Education Community

IIT Bombay Professor Rangan Banerjee has been appointed as the next director of IIT Delhi, the outgoing director of the institute Prof Ramgopal Rao announced on social media on Monday. Banerjee, a Forbes Marshall Chair Professor in IIT Bombay, is a B Tech (Mechanical) from the same institute. Later, he obtained a PhD (Mechanical Engineering), also from IIT Bombay. “I am happy to inform you that Prof. Rangan Banerjee from the Department of Energy Sciences & Engineering, IIT Bombay has been appointed as the next Director of IIT Delhi. Hearty congratulations and best wishes to Prof. Banerjee,” Prof Rao, who had taken charge in April 2016, posted on Facebook. JNU Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar and IIT Delhi professor at the Department of Applied Mechanics Santosh Kapuria were also shortlisted for the post. Prof. Rangan started his academic career as an assistant professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai in 1992 before joining IIT-Bombay in 1993. He became an assistant professor in 1997 and professor in 2003. He helped in starting the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at IIT-Bombay in 2007. Prof. Banerjee was a member of the working group on New and Renewable Energy for the eleventh and twelfth Five-Year Plans and a member of the Planning Commission’s Integrated Energy policy. He has been involved in advising the city, state regulatory commission and energy agency, the Planning commission, Niti Aayog, and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. He has co-authored books on several topics — planning for demand-side management in the power sector, energy cost in the chemical industry and engineering education in India. He has been honoured with Excellence in Teaching Award by IIT Bombay and is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He is also an adjunct faculty (honorary) in the Department of Engineering & Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University. Source: The Hindu

Delhi: Delhi Hight Court, on Thursday, said that there will no postponement in the current exam schedule of the UPSC Mains examination. The court heard a plea to postpone the Union Public Service Commission Mains exams scheduled from January 7 to 16, 2022. To defend the plea, the UPSC counsel said that they had distributed the admit cards and even the centres have been prepared for the students. They added further that they are adhering to all norms dictated by the district authorities and trying their level best to ensure safety and security during the examination. Advocate Kapadia, hearing the plea said, “The candidates need to survive the pandemic to get appointed. It’s very short-sighted to argue that appointments need to be made. Several other exams have been deferred during the second wave of COVID.” He added further, “There is a fundamental right to be safe and protect your health. This exam is a test of mind and not of survival of the fittest.” He opined that the colleges and schools are already shut in the light of the recent situation including public transport. It is safety of the students. Source: IndiaToday  

  After the ‘Yellow Alert’ declared by Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal in the capital city, Jawaharlal Nehru University on Wednesday issued a pronouncement of a night curfew on the campus from 10 pm to 5 am due to rising covid cases. On account of aggressive rise in the Covid19 tally and tremendously transmissible variant of the virus, Delhi government announced ‘Yellow Alert’ in order to curb the rising number of the cases. Soon after this JNU imposes night curfew. The order will be effective immediately, the university said. In its order, JNU said all offline academic activities will remain suspended and Dr B R Ambedkar Central Library will remain closed till further orders. JNU has also released certain guidelines to ensure safety. Persons who are in emergency services, medical emergencies and supply of goods are only allowed on production of valid I-Cards. Persons who are either going or coming from the airport, railway stations or ISBTs and coming from somewhere else are allowed to travel with the availability of a ticket. It has stated that authorised shops in shopping complexes, Tapti, Paschimabad, Poorvanchal complexes etc. are allowed to open between 10 am to 8 pm on an odd-even basis. Only outdoor yoga activity is allowed as per the order. According to the order, All authorised canteens are allowed to open with only 50 per cent capacity from 8 am to 10 pm only. The order stated that, “The security branch of the university shall ensure to check the movement of vehicles and persons on the campus”. It has also added that, the security forces have to ensure that everyone has strict adherence to guidelines who is on the campus premises. The residents of the campus are not allowed to go outside of the campus during the curfew hours and campus gates will remain closed for all during the curfew, except for any sort of emergency movement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked IIT graduates to choose challenge over convenience and urged them to start working for the kind of India they want in the next 25 years, saying that a lot of time has already been wasted. Addressing the 54th convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, Modi told the fresh graduates that they have to take over the reins of the country. He said India too had started its new journey after Independence. “By the time 25 years were completed, a lot of work should have been done for standing on our own feet but a lot of time has been wasted,” he said. “The country has lost a lot of time, two generations have gone by and so we should not miss even two moments now,” he said. He told students that they have to take over the reins of the country’s development and start work on it right now. “It is the responsibility of all of you to give direction to the country for the next 25 years, to give momentum to the country,” he said. He said the country is standing on the threshold of ‘immense opportunities’, and urged students to take up the responsibility of making use of them. The prime minister launched blockchain-based digital degrees at the ceremony, also attended by Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The students were issued digital degrees through an in-house blockchain-driven technology developed under the National Blockchain Project. These degrees can be verified globally and can’t be forged. Source: PTI  

The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) has declared the reduced syllabus for ICSE AND ISC exams 2022. Students applying for the CISCE board examinations 2022 can check and download the syllabus from the official website, cisce.org. The syllabus for ISE has been released by the CISCE board for subjects like Sociology, Psychology, Economics, Mathematics, Business Studies, Chemistry etc. According to the new syllabus, the portion and paper pattern for ICSE mathematics has been reduced. The new version will have two parts of the examination. They are as follows: Part 1: Theory of 80 marks Paper 1 will have three sections, in which A will be compulsory and will be of 65 marks Students will have a choice between Section B and C, which will be of 15 marks Part 2: Project work of 20 marks ICSE Class 10 has subjects such as English, History, Civics, Geography, Maths, Physics etc. The new pattern also says that the ICSE Class 10 English paper will be two hours and will have subjective type questions. In English, there will be two papers. The pattern is as follows: Paper 1: English language Paper 2: Literature in English Both of these assessments will be of 80 marks. Internal assessment will carry 20 marks. Source: The news has been published by India Today with a few edits by the ArdorComm News Network

Mumbai: According to officials from the Maharashtra Education Department, the minimum age criteria for admissions from nursery to class 1 for academic year 2022-23 will be relaxed. The government resolution (GR) dated September 18, 2020 states that the cut-off date for the minimum age for school admission is December 31. Due to the old cut-off date, children born in October, November, and December face issues while securing admission into different schools. So, to provide relief on the issue, the education department has changed the minimum age criteria for admission for the academic year 2022-23, a government circular stated on Monday. The New Admission Guide According to the Government Circular: Children born between October 1, 2018, and December 31, 2019, and completing the minimum age of three years as of December 31, 2022, can take admission to nursery. The children born between October 1, 2017, and December 31, 2018, and who have completed the minimum age of four years as of December 31, 2022, can take admission to junior KG (kindergarten). Children born between October 1, 2016, to December 31, 2017, and completed the minimum age of five years as of December 31, 2022, are eligible for senior KG admission. For Class 1 admission, the minimum age criterion is the completion of six years as of December 31, 2022. The children should have been born between October 1, 2015, and December 31, 2016. Apart from the abovementioned guidelines, the circular also states that the age criteria for pre-primary admissions can also be flexible and no institution can deny admissions citing cut-offs. In addition, no upper age limit has been decided as of yet and it can be kept flexible. Source: The article has been published by India Today with a few edits by the ArdorComm News Network Team.

New Delhi: The Chemistry examination of term one conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) ended today at 1 pm. The CBSE Class 12 Chemistry sample question paper, marking scheme, syllabus and answer key are available for the perusal of students at cbseacademic.nic.in. The students are allowed to enter the exam hall at 11 am for their examination. A time span of 20 minutes is allotted to the students to go through the paper thoroughly before solving. The next paper in the CBSE Class 12 exam schedule is Economics.  Students have to compulsorily bring their admit cards to appear for their exam. The instructions for solving the paper on the OMR sheet are as follows: Write your name in the given space Enter your board allotted roll number Fill in all the necessary details on the OMR sheet The OMR sheet has to be filled with either blue or black ball pen The use of pencils on the OMR sheet is not allowed Students will be required to write the correct option that is A, B, C or D in the box  Students are required to provide school code, subject code and name, father’s name, and other details in the answer booklet According to the CBSE and the government guidelines, COVID SOPs must be followed strictly at the examination center.  Source: NDTV Education   

The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) will issue marks statement-cum-certificate as a single result document in place of three separate documents from the October-November 2021 exam onwards. The authority has issued a public notice with regards to the new change.  “NIOS will issue marks statement-cum-certificate as a single result document in place of 3 separate documents i.e Marks Statement, Provisional Certificate & Final Pass Certificate to all successful learners from Oct-Nov 2021 examination,” reads NIOS’s official tweet. Prior to this, NIOS issued three different certificates – marks statement, provisional certificate and final pass certificate to all successful learners.  In the new marks statement-cum-certificate, the word ‘Pass’ will appear in case the learner is fulfilling the passing criteria, else four-cross (XXXX) will appear on the marks statement. In case of improvement the same document will be issued indicating PASS ‘Appeared for Improvement’. This will also be applicable for any previous students applying for duplicate or correction in documents. ​​The Institute will issue Transfer-cum-Migration Certificate separately to the successful learners. Source: ANI