LIRC@SFIT

Mumbaiwale: A bestseller in Bandra Hill Road gem: An underground library with 10,500 books, run by a chemist who ought to be in a book too MUMBAI   Updated: Apr 14, 2018 00:51 IST Rachel Lopez   Hindustan Times Gharda libarary at Bandra in Mumbai.(Satish Bate/HT Photo) I almost missed it. Walking down Hill Road, Bandra, where you can spend more in a restaurant than at the fashion stalls outside it, there are enough distractions. I nearly glossed over a billboard advertising a lecture that took place the day before. But the venue seemed interesting – a library right on Hill Road, a few steps from Elco Arcade. You’re forgiven if you didn’t know about it either. The Bai Ratanbai Gharda Memorial Library is in the basement of Gharda House, a glass-fronted, nondescript building obscured by hawkers and kiosks. THE PLACE Walk in and you’ll realise it’s a treat for book lovers. The 10-year-old library is air-conditioned, spotless (none of the ...

Cuckoo Clocked: Can an app make you a better birder? Cornell Lab’s Merlin app is coming to India. They’re crowdsourcing images from local birdwatchers, and everyone’s aflutter. The Merlin Bird ID app has changed birding in North America in the four years since its launch, helping novices identify species in seconds, from a single photo.(Image Courtesy Cornell Lab) In theory, it sounds perfect. You spot a bird in the wild (or on the windowsill of your concrete jungle), take a quick shot with your smartphone, and an app identifies the species in seconds with 90% accuracy. For those who’ve used it, four-year-old Merlin Bird ID has revolutionised birdwatching. But the app, developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Caltech, using crowdsourced photographs, is perhaps better known for how academia, machine learning and crowdsourced data can collaborate towards conservation. In North America, where it was launched, it’s allowed ordinary folks to identify bird...

Source: Daily News and Analysis dated 9 April, 2018

With $6.5 M in funding, this edtech startup helps professionals remain relevant in their industry Neha Jain      posted on 6th April 2018 AEON Learning offers online education platforms for working professionals encompassing both higher education and technology skill upgradation. At a glance Startup: AEON Learning Founders: Karthik KS, Sankar Bora, Vikalp Jain and Rahul Jain Year it was founded: 2013 Where it is based: Bengaluru Sector: Edtech Problem it solves: Provides online education Funding raised: $6.5 million In a fast-paced world where growth and development take place in a blink of an eye, keeping abreast with the goings-on in your industry becomes most crucial. Hence, online education has become one of the booming sectors in India. With the increasing internet penetration and the euphoria of Digital India, online education is expected to grow manifolds. It has witnessed a significant...

Javadekar announces April 18 as launch date for Study in India programme HRD minster said that if six lakh Indians are going out to pursue higher education, the new mission for Study in India programme is to bring 10 lakh foreign students into the country. Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar plans to launch the programme along with Sushma Swaraj on April 18. (PTI) To increase the inflow of foreign students to Indian universities, the union human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar, on Friday, announced April 18 as the launch date of the Study in India programme. He was speaking as chief guest at the inaugural function of the international conference on Internationalisation at Home (IaH), via video conference. It had been organised by Symbiosis International (Deemed University) (SIU) and Association of Indian Universities (AIU). “In the first phase of the initiative, we will be introducing it in 30 countries which can later...

Indian academia must be a wellspring of ideas, not a morass of regurgitated views The new rules approved by the University Grants Commission (UGC) say that researchers will lose their registration and teachers their jobs if found guilty of plagiarising. There will be graded punishment for offenders. This essential move should have come much earlier to ensure that Indian academia is a wellspring of fresh ideas rather than a morass of regurgitated thoughts. Plagiarism — the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own (read cheating) — has been gnawing away at India’s academia for years; even top academicians have been caught at it. For example, Pondicherry University vice-chancellor Chandra Krishnamurthy quit in 2016 after a prolonged stand-off with the ministry of human resource development, following allegation that she plagiarised large parts of one of her books. Appa Rao Podile, vicechancellor of the University of Hyderabad, was accused o...

However, it has made installation of vending and crushing machines necessary at starred hotels, malls, tourist places and public places across the state. The government has decided to lift the plastic ban on small PET and PETE bottles with capacity of less than half litre. (HT File (Representational Image)) In a relief to people, the government has decided to lift the plastic ban on small PET and PETE bottles with capacity of less than half litre. However, it has made installation of vending and crushing machines necessary at starred hotels, malls, tourist places and public places across the state. This means that all starred hotels will have to install crushing machines for using PET and PETE bottles in bulk. Similarly, it will be mandatory for big malls to have vending machines for collecting used plastic bottles under the depository buyback scheme. The manufacturers of PET bottles will also have to install vending and crushing machines at tourist and ...