Friday, November 14, 2014

Industry participation in research, innovation important to promote entrepreneurship

Industry participation in research, innovation important to promote entrepreneurship: Report
13 Nov 2014
Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Government of India, today released FICCI-EY Knowledge Paper on the theme ‘Higher Education in India: Moving towards Global Relevance and Competitiveness’ at the inaugural session of FICCI Higher Education Summit 2014.
The knowledge paper reveals India’s vision to build a 21st century model for higher education that is of high-quality, equitable and affordable, and be a model of a higher education system that is not just the best in the world but the best for the world.
The paper suggests key imperatives to realize this vision such as developing higher education institutes with an international outlook and global impact; providing world-class teaching, research and conducive learning environment; relaxing complex regulatory requirements; incentivizing transnational education; developing skilled, job-ready and productive graduates; enabling higher education graduates with global skills, who can be employed by or serve workforce-deficient countries; developing research-focused universities that deliver high-quality research output and research-focused graduates; increasing R&D funding by Government, promoting increased industry participation in research and innovation and creating a conducive educational, financial and regulatory ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship.
It notes that the global economy is undergoing structural transformation. There will be need for a workforce of 3.3 billion by 2020, increasingly in the services and capital intensive-manufacturing sectors. The phenomena is also expected to play out in India – by 2020, 90% of India’s GDP and 75% of employment is expected to be contributed by the services and manufacturing sectors. Technological advancement will make several jobs redundant while also creating new job roles.
This structural shift in employment will increase demand for sophisticated workers, innovators, and thinkers who can thrive in a globally-connected and dynamic economy. India, with its large workforce and increasing pool of higher education graduates, is strategically positioned to reap the benefits of this shift. However, the ‘demographic divided’ will be squandered unless India is able to create a “globally relevant and competitive” higher education system that serves the requirements of both the domestic as well as global economy.
While the Indian higher education system has made considerable progress in terms of capacity creation and enrolment especially in the last decade, it lags significantly in terms of “global relevance and competitiveness”. The FICCI-EY paper highlights the following gaps in the system:
► Low employability of graduates, driven by several factors including outdated curricula, shortage of quality faculty, high student-teacher ratios, lack of institutional and industry linkages, and lack of autonomy to introduce new and innovative courses.
► Low impact research output and patents filed given relatively low government and corporate spending on research, insufficient doctoral students, missing research focus and culture in most institutions, and lack of international research collaborations
► Limited focus on entrepreneurship on campus as reflected in the fact that there are few institutes that offer programs in entrepreneurship and have active incubation / entrepreneurship cells
► Complex regulatory requirements and hurdles, poor institutional governance standards, and lack of professional management While we acknowledge that the Government has proposed and is also taking several measures to improve the system on the above aspects, there are some steps it could take to make the Indian higher education system a role model for other emerging systems. Institutions, on their part, would need to adopt a transformative and innovative approach across all levers of higher education: from curricula and pedagogy to the use of technology to partnerships, governance and funding, to become globally relevant and competitive. In this report, we have looked at some world-class institutions and country systems that could hold important lessons for government and institutions.
To make India “globally relevant and competitive”, the paper recommends that higher education in the country needs to be promoted as follows:
► India prominently placed on the global higher education map in terms of more globally-reputed Indian institutions, significant student and faculty mobility, presence of / collaborations with quality international institutions
► India as a hub for talent that is able to drive competitiveness of the Indian economy and is fit to work in or serve international markets
► A culture of research, innovation and entrepreneurship that can power high economic growth in the country.

Monday, May 5, 2014

MEMBERSHIP OF IIT BOMBAY LIBRARY

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE MEMBERSHIP OF IIT BOMBAY LIBRARY

Learning and Information Resource Centre @ SFIT is a proud member of IIT Bombay Library.

Our library members (faculty and students) are urged to use the services of the library only on working days (Monday through Friday) between
0930 – 1730 hrs. They should carry a letter of introduction from Head of the Institute and their valid identity card. Only following services are available to them:
Reference and consultation
Photocopying service
Bibliographic assistance on prevailing Database (CD/DVD only) rates access, searching and printing output )
Books and other publications are not lent out to the educational institute members. Internet access to electronic resources is also not available to them.


Please contact the Library for Application form and access details.

Information gathered from: http://www.library.iitb.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/edumemb.pdf

Pratham Books is looking for TENTASTIC champions

Pratham Books is looking for TENTASTIC champions


Yes, we are looking for champions once again. But this time, it isn't just for our International Literacy Day event. It is for a much larger and a much bigger storytelling drive.

Every year on International Literacy Day, our champions have shared stories across the world in multiple languages. We turned ten this year and wanted to turn the celebrations up a notch.

Join our tribe of champions and commit to conducting ten storytelling sessions for children during the year (including the main one on International Literacy Day). Imagine the number of children we will collectively reach through this massive storytelling drive. The number are boggling and the joy ... infectious!

Make reading contagious by registering to be a TENTASTIC Champion. Read about our previous champions here.


If you have any queries about the campaign, please mail champions(at)prathambooks(dot)org.

Source: http://blog.prathambooks.org/2014/04/pratham-books-is-looking-for-tentastic.html

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

A day in the Library

A DAY IN THE LIBRARY

"Everything you need for better future and success has already been written. And guess what? All you have to do is go to the library" - Henri Frederic Amiel

How apt is the quote! Every individual who loves to read books has a story to tell - about books, about the time he / she spent in the library and the atmosphere therein. A library is after all a place which has in store many people living in perfect harmony. And what's more, you get to choose what you want to read.

Did you ever think of thanking that librarian and forgot all about it or more precisely never had an opportunity to bring your thoughts into action....This is the right time to thank your librarian. We in turn are pleased to provide you a platform which would record your thoughts and your experiences. So come forward and share your experiences and let everybody know about it.

All the same, we would love to know how a library and for that matter - any library - your school library, college library, public library etc. have been memorable to you. And so, we are gathering stories from all over about:

1) how libraries have impacted you
2) any special instance / service of your library which you liked / remember

The above stories should necessarily be your personal reminiscences. Although this would be an ongoing project, I request all of you to please contribute your story at your earliest and make this initiative a grand success.

I request everybody and especially the librarians to share this page and the URL link with the maximum no. of people in your Institute and vicinity.

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