Centre of excellence: A view of the IIM Lucknow campus

The Idian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L), is organising a programme on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business sustainability. The programme will focus on all four tenets of sustainable CSR — economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic. The three-day programme will be held from December 18-20 at the IIM-L campus.

The programme will expose participants to current international and domestic CSR initiatives. In addition, it will focus on issues such as institutional environment and business, the concept of sustainability — the new broad agenda, dimensions of sustainability, social / environmental / economic dimension and public-private partnership.

The course will address these challenges from individual, organisational, managerial and social perspectives. The issues discussed will help the participants to deal more effectively with pressures and demands that companies experience these days from a range of stakeholders.

LUCKNOW

Fun fiesta

Music mania: A rock band performs at Footprints

The wait was finally over for the 13-odd students of the Symbiosis Institute of Media Communication (SIMC), Pune, who had packed their bags and travelled to Lucknow to give the city a taste of SIMC’s annual media fiesta — Footprints.

The programme started with SIMC deputy director Anupam Siddharth delivering the welcome speech. Soon after the first session commenced with Kamal Khan, bureau chief, NDTV, Lucknow, giving students an insight into the recent trend of presenting entertainment-related content on news channels. Others present on the occasion were Saranjit Singh, ex-physiotherapist, Indian women’s hockey team, Sarvesh Kumar Singh, an activist working for journalists’ rights, and Mukul Srivastava, professor of mass communication at Lucknow University.

Vipul and Rashi, RJs of Radio Mirchi, added colour to the event. Their session, punctuated with catchy punchlines and the right dose of humour, kept the audience glued to their seats. During the interactive session, the RJs answered career-related queries.

The last leg of the event was on citizen journalism. Footprints also saw off-stage events like a photography competition, a short film making competition and a rivetting rock band performance by participating institutes. The off-stage events were judged by professionals.

Faisal Siddiqui,
Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune

CALCUTTA

Meet the parents

All parents, without exception, want their child to do well. At times, however, parental expectations create a lot of pressure on students. Parents in Calcutta recently had the opportunity to learn how to handle this at a session on good parenting. Organised as part of the 5th India International Premier Schools Exhibition, the session was open to all.

Speakers included Salony Priya, counselling psychologist and parenting expert, clinical psychologist Jaita De Mullick, child and adolescent psychiatrist Rima Mukherjee, consultant psychiatrist Sabyasachi Mitra and Nirmal Agarwal, CEO, Starkids.

Topics such as how to select an ideal school for your child, awakening the genius in your child, nurturing young minds towards excellence, positive parenting and the protective factor were discussed. The aim was to help parents understand their children better. Parents attending the session also received free counselling from child psychologists at the Anubhav Positive Psychology Clinic at the exhibition.

Fresh minds

It is not everyday that one wins $500,000. But winners of the Business Plan Competition not only won that stupendous amount but also got the opportunity to usher new ideas in the business sector. The competition was organised by the Loyola Institute of Business Administration (Liba), Calcutta, IDG Ventures, a venture capital firm, and TiE Chennai. The aim of the organisers was to recognise talent for tomorrow’s business.

With the current financial crisis creating havoc in the world of business, the competition gave young aspirants a chance to start a business of their own. Applicants had to send in a commercially viable business plan. Kumar Loganathan won the first prize in the general category while Ashiwani Kumar Gupta bagged the first prize in the student category.

Nepal

Healing lives

The Manipal College of Medical Science (MCOMS) in Pokhara, Nepal, is inviting applications for its MBBS course. To be eligible, a minimum aggregate of 50 per cent is required at the Plus Two level. Candidates should be above 17 years of age. There is no entrance exam for non-Nepalese students.

Students of Indian nationality seeking admission to MCOMS and subsequently interested in practising in India will need to obtain an eligibility certificate from the Medical Council of India prior to their enrolment. In addition, they will have to clear a screening test after obtaining their degree certificate, in order to practise in India.

To apply, log on to www.manipal.edu.np or mail your queries to admissions@manipalu.com. Students can call 9731425195 for one-on-one counselling between 10.00am and 5.30pm (IST) on weekdays. The last date for admissions is January 7, 2009.

CALCUTTA

Auto mode

Autonomous learning helps students become better learners and improve their examination scores, says a study by the University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE). CIE recently conducted a workshop to discuss the findings of a project on student-centred learning. It gave teachers access to the latest research from the faculty of education, University of Cambridge, as well as to global findings on student-centric education.

Learning autonomy is the ultimate goal of student-centric learning. Not quite the same as “independent learning”, which focuses on the individual, autonomous learning applies to groups as well as individuals. Autonomous learners take responsibility for their learning and develop strategies that enable them to learn both on their own as well as collaboratively.

Peer and self-assessment is an integral part of student-centric learning. It involves students assessing their own or their peers’ work with marking schemes, criteria and exemplars. This is a skill that needs to be developed with regular practice. The concept of student-centred education is now being used in a growing number of schools. CIE gives teachers access to effective teaching and learning strategies. Many of these focus on facilitating independent learning by students who find themselves in large groups.

NIIT, a leading global talent development corporation, has introduced six new programmes for graduates and final-year students seeking a career in Java, .Net, Web 2.0., creative publishing, systems and networking, business intelligence and data warehousing. The new postgraduate diploma programmes are designed to prepare students for the industry. The duration of these programmes will vary between 99 and 200 days.

The objective of the Java programme is to equip students with core programming skills. The .Net programme has been designed especially for science and engineering graduates and final-year students. The programme on Adobe technology aims at preparing students on RIA (rich Internet applications). The creative designing and publishing course will help prepare aspirants in the field of print and publishing. The programme uses leading Adobe technologies like photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator.

The GlobalNet+ programme is aimed at helping students with the latest skills and certification in key technologies in the domain of infrastructure management services and networking.

The business intelligence and data warehousing course equips students with knowledge of the latest tools and technologies in the field, such as Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) technologies and analytics tools. The fees for the courses range between Rs 25,000 and Rs 40,000. All six courses are available at NIIT centres.

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