps of the older IIMs or are they developing a new DNA for themselves? 

Dr. M J Xavier, Director, IIM Ranchi recently provided the answer at the MBAUniverse.com Indian Management Conclave while participating in a panel discussion on the topic ‘The New IIMs: Leveraging the legacy, or creating a new DNA?’. Dr. Xavier, while addressing the gathering of VCs, Directors and Deans of management institutions of the country mentioned about the DNA of IIM Ranchi. He said, “The DNA of IIM Ranchi can be described in the following manner: Holistic development and thought leadership through erudite fusion of eastern knowledge and western processes.” He further explained the DNA of the first IIM of the new IIMs’ club. “The erudite fusion and thought leadership takes place through synthesis of new knowledge, which takes place through research on emerging areas, on Indian management and for the local environment,” he said. “The holistic development takes place through development of the body, mind and the soul, development of the people around, programs for the development of institutions of the area and program for inclusive growth. In this context we have made it compulsory for the students of IIM Ranchi to undergo rural immersion program, environment restoration programmes, programmes for NGOs etc,” Dr. Xavier informed the gathering.Taking the opportunity Dr. Xavier also explained the significance of the B school logo. He mentioned, “The bird depicted in the IIM Ranchi logo is a crow. The bird takes pride going towards the forward direction and signifies our journey in helping the country reach newer growth levels. The slogan is Bahumukhi Vikaas Gantabyam.  It reflects the institute’s vision, which is ‘All round development is the aim.’ The colours used in the logo are green and grey. While the colour green signifies growth and change, grey is the colour of creation and stabilizes the logo,” Dr. Xavier elaborated. Dr. Xavier also shared with the esteemed gathering the key focus areas of IIM Ranchi. He said that the B school is focusing on newer areas of research, such as Business Analytics, Neuro Management, Indian Management, Mining and Manufacturing, Inclusive Growth and Regional Development. Talking about the faculty, Dr. Xavier stated that IIM Ranchi has a mix of faculty from full time faculty, who are PhDs from India and abroad, Adjunct faculty, who have more than 10 years industry experience, visiting faculty from other institutes and industry and scholars in residence, who are thought leaders in different areas who may be associated on a full time or part time basis. The final thought which Dr. Xavier shared was, “Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people. We seek your support for all our unreasonable moves.”

50% management seats vacant after Round 2

Close to 50% seats in the business management course remained vacant after the second round of allotment closed on Tuesday.

The Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) will conduct four rounds of admission to MBA/MMS colleges across the state; admissions will then take place at the individual institute campuses.

In all, 11,005 seats were allotted to the 18,496 students who had applied in this round.

Students who are satisfied with the college that has been assigned to them must confirm their admission between August 3 and 6.

The third round of seat allotment begins from August 10 and 13,724 vacant seats will be up for grabs.

Gujarat Technological University: 40% seats vacant in city's MBA, MCA colleges

Nearly 40 per cent seats in the MBA and MCA colleges in the state have remained vacant, which has sparked a possibility of a third round of reshuffling for admissions. A total of 6,326 seats have remained vacant this year after two rounds of admission reshuffling. The colleges have been given permission to carry out admission on the vacant seats on their own from Thursday. Academicians are concerned over the high number of seats that have remained vacant.

In MBA colleges, there are 14,400 seats, of which 5,923 have remained vacant. In MCA colleges, there are 5,000 seats, of which 1,033 seats have remained vacant.

Admission committee officials of the Gujarat Technological University (GTU) said that a large number of students were granted admission online but cancelled the same after they went to the college to pay the fee and found it lacking in infrastructure and teaching staff. They added that there are six colleges where not a single student has taken admission and 35 colleges with less than ten students who have taken admission this year.

The admission committee has decided to keep the admission in two new colleges that were recently granted permission in Ahmedabad and Rajkot on hold. Both the colleges had 60 seats each.