ISBF announces final admission call for UG programmes
The final deadline for applying to undergraduate programmes at Indian School of Business and Finance, an affiliate teaching centre of University of London and one of the five featured teaching centres of London School of Economics (LSE), for the 2021 intake is August 5. On completion, Students receive a University of London (UoL) degree. Students pursuing Accounting and Finance at ISBF will also be eligible for exemptions in eight out of 13 exams of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
Intake: 120 undergraduate students across five programmes. It follows a rounds-based rolling admissions policy.
Admission: includes entrance test iMET for undergraduate admission and personal interview.
Eligibility: Those who have completed Class 12 or will be completing it in 2021, are eligible irrespective of their stream, or combination of subjects provided that they had Maths up to Class 10. Additionally, applicants to the B.Sc.(Hons) Economics and B.Sc. (Hons) Economics and Finance programmes must have Maths as a compulsory subject in Class 12.
https://www.isbf.edu.in/bsc-undergraduate-courses/bsc-admissions/
Mark Runacres, former Deputy British High Commissioner to India, recently addressed students at the institute, Delhi, at it's seventh Distinguished Public Lecture Series (DPLS) on The International Business Environment in a Post-COVID world . He identified three areas that he felt had faced the brunt of the pandemic — economic growth, the workforce, and the environment.
Tech Leaders Fellowship
The Plaksha Tech Leaders Fellowship (TLF) is a fully residential, postgraduate programme to nurture leaders in technology designed by a committee, comprising academic and industry leaders in institutions such as UC Berkeley, Purdue University, Google and IBM, among others.
Duration: August 2021 to July 2022
Eligibility: Applicant must be a recent graduate, working professional or entrepreneur, who is passionate about leveraging technology to solve real-world challenges. Technical prerequisites include a basic understanding of programming — sufficient coding experience in at least one high-level language such as Python/ C/ C++/ R/ JAVA, and a strong grasp of mathematical concepts, specifically in the areas of probability, statistics and linear algebra.
Scholarships: Need-based
https://plaksha.org/techleaders/
Introduction to Java in Hindi webinar
Great Learning will be hosting an hour-long, free webinar on Introduction to JAVA in Hindi , on August 6, and can be attended by anyone who is willing to understand the concepts of JAVA and its features. Faizan Parvez, Instructor of Data Structure and Algorithm, will shine the spotlight on the basic concepts of JAVA and why it is the most widely used programming language. He will help the participants understand the features of Java and its data types and will also cover operators including both unary and binary. The session will conclude with a Q n A round to help participants clarify their queries. Those interested, register at https://www.greatlearning.in/academy/learn-for-free/courses/introduction-to-java-in-hindi
British Accent and Pronunciation training
British Youth International College (BYITC) recently introduced its English Language Programme, designed for children from 4 to 14 years. It is divided into four blocks — Foundation, Intermediate, Higher, and Advanced. Students will be trained in phonics and trained to understand the relationship between sounds and spellings, and the difference in pronunciation and enunciation of words and phrases. Activities include storytelling, poetry, and elocution among others. For more information, visit, https://www.byitcinternational.com/learn-british-english-accent/
HCCB India Case Challenge
More than 17,000 students from several management and engineering institutes will participate in the the inaugural edition of India Case Challenge organised by Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB). The digital and virtually enabled case study competition aims to foster cases from real-life scenarios of HCCB business that can be used as teaching tools within management and business education. The competition will run till August 20 and see the top five teams qualify for the final round where each team will present a comprehensive business plan to the leadership team of HCCB. The top three teams will receive ₹ 3 lakh, ₹2 lakh, amd ₹ 1 lakh respectively, with pre-placement interviews. For details, visit, https://www.hccb.in/
TeamLease announces new Chairman and expanded Board of Directors
TeamLease Services Limited recently announced the appointment of Narayan Ramachandran as its new Chairman (Non-Executive). Manish Sabharwal, the Executive Chairman of the Company has transitioned to the role of Executive Vice Chairman. The Company has also inducted Meenakshi Nevatia, Mekin Maheshwari and S. Subramaniam as new independent directors on the Board. Ramani Dathi has also been redesignated as the company’s Chief Financial Officer.
UPES placement season concludes
UPES recently concluded its annual placements with 2,100 undergraduate and postgraduate students from School of Engineering, School of Computer Science, School of Business, School of Design and School of Law receiving over 2,800 offers from 500+ companies. Despite the pandemic, School of Engineering and School of Computer Science registered 100% placements. Top recruiters included Indian and global corporations such as Amazon, Infosys, Cognizant, Dell, ZS Associates, Vedanta, Flipkart, Ericson, Wipro, Delloite, EY, and so on.
Pioneer 21K School and Century collaborate
21K School recently announced its association with Century, an AI-based edtech platform, which provides differentiated learning paths for each student, based on the child’s academic progress. Learning nuggets are generated by AI or assigned by teachers to ensure that the child is challenged and constantly growing in his understanding of each concept ensuring flexibility and personalisation of lesson plans.
ConveGenius and Punjab Government Sign MoU
ConveGenius recently signed an MoU with the Punjab government to expand efforts to provide quality education to the students in the state. The association will strengthen the Department of School Education’s blended learning programme. The courses for classes I to V will be launched on August 16. The edtech model is implemented through weekly assessments for learning. The aim is to reduce the learning gap among students from the low-resource backgrounds.
Increase in student growth rate
WizKlub recently onboarded more students in the past month. These students, across age groups, are engaged with the organisation’s programmes to build cognitive excellence and tech excellence — HOTS (higher order thinking skills), and Young Product Designer Programme involving IoT, robotics, and coding on latest technologies like Alexa and AI. WizKlub is expecting this growth trend to continue and is in the process of hiring more tutors to cater to them.
Adolescent Empowerment Programme
Breakthrough, a women’s rights organisation, recently released the findings from its five-year-long Adolescent Empowerment Programme (AEP) in Uttar Pradesh. The programme was initiated in seven seven districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh in 2015-16, with support from IKEA Foundation, and engaged with nearly 1,50,000 adolescents girls and boys aged 11-19 years, from 511 Gram Panchayats and 694 schools. The key focus areas included health, education, gender, and violence. Some findings were: the marriageable age for girls increased by almost two years and adolescents school dropout rates fell by 6% between 2015-16 and 2021 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gene therapy programme and prestigious racing competition win
An innovative gene therapy programme was recently launched at the University of Sheffield, in collaboration with the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. The research has been awarded £5,13,141 from LifeArc and the Motor Neurone Disease Association, to test the efficiency of an ambitious gene therapy programme to treat motor neurone disease (MND) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) patients with underlying mutations in a causative gene known as C9orf72. If successful, it could lead groundbreaking research into future clinical trials for one of the most common forms of these incurable neurodegenerative diseases.
Sheffield Formula Racing, based in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, recently became the second British team in history to win the Formula Student UK competition at Silverstone. Run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), the competition saw more than 100 teams of engineering students from universities around the world design, build and race their very own single-seat racing car. The Sheffield team picked up eight out of a possible 13 awards.
IIT Guwahati collaborations: with Mizoram University and Brahmaputra Board
IIT Guwahati and Mizoram University will collaborate to develop teaching programmes. An MoU was recently signed, according to which both institutes will encourage contact and cooperation between their faculty members, departments and research facilities. The institutions will pursue cooperation through visits of faculty members to deliver lectures, conduct seminars, discussions, research and supervise student studies. Students would be encouraged to attend courses offered by the partner institutions and collaborate in research projects.
IIT Guwahati and Brahmaputra Board are set to collaborate to address river-related issues and on how to utilise rivers more efficiently for people’s benefit. The collaboration will help to evolve with innovative technology which will help for better management of rivers like the Brahmaputra. It is a partnership of experimental and computational study along with promoting academic visits of students and officials for the mutual benefit of stakeholders.
A success story
Leap’s IELTS training programme has been attended by more than 2 lakh study abroad aspirants since its launch this February. It offers a gamut of curated courses, delivered fully digitally and has seen the majority of participants from Punjab, Gujarat, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. More than 50% participation comes in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. For details, visit, leapfinance.com and leapscholar.com
Applied Intelligence Hackathon
The recently conducted AI Hackathon by Accenture saw over 3500 registrations from engineering colleges and business school students as well as working professionals in India above the age of 18 years. Centred on the theme Responsible impact with AI, to make the world a better place, it aimed to encourage participants to develop AI tools, apps, bots and other advanced solutions to address and solve these real-world problems. The winner was the team Artificial Mind from GH Raisoni College of Engineering. The first runner-up were teams Hat Static and Co-War from IIT-Kharagpur and Gayatri Vidya Parishad College of Engineering for Women, respectively. The second runner-up was the team Covid Warriors from Sri Venkateswara University College of Engineering, Tirupati (SVUCE). Special recognition was awarded to the team Covid Squasher from College of Technology and Engineering, Udaipur.
Student chef wins culinary scholarship
Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland (CAAS) recently held its second annual Cook ‘N’ Battle virtual competition, live-streaming the global finals. Yihan Ying from Dubai was awarded a $22,000 scholarship toward a five-star culinary education at Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland. Ying titled her winning creation the Winter Blossom inspired by the plum flower, which flourishes in the winter in her native China. Guilherme Razente of Brazil was the first runner-up and Cho Zin from Myanmar the second, both receiving scholarships to CAAS. The video submissions can be viewed on the Cook ‘N’ Battle YouTube channel.
Webinar on Share Market
IMS Noida recently organised an online webinar on Share Market , in association with the Shine Projects, for its BBA students. It was organised to create awareness about stock marketing or equity marketing so that students could familiarise themselves with the sector. The keynote speaker was Sri Harsha, Managing Director, Shine Projects and Kulneet Suri, Senior Director, IMS Noida.
Australian Alumni Grants Scheme winner
Bengaluru entrepreneur Madhavi Shankar, Founder of Edtech startup SpaceBasic, was recently declared one of the winners of Australian Alumni Grants Scheme (AAGS), a grant scheme developed to support the application, sharing of knowledge and experience gained by Indian alumni during their studies in Australia. She was awarded a project grant of AU $10,000 for her startup SpaceBasic, an AI startup that is digitising campus living.
Ashoka University convocation
Ashoka University conferred degrees on 1,125 graduating students of the 2020 and 2021 batches at a joint virtual convocation ceremony. Students were conferred degrees on completion of their undergraduate studies, Ashoka Scholars Programme (ASP), and Master of Arts programme in Economics and English. Nobel Laureate in Economics, Professor Eric Maskin , delivered the Keynote Address.
Brand ambassador Ravindra Jadeja
Gujarat-based Marwadi University (MU), recently signed Ravindra Jadeja, as its brand ambassador. The association strengthens the university’s vision and commitment to connect with youth and strive to set world-class education benchmarks via global engagements and collaborations. The association comes on the heels of Marwadi University being recognised as a ‘Centre of Excellence’ by the Government of Gujarat.
Samsung and KLE Tech University collaborate
Samsung recently set up an AI, ML, and Data Engineering lab at the KLE Technological University to provide students with an opportunity to conduct research in emerging tech areas and help find solutions to real-world problems. At the ‘Samsung Student Ecosystem for Engineered Data (SEED) Lab’, students and faculty will get to work on joint research and development projects along with senior engineers at Samsung R&D Institute, Bangalore (SRI-B). Collaborative research projects will be open to third and fourth-year B.Tech and M.Tech students and Ph.D. scholars. Students will also be encouraged to publish papers jointly with SRI-B engineers, and will receive certificates for their contribution at the end of each project from SRI-B.
Anant National University launches incubation centre
AnantU recently launched its incubation centre, Aarambh, to promote the entrepreneurship culture in and around the campus by offering various platforms to budding entrepreneurs to experiment with their business ideas, get one-on-one mentorship from domain experts and industry professionals, interact with investors, government, and non-government agencies, and create their own organisation/enterprise. Partnered with the Student Startup and Innovation Policy, Government of Gujarat, and IIT Kanpur, it provides an integrated approach to learning that includes converting the idea into a feasible business proposition, connecting to the entrepreneurial network assist in pitching the idea to the right audience. For details, visit, https://anu.edu.in/resources/aarambh-incubation-centre/
Webinar on global higher education opportunities
Podar World College (PWC), in association with the University of Wolverhampton, the U.K. and Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club, recently conducted a webinar on Establishing Linkages and Opening Doors for Students: Global Opportunities . Insights career pathways after pursuing the B.A. BM degree and global opportunities in higher education were offered by industry stalwarts such as Prof Tim Steele, Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Wolverhampton; Steve Bull, Football Player- Wolves FC; Russell Jones, General Manager, Wolves FC; and Vandana Lulla, Dean, Podar World College.
Aditya Birla World Academy expansion
Aditya Birla World Academy (ABWA), recently announced the expansion of its school campus. Through this, it will continue to support students’ academic and holistic growth. The school will add a new building to the current premises and setting up a science lab, design studio, 12 classrooms, innovation lab, swimming pool, and more.
SAI Model United Nations eConference 2021
SAI International recently hosted its annual SAI Model United Nations eConference, which was attended by 1,000 global delegates from 20 countries. SAIMUN is an attempt to create awareness among the young minds on the various pressing issues that affect mankind, resources, and the planet. The eConference had 10 committees each for classes IX-X and XI-XII, with interesting and stimulating agendas on global policies.
ISFC survey
A recent survey by Indian School Finance Company (ISFC) found that around 86% of schools are keen to digitise their ecosystem post-COVID-19. With a sample size of 1,000 schools, the survey was conducted between June and July 2021, and revealed that, since the pandemic’s outbreak, there has been a quick penetration of online learning with schools and institutes delivering affordable solutions — from 40% last October to more than 70% this year. Other takeaways were that 80% of schools were collecting less than 20% of fees till last November. However, the fee collection efficiency has improved, with 70% of schools collecting more than 70% of the fees in urban and semi-urban centers. It also revealed that 80% of the schools showed interest in getting fee financing.
