The university, which has been unable to find a suitable person to occupy the Dr. Manmohan Singh Chair in the Department of Economics since it was instituted in 2009, has now decided to offer the chair to Ajit Singh, an Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and a Life Fellow at Queen’s College, Cambridge, UK.

“The (PU) Syndicate has unanimously accepted the recommendation of the committee chaired by Professor R.P. Bambah (former PU vice chancellor) to extend an invitation to Professor Ajit Singh to offer him Dr. Manmohan Singh Chair,” a senior university official said here.

Ajit Singh, an alumnus of PU itself, began teaching economics at Cambridge in 1965.

“He has been a senior economic adviser to the governments of Mexico and Tanzania and a consultant to various UN developmental organisations, including the World Bank, the ILO, Unctad and UNIDO. During his economics career in Cambridge, Professor Singh has published several books and monographs as well as nearly 200 research papers, including 90 in refereed economic journals,” the Queen’s College website states.

The varsity’s move to offer the chair to Ajit Singh comes after it failed to get the acceptance of Nobel laureate and leading economist Amartya Sen. The chair was offered to Sen in July 2010.

The university, which is listed among the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) ‘Centre of Excellence’ category, has been unable to rope in eminent scholars of varied fields to occupy specially instituted chairs for high-end research work.

“Most of eminent people at the international level are not interested to come here. The academic environment too on the PU campus is not such that internationally renowned people would be eager to come here,” a senior faculty member from the social sciences department told IANS, requesting anonymity.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had done his graduation (BA honours) and masters degree from PU in the early 1950s. He later joined the Department of Economics in PU and became a full professor at the young age of 32 years. He left the university later.

“It looks like a healthy gesture that a renowned economist has been invited for this chair. It will be a matter of pride for PU if he accepts the invitation,” sociologist Manjit Singh, a former president of the Panjab University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) said.

Some of the faculty members on the campus are, however, sceptical whether Ajit Singh will accept the invitation.

“Someone who has been associated with the University of Cambridge for over 45 years may not accept this invitation,” a faculty member said.

The Dr. Manmohan Singh Chair is not the only one waiting for a suitable candidate. Some of the other specially instituted chairs in PU have been vacant for years. The vacant chairs include the Guru Nanak Study chair, the Bhai Veer Singh chair (on comparative literature), the Guru Ravi Dass chair (on Sant Sahitya studies), the Shiekh Baba Farid chair (on medieval Punjabi literatrure), the Tagore chair, the Mulk Raj Anand chair and the Dayanand chair on Vedic studies.

As per university officials, a chair is created in the name of a visionary, scholar or renowned personality on a particular subject to provide a platform for research work.

“It was unusual for PU authorities to name a chair on a living person (Manmohan Singh). My people have linked it to sycophancy,” a senior PU official said.

Established in 1882 in Lahore city, now in Pakistan, PU was re-located to its present sprawling campus in Chandigarh’s Sector 14 and 25, in 1956 after the country’s partition in August 1947. It is one of the oldest universities in the country.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leads the list of known alumni from the university. Three of his present cabinet colleagues – Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal – are also PU alumnni.

Another past prime minister, Inder Kumar Gujral, is also an alumnus of the university. Former president Shankar Dayal Sharma, who died in 1999, was also from the university.

Other notable alumni from PU include: present Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, her husband and former governor Swaraj Kaushal, Nobel laureate Har Gobind Khorana, astronaut Kalpana Chawla, first Nobel laureate from Pakistan Mohammed Abdus Salam, country’s first woman IPS officer Kiran Bedi, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra, actor Anupam Kher and singer late Jagjit Singh.

This year, 59,536 students from 805 schools appeared in the Indian School Certificate (ISC) examination for Class 12 while 132,282 students of 1,706 schools sat for the Indian Certificate for Secondary Education (ICSE) examination for Class 10.

“Madhavi Singh of Carmel School, Dhanbad, and Shalaka Kulkarni of Sulochana Devi Singhania School, Thane (Mumbai), jointly topped the ICSE with 98.80 percent marks,” CISCE chief executive Gerry Arathoon told IANS.

“In ISC, Kalyani Vishnu of Christnagar High School topped in India with 99.25 percent marks. Globally, the topper was Rohan Sampat of Dubai’s Dubai Model High School,” he added.

According to the statement, the overall pass percentage had increased by 0.01 percent for both examinations. ICSE had a pass percentage of 98.62 percent, while ISC had an overall pass percentage of 97.25 percent.

Regionally, the southern region registered best performance with highest overall pass percentage for both classes, followed by the western region.

To view the ICSE and ISC results for 2012, you can visit http://www.cisce.timesofindia.com

Satyam Kumar of Bakhorapur village in Bhojpur district qualified from the Mumbai zone with an all-India rank of 8,137.

“I am happy to crack IIT-JEE but I will not join IIT this year because of my poor rank. I will attempt next year for a good rank,” Kumar told IANS over telephone Saturday.

Kumar said he was keen to develop a software company on the lines of Facebook.

Kumar’s father, Sidhnath Singh, a farmer, is proud of him.

“It is a matter of pride that my son is the youngest to qualify for IIT-JEE,” he said.

Kumar is still awaiting his class 12 results.

According to the father, Kumar passed the Class 10 board exam from Modern School in Kota, Rajasthan.

He said his son was intelligent since early childhood.

“He used to impress everyone with his talent even when he was barely five years old.” This is why, the father said, he sent the boy to Kota for higher education.

“The entire village celebrated his success bursting firecrackers and consuming sweets,” Singh said.

This year, 27 of the 30 students from Bihar’s Super 30 cracked the Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination.

Shailesh Kumar and Biswajit Bahera are among the successful 27 students.

Biswajit Bahera, whose father works as a security guard in Kolkata, said he had never dreamt of cracking the prestigious exam. “My father is a security guard in Kolkata. As I gave him the news, he was extremely happy, though he does not quite understand what it would mean,” Bahera told IANS, adding his stay at the Super 30 hostel and the coaching by Anand Kumar and his team filled him with a lot of confidence.

Shailesh’s father is a marginal farmer with less than two bigha land for agriculture, his main source of livelihood.

Behra was full of gratitude for Super 30. “If Super 30 had not provided me with facilities, it was beyond my reach to crack the IIT-JEE,” he said.

“At Super 30, it is only education that matters. Even in the hostel, the peer group helps. We sit, eat and sleep together solving problems. When Anand Kumar teaches, it is like music. As most of the students are from poor background, they all put in all their effort, which leads to healthy competition,” Shailesh told IANS.

Ashish Ranjan, whose father is a truck mechanic, said his family and everyone in his village are in a celebratory mood. “As soon as I told my father about my success on the mobile, he was extremely happy. But he often said ITI, instead of IIT. He is a truck mechanic. He did not have enough money, but I read about Super 30 and came here to take the entrance test. Once I qualified and stayed at Super 30, I felt I could do it,” Ashish said.

Sonu Kumar Rudra, son of a daily wage labourer, said his father and relatives were disbelieving at first when he told them he had cracked IIT-JEE. “I am lucky that I was selected by Super 30′s Anand Kumar,” Sonu said.

Sumit Kumar Gupta was on cloud nine after seeing his result. “I got to know of Super 30 through a newspaper. I came to Patna and took the test. Luckily I made it to Super 30 and that changed the course for me. Else, with the meagre income from my father’s grocers’ shop I would not have been able to continue my studies. At Super 30, there was no botheration, as I did not have to pay anything. Plus there was quality teaching,” Sumit told IANS.

Sumit recalled how two of his brothers could not continue their studies due to financial hardship. “I want to go for UPSC after my B.Tech. I have seen how Anand sir is making a difference to so many poor students, who don’t even have proper schooling. His style of teaching is distinct. I also want to do something for the society,” he added.

The institute selects talented students from poor families and provides them with free coaching, food and accommodation.

According to Anand, “Hard work, proper guidance and supervision are the secrets of our success.”

Students from poor families have to pass a competitive test to get into Super 30 and then commit themselves to a year of 16 hours a day study routine. Coaching, food and accommodation are free for the students. Anand Kumar said the institute is supported by income generated from his Ramanujam School of Mathematics, which has students who can afford to pay fees.

In 2003, the first year of the institute, 18 students made it to the IITs. The number rose to 22 in 2004 and to 26 in 2005. In 2007 and 2006, 28 students made it through IIT-JEE. In 2008, for the first time all 30 students cracked the exam, as well as the following year.

The success story of Super 30 was telecast by the Discovery Channel two years ago.

Three years ago, Norika Fujiwara, a former Japanese beauty queen and actress, made a documentary film on Super 30 for its innovative and successful attempt to send poor children to India’s top engineering colleges.

“It is again good news that this year, 27 out of the 30 students made it to the IIT-JEE… it has underlined how with proper opportunity, students from poor families can also reach the prestigious IIT,” Super 30′s founder-director Anand Kumar told IANS.

The successful candidates include the wards of a truck mechanic, a farmer, a daily-wage labourer and vendors.

“All of them have managed to successfully chase their IIT-JEE dreams at Super 30 with their commitment and hard work,” he said.

Last year, 24 students of the institute had cleared the IIT-JEE.

Super 30, which helps economically backward students crack the IIT-JEE, was selected by Time magazine in the list of The Best of Asia 2010.

Students from poor families have to pass a competitive test to get into Super 30 and then commit themselves to a year of 16 hours a day study routine. Coaching, food and accommodation are free for the students. Anand Kumar said the institute is supported by income generated from his Ramanujam School of Mathematics, which has students who can afford to pay fees.

In 2003, the first year of the institute, 18 students made it to IITs. In 2008, for the first time, all 30 students of the centre cracked the exam, a feat which was repeated in 2009 and 2010.

Super 30 is a highly ambitious and innovative educational program running under the banner of “Ramanujan School of Mathematics”. It hunts for 30 meritorious talents from among the economically backward sections of the society and shapes them for India’s most prestigious institution – the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

In the last seven years, it has produced hundreds IITians from extremely poor background. During this program students are provided absolutely free coaching, lodging and food. Super 30 targets students from extremely poor families. They have all seen the change with sheer disbelief in their eyes that their children are now going to be top
technocrats.

The results of IIT JEE, which was held April 8, were announced on the official JEE website Friday morning at 6 a.m.

“Arpit Agrawal from Faridabad’s Modern Vidya Niketan school, who appeared in the exams from IIT Delhi zone has topped the prestigious exam this year,” G.B. Reddy, JEE chairman, told reporters here.

“Of the total candidates, 24,112 have secured ranks in various categories and 19,426 have been shortlisted for counseling for admission to 9,647 seats in the IITs and other institutes,” JEE Chairman G D Reddy said.

Agrawal was exuberant about the result and gave the credit for his success to the school.

“I have no words to express my feelings at this hour of success but I am sure this would not have been possible without the guidance and inspiration of my revered teachers at MVN who continuously encouraged me and mentored me to this successful position,” Agrawal said.

Earlier in 2009, another MVN student, Nitin Jain, was the IIT-JEE topper and the MVN principal said that Agrawal, a National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) scholar and a Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) scholarship winner, was in the same vein.

“Earlier Nitin Jain and now Arpit has done us all proud and has once again put Faridabad on the education map of India. Both of them are an inspiration for others and we wish them all the success for a stellar future,” MVN president Varun Sharma said.

A total of 4,79,651 students appeared for the IIT-JEE 2012 which were held at 1,067 centres across the country.

For the first time this year, the scanned images of the answer script were shown to the candidates between May 8 and May 10 to help them submit online revision requests.

This year, of the total 1,50,431 girls appeared in IIT-JEE, 2,886 have secured ranks and the first 1,908 have been shortlisted for counseling.

Apart from the IITs, IT-BHU, Varanasi and ISM Dhanbad accept JEE scores for admission.

Narayana Murthy

Infosys Founder and currently its Chief Mentor Narayana Murthy has been felicitated with  Global Leadership and Free Enterprise awards by the University of South Florida. The two awards were presented to Murthy by USF President Judy Genshaft at a ceremony in Tampa, Florida.

While talking to its students, Murthy talked about his current duties as Infosys chairman emeritus, which keeps him busy though not involved in the day-to-day operations, and then engaged in a question and answer session.

Murthy recounted details about the impact of changes in the tech world that “transformed the entire scenario” for corporations and “opened up unlimited and enormous opportunities,” most significantly the introduction of super computers and online transaction capabilities.

Maria Valentino, who mentioned how impressed she was with the business culture she found during her visit to Infosys as a student, asked how his company managed to maintain its values. Murthy responded that, because of his middle class background, it was not as difficult to do as it might be for the mass of people eking out a living.

“You need a spirit of sacrifice and you need to have trust,” he said. He explained how the company’s ethos has its roots in the very first meeting held at his house in Mumbai with his six fellow founders. Their discussion was focused on profitability. Murthy focused their attention on “seeking respect,” “living in harmony with society” and making sure “you don’t shortchange your customers”.

When you do those things, “Revenue will come. Profit will come,” he said.

In response to a question about the chances of Murthy entering politics, he mentioned his preference for “rational discussion” and the difficulty the political world offers for such a discussion, he expressed some hesitation

“In the CBSE textbooks of Karnataka, it is mentioned even now that Pakistan is a part of India. It went on to state that American constitution is based on capitalism. Class-III students of Urdu medium in Andhra Pradesh are taught that P V Narasimha Rao is the Prime Minister of the country,” Semmalai said, evoking laughter all around the House.

Finding further faults with the textbooks, he said, “In the CBSE textbooks, a forest is defined as a group of trees and heavy industry is defined as one where heavy type of raw materials are used.”

The member said that only 15 per cent of graduates are suitable for employment and it is a sorry state of affairs. It reflects the poor quality of education at all levels, from primary to higher levels.

He lamented, “If this is the quality and stuff that we provide to our students, one can imagine what will be the standard of our students.

“Unless we make concerted efforts to allocate six per cent of the GDP to education, our goal will remain unreachable,” he added.

The judicial commission, set up on the recommendation of the state assembly, probed illegal land transactions carried out across the state from 2003 to March 2011.

DPS, established in 1970, attracts NRIs and prominent people from the region. It also has students from foreign countries, including the US, Canada, Britain and several other European nations.

The commission, probing lease deeds relating to the school land, says the school got the land from the government on a lease of 99 years in 1937, with a condition of its renewal after 30 years.

It points out that “there does not seem to be any renewal lease deed after the expiry of the first term lease deed for 30 years, which expired Sep 18, 1966. Even rent as agreed upon does not seem to have been enhanced and deposited with the local civic body”.

“It was found that terms and conditions of the lease deed have been blatantly violated by the occupiers by raising (an) additional building in the leased premises and thereafter sold the property to various persons, including non-agriculturalists, without seeking permission,” says the report.

“Accordingly, the occupation of the heirs of the late Harbans Kaur, the original lessor, can’t be termed as that of the lessees. As per the documents, the (land) occupation appears to be illegal,” observes Sood in his 147-page report submitted to the government last month.

The commission also picks hole in the purchase of 27 hectares land by school authorities Jan 28, 2010.

The report says DPS constituted an educational society, headed by Charanjit Kaur, and purchased land on the basis of the society being an agriculturalist. The school in its reply to the commission says it’s competent to purchase the properties on the basis of an agriculturalist certificate given by the competent government authority Jan 23, 2010.

Sood observes that “the certificate of agriculturalist so issued was in itself an illegality as mere entry in the name of the head of the institution, who is in possession of the property so purchased, does not make the owner in possession an agriculturalist”.

The report says in view of the original ‘patta’ of 1937, the school building so built could not have been erected nor the original building could be sold in view of the terms of the original lease deed. Thus the occupation/sale of the entire premises is illegal and in violation of Section 118 of the Himachal Pradesh Tenancy and Land Reforms Act of 1972.

Principal G.S. Dhillon however sought to dispel apprehensions about initiation of action against the school.

“There seems to be some communication gap (between the school authorities and the commission). All property transactions were carried out by the school society and not by any functionary in his/her capacity,” Dhillon told IANS.

He said the new construction was done after demolition of a portion of the old built-up structures with permission of the authorities concerned.

Violence against Indians in Australia has been a sensitive issue, especially after several racially motivated attacks on international students a few years back had strained relations between the two nations.

Indian students, according to an Australian Immigration Department report, top the list of visas granted in Australia.

Overall, 284,152 international students were granted visas in the first three quarters of the Australian financial year ending March 31. This figure represents an increase of 4.5 percent compared with the same period in 2010-11.

Over 23,000 Indian students were granted visa this year.

The Australian Immigration Department assessment of Indian applications seem to have improved significantly from the same period last year as there has been a whopping 82.8 percent increase in Indian students getting the all important nod.

While 2,319 Indian students were granted visa in India in the three quarters ending March 2011, the number has ballooned to 4,238 this year.

A massive increase has also been noticed, according to a recent Immigration Department report, in the Indian students making application for Australian student visas. More than 8,000 Indians applied for visa to study in Australia in the nine months to March 31 which represents approximately 120 percent increase as compared to the number of applications last year.

The latest Immigration Department report on student visas has elicited comments from Monash University migration expert Bob Birrell, who is known for his hardline approach on anything linked to Indian students or academic courses they usually opt for.

“They have been swooshing around the system, applying for student and tourist visas, family reunion and as temporary skilled migrants,” Bob Birrell told The Herald Sun newspaper Tuesday while referring to Indian students in Australia.

“The student system was opened up to allow so many in, and now they are seeking whatever means are available to stay on via other visas,” he said.

The noticeable turnaround in student visa grants is also being attributed to a “backlash” from the Australian education institutes who had criticised the way Immigration Department was refusing applications from international students.

“Recent changes in the visa application process has made it easier for Indian students to come down under to study,” says Jag Khairra, a Melbourne-based migration and education consultant.

“Australian government has also worked hard to address fears about attacks on Indian students,” Jag added.

There were approximately 345,000 international student visa holders in Australia as of March 31.