News

July 3, 2010

PLACEMENT LINKED SKILL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME UNDER SWARNJAYANTI GRAM SWAROJGAR YOJNA (SGSY)

Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) Govt. of India has identified Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) as one of the nodal agencies for monitoring of five Pan India Projects for placement linked skill development programme under Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojna (SGSY). Training is provided in the area of Telecom, BPO and Security Guard. Two project implementing agencies are involved in implementing the project across India. 45000 rural BPO youths will be trained under this scheme and at least 75% will be employed suitably in relevant sector. The programme is being carried out in 20 states i.e., Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu, Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana & West Bengal. Fifty percent of the total BPL enrolment have to be from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes while fifteen percent BPL candidates have to be from minority communities.A total of 10219 (Ten thousand two hundred and nineteen) candidates have been enrolled under the scheme from the rural areas of the above states, trained and awarded certification by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). A total of 7269 (Seven thousand two hundred sixty nine) persons have been provided with employment with guaranteed minimum wages, PF, ESI and other social security benefits. The training and certification, initiative taken by Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor IGNOU under this scheme will take a long way to go to the beneficiaries in attaining the desired competencies and livelihood.IGNOU is also looking for suitable candidates for filling up four positions under this project purely on temporary basis. Interested persons may visit to IGNOU website (http://www.ignou.ac.in) for detailed information.

July 2, 2010

Urgent need to set up an autonomous body set up by Act of Parliament with the twin objectives of promoting and regulating medical education at all levels”- Prof. Valiathan

“At the Government level, discussions are in progress to set up a National Body by an Act of Parliament, which would preside over the promotive and regulatory aspects of medical education, said Prof. M.V.S. Valiathan, a reputed cardiac surgeon and winner of the Padma Vibhushan, at the 15th Prof. G. Ram Reddy Memorial Lecture at the Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) today. He was speaking on the topic,” Medical Education in the melting Pot”.

“For convenience, we shall call the proposed body National Commission on Medical Education (NCME) in this paper. The NCME should be an autonomous body set up by Act of Parliament with the twin objectives of promoting and regulating medical education at all levels. Its powers should be similar to those of the National Commission on Higher Education as proposed in a Bill being considered by the Parliament. Headed by an eminent medical educationist whose contributions as an academician, investigator, and administrator enjoy national recognition, NCME should have 8-10 active members who represent biological sciences, pre/para/ and clinical sciences of medicine, public health, sociology and technology,” added Prof. Valiathan.

He further stressed that for making the best possible nominations, the Government should ask for panels of experts in these disciplines from the National Academies of Science, Medicine, Engineering and ICSSR, who should be taken into confidence on the importance of NCME, its role in shaping medical education, and in due course, standards of health care and quality of medical research in India. “The members of NCME should have a term of five years. NCME should have its performance evaluated by an Independent Committee appointed by the Parliament every ten years. NCME should be accomplished through two committees, Committee for promotion of Medical Education and Committee for regulation of Medical Education”, added Prof. Valiathan.

Prof. Valiathan enumerated the reasons for the neglect of Medical education and the poor quality of medical education in the country, “ MCI, which was as much a promotive as a regulatory body, failed to bring about any important innovation in medical education which was beset with a host of problems in India”.

Speaking on the major challenges for medical education, Prof. Valiathan said that the progressive isolation or insularisation which is happening in Medicine, has many drastic consequences as “a physician whose education is so narrowly specialized that he is unable to discuss a medical problem with a chemist, physicist, biologist, engineer, or even a historian in an intelligible manner can hardly hope to be creative or innovative. Those who frame the curriculum and training programmes of medical students should make them aware that medicine is a part of man’s civilisational heritage and no more than a segment of the domain of knowledge which a University represents.”

The eminent Professor further elucidated on the subject of the neglect of public health in medical education and health care delivery and its consequences. He stressed on the urgent need for medical students to be taught degree of familiarity with these topics which represent the advancing frontiers of medicine, like genetic engineering and technology of electronics, computer science, materials science, and other engineering sciences.

According to the eminent surgeon, the toughest challenge for a medical educationist is how much science, how much technology, how much economics and sociology, and how much ethics should be written into undergraduate education without weakening the clinical skills and attitude of a physician in training. Prof. Valiathan made it absolutely clear that any policy on these issues must be dynamic and responsive to change because the only constant characteristic of science and technology is rapid change!

The Lecture was presided over the Indira Gandhi National Open University Vice Chancelor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. It was telecast live on Gyan Darshan and the live webcast was also made available on the IGNOU website, www.ignou.ac.in

IGNOU’s Prof.G. Ram Reddy Memorial Lecture series was instituted in 1996 in the memory of Prof. G Ram Reddy, IGNOU’s founder Vice Chancellor.the former speakers have been Dr RA Mashelkar,, Dr G. Madhava Nair, Prof. Yashpal , Shri Kiran Karnik and other eminent personalities.

June 27 , 2010

The 15th G. Ram Reddy Memorial Lecture

The 15th G. Ram Reddy Memorial Lecture shall be delivered by Prof. M.V.S Valiathan on the topic of “Medical Education in the Melting Pot” on 2nd July at the campus of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

Professor Martanda Verma Sankaran Valiathan, a personal friend of Professor G. Ram Reddy, is a reputed cardiac surgeon. He has made original contributions to cardiology and has pioneered the joint culture of medicine and technology, laying the foundations for a medical devices industry in India. He is currently a National Research Professor of the Government of India. Professor Valiathan was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2005.

Some of the earlier lectures in this series were delivered by: Prof. Gajaraj Dhanarajan, President COL; Prof. Wichit Srisa-An, Founding Rector, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Thailand; Prof. N.R. Arthenayake, Former Vice-Chancellor, University of Sri Lanka; Prof. Ian Mugridge, Former Director Programmes, COL; Prof. R.V.R. Chandrasekhara Rao, Former Vice-Chancellor, Andhra Pradesh Open University; Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Chairman, ISRO; Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Director-General, CSIR; Dr. G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO; Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon, Founder of National Law School of Indian University; Prof. Yashpal, Former Chairman, UGC and Shri Kiran Karnik, Former President, NASSCOM.

Prof. G Ram Reddy was the founder Vice-Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (1985-1989), and a fine person of great integrity and a good sense of humour. Educated at Osmania University and the London School of Economics, he was a distinguished scholar of Political Science and Public Administration. His contribution to the cause of higher education in India and other developing countries earned him world-wide acclaim and recognition. Convinced of the importance of universal access to higher education in achieving economic development, Prof. G. Ram Reddy made it his life’s mission. He established, shaped and nurtured many institutions of higher learning, including the B R Ambedkar Open University and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council in India. He held many other important positions in the academic world Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University for two terms, Vice President of the Commonwealth of Learning(COL), Chairman of the University Grants Commission and Chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research. The COL- International Council of Distance Education (ICDE) Award for Excellence conferred on Prof. G.Ram Reddy is an eloquent testimony to the international recognition of his vision and contribution.

June 24 , 2010

EXTENSION OF LAST DATE AT IGNOU FOR MASTER DEGREE PROGRAMMES

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), reopens the admissions for those Bachelors degree holders who missed the opportunity of seeking admission in Masters Degree Programmes.

The last date is Extended to 30th July 2010. M.A in Public Administration, Master of Arts (Distance Education), Master of Arts (English), Master of Arts (Hindi), Master of Arts (Economics), Master of Arts (History), Master of Arts (Education), Master of Arts (Political Science), Master of Arts, (Public Admn.), Master of Arts (Sociology), Master of Social Work, Master of Arts (Rural Development), Master of Arts (Tourism Management),

Master of Commerce, Master of Computer Applications, Master of Library and Information Science, Master of Arts (Sri Aurobindo Studies), Master of Science (Dietetics and Food Service Management), Master of Business Administration (for those who were successful in entrance exams), Master of Business Administration, Master of Arts (Public Policy) and Corporate Governance, Master of Commerce in Management Accounting & Financial Strategies and many more.

Please visit IGNOU website- www.ignou.ac.in or IGNOU’s Regional Centres for further details. Application for Registration are available with all IGNOU Regional Centres or can be downloaded from IGNOU website- www.ignou.ac.in by paying Rs. 100/- by cash or 150/- by post from the Registrar, Student Registration Division, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068.

June 22 , 2010

Last date extended for admission in Post Graduate Certificate in Project Management of IGNOU

Education and training in the area of Project Management is an important and effective means of transforming India into a project oriented society. In fact, it is in the national interest to improve our ability to keep pace with the international happenings through Project Management concepts. Keeping this in view to fulfill the defined needs, IGNOU has designed Post Graduate Certificate in Project Management (PGCPM). It is 6-month duration programme open for all those who have Bachelor degree in any discipline. PGCPM has special feature of total online programme delivery and continuous evaluation. The programme is very useful for working professionals, academia, aspiring managers and technical manpower engaged in various projects.

For admission in July 2010 session, the last date with late fee of Rs. 200 has been extended upto June 30, 2010.

The Student Handbook and Prospectus along with application form for admission can be downloaded from programme website, www.ignou-cepm.org. Filled-in Application form along with the requisite documents and programme fee (including late fee) of Rs. 7,500 may be submitted on or before June 30, 2010.

June 20 , 2010

WORLD RANKING OF UNIVERSITIES

In its Silver jubilee year, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has become undisputed No 1 as per ranking in various websites.

As per World largest Universities by student enrolment on Internet(Wikipedia,the free encyclopedia), & Top Universities Ranking Guide, IGNOU tops the list of 61 Universities,(30 lacs students) followed by Allama Iqbal Open University-Pakistan (18 lacs), Islamic Azad University-Iran (13 lacs), Anadolu University-Turkey (8.84 lacs),Bangladesh National University- Bangladesh (8 lacs), Bangladesh Open University-Bangladesh (6 lacs), Ramkhamhaeng University-Thailand (5.25 lacs), & University System of Ohio-USA (4.78 lacs)

Dr. B.R Ambedkar Open University, Andhra Pradesh, India rank at number 9 (4.5 lacs) along with University of Punjab-Pakistan(4.5 lacs),State University of New York-USA(4.5 lacs),California State University-USA(4.17 lacs).University of Delhi, India gets 13th rank(4 lacs).

IGNOU has reached the top slot due to its high flexibility, number of courses in diverse fields, quality course material and holding its exams semester wise twice a year uninterrupted for the past 25 years.

The university began by offering two academic programmes in 1987, i.e Diploma in Management and Diploma in Distance Education ,with a strength of 4528 students. Today it serves the educational aspirations of over 3 lacs in India and 36 other countries through the 21 Schools of Studies and a network of 61 regional centres, around 60 overseas centres. The University offer about 350 certificate, diploma, degree and doctoral programmes with a strength of around 420 faculty members and academic staff at the Headquarters and regional centres and about 36,000 academic counselors from conventional institutions of higher learning, professional organizations and industry among others.

As an inclusive institution, it is a part of IGNOU’s mandate to reach the unreachable, the underprivileged and the differently-abled. It is for this reason that the University’s educational and vocational programmes are geared to ensure that people at the margins of our society are able to equip themselves with the knowledge and skills required to confidently join the mainstream.

June 17 , 2010

EXTENSION OF LAST DATE AT IGNOU FOR BACHELOR DEGREE PROGRAMMES

Dr. Pankaj Khare, Registrar, Student Registration Division (SRD) Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), today announced extension of last date for Graduation Programme of the University.

Keeping in view to facilitate students whose results are declared late/yet to be declared by various Senior Secondary Boards, IGNOU extends LAST DATE OF APPLICATION to July 30th,2010 for the following programmes.

Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Bachelor of Commerce(BCom)
Bachelor of Science(BSc)
Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA).

Application for Registration are available with all IGNOU Regional Centres or can be downloaded from IGNOU website- www.ignou.ac.in by paying Rs. 100/- by cash or 150/- by post from the Registrar, Student Registration Division, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068.

June 12 , 2010

Appreciation course on Food Safety and Quality

A two weeks Appreciation course on Food Safety and Quality shall be conducted by Quality Council of India and School of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU )from 14th June to 25th June 2010 at the IGNOU campus for college and University teachers.

The objective is to increase awareness among the participants on the subject, and shall cover the topics like GHP, HACCP, GMP, ISO 22000, ISO 9000, ISO 17025, WTO agreements an their implications, Private Standards, International Food Standards, Food Safety and Standard Act-2006 and voluntary standards and certifications. The course also includes industrial visit. About 20 participants from different institutions throughout the country shall be attending the course. This is the second programme in the series of the initiative taken by the QCI in collaboration with IGNOU under its objective to build capacity of the college teachers and university lecturers to promote quality in the food industry.

June 6 , 2010

IGNOU- UNESCO to organize South Asia Science Olympiad

Students of Indian Higher Secondary and CBSE studying in 11th grade or equivalent in South Asian countries--Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, now have an opportunity to win IGNOU-UNESCO accredited merit certificates, prizes and awards”, announced Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai.

IGNOU and the South Asia Regional Office of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), New Delhi, are organizing a Science Olympiad for Science students currently enrolled in 11th Standard/Class or equivalent in other SAARC countries.

“All students who have scored a minimum of 70% average in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology in the terminal examination of 10th Standard/Class or equivalent are eligible to participate,” announced Dr. P.T. Manoharan, IGNOU’s ‘Sir CV Raman Chair’ professor.

If a prospective participant has obtained a minimum of 70% average in the science subjects of their 10th standard/class examination, he or she can register in a proforma found in the websites of IGNOU and UNESCO.

School principals/authorities are requested to promote the participation of all bright students and forward the applications from their respective schools along with a demand draft/ credit card authorization for INR 50/-.

Successful participants will receive certificates of merit, medals, cash prizes and awards. Top 1000 participants will be given IGNOU-UNESCO accredited merit certificates.

About 30-40 meritorious participants from the SAARC countries will be invited to IGNOU , New Delhi to take the second test and to receive the awards in person in a special award ceremony.

Last date for registration is July 25, 2010. For details and electronic registration please refer to the following websites: http://www.ignou.ac.in/ramanchair and
www.unesco.org/newdelhi/science olympiad .

June 5 , 2010

Training in Communication Skills at IGNOU

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU)held a two day long ‘Train the Trainer’ training programme in Communication Skills. The programme was organized by IGNOU’s, School of Vocational Education and Training (SOVET).

“The training was conducted by Accenture, IGNOU’s programme partner. It focused primarily on BPO practices, namely telephoning skills , email and pronunciation,” said Dr Geetika Johry, Programmme Coordinator , Diploma in Business Process Outsourcing Finance & Accounting(DBPO-F&A).

The training was attended by 9 participants, all senior academics from renowned institutes across the country , like CFSL, Hyderabad.

The participants of this programme will serve as counselors and Master trainers for DBPO-F&B programme, being run by SOVET. Some of them will also contribute as course writers for the programme.

June 3 , 2010

IGNOU to teach Multimedia Journalism

Journalists working in print or broadcast media who are making a transition to online multimedia journalism will soon get an opportunity to learn multimedia journalism skills from the best trainers in the world at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). IGNOU’s School of Journalism and New Media Studies is organizing a 10 day work-shop on ‘Beyond Web 2.0: Multimedia Journalism and Social Media’, in collaboration with DW Akademie , Germany.

The workshop will be held from Monday, June 14 tilll Friday, June 25, 2010 and will be conducted by two renowned DW-Trainers, Guy Degen and Marcus Bösch. The total fee for the programme is Rs. 20, 000. The Registration form can be downloaded from the IGNOU website, www.ignou.ac.in. The training programme is designed for online journalists seeking to broaden their multimedia and social media skills. Its primary aim is to acquaint the participants with the technologies and concepts that will be tomorrow’s web. It will focus on providing the participants with the necessary skills to produce multimedia content and use social media platforms for research, news gathering, networking and distribution.

The training will aim at teaching the participants ways to produce and present a multimedia project for the web, how to effectively use social media during their whole working processes,- new ways of using tools such as digital cameras and mobile phones for producing multimedia journalism and about new online and social media tools that can be practically applied to journalism.

The programme seeks to not only harness current Web 2.0 tools, but also show participants how they can adapt in an era of fast-paced digital development in journalism and move beyond Web 2.0. It strongly focuses on practical training in parallel with building upon the prior online journalism and digital knowledge of participants. The programme will be split into two sections. The first week will concentrate on introducing participants to new skills and digital tools as well as providing the opportunity for practice and skills development. The second week will focus on the gathering of digital audio and visual materials and production of a group multimedia journalism project.

For information and queries, interested participants can contact Mr. G.N. Prasad, Assistant Registrar at 011-2957 1108, 2957 1127, or they can e mail him at soj@ignou.ac.in

June 2, 2010

Admissions now open for IGNOU’s Management and B.Ed programmes

Indira Gandhi National Open University, (IGNOU), today announced admission for Degree and Diploma programmes in Management and Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) Programme .The Management programmes for which invitations are invited include Master of Business Administration (MBA),Diploma in Management (DIM),Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDIM),Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management (PGDHRM),Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Management (PGDFM), Post Graduate Diploma in Operations Management (PGDOM) and Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management (PGDMM). All the management programmes have multi-media design, and technology aided delivery systems.These are offered through countrywide network of study centres.

Eligibility for Admission in management programmes is graduation in any discipline with 50% marks for General Category and 45% for Reserved Category or Bachelor’s degree with 3 years of supervisory/managerial/professional experience, or Professional Degree in Engineering/Technology/Medicine/Architecture re/Law/ Pharmacy; or Professional Qualifications in Accountancy/ Cost and Works Accountancy/Company Secretaryship etc. or Masters Degree in any subject.

Candidates who have successfully cleared the entrance test for admission into Management programme conducted by the institutions like CAT, MAT and State Level tests need not appear in OPENMAT. The cut off percentage for admission of these candidates will be decided by the university.Non-graduates (10+2 or equivalent) with six years of Managerial/supervisory/ professional experience are eligible for taking admission into Diploma in Management only after clearing the entrance test.

There is no age bar for any of these programmes and filled in forms for Entrance Test ‘OPENMAT-XXVIII’ must reach, the Registrar (SED), IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi - 110068, by Registered Post/Speed Post on or before 15th July, 2010. The B.Ed. Programme, recognized by the NCTE, being offered by IGNOU is an innovative programme utilizing self instructional materials and information technology along with interactive personal contact programmes. The programme is essentially a judicious mix of theoretical and practical courses to develop appropriate knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes amongst practicing teachers.

The admission to this programme is on the basis of an Entrance Test to be conducted on Sunday August 22, 2010 at all India level. Duration of the B.Ed programme is 2 years and medium of Instruction is English & Hindi. The eligibility for admission into B.Ed is a Bachelor’s degree or a Higher Degree with fifty five (55%) percent marks. from a recognized University. Serving teachers with two years (2 years) teaching experience in a Government or Government recognized School.Candidates who have appeared in the qualifying examination (Bachelors/Higher Degree)and the results are awaited can also apply.

There is no age bar for admission to the Programme and filled in form should be submitted at the concerned Regional Centre on or before 15th July, 2010. IGNOU has announced Walk in Admission for Management Programme only. Candidates who qualify entrance test can submit the registration form (Form-2), which is available in the ‘Student Handbook & Prospectus’ along with the hall ticket of the entrance test, to the respective Regional Centres along with the required fee on any day after the receipt of result card, for admission cycle starting from Jan, 2011.

Provision for on line registration for admission to the successful candidates for Management Programme will be made available on the university website (www.ignou.ac.in) after the declaration of the entrance test result.

'Student Handbook & Prospectus for Management Programme & B.Ed. Programme – 2011’, can be obtained from the Registrar (SRD), IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi- 110068 and from all the Regional Centres of IGNOU whose addresses are given below, by sending a sum of Rs.550/- through a Demand Draft/IPO in favour of IGNOU payable at New Delhi/city of concerned Regional Centre or by paying Rs. 500/- in cash at the respective sale counters. Please write your name and address on the back of the DD/IPO. Last date for receipt of request for 'PROSPECTUS' by post is 30th June, 2010.

Application form and prospectus can also be downloaded from the IGNOU website: www.ignou.ac.in and sent along with a DD/IPO for Rs. 550/- in favour of IGNOU payable at New Delhi in case of Management Programmes, and concerned Regional Centre.

In case of Bachelors of Education Programme forms can be sent by Registered/Speed Post to Registrar (SED), IGNOU Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068.Prospectus will be sent to such applicants after receipt of Rs.550.

May 31, 2010

Term End Examination for June, 2010

The Term End Examination for June, 2010 of Indira Gandhi National Open University is going to commence from 1st June, 2010 and will conclude on 28th June, 2010.

The University has established 753 examination centres including 58 overseas centres, 21 centres in Jail for jail inmates and 51 centres at PIs for convergence students. Hall Ticket (Examination Intimation Slips) have been issued to 348036 eligible students who had applied for appearing in the Term End Examination. The detailed hall ticket status is also available on IGNOU website www.ignou.ac.in.

The students may also download the Hall Tickets from the University website and appear in the examination.

The Examination Centres have been instructed to allow students to appear in examination, even if they do not possess the Hall Ticket (Examination Intimation Slips), but their names exist in the list of examinees for that centre.

Students are advised to be in possession of the Identity Card issued by the University during the Examination and they should not carry mobile phone with them inside the Examination Hall.

Separate Hall tickets shall be issued to the students of BCA & MCA for Term End practicals. Students are advised to contact the respective Regional Centres in the last week of June for their practical examinations. . For BLISc. (Library Science) all Theory Examination Centres are not activated for conduct of Practical Examination. Students are advised to contact the Centre Superintendent and see the Notice Board for Practical Examination Centre

.May 26, 2010

Vacancies for Consultants at IGNOU

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) Centre for Corporate Education, Training and Consultancy(CCETC) is expanding. It is starting several new skill –based programmes from the July 2010 session. CCETC requires three full time Consultants to look after various academic programmes in the centre.

The Centre has the posts of Consultants in the Junior(Rs 15,000-22,500PM), Middle (Rs. 22,500-30,000 PM) and Senior (Rs. 30,000-37,500pm ) levels for an initial period of one year which is likely to be extended forward.
The Centre is looking for candidates with MBA/M.Com/M.A. (Economics/Financial Management). Those with Ph.D or those who have submitted their thesis will be given preference. Interested candidates must also be computer literate. The experience required for the posts advertised for is academic/ corporate experience in different management and allied areas for a minimum of five years. The maximum age for the posts is 60 years.Interested candidates may please take a look at www.ignou.ac.in , for the advertisement. The last date for application is 7 days after date of advertisement.Candidates can apply by email at ccetc@ignou.ac.in. They are requested to mark the application as ‘Application for Consultant ‘in the subject area. The applications can be sent to’OSD &Coordinator’, CCETC, Block 11, Room No.-6, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-68.

May 25, 2010

B Ed. Special Education Entrance Test on 30 May , 2010

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is conducting Entrance Tests for B.Ed. Special Education Programme for the session starting from July, 2010 on Sunday 30th May, 2010. The Entrance Test will be held between 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. The Entrance Test is being organized in 20 Examination Centres accommodating 3,457 candidates. The Hall-tickets have already been dispatched to the candidates by the University. The particulars of Hall-tickets are also available on the IGNOU Website www.ignou.ac.in. In case of non-receipt of Hall-ticket the candidates can download the Hall Ticket from the University Website by entering their Name and report to the Examination Centre. In case candidates are unable to download the Hall-ticket, they can contact the Regional Centre and obtain the information about Examination Centre allocated to them and report to the Examination Centre with a proof of submission of Entrance Test application form along with recent passport size photograph. In such case they have to submit an undertaking at the Examination Centre stating that in the event of information furnished by them found to be incorrect, their candidature will be cancelled. Candidates must report at the Examination Centre 45 minutes before commencement of the Entrance Test.

May 23, 2010

Industry-focussed Psychology programmes at IGNOU

“Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) today launched Psychology programmes at BA and MA levels with effect from the academic session July 2010”, announced Prof. Vimala Veeraraghavan, Emeritus Professor, Psychology, School of Social Sciences of the University.

IGNOU gives a very wide scope to read psychology as the main or one of the subjects along with many other subjects, and obtain BA degree. IGNOU follows credit system. IGNOU has included many new areas of psychology such as Sports psychology, Eastern psychology, Neuropsychology, Forensic Psychology, and so on in their Bachelor’s and Masters degree courses.

At MA level, IGNOU offers three major optional groups in the second year which will equip the students to be a well trained clinical psychologist or a counselling psychologist or organisational psychologist.

The unique aspect of IGNOU psychology course is to give opportunity to students to do internship of 2 months in the chosen field and get trained under a specialist psychologist. If it is school, the intern will be working under a well trained school psychologist, whereas in a clinic, the intern will work under the direct supervision of well trained clinical psychologist and in the neurological department will work under the supervision of trained neuropsychologist, thereby acquiring the needed skills and techniques to practice psychology in their chosen fields.

Practicals are given high importance in psychology courses at IGNOU. With plans to set up labs in study centers all over India, practicals will be conducted right in the IGNOU centers or in collaboration with the universities and colleges having psychology labs. Since in the coming years, there is likely to be greater demand for trained psychologists, IGNOU has taken the initiative to start these courses so that trained manpower is available to the many settings and centers to be soon established.

Psychology which is both applied and academic, is a broad and diverse field and over the years, many different subfields and specialty areas have emerged in psychology. Some of these include abnormal psychology, school psychology, counseling psychology, biological psychology, forensic psychology, neuropsychology etc.

Students passing out psychology at both BA and MA levels are in considerable demand to take up posts in schools, organisations, hospitals, welfare agencies and clinics. While those who get BA degree in psychology can be taken as assistants to many practicing psychologists and mental health specialists, those who complete their MA degree in psychology have scope in getting employed as psychologists in schools and counselling centers to practice and teach psychology. They also can be employed in HR departments in industries if they have specialized in organizational behavior and development. Many also can get employed in correctional institutions such as children’s home, after care homes , home for women , jails etc. For further information students can contact Prof. Vimala Veeraraghavan at 9810132735.

May 21, 2010

World Bank funds ICT in Agriculture through IGNOU Project

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) School of Agriculture launched a project on “Innovations in Technology Mediated Learning: An Institutional Capacity Building in Using Reusable Learning Objects in Agro-horticulture “ in collaboration with three partners , Division of Knowledge Management and Sharing International Crops Research Institute for Semi –arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, Yaswantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University(YCMOU), Nasik and Directorate of Open and Distance Education Tamilnadu Agriculture University(TNAU), Coimbatore.The Two year project is being funded by the World Bank. The three states chosen for the project are Tripura, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. It’s the first time that Re-usable Learning Object Technology(RLO) technology is being used in agriculture. This technology is based on the philosophy of”Open Educational Resources(OER” and is a new paradigm in life- long learning. RLO is the smallest stand-alone , independent units of learning designed for reuse. These can be digital formats of text, audio, video that are available online for 24 hours. RLOs provide life-long learning platforms to farmers. It is available freely and openly to anyone for use, re-use, remixing, recycling and redistributing .The objectives of the project include generating learning material in RLO format for use by community organizations, extension agencies, experts and institutions , to build a national pilot repository in digital format in agriculture , aimed at rural users and to assess the impact of new methods of ODL outreach in rural livelihoods.The project aims to develop 500 RLOs on various topics like horticulture nursery management, High value crop production, Integrated pest management, Integrated nutrient management and post harvest value addition in agro-horticulture and to train 250 experts trained in technology mediated learning material creation. In addition to this, 1000 rural learners in 3 states will be imparted knowledge and skills to improve livelihood.ICRISAT, the technology partner of the Project will provide the platform for development and delivery of RLOs. IGNOU will implement the project in Tripura, YCMOU in Maharashtra and TNAU in Tamil Nadu.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Latha Pillai, Pro Vice Chancellor IGNOU, who is in charge of the School of Agriculture, commented,” The rationale for a project like this is to empower Indian farmers to face challenges in new market scenario. RLO, if successful in agriculture , can be used in other fields as well.

”

May 19, 2010

IGNOU Student Clears Civil Services (IAS) Exam, 2009

Mr Himanshu Kumar, a student of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has stood 141st in the Civil Services Examination,(IAS) 2009 Merit list.
Claiming that the IGNOU Course materials have been a major contributing factor for his success, Himanshu said, “The learning experience with IGNOU has been enriching and enlightening”.
A student of second year M.A(Public Admn.), IGNOU , 24 year old Himanshu holds IGNOU in high esteem. “I have benefited immensely from the course material authored by the team of scholars at IGNOU. The course material on Public Administration proved invaluable to me while preparing for my Public Administration paper. There are no textbooks available for some topics in the Civil Services exam, for this paper and I had an edge because I was studying with IGNOU. Infact, I noticed that some of the other students preparing for IAS also refer to IGNOU course materials, not only in Public Administration but also for Sociology,” remarked Himanshu.
Himanshu is currently waiting to join either the IAS or the IPS, his first two options at the Civil Services. Having cleared his first year MA Public Administration with 64 percent marks, Himanshu is also gearing up to appear for the Second year exam at IGNOU, this June .
Himanshu’s achievement shall prove to be a motivation for all learners of Indira Gandhi National Open University, encouraging them to set goals for high achievements.

May 16, 2010

IGNOU to Consolidate Services to its students

“Soon IGNOU students shall benefit from strengthening of Student Support Services at the Delhi and Noida level”, announced Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) Vice Chancellor , Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai . He was inaugurating the Learner’s Conference of North Zone on ‘Consolidation of Learner Support Services’ ,at the IGNOU Convention Centre. The Conference was organized by members of staff of Regional Services Division, IGNOU Regional Centres Delhi-1, 2 and 3, Noida , IGNOU City Centre and Student Services Centre . The Conference aimed at obtaining feedback from the learners for improvement of the IGNOU Learner Support Services. The learners were the key participants of the conference. The University had invited its current learners and alumni along with learners who due to some reasons could not successfully complete their programmes , for providing useful feedback. It focussed on the success stories, the reasons that forced students to drop-out of the IGNOU Programmes and most importantly solutions to the problems faced by students. The views and feedback of these learners will later on be edited and published by the organizers . The One-day conference included Panel Discussions on Issues related to Academic Counselling, Examination, Use of Technology in Education and Issues related to placement

May 14, 2010

India was Modern Society much before British Raj -- Prof. Purushshottam Agrawal

“Some people are quite convinced that India was a veritable paradise on earth before the British arrived and that foreigners are solely responsible for all our ills and problems. That is, of course, another way of saying that we are not capable of solving these problems any more than we are capable of creating a few of our own. Some others however are equally convinced that the British, and the British alone, brought some life and enlightenment to an otherwise doomed Indian society. The fact is that the British Raj marked not the beginning of modernity in Indian society but the end of its indigenous, vernacular modernity. ..” , said Professor Purushottam Agarwal, a literary and cultural critic and Member, Union Public Service Commission of India.

Prof. Agrawal was sharing his concerns about a certain point of view that modernity is equal to colonialism, in a Special Lecture on” Construction of Colonial Modernity in India”, organized by the School of Translation Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) .Professor Agrawal further remarked ,” The British certainly did not invent caste but the credit for inventing the myths of caste hierarchy and the contention that considerations of ‘racial purity’ made India immune to political economy and the spread of commerce certainly goes to them. The invention of these myths was necessary to sustain the fiction of the ‘progressive’ role being played by the Raj in bringing a frozen society into contact with the warm ‘mainstream’ of historical progress.”Speaking on this common perception that England had pulled India out of the Dark ages, Prof. Agrawal cited examples from the writings of Karl Marx, Niall Ferguson , Carlo Ginzburg and Mike Davis. He spoke about the fact that more famines were recorded in the first century of the British Raj than in the previous 2,000 years, including 17-20 million deaths from 1896 to 1900 alone. A million Indians a year died from avoidable famines in this period, while relief was often deliberately denied as surplus grain was shipped to England.”Commenting on what prompted him to delve into the topic of construction of colonial modernity in India, Prof. Agrawal said that Tukaram, Kabir and Mirabai were being read as ‘marginal voices’, and he felt that he had to understand what happened in the 18 and 19 centuries. After his studies , he came to the conclusion that the relegation of the these poets as marginal voices was mainly due to colonialism. Prof. Agrawal also argued that myths and oral histories of a region must be given equal if not more importance, than written texts for recording its history and rounded off the lecture by stating ,”Need to deconstruct the myth of colonial modernization is a moral exercise for me.

May 12, 2010

Confluence of Minds

Spotlight :

IGNOU’s Convergence Scheme brings to the table the best features of the conventional education system and Open Distance Learning (article starts:)

They have the infrastructure and their students have the burning desire to partake of the learning that takes place in those brick-and-mortar classrooms. Yet, conventional higher educational institutes, despite the availability of facilities (at least in the evening hours, known as “idling time”), are constrained to keep the number of students under control, because the affiliating university, and the guidelines that the university adheres to, want it to be so. Which inadvertently means a cap on the number of students who can enrol for higher education.

In this scenario, how does the country achieve the Eleventh Five Year Plan goal of increasing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) by 15 per cent? Surely, innovative thinking is required, and that is what IGNOU has done in these last two years, by allying with Universities and higher education institutes to make use of their resources in the “idling time” to run IGNOU programmes. This arrangement is the called ‘Convergence Scheme’.

Speaking at a recent meeting on the theme ‘IGNOU Convergence Scheme: An Initiative for Enhancement of Gross Enrolment Ratio’, Vice Chancellor Prof V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai said: “To increase GER, we have to think radically. A large number of students can’t get admission to affiliated colleges. Schemes like Convergence help in running an additional shift.”

The Convergence Scheme, conceived jointly by the University Grants Commission (UGC), IGNOU, the Distance Education Council (DEC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), is indeed radical. It envisages a rare collaborative approach between two different university systems, to offer advantages to students in myriad ways. Under the system, the Partner Institutions have the following options:

Enhanced Access Programme: The partner may offer any undergraduate or post-graduate programme of IGNOU, as per IGNOU guidelines. Value-added Programmes: The partnering institute can enrol its undergraduate/postgraduate students or both for certificate and diploma programmes offered by IGNOU as a value-added programme.
Dual Degrees: Students enrolled in partner institutions might be given the choice of simultaneously enrolling for a degree of the same level in IGNOU.
Joint Degrees: There’s the possibility of IGNOU offering a joint degree with a partnering university. Here, the academic programme will be jointly formulated by the two universities.
The partnering institute has to provide the infrastructure, including classrooms, labs, furniture and equipment and also faculty, among other responsibilities.

IGNOU provides the study material. Among IGNOU’s responsibilities are financial grants under recurring and non-recurring heads (including an initial grant of Rs 1 lakh for setting up an office); training the partner institute in ODL and ICT, and study material. The ground covered The scheme, which is still in its teething stage, has currently got 441 Partner Institutions across the country, and has received 45,000 students in its fold. It has 19 PG programmes, 27 PG Diploma programmes, 15 Bachelor Programmes, 15 Diploma Programmes and 29 Certificate Programmes, popular courses being certificate programmes Lab Technician, Teaching English, Functional English and Business Skills, and PG Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication, among others. Diploma in Primary Education, PG Diploma in Higher Education and PG Diploma in Distance Education are popular courses.

Miles to go

The scheme, by making available infrastructure of colleges and institutes for IGNOU programmes, is a good first step towards to increasing GER. Particularly if students are given the option to answer questions in their own language, as Prof Pillai announced during the meeting. Of course, members present at the event felt the scheme would have even greater impact if, going one step ahead, not only were question papers made available in regional languages, but study materials also!

A point that both the Vice Chancellor and Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Latha Pillai had discussed was that the Convergence Scheme would mark a transition for the University.

Classroom interaction will bring into focus problems that students might be facing. But then, the big question is that of availability of faculty.

Will the existing faculty of colleges take on the extra workload of the second shift?

Manjoo Phadke, Director, Indira Group of Institutes, Pune, which offers MBA and MCA programmes, says they invite visiting faculty for the courses. “These are all senior people and take up a lot of case studies. The classroom interaction is such that the distance tag gets negated.” Dr Latha Pillai, while clarifying that the faculty in the partnering institute need not be the same one as for their own programmes, says, “They can make good use of teleconferencing and webcast facilities made available by IGNOU.”

Some partners are more proactive than others. Dr Nirmala Vaz of Jyoti Niwas College, Bangalore, said that her tie-up with IGNOU was smooth because “I work with heart and soul... If there’s any problem with study materials, I pick them up from IGNOU whenever I come to Delhi, and have photocopies circulated to students.”

Prof Y.S. Chauhan, IGNOU Coordinator, Christian Eminent College, Indore, said his institute took printouts from e-Gyankosh, gave it to the counsellor, and left the option of taking printouts open to students.

The cost of study material is in-built into the fee structure and, as Dr Bishwajit Purkayastha of Cachar College, Silchar, Assam, says, “It is our job to provide the learners with the study material at any cost.”

................................................................................................................

Box 1:

“The visiting faculties take up a lot of case studies. The classroom

interaction is such that the distance tag gets negated.”

— Manjoo Phadke, Indira Group of Institutes

May 11, 2010

Admissions open for Five new IGNOU Law Programmes

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) School of Law today launched five new academic programmes in law. These programmes are PG Diploma in Environmental Law with WWF, India, PG Diploma in Criminal Justice, Certificate in International Humanitarian Law with International Committee of Red Cross(ICRC), Certificate in Anti-Human Trafficking, in collaboration with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes and (UNODC) and Certificate in Co-operation , Co-operative Law and Business Laws.

The PG Diploma in Environmental Law , to be offered jointly by IGNOU and WWF, Centre for Environmental Law, will be delivered through distance as well as online mode. It is a tailor –made programme for professionals working in the field of environment . The eligibility for the programme is Graduation from any stream of study and the programme fee is Rs. 10.000/-. The Post-Graduate Diploma in Criminal Justice (P.G.D.C.J.) is a one year programme which will be delivered exclusively through the distance education mode. This programme will help learners keep pace with emerging developments in criminal justice and enhance the competencies of the professionals working in the area of criminal justice. The programme is open to Graduates in law, criminology, social work and functionaries of Criminal Justice Administration. Programme Fee is Rs. 8,000/-.

Certificate in International Humanitarian Law is a Six months certificate programme jointly offered by IGNOU and International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC). Delhi. It simplifies Humanitarian Law to cater to the needs of all and brings issues of concern in South Asia. Eligibility for programme is 10+2 or its equivalent or BPP from IGNOU and Programme Fee is Rs. 2,000/-.Certificate in Anti-human Trafficking A Six month certificate programme, it will help learners understand issues in Anti-human Trafficking and will make them aware of rehabilitation and prevention mechanisms . Field based experience for the programme will be gathered though project works. The Eligibility is 10+2 or its equivalent or BPP from IGNOU and Programme Fee is Rs. 2,000/-. Certificate in Co-operation, Co-operative Law & Business Laws

A Six months certificate programme, it develops specialization in Cooperative and Bussiness Laws and develops trained human resource in cooperative lawEligibility is 10+2, with three years job experience or Graduate from any stream and the Programme Fee is Rs. 6,000/-. Last date for submission of applications for all the five programmes is 30th June 2010. The Programmes commence on 15th July , 2010.

For prospectus and application procedure learners can visit:www.ignouonline.ac.in. For PG Diploma in Environment Law(PGDENLW), learners may visit : www.wwfindia.org. Students can also contact : SOL, IGNOU : +91 11 29531115 and for PGDENLW, contact : 091 11 41504772.

May 9, 2010

IGNOU announces admission in Vocational programmes

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) School of Vocational Education and Training , (SOVET) announced admission to four of its flagship programmes for the July 2010 session. These are M.Sc. in Actuarial Science, PG Diploma in Pharmaceutical Sales Management , Diploma in BPO-Finance and Accounting and Certificate in Hospital Administrative Assistanceship. M.Sc. Actuarial Science is a full-time programme being offered in the IGNOU Main campus only. Certificate programme in Hospital Administrative Assistanceship is a full-time programme which will be held in selected Apollo hospitals.

Those desirous of admission can obtain the common prospectus for PG Diploma in Pharmaceutical Sales Management and Diploma in BPO-Finance and Accounting . For the other two programmes, viz. M.Sc. in Actuarial Science and Certificate in Hospital Administrative Assistanceship, students have to buy a separate prospectus. The prospectuses are available at sales counter, Block-3, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi , on payment of Rs. 100 /- for the three programmes except M.Sc. in Actuarial Science. It can also be obtained by sending a Demand Draft for Rs. 150/-, in favour of IGNOU, payable at New Delhi.

The prospectus for M.Sc. Actuarial Science can be obtained by paying Rs. 500/- by cash or by sending a Demand draft for Rs. 550/-, in favour of IGNOU, payable at New Delhi. Application forms can also be downloaded from the IGNOU website, www.ignou.ac.in. Those awaiting results can also apply.

Last date for submission of applications for all four programmes is May31 , 2010, without late fee. The last date for submission of applications for PG Diploma in Pharmaceutical Sales Management and Diploma in BPO-Finance and Accounting and Certificate in Hospital Administrative Assistanceship is June 15, 2010 , with a late fee of Rs. 200/-.

The admission to M.Sc. Actuarial Science will be finalized on the basis of an entrance test scheduled on June 13th, 2010.

May 7, 2010

IGNOU’s B.Ed.-Special Education Entrance Test Rescheduled

The Entrance test for Indira Gandhi National Open University ‘s (IGNOU) B.Ed. Special Education programme will be held on 30th May,2010. The test was earlier scheduled to be held on 23rd May,2010”,announced Director, National Centre for Disability Studies, IGNOU.

May 4, 2010

Can’t leave Higher education to the mercy of market forces”- Governor, Maharashtra

“As a society mindful of socio-economic complexities, we cannot afford to leave higher education to the vagaries of the market forces while aiming for higher Gross Enrollment. For, this would result in ‘elitisation’ of a basic need and put higher education out of the reach of the millions of under-privileged,” said Shri K. Sankaranarayanan, Governor of Maharashtra, speaking at the IGNOU Silver Jubilee Lecture on the theme ‘Inclusive Education and Sustainable Growth’ , held today at the Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) campus.

The Governor cautioned that the crucial area of inclusiveness of education should not be lost sight of, while aiming for higher Gross Enrollment Ratio. “Churning out degree holders with little or no employable skills will create an army of unemployed youth in the country leading to a host of socio-economic problems with wider consequences. Vocational education, skill-based learning and training should become an integral part of our higher education strategy. Market-oriented reforms to rejuvenate the higher education sector without adequate safeguards for the underprivileged could further create the imbalance of inclusiveness. We need to tread the path of such reforms with caution and at the same time infuse an element of vibrancy and dynamism in the public higher education system”, he added.
“The mushrooming of new colleges and private universities, where tuition fees are beyond the means of the common man, cater only to the needs of the upper-class leaving the majority of students without access to education. This trend is not healthy because it will ultimately cause a cleavage between the haves and the have-nots. It should be our endeavour to provide equal opportunities to all sections of the people for higher education. This can only be done by ensuring access to education with affordability. The open universities have helped to bridge the gap between need for education and availability through the classic university system. I am happy to state that IGNOU has been the torch bearer in providing convenient and affordable higher education to millions who could not get access to traditional university education for one reason or the other,” the Governor further remarked.

Describing inclusive education as education wherein all sections of society are participants in the process of growth, the Governor commented ,”In the Indian context, inclusive education must concern all the marginalized sections of society, namely dalits, tribals, religious and linguistic minorities, the nomadic groups, child labour, the differently-abled persons and particularly the women in each of these categories. It must take into consideration the cultural, linguistic, ethnic and religious diversity of the nation. A just and fair knowledge society cannot be established without adequately addressing the serious issues raised by the disparity in access to higher education to weaker sections of society.”

Elucidating on the factors that impede the growth of higher education, the Governor remarked, “The proportion of our population in the relevant age group, that is, 18 - 23, that enters the world of higher education is only about 11% percent as compared up to 47% in some of the developed countries. The government has plans to expand the access to 21%, by the end of 2017. This is a Herculean task as the expansion would be the largest in India’s history and will require a dramatic growth in institutions as well as expenditure. Our task is further compounded by the fact that more than 65% of our population lives in rural areas where the infrastructure for higher education is poor”. He further commented that enabling more people to enter the stream of higher education is also essential to meet our economy’s need for higher-level skills and to sustain the economic growth rate of 9%.

The Governor further remarked that the National Knowledge Commission has identified five key areas for close attention. These are access to knowledge, imparting skills, knowledge-creation, knowledge application and development of better knowledge services.

The Governor emphasized the need for technical education and vocational training in the country. The learning needs of the majority of students outside the higher education system would have to be met with strategies that would be appropriate to the situation and as such would differ vastly and widely and thought will have to be given to integrating skill based education, technical education and vocational training with education right from the high school level; more so in rural areas and in public schools in urban areas, the Governor added.

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) and VLCC Institute today signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly offer two programmes in the area of Beauty as well as Nutrition & Health Education . These include Certificate Programme in Cosmetology and Diploma in Health & Nutrition in Face to Face mode .

The Diploma in Health & Nutrition has been developed by IGNOU and delivered by VLCC . VLC C will develop the materials for the Certificate in Cosmetology and this programmes will be jointly offered by VLCC and IGNOU.

Student Handbook and Prospectus prepared by IGNOU will be used for admission purposes in addition to VLCC Prospectus.VLCC will carry out admissions with IGNOU nominee on its admission committee.

Under the MoU, VLCC shall provide the resources, in terms of qualified, experienced faculty and infrastructural facilities to the students for the Diploma in Health & Nutrition. In addition to this, the teaching and practicals of the programmes will be the responsibility of VLCC.

IGNOU will offer the programme curriculum to the learners enrolled with VLCC.
It would also be responsible for the delivery of course materials of the proposed programmes under the MoU, for distribution among the students of the programme. Its other responsibilities include holding the term-end exam, issue the certificates and issue the mark sheet carrying joint logo of IGNOU and VLCC . The University would also carry out the course evaluation as per the norms laid down for the programme.

The Last date for submission of Applications at Regional Centres of Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU), for the July 2010 session, without late fee, has been extended to 31st May, 2010 without late fee and 15th June 2010 with late fee of Rs. 200/-.

The admission process for IGNOU Full time and Distance Education programmes , for the July 2010/January 2011 sessions is currently in full swing. The University invites applications for Master’s Degree, Bachelor’s Degree, Post-Graduate Diplomas, Advance Diplomas, Diplomas, Professional Certificates, Post Graduate Certificates , Advance Certificates, Certificates, Non-credit and Appreciation programmes.

Students awaiting Class 10th and 12th results and those appeared or appearing for Degree programmes can also apply, subject to fulfillment of eligibility criteria.
The common prospectus can be obtained from the Registrar SRD, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi and also from the Regional Centres of IGNOU by sending a Demand Draft of Rs. 150/- through a Demand Draft drawn in favour of ‘IGNOU’, payable at New Delhi or the city of the concerned Regional Centre. The prospectus can also be obtained by paying Rs. 100/- at the respective sale counters.

An electronic version of the prospectus is also available at www.ignou.ac.in. Application forms can be downloaded from the website and submitted along with a DD for Rs. 100/- in addition to the programme fee. Application forms can also be submitted online through the University website round the year, except for the programmes that require an Entrance test for admission.

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), launched today its latest programme of learning a foreign language via Hindi through distance education. This programme has been developed with the support and collaboration of the Embassy of France by placing a French Language Tutor at IGNOU for an year and with donation of several French learning methods to the University.

The Ambassador of France, Mr. Jérôme BONNAFONT and Prof. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai , Vice Chancellor, IGNOU officially launched this new French course in the capital.The Govt. of France decorated 3 Indian teachers of French language for their valuable contribution to the promotion of French language among Indian students. ( Palmes académiques)

This programme is in response to the huge demand of the Govt. and private schools and also of individual students who wish to learn our language but are far from the network of the Alliances françaises.

Indira Gandhi National Open University's PG Diploma in Clinical Cardiology provides intensive training in cardiac care to doctors serving India’s rural hinterland. They return to remote villages to save thousands of lives put in danger for want of speciality treatment.

For Dr Neelesh Khandelwal, IGNOU’s Post-Graduate Diploma in Clinical Cardiology came as a blessing in disguise. Fresh out of R.N.T. Medical College in Udaipur, Rajasthan, Khandelwal joined a government hospital in Dungarpur, a city situated at the southernmost fringe of the state.

Aghast at the absence of speciality care in hospitals in the rural hinterland, Khandelwal, an MBBS, decided to pursue a course in cardiology.

When he heard about the IGNOU programme that offered exhaustive course material and training at some of the country’s best cardiac care facilities, he applied straight away.

Now a second-year student of the programme, the young doctor says the training is actually better than the learning an MD acquires in cardiology. “This programme is exhaustive in nature. An MD gets around three-months’ training in cardiac care, but in this course we spend two years at some of the best heart institutes in the country. I feel we are better placed than any regular MD,” says Khandelwal.

“The doctors at the government hospital in Dungarpur do not have basic knowledge about speciality care in fields like cardiology. On top of it, the hospital lacks medical facilities to cope with any emergency,” he laments.

After completing the programme at the Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre in New Delhi, Khandelwal wants to go back and work in Rajasthan. “I am willing to serve the needy in the remote villages,” he adds.

Dr Asim Parvez from Patna shares his views. “After completing MBBS, I found this programme a unique one from the training and practice point of view. There are very few doctors who know how to deal with heart cases and the course taught us those details — from basic cardiac anatomy to cardiovascular surgery,” says Dr Parvez, who was doing his residency at the All India Institute for Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in emergency medicine before joining the programme.

While in 1960, the prevalence of heart diseases among urban Indians was 1 percent, in 1995 it had increased to 9.6 percent. The figure today stands at a prevalence rate of 12.5 percent, according to the figures provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

“It has been estimated that India lost about 9.2 million potentially productive years of life in 2000, due to premature deaths caused by cardiovascular disease in the age group of 35-64 years,” said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while addressing a conference of heart surgeons in New Delhi recently. It was 1.6 million years in the United States and 6.6 million years in China, he added.

Productive years are the number of working years a country is deprived of when a citizen dies before age 60. Despite these fatal numbers, there is dearth of heart specialists in the country and India produces merely 150 qualified doctors in cardiology each year.

Most of these trained specialists get employed or start practising in Metros or Tier-II cities. This deprives a huge population from getting benefits of cardiology expertise.

The IGNOU Clinical Cardiology Diploma, which is now being successfully disseminated at 44 cardiac care centres across the country, aims at bridging the massive treatment gap the country is facing, especially in rural areas, says Prof A.K. Agarwal, senior professor at the University’s School of Health Sciences and Programme Coordinator.

“The situation in our country at present is such that only 100-125 students qualify for the cardiology super-specialisation. There is a great demand, but the specialised doctors prefer to settle down in Metros. This leaves around 70 percent of patients at the district level or in rural areas deprived. It is with this intention that we welcome students from rural areas or government hospitals,” adds Agarwal.

Dr Ashish Dave, who left London to pursue a PG Programme in Clinical Cardiology, agrees with him. “I would like to serve rural patients. I could have had settled down abroad but serving your countrymen is the best form of philanthropy. Kudos to IGNOU for crafting such an intensive course,” says the doctor who did the programme at the National Heart Institute, New Delhi.

For this two-year programme, students must have secured good marks in their MBBS programmes and convince a panel of distinguished cardiologists and professors during a selection interview.

IGNOU launched the PG Diploma in clinical cardiology in 2005 and operates out of prestigious institutions like the National Heart Institute, Escorts, Max and Fortis Hospitals (in Delhi) and several other institutions across the country (See box).

The core objective of the course is to train medical graduates in clinical cardiology to deal effectively with the early recognition, management and prevention of common cardiovascular diseases (non-Invasive cardiology) and associated diseases, particularly diabetes mellitus.

“The clinical diploma programme has tied up with reputed institutions. We had received demand from various state governments for such programmes. We understood that we had to make optimal use of the existing resources in the private sector as well,” says VC Prof V.N. Rajashekharan Pillai.

According to Dr D. Kahli, senior consultant at the B.M. Birla Heart Institute where 10 students are undergoing training, says that, with an increasing number of cardiac patients in India, “timely interventions from trained doctors is the need of the hour”.

“No doubt that the majority of MBBS students are brilliant. They opt for an MD and go for general medicine. But we need good heart doctors. The country is facing an acute shortage of specialist doctors who can ensure timely intervention in cardiac cases,” adds Dr Kahli.

As part of the training, the students work as full-time doctors, on rotation, at various wings like Echocardiography or Paediatric Cardiology, etc. They are given extensive training by the best professors using state-of-the-art equipment.

Even students like Dr R.K. Jain, a medical veteran of 30 years, have opted for this specialised course. “Having worked with hospitals like AIIMS and Moolchand, I am now into private practice. I was interested in cardiology so I joined this course. It is a phenomenal attempt on part of the University to begin such a programme,” says Jain.

Soon, these IGNOU students will be busy saving lives in areas where cardiac care is lacking.

The Institutes
Here is the list of Programme Study Centres for the PG Diploma in Clinical Cardiology:

l Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre
l Max Heart and Vascular Institute
l National Heart Institute
l Batra Hospital & Medical Research Centre
l Fortis Escort Hospital & Research Centre
l Metro Group of Hospitals and Heart Institute
l Fortis Hospital l Delhi Heart and Lung Institute
l Shri Balaji Action Medical Institute

l Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Heart Centre
l M.S. Ramaiah Medical College and
l Teaching Hospital
l St. John’s Medical College Hospital
l A.J. Hospital & Research Centre
l Vikram Hospital & Heart Care
l Narayan Hrudayalaya Institute of Cardiac Sciences (all Bangalore)

l Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (Thiruvananthapuram)
l Pushpagiri Heart Institute (Cochin)

l Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences
l B.M. Birla Heart Research Centre
l Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals & Education Trust (all Kolkata)

l Care Foundation
l Andhra Mahila Sabha Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital and Research Centre
l Apollo Hospitals
l Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (all Hyderabad)
l City Cardiac Research Centre
l Usha Cardiac Centre (Vijaywada)

l International Centre for Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Diseases (Chennai)
l G. Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital (Coimbatore)

- 20 million is the number of people expected to die in the Indian sub-continent by 2015 by cardiovascular diseases, says World Health Organisation

Here is the list of Programme Study Centres for the PG Diploma in Clinical Cardiology:

l Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre
l Max Heart and Vascular Institute
l National Heart Institute
l Batra Hospital & Medical Research Centre
l Fortis Escort Hospital & Research Centre
l Metro Group of Hospitals and Heart Institute
l Fortis Hospital
l Delhi Heart and Lung Institute
l Shri Balaji Action Medical Institute

l Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Heart Centre
l M.S. Ramaiah Medical College and Teaching Hospital
l St. John’s Medical College Hospital
l A.J. Hospital & Research Centre
l Vikram Hospital & Heart Care
l Narayan Hrudayalaya Institute of Cardiac Sciences (all Bangalore)

l Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (Thiruvananthapuram)
l Pushpagiri Heart Institute (Cochin)

l Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences
l B.M. Birla Heart Research Centre
l Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals & Education Trust (all Kolkata)

l Care Foundation
l Andhra Mahila Sabha Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital and Research Centre
l Apollo Hospitals.
l Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (all Hyderabad)
l City Cardiac Research Centre l Usha Cardiac Centre (Vijaywada)

l International Centre for Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Diseases (Chennai)
l G. Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital (Coimbatore)

Delhi students prove their GK quotient at Ignite 2010, a quiz contest organized by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)

Slumdog Billionaires from New Era Public School emerged as winners, and Village Idiots from DPS RK Puram as the runners up

In the first ever multi-city inter-school Quiz contest – IGNITE 2010 – presented by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) here today.

IGNITE 2010 is aimed at creating greater awareness about IGNOU and its wide range of academic programmes, and the massive potential for millions to benefit from them.

‘The little lamp shuttled to fame amid chants for peace’, ‘banker who wrote books like Big Money and Do Butlers Burgle Banks’, ‘Could fix anything from coast to coast’… these were some tough clues at Ignite 2010.

Some of the questions, posed by Adittya Mubayi of QuizCraft, were answered with ease by the participating teams, but some made the participants think hard. The brightest minds from schools across NCR were invited to compete in this event to win laurels for their schools and recognition & fantastic prizes for themselves. Over 80 teams of two members each representing all the major schools of the region vied for the IGNITE 2010 trophy.

The written elimination round comprised 20 questions, which all the participants were asked to answer. Out of these, six teams were selected for the next and final round. All the teams had been asked to give themselves a team name, and the following teams managed to go to the final round: ‘Brain to Mouth Muscles’ from Springdales School, Dhaula Kuan; ‘You and Me’, DPS, NOIDA; ‘Slumdog Billionaires’, New Era Public School; ‘Dream catchers’, Army Public School; ‘Quizoholics’, Bal Bharati Public School; and ‘Village Idiots’, DPS RK Puram.

The final round comprised six rounds, including one on IGNOU. Slumdog Billionaires from New Era Public School got 55 points and emerged as winners, while Village Idiots from DPS RK Puram were declared the runners up with 45 points. The winners got a trophy for their school, individual trophies, book vouchers and a gift hamper from IGNOU and the runners up got individual trophies, book vouchers and a gift hamper. IGNOU vice chancellor Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai gave away the prizes.

An exhibition and a flash presentation was also organized to make the children aware of various courses being offered by IGNOU.

The next quiz contest is in Kolkata on May 3, which will be followed up with one in Guwahati on May 5. Mumbai and Bengaluru are two other cities where IGNITE 2010 will be organized after the summer break.

Starting with two courses and 4,000 students in 1985, IGNOU has evolved into the world’s largest, most diverse and inclusive institution, offering over 3,500 courses and catering to 3 million students.

“There is an urgent need for feminist discourse to turn to Ambedkar. It is time to not to talk about gender in isolation, but to include class, caste and other factors. Therefore, there is a need to reclaim Dr. Ambedkar’s writings as feminist classics,” said Prof. Sharmila Rege. She was delivering a lecture on “Dr. B.R. Ambedkar:Towards a Feminist Reclamation”, organized by Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) Dr BR Ambedkar Chair on Social Change and Development.

Prof. Rege turned to selections from Ambedkar’s writings as feminist classics, that contain suggestions for improving the lives of women. ‘Dalit feminism’ has drawn copiously from this pool. However, feminist discourse at large has remained ignorant of the rich and complex interpretations of caste and gender as conceptualised by Dr Ambedkar.

Dr. Ambedkar focussed on the role of marriage in social construction of caste system and provided an important understanding of the issue of women’s emancipation in the Indian context. As Ambedkar said, Caste is endogamy and endogamy is caste. He also brought out how the origin and reproduction of caste rested on gendered violence.

Prof. Rege, a leading feminist sociologist, is Head, Department of Gender Studies, University of Pune. She has written extensively on gender and sociology, Phule- Ambedkarite/ dalit feminism and social history of popular cultures.

In 25 Years, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has contributed 194,196 post graduates, 197,722 graduates, 309,255 vocational diploma holders and 407,298 certified professionals to the national talent pool and workforce, announced Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai,VC today.

In its silver jublee year, this path-breaking institution has provided over a million students access to higher education through its flexible open and distance learning (ODL) delivery model. Currently 15 percent (1.8 million) of the 12 million students enrolled in India’s higher education system are enrolled in IGNOU. Last year, it awarded degrees, diplomas and certification to 137,000 students countrywide, and on average 200,000 students sign up for IGNOU study programmes every year.

Since October 2006, IGNOU, has more than doubled the university’s academic programmes and registered students. From an Initial offering of only 2 academic programmes to 4,528 students in 1987, IGNOU has steadily expanded to lay claim to the status of the world’s largest open university offering 338 (including 16 vocational ) programmes through its 21 schools and 12 divisions to 2.89 million students. This mammoth student population , set to cross the 3 million milestone this month (April), is tutored by a core faculty of 400 supported by a team of 36,000 Academic Counsellors operating from 61 regional centres and 3,000 learner study centres. These 21 schools/ faculties are supported by more than a dozen chairs specially constituted to conduct research and development in academic disciplines in consultation with industry, public and private research institutions.

The Central government has declared 2010-2020 as the decade of innovation during which the country needs to achive inclusive and sustainable growth in education, skill development, healthcare, energy, agriculture and Infrastructure. IGNOU’s approach will be to design learning and training modules, courses and programs under which learner can pay skills providers directly, and make the knowledge and skill acquired bank-able through testing and certification, converting them into diplomas, higher diplomas associate degrees and degrees.

In the context of skills development, IGNOU with its countrywide network of 61 regional centres and over 3,000 study centres has the greatest potential to address the issue of the national skills deficit. These regional and study centres can network with local education and training institutions for providing modular skills in different trades and vocations.

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) in collaboration with the Institute of Corporate Secretaries of India(ICSI) is offering a Post Graduate programme in Corporate governance(PGDICG) from the July 2010 session.
The programme focuses on regulatory requirements and framework of corporate governance, providing opportunities of work for the corporate sector.
Eligibility for the programme is a Bachelor’s degree with five years of relevant experience.
The duration of the programme is one year, with two semesters and the programme fee is Rs. 8000/-.
The prospectus and application forms can be downloaded from the IGNOU website, www.ignou.ac.in. These are also available at IGNOU Headquarters at Maidan Garhi, as well as the IGNOU Regional centres.
The last date for submission of application forms is 31st May, 2010 without any late fee. The forms can be submitted till June 30th 2010, with a late fee of Rs. 200/-.
Additional information about the programme can be obtained from Centre for Corporate Education and Training (CCETC) at IGNOU Headquarters.

“I have been asked so many times that how does it feel to be a woman director. I will never know what it feels to be a male director! When I was directing, I was simply a director and my female perspective was something that I wasn’t consciously thinking of. Just as there is a male gaze, there must be a female gaze, but it is an inherent quality and not a deliberate attempt,” remarked Ms. Nandita Das, renowned actress , Film Director and Chairperson, Children’s Film Society of India . She was delivering the Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) Silver Jubilee Lecture, on the topic “Identity and the notion of the ‘Other’ ”.

Nandita Das explored some of the major identities and the prejudices around the “other”, in terms of religion, nationality, gender or sexual orientation, in the society we live in.

She spoke about her identity as a woman, and a creative person, commenting that she was especially attached to her identity of ‘woman’, so that she can give common women a ‘Voice’.

A believer in the idea of a pluralistic society, Nandita Das spoke about how the concept of ‘them’ and ‘us’ has entered all domains- public discourse and inter-personal relationships. “In India the question of identity becomes even more acute and complex because of the long history and vast diversity of groups that one belongs to. This political exploitation of identities is dangerous not only because it suppresses multiple identities and creates an artificial homogenous ‘group identity’ but more so because it thrives on demonising the ‘other’. Also if we tried learning more about the “other”, we would be less prejudiced and it would evoke more empathy. One tends to fear the unknown and therefore demonises it”, she added.

Referring to another identity that is not much talked about in India , Ms Das spoke about her experience of working for ’Fire’ and the reactions it inspired. Her debut film, Fire (1996), was the first Indian film that spoke openly about a homosexual relationship and the lack of choices women have. It also dealt with issues of arranged marriages and patriarchy that are deep-rooted in our society.

“The debate over Fire raised many questions – who defines what is Indian culture and who are these self-proclaimed custodians trying to represent the people? What is 'normal’ and what is ‘abnormal’? Can a work of art that reflects reality be subjected to such unconstitutional censorship? Is freedom of expression not a human right? Which of the identities needs assertion, and which one is less important, and why? My pursuit of finding answers to many such questions has been an interesting journey. The positive outcome of the controversy was that it impacted the collective thinking of Indian society that had pushed issues of homosexuality under the carpet. The public debate gave rise to greater acceptability, less prejudice and more information about what most people didn’t know, thereby reducing the fear of the unknown.”

Talking about her personal experience about the struggle with the issue of identity and the notion of the “other”, Nandita Das said, “What is it that makes us so uncomfortable about the “other”? And how can we so easily believe that something that is different from what we have grown into, has to be not “right”.”

Her encounters with marginalised and disadvantaged people prompted her to get into acting in films and strive to be part of stories that need to be told. Firaaq, Nandita’s directorial debut film set in the aftermath of 2002 sectarian violence in Gujarat, traces the emotional journeys of ordinary people – some who were victims, some perpetrators and some who chose to watch silently, was in many ways an outcome of violence against the ‘other’. She described it as a cathartic experience. She further added , “While it is important to be aware of one’s own prejudices so that we don’t fall into the trap of easy stereotyping, the problem is that it is easier to identify other people’s prejudice than one’s own. Firaaq in many ways shows us a mirror and raises some pertinent questions about our own prejudices".

Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, Honorary Chair for Sustainable Development, IGNOU, announced the launch of eight new programmes under the Chair for Sustainable Development, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), at the IGNOU Main campus, today. These include programmes on Sustainability Science, Climate Change, Population and Sustainable Development, Biodiversity, Wetland Management, Sustainable Management of Ganga, Himalayan ecosystem and Sustainability Audit.

Prof. Swaminathan was speaking at the launch of his book, “Science and Sustainable Food Security” published by the World Scientific and IISc Press at a book release function organized by the IGNOU Chair for Sustainable Development, today.

Remarking on challenges facing the country today in fighting hunger and malnutrition, the eminent scientist commented,” The accepted method for calculating the number of people living below the poverty line is how many kilocalories of food can such a person be able to consume. However, this method is being questioned now. Experts feel that data on housing, education should also be included. Food security should mean physical, social and economic access to a balanced diet, which includes micronutrients, vitamins, clean drinking water and primary health care.”

He further added that the current inflation in prices of food articles is largely due to the increase in the prices of milk and pulses.” For more milk, the country needs more food for its livestock, which means that we need to grow food for 1.5 billion people plus 1 billion animals. We are also faced with many challenges –primarily among them is the fact that land is a shrinking resource for agriculture. We can’t even think of sustainable development without preserving our water , climate and biodiversity. Scientists have a great role to play in this, especially in the use of appropriate technology for enhancing the environment. They should not just predict, but shape the future,” commented Prof. Swaminathan.

IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai commented, ”The country needs to focus on nutrition, food security and education, rest of the things will automatically fall into place. Any country which has focussed on these three has become empowered. This was the main rationale for starting the Chair for Sustainable Development in 2007, under the able leadership of Prof. Swaminathan.”

Dedicated to Dr. Norman Borlaug, who along with Prof. Swaminathan was at the forefront of the scientific achievements that led to the Green Revolution, ‘Science and Sustainable Food Security’ provides a roadmap for achieving sustainable agricultural advance and food security in an era of climate change and global economic melt-down.

The book showcases a number of methods of linking ecological security with livelihood security, and provides a scientific basis for entering an era of bio- happiness based on the sustainable and equitable use of biodiversity. It also describes the methods of adaptation to the impact of global warming.

Through the Chair for Sustainable Development , IGNOU is disseminating awareness and know-how to a wide spectrum of scientists, environmentalists, administrators, social scientists, policy makers and enlightened corporate sectors on the urgent need to put sustainability in the centre of all their endeavours. It is also promoting Sustainable Development with a global spirit of “Our Common Future”, to rescue planet Earth from the brink of collapse.

IGNOU announces new Programme on Philosophy of Dr. Ambedkar on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti

Through its School of Social Work(SOSW), Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) has launched a massive awareness campaign and formal programmes of study on HIV/AIDS for increasing awareness on HIV/AIDS in the country.

A folder providing basic facts about the what, why, how of HIV/AIDS, titled ‘HIV/AIDS Prevention guide for students’ is being mailed to all the fresh students of IGNOU.

Every year, several regional-level seminars and an Annual National Seminar on ‘Social Work Response to HIV/AIDS’ are organized to sensitizeacademics , NGO functionaries and school teachers. This year this seminar is being held in Kuttikkanam, Idukki district, Kerala, from August 19-22, 2010.

IGNOU also has a number of programmes of study that focus on various facets of HIV/AIDS. These programmes are geared towards providing professionally trained and skilled personnel to reinforce interventions in HIV/AIDS. Some of these programmes are:

5. Course on HIV/AIDS :Stigma , discrimination and prevention, on offer in MSW , started in 2008

6. Introduction to HIV/AIDS, Adolescent and Family Education, launched in B.Ed in 2008

7. MPhil and Ph.D students of SOSW undertake courses and dissertation on HIV/AIDS

Some of the courses on offer in CAFÉ and DAFE are ‘Basics of HIV/AIDS’, Alchohol, Drugs and HIV, Communications and Councelling in HIV followed by Project Work.

These programmes aim to develop the knowledge and skills needed for effective communication and responsible decision-making behaviour for protecting learners from AIDS. They are geared towards promoting behaviours that prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS and fostering attitudes and behaviours that will prevent discrimination against those who are infected with HIV/STD.

media. There are two dozen video programmes on HIV/AIDS and related topics being telecast on Gyan Darshan, IGNOU’s educational channel. IGNOU’s Gyan Vani also telecasts interactive radio counseling programme on HIV/AIDS , once a month.

There are an estimated 2.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the country, according to National AIDS Control Organization(NACO). According to experts, the tragedy of HIV/AIDS in the worst –affected countries of sub-Saharan Africa is likely to repeat itself in India unless appropriate measures are taken in time to counter it.

In the absence of a vaccine for prevention and affordable drugs for treatment ,the only way to prevent the spread of this disease is education and behaviour modification. There is, however, a lot of misconception and misinformation on the subject, along with deep seated resistance from parents and teachers for providing information on Safe sex , the only way to stop AIDS.

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) School of Performing and Visual Arts is launching Four new On Campus and Full time Master’s Degree Programmes in Performing & Visual Arts.

The classes for these new programmes will be conducted by the faculty members and eminent academicians/experts in the respective fields at a venue selected by IGNOU.

MPA-HVM programme will enable students taking up a particular style of singing i.e. either Dhrupad or Dhamar. Students will also study a paper on Management of Music Events and a paper on Sound and Acoustics which will facilitate the students to take up a career related to Music. Admission will be through entrance test and audition, for a maximum of 20 seats.

The eligibility for this programme is 50% marks in BA (Hons.) in Hindustani music from any recognized university. Graduates in any subject along with 60% marks in diploma in music are also eligible.

MPA-BN is aimed at molding professionals and academicians in the area of dance. The programme focuses on four major areas of performance, choreography, technical production aspects and writing dance and research.

The eligibility is a graduation in Bharatanatyam or any graduate with a Govt. recognized Diploma in Dance (Bharatanatyam).

Admission to the programme will be through an entrance test conducted at Delhi IGNOU main campus where the practical as well as theoretical aptitude of every student will be put to test. A minimum of 6 and a maximum of 15 students will be admitted.

MPA (Theatre) imparts training in acting, direction, and technical theatre. In order to equip the student the course is designed to provide training in media along with latest theatre research methodologies along with theatre histories. It also offers specializations in Design, Direction and Children Theatre to provide expertise in these subjects with latest innovative theories and practices.

Any graduate with Diploma in Acting/theatre arts or any graduate with three years of practical experience in theatre is eligible for the programme.

Students will have to appear in an entrance test and audition for admission in the programme and the intake is for 25 students.

The MFAP is geared towards providing opportunities to students in identifying and developing their own style and medium at advanced level to become a professional Artist. The programme will also develop professionals and creative researchers in the field of Fine Arts.

A candidate seeking admission to the course must have passed the bachelor degree of four years duration (after 10+2) offered by a recognized university. At qualifying examination, the applicant must have minimum 50 % marks or equivalent grades. The programme has a maximum of 20 students.

The Prospectus and Application Forms can be obtained from IGNOU MaidanGarhi or downloaded from www.ignou.ac.in. Last date to submit filled- in application forms is 15th June, 2010.

Indira Gandhi National Open University announced the launch of two new programmes , BA and MA Psychology from the July 2010 session.

The admission process for Full time and Distance Education IGNOU Programmes, in the July 2010/January 2011 sessions has also been announced . The University is inviting applications for Master’s Degree, Bachelor’s Degree , Post-Graduate Diplomas, Advance Diplomas, Diplomas, Professional Certificates, Post Graduate Certificates , Advance Certificates, Certificates, Non-credit and Appreciation programmes.

Students awaiting Class 10th and 12th results and those appeared or appearing for Degree programmes can also apply, subject to fulfillment of eligibility criteria.

Last date for submission of Applications at Regional Centres for the July 2010 session is 30th April 2010. Students can submit their forms upto 31st May, 2010 with a late fee of Rs. 200/-.

The common prospectus can be obtained from the Registrar SRD, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi and also from the Regional Centres of IGNOU by sending a Demand Draft of Rs. 150/- through a Demand Draft drawn in favour of ‘IGNOU’, payable at New Delhi or the city of the concerned Regional Centre. The prospectus can also be obtained by paying Rs. 100/- at the respective sale counters.

“Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) popularity has increased manifold”, announced Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. IGNOU has signed around 100 Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with both international and national bodies of repute in the last one year.

Some of the international institutions who have partnered with IGNOU include ,Goethe Institute & University of Vienna, Queensland University of Technology, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Payame Noor University, Iran, Gulf Centre for University Education and Centre for Environment Law, WWF India, to quote a few.

Maya Academy of Advance Cinematics, WLC College, HCL Infosystems, Apollo Hospitals Educational Research Foundation, SREI Sahaj e Village Ltd., IBM India, Institute of Rail Transport, National Human Rights Commission and the Indian Army, amongst others have also signed MoUs with IGNOU.

Future initiatives include collaborations with Government and private agencies to increase the Gross Enrollment ratio. There are 2,50,000 public educational and training institutions in the country. IGNOU is looking at converting these into skill development centres to provide skills to untrained youth of India.

IGNOU has a key role to play in creating 500 million certified technicians and skilled workers by 2020. In this context, 2010-2020 has been declared as the ‘Decade of Innovation’ by the Government.

The MoUs are yielding a large number of need-based, vocational oriented programmes for the benefit of the youth in India and abroad. These programmes include PG Diploma in Environmental Law, sensitization programmes for Police, programmes in Tribal and Himalayan studies, programmes in Bioinformatics , Biotechnology, Digital Film making, Computer generated imagery and 3D Animation.

IGNOU’s international partnerships are also leading to cultural and educational cooperation and offering IGNOU programmes in various countries like Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) ‘Dr BR Ambedkar Chair on Social Change and Development’ organized a lecture on ‘Issues of Dalit Christians” in the IGNOU campus recently.

The lecture, delivered by Dr John Dayal, dealt with the problems of caste within the Churches and the displacement of Dalit Christians from their homes, especially the displacement faced by 50,000 Dalit Christians in Orissa, last year.

Dr Dayal, Member of National Integration Council, has been a Human Rights activist, journalist,author and an occasional documentary film maker.He has worked on issues of displacement of tribals,the Dalit Christian movement, the anti-nuclear weapon network, fake encounters and other Human Rights issues. He has also been a member of several Civil Society fact finding committees and Peoples’ Tribunals.

The lecture was followed by “India Untouched” a short documentary, on the attacks on Dalit Christians. The documentary graphically illustrated the discrimination against Dalits in Minority religious communities . The primary question raised by the film was “Does Manu still determine India?”

“Our democracy may be in danger, but the democracy in Literature is thriving. Literature does not recognize caste, gender or colour. It does not follow the rules of society,” declared Prof. Namwar Singh, noted litterateur and recipient of the Sahatya Academy Award.

He was delivering the Fourth Silver Jubilee Lecture on `The Democracy of Literature: Place of the Marginalised’, organized by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) at the Convention Centre in its Main Campus.

The focus of the lecture was on various stages in the history of conflict between society and literature. Prof. Singh stressed that Literature is democratic. He presented several examples from the writings of prominent Hindi writers like Nirala, Sudama Pandey ‘Dhumil’. He read out from the poems of the above writers to illustrate how they placed ‘Dalits’in their compositions.

The marginalized, he said, paradoxically have been leaders in mainstream literature and Hindi Literature is no exception to the rule.

Prof. Namwar Singh is Professor Emiritus of Hindi, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Wardha. A eminent man of literature, he is involved in several interventions for promoting Hindi in a number of Indian Universities. He has also been a leading critical voice in Hindi for many decades.

IGNOU Vice Chancellor , Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai presented the key note address at the Lecture and Prof. Shambhu Nath Singh, Director, School of Journalism and New Media Studies acted as the discussant.

He commented that,” How much markets influence Literature is an important topic of deliberation.” The lecture, which was in Hindi, was followed by audience queries.

On offer are M.Ed and B.Ed programmes in specialization areas of Hearing Impairment, Visual Impairment and Mental Retardation and Post Graduate Diploma programme (PGPD)and Post Graduate Certificate Programme(PGPC) in Hearing Impairment, Visual Impairment and Mental Retardation .

There will be an Entrance test for B.Ed- Special education. Students will be selected on merit basis for M.Ed Special Education and students will be selected as per eligibility criteria for PGPD-SE and PGPC-SE programmes.

The Prospectus cum Application forms for the above programmes will be available from 5th April to 30th April, 2010 from IGNOU campus , Maidan Garhi and all Regional centres. Candidates can also download the forms from the IGNOU website, www.ignou.ac.in.

Last date for submission of filled-in forms , along with attested copies of testimonials is 30th April, 2010.

Application forms for M.Ed, PGPD and PGPC in Special Education should be submitted at the concerned Regional centres.

For B.Ed Special Education programme, applications must be submitted to the Registar, Students Evaluation Division, Block-12, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi

New Delhi : There should be an Advisor on Disability attached to the Prime Minister’s Office like there is one in the USA government, said Former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Justice AP Shah, while discussing the bureaucratic problems of ensuring inclusive education to persons with disabilities in the society.

Justice Shah was addressing a two-day ‘National Meet of NGOs – Rejuvenating Partnership’ recently in the campus of Indira Gandhi National Open University. The conference was convened by Rehabilitation Council of India in collaboration with IGNOU’s National Centre for Disability Studies (NCDS). The NCDS is the first centre for disability studies of all those at other Central Universities of the country.

The conference was addressed by Chairperson of National Trust, Ms Poonam Natarajan, Chairman of the RCI, Maj. General Ian Cardozo, AVSM, SM, and Vice Chancellor, VN Rajasekharan Pillai.

Justice Shah expressed anxiety over the huge problems of the Disabled persons, who number over 10% of the entire population of the world (over 600 million) and two-thirds of them are in developing countries. Common experiences of the persons with disabilities are social exclusion, discrimination against them at school and higher education, prejudices, and marginalization. Referring to the guidelines UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), to which India is a signatory and which India is duty-bound to implement in all parts, Justice Shah said that the country needs to bring in laws ensuring Disability Rights and not stop by what it “endeavours” for the disabled people as envisaged in the Persons with Disability (PWD) Act 1995.

“This Act has some positive aspects, but creates deficits for the individual disabled person,” he said, adding that the 1995 Act needs to be amended adequately to ensure rights of the disabled persons of equal education, treatment, wages etc., at par the people who are not disabled. “The distress and humiliation the persons with disabilities suffer in this country is something disturbs our conscience of inclusive governance”, he said, “The country needs to call for a new right-based approach to ensure social inclusivness of the disabled.” Social exclusion of the disabled is also a national loss of talents, who can be groomed into becoming great contributors to various domain knowledge, he said, adding “I can cite a number of great mathematicians of the time today who are the world famous mathematicians”.

Earlier, Dr Bhushan Punani, Executive Director, Blind Peoples Association, Ahmedabad, drew Justice Shah’s attention to the fact that a few thousand crore of rupees are allocated every year by the Planning Commission to various state and Central government agencies for extending all kinds of support and social inclusive activities for persons with disabilities. Most of these allocated funds return to the exchequer unspent, and that tells a sad story about how the Indian bureaucracy and the NGOs function. The NGOs should be able to file their applications for funding according to the government specifications, if they cannot they will not get the funds. Therefore, the NGOs should work in harmony with the Government systems and their approach should be the path of harmony and not of revolting or confrontation, he advised.

The RCI Chairman Maj Gen Cardozo suggested that for getting proper educators to educate and train the disabled persons, particularly children, the NCERT should be able to recommend for the teachers at NGOs remuneration equal to regular schools, and not below that, as is the practice. For ensuring inclusive education to the Disabled, special teachers are required in adequate numbers and to attract committed and good teachers, their salary structures must be made logically proper, he commented. Maj Gen Cardozo mentioned three categories of special teachers – A for those who can teach students with three types of disabilities, B for those who can teach two types and C for those who can teach at least one category disabled.

Addressing the problems of educating and training the disabled, Prof Pillai said that IGNOU has its doors open to the NGOs working in the areas of Disabled for all supports. “We know the problems and we also know the solutions. What we need to work upon is how to implement the solutions to the problems. If we have the conviction, we can do it,” he said.

Quality physics teachers required, say speakers at IGNOU seminar on astrophysics

New Delhi : India has many Optical Astronomy programmes in place. One of them, Kodaikanal Observatory, has database about over 100 years. Two novel astrophysics projects would be launched sometime in 2011 and 2012. These are known as, Astrosal and Tauvex, the telescopes to give very precise results at research in astrophysics and astronomy, said Prof Shiraj Hasan, Director of Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA). Tauvex is a collaborative project India is working on with Israel, which would take about two years before launching, he added.

Prof Hasan was delivering today the key note speech at the two-day Silver Jubilee seminar on ‘Recent Trends in Astronomy and Astrophysics’, at the IGNOU campus. The School for Interdisciplinary and Trans-disciplinary Studies (SOITS) and Student Services Centre (SSC) of IGNOU have jointly organized the seminar. The seminar was presided over by Vice Chancellor Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai.

Prof Hasan said, that setting up large telescopes is beyond capacity of any country today. “It is a very big budget. That is why it is thought that a consortia of several countries should be created. As it is not possible to create a 30-meter or 40-meter telescope today, we work with over 1000 segments of small mirrors”, he added.

There were two special lectures in the seminar – the first by Prof SK Saha, Chairman of the Board of Graduate Studies at IIA, on ‘Galileoscope to Hyper-telescope’ and the second by Prof. T Prabhu of IIA, on ‘Discovering the Universe’.

A core area of fundamental physics, the astronomy and astrophysics are avowedly pursued by the student communities in India. The studies need to be honed further to excellence which Indians can do, was the basic thrust of the conference. Stressing this, in his address, Prof K R Srivathsan said that Aryabhatta pursued astrophysics much before Galileo started research. Astrophysics is in Indian scriptures too. He lamented that the western world was caught up with a sort of ideological mess on astronomy. That continued for long years and has reflected in quality of teaching of astrophysics and astronomy in India. Today a good amount of knowledge is missing due to lack of genuine teaching-learning process. That is one reason why good physicists are not emerging, he said.

Referring to Stephen Hawkins’ ‘A Brief History of Times’, Prof Srivathsan said, we need to understand and appreciate his concept. This world is full of sensors and telescopes. For India to develop the cutting-edge capabilities at least four areas need to be strengthened. These are : first, creating huge and every developing data, second, developing physical models for teaching and learning processes, third, creating algorithm continuously, because algorithm is created by humans -- ICT, novel algorithms and entire corpus of science all three together make teaching-learning proper, and lastly, developing huge computing power larger than super-computers.

Prof Srivathsan suggested these four conditions are required for grooming good astrophysicists in the country, so that teaching community could meditate more on core sciences.

IGNOU already runs an Integrated MSc-PhD programme in Physics and Astrophysics in collaboration with the IIA. The programme is residential and face-to-face only and is targeted towards giving orientation to students with effect from the post graduate level, said Dr CK Ghosh while introducing the audience to the seminar. Dr Ghosh stressed on inculcation of scientific temper among the student communities. To this direction, the university is mulling over more programmes on astrophysics and astronomy, said the SOITS Director Prof Nandini Sinha Kapur.

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) with support from Department of Information Technology, Government of India, is hosting a one-day Curriculum Review Workshop for Common Service Centres (CSC) stakeholders for providing inputs to the Curriculum for a certificate course to be launched for Telecentre Managers this year. The course will be offered by Centre of Extension Education, IGNOU. Besides the basic certificate modules, the workshop envisages to identify modules that are needed to enhance the capacities of these CSC operators for sustainability.

The meeting is scheduled for 22 March 2010 , India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

Over the past two years, in collaboration with the Curriculum Commons porgrammes of the telecentre.org. a team of experts and practitioners representing various networks, have been working to develop the course materials. The course is planned to be delivered in a blended format and would be part of the Global Secretariat of Telecentre.org Academy’s key activitites, which is being hosted at IGNOU.

The objective of the workshop is to ensure that the curriculum being developed by CEE, IGNOU with telecentre.org is consistent with the expectations and needs of the stakeholders. The workshop aims to introduce the course design and contents, identifying the mode of delivery, issue and challenges, and consolidating feedback on specific modules that needs to be developed for CSC ecosystem stakeholders’ capacity building needs.

New Delhi : Journalism students of Indira Gandhi National Open University enjoyed a shot in their arms when they were asked to rate 48 short docu films on disability, screened in the EMPC Preview Room on the campus.

The films were of four categories : within 1-minute, 5-minute, 30-minute and 60-minute. The fest was organized by the university in collaboration with We Care and Botherhood, two NGOs, headed by film director Satish Kapoor, a recipient of Acharya Vinoba Bhave National Volunteer Award 2001.

This exercise at IGNOU was the sixth of the planned 18 venues of institutes of journalism and mass communication across the country. The top three makers, decided following the ratings by the masscom students in the 18 venues, of each category of these 48 documentasry films will be awarded cash prizes. These top rated films will next year be sent to international film festivals, such as at Cann, IFFLA etc. says Kapoor.

Vice Chancellor Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai, in his valedictory address assured the students that the university would provide new opportunities to work on socially relevant areas. There are 450 NGOs in the country working in the disability sector. Disability is just not physical, mental or intellectual. Even deprivation from the social inclusion is also a type of disability in Indian society. These films carry such messages, he said.

It was a spectacle of zeal and enterprise. Students avidly exercised their analytical discretion and even entered into warm debates over subjects in various disabilities, use of light and presentation. Emotion was high when films like ‘Sign Language’ (30-sec) ,‘Jeevan Path’ (1-min), ‘butterfly wings’(30-min), ‘White Balance’ (a 48-min film on a child with down syndrome which showed how his family helped him lead a normal life), ‘hausle ki udaan’ (13-min, filming children with different types of disabilities), ‘waiting for you’ (5-min). were screened. It was thrilling to notice how the new media students reacted with such verve and anaylitical capabilities, said Prof Padmini Jain, who anchored the entire festival.

Director of IGNOU School of Journalism and New Media Studies (SOJNMS), Prof S.N. Singh, said that the final award ceremony will be hosted by the SOJNMS at IGNOU on the International Disability Day, May 3, 2010. Prof Singh also promised many more such opportunities to the students in near future. In two or three months, different workshops in media studies would be organized, he said, adding that it would be done at certain regularity, such as by June onwards the university would start organizing a three-week internship at Print and Electronic media houses in the country.The SOJNMS will soon start a film appreciation programme after brainstorming sessions over feasibility of such an academic pursuit.

New Delhi : Teaching without research is like a stagnant pool and can never keep pace with demands of future. Therefore research has to be the essential part of education, said eminent scientist Prof SK Joshi, former CSIR Director General, who was the Chief Guest at the 21st Convocation of Indira Gandhi National Open University today. He expressed satisfaction that “IGNOU realizes that research and education are two sides of the same coin of quality higher education”.

Delivering his address at the Convocation the visionary physicist said that the Indian education system is facing several problems like access, quality, and weak link with the real world of business and industry. Prof Joshi stressed quality coming out of research for effective higher education. “A faculty who is active in research is likely to innovate in teaching and preparing the course content. Teacher would be able to preset the subject as living knowledge”.

It was an exquisite and colourful presentation of the 21st Convocation of the country’s flagship university for open education, which witnessed 78 members of the IGNOU academics led by the vice chancellor and the chief guest appearing on the ceremony dais in a sober procession. In all 1,33,628 students were given away their Degrees and Diplomas. Almost all of the 6000 registered learners personally collected their certificates, 66 gold medallists queued up for their glorious moments where they were handed over the university’s pure gold medals with certificate made of high quality paper with covers.

Four special awards were given. There were interesting aspects among the students. The Master of Arts in English medal went to for the fourth consecutive time to the Jedda-based PI, Ateico. Its learner Mrs Shahmida Mohammed got it this year.

Ms Dhundup Dolma of Nepal earned two gold medals, one for topping the Masters in Social Work and Prof Ram Reddy Memorial Gold Medal for obtaining the highest marks of all masters programmes. Her countryman, Mr Gagan Gurung also got his gold medal for topping the Masters in Rural Development programme.

Indian higher education systems have lacunae, Prof Joshi observed, in access, equity and linkage with job-market. Education which fails to connect the relevance in the job-market is absolutely meaningless. India has a young population, of whom only 13% of the age-group of 18 to 23 can manage to enroll for higher education as against 83% in the USA. This figure has to improve by 2020 to at least 20% to meet the demand of efficient workers for ever increasing job-market. By 2020 India should have over four and a half crore workers to fill the four crore jobs in the world market. Towards this direction massive expansion in higher education is needed. “It is heartening to note that IGNOU has already enrolled over 15% of the young people to meet the demand”, Prof Joshi said.

Including the disadvantaged people into the education systems being the motto of this university, it would be only fitting that IGNOU should address the inequalities in social groups, based on gender and urban and rural divide.

Only last year the university enrolled over 74,000 students from SC, ST, OBC and socially backward families. Never in any part of the world such a huge number of youths are enrolled in higher education system for empowerment and social-uplifting. It has been possible because of the flexibility ensured in admission and examination processes and Open and Distance Learning pedagogy.

That must ensure rigid quality. Dittoing Prof Joshi, Vice Chancellor Prof VN Rajasekharan Pillai in his report mentioned that a number of dynamic steps have been taken to ensure rigid quality control in course development, teacher-learners relationship, teaching-learning processes and application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Historic collaborations have been instituted with major IT education and training institute NIIT, technical institutes of repute and dynamic convergence systems. By promoting equity through easy access, effective guidance and flexible examinations, IGNOU has started working as has been envisioned by the Prime Minister in his National Skills Mission (NSM). Quality is the hallmark in the pedagogic strategies. Since the Open and Distance Learning tries to include the marginalized, quality assurance is IGNOU’s first mission, he said.

At an exclusive, in the sideline of the Convocation, Prof Pillai said that in next three years IGNOU would implement programmes of NSM.

New Delhi : Indira Gandhi National Open University will work to implement the objectives of the National Skills Mission, said Prof VN Rajasekharan Pillai at the 21st Convocation of the university.

Addressing the Chief Guest, Guests of Honour at 43 Regional Centres, a huge gathering of learners across the nation, gold medalists, their family members, IGNOU academics, staff and media persons, Prof Pillai said, ensuring quality and student satisfaction are the hallmark of IGNOU pedagogy today, which will further be honed to excellence.

Prof Pillai was speaking at the university’s 21st Convocation. In all, 66 gold medals, six special gold medals were among about 6000 certificates in forms of Diplomas and Degrees awarded in the convocation from the Headquarters in Maidan Garhi today.

About 18,000 certificates in forms of Diplomas, Degrees and Certificates were distributed at 43 regional centres. The convocation was telecast live on the Gyan Darshan and broadcast in over 30 Gyan Vani channels. The 43 Regional Centres first joined the Main Convocation at the Headquarters through vedioconferencing and then started their individual Convocations.

In his Address, Chief Guest Prof SK Joshi stressed “research, equity, quality and real world of business and industry” as essential requirement for higher education. Over the years by 2020, in India there would be a surplus of over four and a half crore skilled workers, whereas in the advanced world there would shortage of about four crore skilled workers. Indian youths must be able to meet the demand, and for that proper education and training at skill enhancement are required. It is not impossible to meet the demand, as “India had about 54 crore young people below the age of 21 and this number would continue to grow till about 2050”, he said, adding, “it is a challenge for our higher educational system to train these young people. They need an education of the kind which would equip them with skills demanded for jobs and then has to devise modules of courses which will train them for those skills properly.”

Prof Joshi lamented that the higher education in India suffers from various inequalities, such as of gender and urban and rural divide. He expressed happiness as the vice chancellor said in his report that in 2009 alone IGNOU has enrolled over 74000 learners from SC, ST and OBC families. Prof Joshi further advised that IGNOU should further strengthen its efforts to reach the marginalized sections of society, so that higher education is available to as many of them anywhere in the country.”

Teaching without research is like a stagnant pool and can never keep pace with demands of future. Therefore research has to be the essential part of education, he said expressing satisfaction, “IGNOU realizes that research and education are two sides of the same coin of quality higher education”.

Commenting on the shortcomings of the Indian Higher Education systems, Prof Joshi said, the Open and Distance Learning is not alternative to conventional education system. Rather both are complementary to each other. With growing population, the conventional system cannot take the pressure on Higher Education, therefore the ICT-driven ODL is a plausible opportunity. “With passing of the Right to Education Act and effective working of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, as well as, economic growth of the country, we should expect an explosive growth in the demand for higher education.”

This puts a heavy responsibility on IGNOU to develop quality benchmarks of ODL. He suggested that the quality benchmarking at IGNOU rather be done by an external agency. “Since the ODL tries to bring into its fold marginalized sections of the society, quality assurance is all the more important,” he added.

Delivering the Convocation Speech at the 21st Convocation of Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU), Prof S.K Joshi former Director General, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) exhorted IGNOU authorities to make human values a part of the education of every student.

Prof. Joshi emphasized that most of us consider that the purpose of education is to equip us to get better jobs, which provides us wealth and good living. Our education does not prepare a student for dealing with life, merely prepares him for a job. Our education does not teach us how to examine goals we set in life, how to sort our conflicts, how to deal with relationships with family and friends. Today’s children do not have opportunity to learn about value system from grand parents. There is no guidance from any quarter about meaning of life, importance of spirituality, simplicity and modesty.

Because we ignore human values in our educational system we are witnessing rise of crime, erosion of social discipline and atomization of family. The evil of corruption has permeated all sections of our society. Our education should shape our students to become honest, self –confident and responsible citizens. Shri Aurobindo said, “Most vital of all, the spiritual and intellectual divorce from past, which the present schools and universities have affected, has beggared the nation of originality, high aspirations and forceful energy which alone makes a nation great”. IGNOU should therefore deliberate how human values could become a part of the education of a student so that we are able to reconcile modernity and economic prosperity with human values, he added.

In his report V.C Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai IGNOU announced new programmes in Mental Retardation, Visual Impairment, Hearing Impairment as well as M.Ed. in Special Education and M.Sc. in Counseling and Family Therapy. The programmes are:

Postgraduate Professional Diploma in Special Education in the area of Mental Retardation, Visual Impairment, and Hearing Impairment. Post Graduate Professional Certificate in Special Education Programme of 6 month duration in the area of Mental Retardation, Visual Impairment, and Hearing Impairment.·

M.Ed. Special Education, M.Sc. in Counseling and Family Therapy, Certificate in Early Childhood Special Education Enabling Inclusion (Mental Retardation)

IGNOU has launched an unprecedented new sign language programme to benefit the professional education of deaf students throughout India it includes the first-ever BA degree in Applied Sign Linguistics in India and a one-year preparatory course, targeted at deaf signers the one-year preparatory course will lead to the BA Applied Sign Linguistics degree, which is due to start in 2010. This course aims at producing language teachers competent to teach literacy and sign language to children, adults, interpreters, parents of the deaf, and teachers for India’s over 550 deaf schools with a scope for international outreach as well.

( iSLanDS Centre), IGNOU and Ishara Foundation are developing a vision for a complete Deaf College, where Indian and international deaf students could study a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in a sign language using a study environment that is fully accessible to them.

V.C, IGNOU further stated that in a major thrust towards diversifying its range and mode of course offerings, IGNOU has launched a large number of programmes in the on-campus mode. These include programmes in Journalism, Electronic Media Production and Management, Social Anthropology, Chemistry, Gender and Development Studies, Extension and Development Studies, Labour and Development, Actuarial Science, Social Work and Translation Studies, among others.

At this Convocation, which was telecast Live on Gyan Darshan and held simultaneously at 43 Regional Centres, 66 Gold Medals were awarded.

IGNOU student, Dhondup Dolma, Master of Arts(Sociology) was awarded the Prof. Ram Reddy Memorial Gold Medal for the Highest marks in any Master Degree programme in Social Science. Anjali Kumari Singh, Masters in Computer Applications, was awarded the CEMCA cash award of Rs.10,000/- for the Best Female student in any Degree Programme pertaining to technology. The Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam cash award for the Gold Medalist in BSW was awarded to Vijayan M and Naresh Chand, BA (Ord) was awarded the Prof. Grover cash award for differently- abled students.

The Chairman, Distance Education Council (DEC) and Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai cautioned Universities and Institutions giving misleading advertisements in newspapers, stating that their programmes are recognized by the Distance Education Council(DEC).

DEC has prescribed the guidelines for determination of the standards for Distance Education systems in the country. It is therefore mandatory for all Institutions, Centres and Directorates offering programmes through the distance education mode to get their Degrees, Diplomas and Certificate programmes recognized and approved by the DEC.

In case an institution is already running distance education programmes, it must apply to DEC for recognition of the institution and its programmes. It is also the responsibility of the institution to strictly adhere to the norms prescribed by the concerned statutory authorities for offering professional and technical programmes.

Further, those Universities which have been approved by DEC for the academic year 2009-10 onwards, were also asked to clearly mention the names of the programmes for which approval has been granted to them , in their advertisements.

The institutions violating these norms would be liable to be de-recognized by the DEC. it was also informed to the institutions offering education through distance mode that any degree/ diploma/ certificate being offered by them through distance mode not recognized by DEC, shall not be accepted for employment in Government service.

The institutions/Universities are directed to submit their applications to the DEC within a month’s time , in the prescribed proforma available on the DEC website, http://www.dec.ac.in, for obtaining recognition for themselves and their programmes.

New Delhi : The 21st Convocation of Indira Gandhi National Open University will be held on March 15, 2010, Monday, at EMPC (Sanchar Kendra), IGNOU Headquarters Campus, New Delhi, at 3 p.m. The main function will be held at the Headquarters and simultaneously at 43 Regional Centres.

Padma Bhushan Prof S K Joshi, former director of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will be the Chief Guest and deliver the Convocation Address. Gold Medals and the Special Awards will be distributed by the Chief Guest at the main function. After the function at the Headquarters, the Guests of Honour at the 43 Regional Centres will address the Convocation in the respective regions.

The Convocation will be telecast live on Gyan Darshan. The function will also be broadcast and webcast live on the Gyan Vani and IGNOU Website, respectively.

Degrees and Diplomas will be distributed between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The student must produce his/her IGNOU Identity Card in person at the time of collection.

In this Convocation, 1,33,624 students are eligible to get their Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates. Gold Medals will be awarded to 66 students for Degrees and Diplomas. There will be Special Awards in four categories :Prof G. Ram Reddy Memorial Gold Medal, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Award (Cash), CEMCA Award (Cash), and Professor Grover Award (Cash) for a physically challenged eligible student.

Approximately, 24,000 students will receive their Degrees and Diplomas in person. Of them, about 6,000 students will receive their Degrees and Diplomas at the IGNOU Headquarters and about 18,000 will receive their Degrees and Diplomas at the respective Regional Centres.

Indira Gandhi National open University(IGNOU) Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai today announced that IGNOU will soon establish Model Study Centres within the campus. He was speaking at the Inauguration of the newly constructed Classroom Block within the campus.

Congratulating the IGNOU Construction and Maintenance Division, Professor Pillai announced that IGNOU will soon have a full-fledged Administrative Block.

The VC said,” Higher education has received 400 additional allocation in all Universities within the country in the last 4 years. So there is a need to pass on the benefits to the students. Several initiatives are being started to improve the quality of learning, including making world-class study material being made accessible to the IGNOU students. There is a need to have face-to-face interaction with the students. Even though IGNOU teachers do not meet all students face-to-face, the Academic Counsellors directly interact with all the enrolled 2.8 million learners .”

The VC also announced that 20-22 more classrooms will be coming up soon in the campus.The newly constructed Classroom block has a total of 20 rooms and the classes are expected to start soon. The classroom block will benefit the regular students enrolled in 21 Full-time programmes of the University.

New Delhi : Education for employability is the buzzword at Indira Gandhi National Open University. On Wednesday, IGNOU entered into a collaboration with Asia’s largest IT trainer, NIIT Limited, for ‘Global Partnership in Education & Skill Building for Enhanced Employability.’

The collaboration aims at developing domain knowledge expertise. According to the MoU, the two biggies in the IT education will collaborate in domains like Information Technology and Management Sciences for seamless and borderless operations. The MoU will be followed by launch of joint programmes -- B.Sc (IT), M.Sc (IT), B.Com (IT), M.Com (IT) and Executive MBA programme.

The collaboration at present will concentrate on developing coursewares in IT, Finance, BPO, Retailing and Management. The tie-up will also be extended to Finishing School programmes which would be available initially as optional programmes for IGNOU students and the alumni. There would be programmes also from the NIIT under the Community College and Convergence schemes of IGNOU.

According to the MoU, IGNOU will design curricula, deliver education through ODL and Open Distributed Technology-Enabled Learning (ODTEL), take examinations do certification through an Joint Consultative Committee, and rigidly carry out upscaling of the standard. The university will also look requirement of skills for employability and will take help all expertise sectors’, such as NASSCOM’s, recommendations in these regards. It will also converge with credible institutions for all these purposes, as and when required.

Addressing the gathering of IT scientists, technocrats, and students and the Press at the signing ceremony, Vice Chancellor Prof. VN Rajasekharan Pillai, said that this collaboration would provide the right kind of skills to learners across the country. “Education without skills creates problems. This collaboration is hoped to build capacities of the youths of the country and will also boost Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER). Following the National Skills Mission target, as declared by the Prime Minister, India needs to impart education with employable skills training to 500 million youths by 2020. “This collaboration is a strong step forward to that direction. We have to look at unconventional and innovative collaborations, providing employable skills to all beneficiaries in the university systems,” said Prof Pillai. IGNOU is considering this to be a model for closing the skill gaps in each sector as suggested by the National Skills Mission. The university is hopeful of having 100% employability of learners of the NIIT.

Expressing delight at the MoU, NIIT Chairman Mr Rajendra S Pawar said that “developing talents mapped to industry needs is a formidable task. This alliance will enable us to bring cutting-edge programmes in higher education and skills development, to the youth around the globe, thus equipping them with employable skills.”

With the return of strong hiring outlook, industry would be on the lookout for job-ready talents. According to industry experts over 9,00,000 jobs are likely to be created this year in India, of which over 3,50,000 new jobs will be added to the IT services companies alone. As announced by the NASSCOM recently, the IT BPO exports market is expected to grow by 13% to 15% and the domestic market by 15% to 17%. Going by these stats, life is likely to be cool for the GenNext students who look for cushy jobs.

The task is well cut out. As says Prof Manohar Lal, Director of the School of Information and Computer Sciences (SOCIS) of IGNOU, “Somewhere we are duty-bound to take education to all. Democratisation of computer education is the call of today. Taking the state-of-the-art IT education to the doorstep of the learners, everywhere and anywhere, is a challenge we have undertaken.”

IGNOU, the people’s university, has already developed niche areas of IT and Management-related education for the masses. Today the university’s educational programmes reach over 10 million homes through the DTH and Edusat. The recent innovative moves such as mobile telephony, online admission to certification, on-demand examination and all-time admission have created new direction to democratise higher education and research. In the recent past a firm step has been taken forward to ensure quality research and documentation through digitization of contents and repositories.

IGNOU has already initiated a number of moves in the area of IT research through its Research and Teaching Assistantship (RTA) scheme and Open Distributed Technology-Enable Learning (ODTEL). The university in about a year developed a database of 4,00,000 IGNOU students for SMS servicing on education.

The university’s Advanced Centre for Informatics and Innovative Learning (ACIIL), which is a part of the ODTEL and the SOCIS have recently developed an Open Course Guide, called IGNOU OCG (IOCG), under the direction of Pro Vice Chancellor Prof K R Srivathsan. The IOCG is likely to herald a whole gamut of revving courseware systems and their pursuit in the knowledge society worldwide.

Women Writers come together to celebrate International Women’s Day in IGNOU

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) School of Gender and Development Studies (SOGDS) celebrated the International Women’s Day with a Panel Discussion on “Contemporary Status of Women’s Struggle, Work and Writings”. The discussion was followed by a street play “Dayra” by Sangwari, a street theatre group.

The function was held in the IGNOU Convention Centre and was presided over by the IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai. The participants in the panel discussion were Dr. Lakshmi Kanan, a renowned Tamil poet and fiction writer, Maitreyi Pushpa, a writer who started feminist discourse in Hindi literature and Rekha Awasthi, a literary critic in Hindi literature.

In his Presidential Address, Professor Pillai said,” There is a crying need for education at all levels for women, especially in the fields of skill
development, science and technology and small scale industries. There are schemes in the Government in these areas, but implementation lags behind. IGNOU has the requisite programmes for facilitating these activities. IGNOU can also promote awareness about Women’s Rights, and take it to the
grassroots.”

Speaking on her women characters, Maitreyi Pushpa said, ”Women express their feelings and articulate their rights through folk songs. She talks about her right to be born, to happiness, joy and sexuality. However, these songs are not heard by men. How will the Woman’s Voice be heard? The traditions and conventions which have been given to us as legacy favour patriarchal society. My heroine in ‘Chaak’ recognizes this fact very well and wants to take her own decisions, like all normal women.”

She further added that male writers have been writing about the women that they ‘want’. Whereas, women writers write from experience. This makes women’s writing very powerful.

Speaking at the discussion, Dr. Kanan commented, ”Patriarchy is a culture we have grown up with. It can’t be thrown away in a day. We can’t live without what men do for us. If women want to exorcise patriarchy, they have to join together, but not become female chauvinists in the process. In fact the women who interest me are those who are able to negotiate spaces and work around limited choices.”

Talking about how women’s empowerment is not possible without poverty alleviation, Rekha Awasthi said,” Gender studies has to be linked to the class society, and economic policy of the country has to be addressed for the empowerment of women. Patriarchy is a class approach. Women have been given many faces, those of Kaikeyi, Manthra….. We appreciate Meerabai and Radha, but no father or brother wants her in his home.”

“SOGDS and School of Agriculture, IGNOU are collaborating together to start a Diploma/ PG Certificate in Gender, Agriculture and Sustainablity. There are also plans to launch a programme in Gender and Law, jointly by SOGDS and the School of Law”, announced Prof Savita Singh, Director, SOGDS. She added, “We are celebrating Women’s Day proclaiming that we respect people who respect us. We value equality and also appreciate the Government’s initiative for tabling of the Women’s Reservation Bill, which is a Bill about equality and not just women’s reservation.”

“While higher education establishments and Government focus on Ph.D programmes, there is also great concern and apprehension about the poor quality of the M Phil. and Ph.D programmes offered in large numbers by some institutions misusing the autonomy and the concept of Distance education. Strict enforcement of quality criteria, following international benchmarks in research, is the only way to curb these undesirable practices. Quality research of high impact happening in
renowned Open University and Distance Education systems should be supported and encouraged to set national benchmarks in this area,” announced Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) Vice Chancellor, Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai.

Achieving high levels of Research performance in discipline-based research is the target of IGNOU in this decade of Innovation, the Vice Chancellor stated. He further added that, ”We cannot take a stand that the Open University and Distance Education system will not be able to provide the facilities and ambience for
High quality research. State-of –the –art research laboraties, even in sophisticated science and technology areas, are available in the Open University system”.

The various schemes of IGNOU and the Distance Education Council (DEC) have contributed to the emergence of the University as a World leader in systemic research in the area of Open and Distance learning(ODL) pedagogy. These schemes include minor and major research schemes , study leave for staff to undertake research at the doctoral and post-doctoral levels, sabbatical leave , facilitation of participation in national and international research conferences, the setting up of
special institutes like the Staff Training and Research in Distance Education(STRIDE), the National Centre for Innovations in Distance Education(NCIDE), the National Centre for Disability Studies(NCDS), the Chair for Sustainable Development, the Research and Teaching Assistantship(RTA) Scheme for highly meritorious full-time
postgraduates and the setting up of the statutory Research Council and the Research Unit.

Many Open Universities in the world, like the UK Open University, the Open University of Netherlands and Hong Kong Open University support extensive doctoral and post-doctoral research. They have excellent research portfolios and vibrant research communities which are enhanced through collaborations with top-ranking research
institutions worldwide. In addition to the key discipline based research units, they have established highly relevant major cross-disciplinary research establishments. The UK Open University, in fact, is not only the No. 1 in the mandatory Annual Student Satisfaction Survey there, it also ranks very high in the mandatory Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). IGNOU is proud of the fact that its systemic research feeds directly into the content of its world-leading teaching programmes. The University is committed to utilize its large pool of academics with extensive research experience to train young researchers, in both systemic as well as discipline –based research of the highest quality.

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) School of Translation Studies and Training is organizing a two day National Seminar on Translation and Inter-Cultural Communication.

The Seminar aims to address the dynamics of translational communication with a focus on the Indian subcontinent. A large number of participants from different parts of the country are coming to present papers at the Seminar.

The Seminar will be held on 6-7th March at the Kaustubh Auditorium, Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhawan.

The inaugural session of the Seminar will be chaired by IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai and the keynote address will be presented by Prof. Mushirul Hasan, Former VC, Jamia Millia Islamia.

The inaugural session will be followed by sessions on ‘Role of Translation in Multicultural Society’, Journey of Ideas and Translation, Indian Tradition of Translation and Asian Tradition of Translation.

Amongst the illustrious participants in the Seminar are Prof. Indra Nath Choudhuri, Prof. Manager Pandey, Prof. Rakshanda Jalil , Prof. Sangh Sen Singh and others.

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) has fixed the maximum duration of Management programmes to a maximum duration of eight years.

All old 3.81 lakh students of Management programmes of IGNOU and MBA(B&F) have been informed to successfully complete all the requirements for the award of Degrees/ Diploma by December 2010 term-end examination. If they fail, they will have to seek fresh admission to complete the left-over courses.

The Circular letter dated 1st February, 2007 sent to 3.81 lakh students registered upto the year 2006, can be downloaded from the IGNOU website : www.ignou.ac.in(Students Zone).

Re-registration for July 2010 session is open now. The last date for submitting the Re- Registration Form with late fee at the respective Regional Centres is 20.6.2010. Re- Registration form can be downloaded from the IGNOU website( Students Zone).

In its Silver Jubilee year, the 21ST Convocation of Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) will be held on 15th March 2010 at IGNOU Headquarters and simultaneously at its 43 Regional centers at Ahmedabad, Aizawl,Agartala, Aligarh, Bangalore,Bhopal,Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Cochin, Chandigarh, Darbhanga, Dehradun, Guwahati, Gangtok,,Hyderabad, Itanagar, Imphal, Jaipur, Jammu, Jabalpur, Karnal, Khanna, Kolkata, Koraput, Kohima, Lucknow, Madurai, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Port Blair, Pune, Panaji, Raipur, Rajkot, Ranchi, Shillong, Shimla, Siliguri, Srinagar, Trivandrum, Varanasi and Vijayawada via tele-conferencing.

Prof S.K Joshi, Padma Bhushan, former Director General, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), shall deliver the Convocation address. Prof Joshi is Honorary Vikram Sarabhai Professor of JNCASR at the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi.

Degree / Diploma certificates will be distributed between 11 AM & 1:30 PM to over 1.3 Lac students all over the country. IGNOU is at present, the world’s Largest University with more that 3 Million students.

For collection, students must produce IGNOU I-Card in Person and contact Registrar Student Evaluation Division in case of any problem.

The eligible candidates who have passed their examination held in December 2008 and June 2009 are eligible to attend the Convocation.

1. Gold Medal for Innovation in Open and Distance Learning
2. Gold and Silver medals for best research paper and second- best research paper sponsored by Indian Bank.
3. Gold medal for Best service award to the best Regional Centre.
4. Gold medal for Best International Partner Institution.
5. Prof. G Ram Reddy Memorial Medal for highest aggregate marks in Master Degree Programmes in Social Science Subjects.

1. CEMCA Cash Award of Rs. 10,000/- for best female student in Information Communication Technology.
2. Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam Cash Award of Rs. 10,000/- for the Gold Medalist in Bachelor of Social Work.
3. Prof. Grover Cash Award of Rs.5000/- & 3000/- for scoring highest marks in M.Com and B.Com for the differently- abled students.

New Delhi : Library scientists of trans-national universities and repositories took a firm foot forward to start a world wide networking of libraries to ensure seamless, digitize and free access to information and knowledge through Digital Library Networking.

It urged the participating governments to work fast to enact a Digital Library Act and develop a Digital Library Policy in each country, which were emphasized in the ICDL 2006 at New Delhi four years back. The committee comprised representatives from various countries.

The committee urged the member-states to set up an apex inter-ministerial body to discuss and conclude over the issues involving Digital Libraries networking, bring all government publications in public domain for open access, organize global access to information under a creative common lincensing, strengthen ICT infrastructure with high bandwidth and computing facilities, among others.

On the concluding day today at the International Conference of Digital Libraries 2010 (ICDL 2010), jointly convened by Indira Gandhi National Open University and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) here, the expert committee chaired by Dr Kalpana Dasgupta, chief of Central Secretariat Library of India, recommended that the Digital Libraries must be brought into existence through inter-governmental private-public partnership model to institute open, distance and technology-enabled e-learning.

• To reemphasise the need for enacting Digital Library Act as already recommended in ICDL 2006
• To reemphasise the need to evolve National Digital Library Policy as already recommended in ICDL 2006
• To build national capacity and capability through public and private sector partnership, and
• To harness in each member-country, digital library technologies for e-learning and open and distance learning.

As it translates, if the new Act is enacted and a national policy developed in every participating nation, then the digital libraries will enable a student in any part of the world to access information in the specified repository at a different country without any obstacle or regulatory control. This will fulfill the demand of democratization of education, which is a long-drawn cry among the world communities.

The ICDL 2010 had 700 delegates participating, including 65 top librarians of the world deliberating. Over 200 researched presentations were discussed avidly in the four days of conference, which is fast becoming a silent intellectual movement.

The valedictory ceremony was chaired by IGNOU Pro Vice Chancellor Prof Parvin Sinclair. Of the expert committee members, Prof Jens Thorhaug of Hungary, Prof Michael Seadle from Berlin, Prof Manohar Lal of IGNOU were present on the dais besides, Dasgupta. The committee had observers from IGNOU and TERI, Dr Sudhir Arora and Shri Debal C Kar, respectively.

Libraries around the world have embraced some digitization of their resources, world over. Yet with advent of new opportunities in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the felt-need has widened to accommodate seamless access to knowledge. If that happens, then most difficult knowledge domains would be accessed. For example, researching on traditional knowledge (TK) of therapeutic practices in a country can be possible by accessing even the ancient documents of that country, if credibly digitized.

However, things did not shape up the way it should have been. Impediments were mainly the lack of consensus on issues of Intellectual Property Rights, economic, infrastructure, bandwidth, content development, standardisation, and skill development etc. If the objectives are met, the Digital Library Movement is likely to create an entire corpus of domain knowledge sharing, far more advanced and free from which the popular search engines can provide today.

In his valedictory address Mr Jawahar Sarkar, Culture Secretary of India said, “We are not happy with what we get from the search engines. I feel an archaic state of stagnancy all around us when it comes to access to knowledge. Digitization of archives, libraries are a movement in making. Based on these recommendations we need to lay down standards.”

This point was earlier stressed by Ms Deanna B Marcum of Library Congress, USA, at her inaugural day address of the ICDL 2010, “There are examples of libraries, usually working in collaboration with other cultural institutions, putting their resources into the digitization projects. Libraries today have embraced blogs, RSS feeds, Wikis, Twitter, and other social media to make content useful on handheld devices such as iPhones and BlackBerries.”

Unesco Director Armugham Parasuramen dittoed and offered to support by all possible means to stem and develop the movement. “UNESCO Paris and UNESCO Delhi will closely implement the recommendations and develop a guidelines framework for the Digital Libraries to facilitate the member-states to develop policies comprehensively”, he announced.

Need for Programmes on Domestic Violence and Drug Abuse Treatment by IGNOU- Dr Kiran Bedi

“There has been no Police Reforms for the last 60 years and there is a dearth of research on policing in the country,” said Dr. Kiran Bedi, while delivering the IGNOU Silver Jubilee Lecture in the Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) campus.

Dr Kiran Bedi exhorted IGNOU to play a proactive role in the field of Policing research. ”Who researches policing, does the research become public? No data is available on the police and States in the country have no resources and no budget to undertake this type of research. IGNOU can play a major role in the field of Police research. Your research will be policy making.”

Dr Bedi further said judicial reforms are also least researched . Judicial reforms and Police reforms are linked as there can be no police reforms without reforms in the judicial system.

She added that as per a recent survey by CNN-IBN, public has more faith in the Judiciary than in the Police. IGNOU can be the agents of change by helping train police lower ranks in computer basics, which will empower them to serve citizens better.

Dr Bedi advocated the inclusion of two programmes by IGNOU, on Domestic Violence and Drug Abuse Treatment. Talking about domestic violence, she said ,”We have the laws and the infrastructure on Domestic violence but the awareness about the law is very low. There is a gnawing need for a training programme for NGOs to manage Councellors who work with domestic violence sufferers.”

Dr Bedi added that Drug Abuse treatment, a field in which she has been actively involved for the last 21 years, urgently needs trained counselors. “What is happening now is that patients who get treated, go on to start Drug Rehabilitation Centres. And sometimes patients are chained to treat them, in these Centres,” she added.

Dr Bedi offered the Family Councelling Centres being run by Navjyoti, her NGO, as Training centres for IGNOU students. She also offered to provide internships to students enrolled in these two proposed IGNOU programmes .

Dr. Kiran Bedi, IPS was speaking on “Welfare, Preventive Policing and Helping the Helpless”, organized by IGNOU. The talk was based on the rich experience and expertise of the speaker, including more than 35 years of tough , innovative and welfare policing, while focusing on the broader theme of ‘including the excluded’.

Describing Welfare policing as the Power to correct, not arrest, Dr Bedi, shared her experimentations and insights gained as the founder of two renowned NGOs, Navjyoti and India Vision Foundation, which reach out to over 10,000 beneficiaries daily in areas of drug abuse treatment, schooling for children of prisoners, in addition to education, training, counseling and health care to the urban and rural poor.

The lecture provided a plan of action for moving forward with objectives of welfare, preventive policing and helping the helpless.

New Delhi : Dehumanising of policemen and subsistence in sub-culture are two maladies which are ailing Indian policing. There are tremendous pressures and pools on them. India needs to adopt welfare and preventive policing system, for which enough reforms have to be brought in the Indian policing practices, said former Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police, Dr Kiran Bedi, IPS. Community policing is the key to solutions of the social problems and correcting the policing system of its ailments, she said.

Delivering the 3rd Silver Jubilee Lecture of Indira Gandhi National Open University today in the campus, the most celebrated super cop of India Dr Kiran Bedi said, “We have over 1.7 million policemen in the country, of whom 95% are in the ranks of inspectors and below. Of them, 75% are constables. We have a large size of constabulary. They work 24x7, many times their leaves are cut, a training in a lifetime only which does not train them to perform better, they get raw treatment at work and all these dehumanizing effects they pass onto the people while at policing. This is an expression of sub-culture. Dehumanising of policemen is a natural consequence in India which needs to be corrected,” she said, adding, “It is the Media and the Business which alone can initiate it for Police Reforms.”

Asked what she would say about the recent Press Conference convened and addressed by the IPS officer in West Bengal covering his face in veils, over the Shilda (West Bengal) massacre by the Maoists, Dr Bedi said, “I don’t exactly know what was his compulsions or motivation, but I appreciate his courage, for taking such a string decision.”

Dr Bedi urged IGNOU to take the lead in all these issues. She said that in line of freeing of jailbirds’ education, the university should also ensure free and compulsory computer education to the constabulary. That would have immediate impact towards police reforms, she added. “You will get about 2 million more students enrolled with you every year and the Indian police would be smarter with knowledge and access to the latest technologies. If we can do it for prisons, let us do it for the cops too. If we want to do it faster, let IGNOU take the lead, and definitely, things would shape up faster”, she said.”

She also urged the university to launch at least two training programmes which will bring real change in the society. These are programmes against Domestic Violence and Drug Abuse Treatment. These again only IGNOU can do justice about, because, it has the outreach and capability to institute social responsibilities to its programmes.

Referring to the Police Budget 2010, Dr Bedi said that the allocation of Rs 35,000 crore is not enough to support moves for police reforms. Of this amount the states have to spend Rs 23,000 crore and the balance Rs 12,000 crore is to be spent by the Centre. “The states do not spend more than the 2% of its responsibilities. According to the current state of Law and order, the government today needs to recruit about 18,000 policemen every year”, she said.

Dr Bedi urged IGNOU to also free education to child prisoners, as she is doing at her organization, India Vision Foundation, which she set up from the her Magsasay Award money. Her organization would love to join hands with IGNOU for these purposes, she added. There could be a number of talking points to be raised, she suggested. These are : Night vigil through community policing, beat boxes for cops on beats (a system lone made obsolete because of inertia), recognition of good work done by cops, developing children-cops for traffic education and close interaction with the residents welfare bodies.

Earlier welcoming the veteran super cop at the chock-a-bloc Convention Centre auditorium, Vice Chancellor Prof VN Rajasekharan Pillai reminded the audience how Dr Bedi successfully started a move to educate the jailbirds in Tihar jail, which soon became institutionalized. IGNOU’s current decision of free education to the jailmates has been stemmed from her action.

“Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) students enrolled in Face- to- Face Programmes will now have the facility of concession for Rail Travel”,announced IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai, today.

This benefit was not available to IGNOU students before and will place these Face-to-face students on par with those enrolled in face to face courses in other Central Universities. The Railway Board has agreed to extend theis facility with immediate effect.

The move will positively impact enrollment in the next admission cycle for the academic year beginning July 2010.

Efforts are also on to extend the Bus pass facility by the Delhi Transport Corporation(DTC) to IGNOU face-to-face students.

IGNOU is currently running 21 face-to-face programmes under various Schools in its Maidan Garhi campus, New Delhi.

Shri Kapil Sibal, Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development today inaugurated Third International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL 2010), co-hosted by Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) and The Energy and Resource Institute(TERI) at the India Habitat Centre.

Smt D Purandeswari, Minister of State for Human Resource Development was the Guest of Honour for the inauguration function of the Conference. IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, TERI Director General Dr. R K Pachauri and Ms. Deanne Marcum, Library of Congress, USA, addressed the gathering at the inauguration ceremony.

The Tutorials of this International Conference were inaugurated by Dr T Ramaswami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology, in the presence of the Guest of Honour, Ms. Anne Caputo, President, Special Libraries Association, USA and Dr. Vibha Dhawan, Executive Director, TERI, in the morning at the IGNOU Convention Centre at Maidan Garhi.

ICDL 2010 is being organized from 23rd to 26th February, 2010.The theme of the conference is ‘Digital Libraries: Shaping the Information Paradigm’ and the focus is on the strengths and potential of digital libraries and their role in education, cultural, social and economic development.

The International Conference will facilitate the availability of the rich repositories and connective links to the identified topics from the world’s libraries for students, researchers, scholars, teachers, trainers, writers, artists and other members of the Knowledge society. All libraries of the world will be networked for all domains of knowledge for sharing , research and development so that students will not have to visit libraries, but would be able to access any topic online.

Apart from the other aspects, this conference has special focus on web-based methodologies. IGNOU’s participation in the event would help it strengthen its arena of ICT, Web-based methodologies and digitization for promoting seamless access to all.

The Conference includes Tutorials, in which leading researchers and practitioners will present the tutorials to familiarize participants with the new and innovative tools and techniques in Digital Library development, Workshops with international experts, Business sessions, Exhibitors and Valedictory sessions.

By the end of this year, Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) and Srei Sahaj e-Village Limited will take Advanced Computer Education to Villages in all States of the Country.

Shri A. Raja, Hon’ble Minister for Communications & Information Technology today launched Five programmes, jointly offered by IGNOU and Sahaj.

These programmes will deliver international quality skill development Vocational Programs at affordable costs to the rural population of India. An estimated 100 million rural youth population across the country stands to benefit through the Sahaj-IGNOU partnership.

By the end of 2010,the IGNOU- SREI Sahaj collaboration promises to make this on-line skill education available at 27,255 CSCs in the states of Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai announced, “This is the first time in the country that online education through distance mode will reach the remotest corners of the country, empowering the rural poor. The IGNOU- Sahaj partnership will help bridge the gaping educational divide within the rural landscape and make advanced Computer Education available to the villagers at their doorsteps.”

Total Five courses are currently available as a part of IGNOU- Sahaj partnership. These Sahaj e- Shiksha courses may be broadly categorized into the following, Diploma in Advanced Computers, Certificate Program in – HTML, Certificate Program in - JAVA SCRIPT, Certificate Program in – SQL and Certificate Program in - FLASH.

The eligibility criteria for these programmes is matriculation. All programmes will be accredited to IGNOU for its use. Sahaj will administer the programs including enrolments, registration, fee collection, evaluation and do the certification by IGNOU.

With the use of modern ICT platform of Sahaj available at 12,000 Gram Panchayats, the prestigious IGNOU higher education will be made available to the rural youth in digital format through the Sahaj Common Service Centers (CSCs). The rural youth would have unprecedented opportunities to acquire IGNOU’s internationally recognized certification, diplomas, degrees right in their villages through computerized Sahaj CSCs.

The prestigious partnership aims to make up for the prevalent lack of rated educational institutes in the interior pockets of the nation, help students in the villages get quality education without having to relocate to urban set-ups & spending a lot, as well as to help people who might have had to give up studies to support their family acquire a recognized certificate and make educating the girl child easier, even in orthodox social set-ups

The programs offered have a number of special features like the facility of anytime Education at your students’ comfort zone,affordable Program Costs, Industry-oriented Program curriculum,100% Placement Assistance, Diploma from IGNOU & Sahaj Academy, Recognition by Governments and Employers and the facility to pay in easy instalments.

IGNOU to launch MSW from July 2010 in upcoming Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education and Development in Nagaland

“Indira Gandhi National Open University is setting up the Mahatma Gandhi Institue of Education and Development (MGIDE)in collaboration with Nagaland Gandhi Ashram(NGA) in Chuchuyimlang, Nagaland”, announced IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai.

The proposed campus will consist of the School of Social Work, School of Agricultural Development, School of Teacher’s Training, Community College, Cultural Resource and Training Centre- Naga Arts and Crafts and Study Centre with Gandhi Museum.

The School for Social work within the MGIDE campus will be called Mahatma Gandhi Centre of Social Work. The centre will be offering a Face-to- face Post-graduate programme in Social Work.

The MSW programme is expected to be launched from the July 2010 session. The intake of students is expected to be 20-25 in the first year..

The Programme envisages an interdisciplinary approach to education and development. Its thrust is to prepare professionals to promote social welfare and development at the micro and macro levels. It will include ICT enabled learning and full- fledged library support and regular faculty under Educational Development of the North East(EDNERU). Virtual classrooms will also be used to broadcast lectures from Delhi, directly to students at the MGIDE campus.

A Two- Day Expert committee meeting for finalizing the curriculum for the new MSW Programme was held in the IGNOU Main campus from 16th-17th February. The meeting was organized by EDNERU and School of Social Work (SOSW), IGNOU. It is being attended by Subject experts and faculty of various Social Work programmes in the North East. Prof.Gracious Thomas, Director, SOSW and Dr Jayashree Kurup, Dy. Director, EDNERU coordinated the deliberations. The aim of the meeting was to contextualize the MSW programme for the North-East region.

The other proposed Schools at MGIDE will offer programmes at the graduate and post graduate levels and will share their expertise with one another in field work, extension and practice.

Professor R.R. Singh, former Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Professor, School of Social Work, Delhi University, will coordinate and monitor the activities pertaining to the MGIDE.

The MGIDE campus is coming up on 20 acres of land donated by the Village Council of Chuchuyimlang. Noted Gandhian and Founder of Nagaland Gandhi Ashram , Natwar Thakkar is the leading light behind the establishment of the IGNOU-NGA Educational Project.

At 55 percent, Madhya Pradesh has the highest malnutrition figures in the country for children under 3. And Vidisha district is one of the worst performers in the state. Things are, however, slowly changing for the better.

And leading this quiet revolution are women like Suman Lodhi, Sarvesh Malviya and Sita Saxena – women who have been empowered by IGNOU.

They are among the 1,014 anganwadi workers who underwent training as part of a programme launched by IGNOU in association with UNICEF and the Department of Women and Child Development of Madhya Pradesh, to better deal with child malnourishment and women’s health issues.

The anganwadi movement, launched in 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services, was envisaged as the nation’s primary tool against child malnourishment, infant mortality and the health-related problems of young mothers. It began with just 33 centres; today, there are nearly 7.5 lakh anganwadis across the country.

The IGNOU programme is aimed at providing skill-based education to anganwadi workers. And it has really helped, according to Naki Jahan Qureshi, Women and Child Development Officer, Vidisha. “The results have been really quite encouraging,” says Qureshi.So encouraging, that the Madhya Pradesh government is planning to extend the programme to all the districts.

The training modules, conducted in seven development blocks across the district from December 11, 2008, till May 28, 2009, have instilled much-needed self-confidence in the workers, says Qureshi.

The training involved community health, infant care, innovative ways to combat malnutrition, nutritional needs during pregnancy, special needs of adolescent girls, anaemia, issues related to women’s empowerment, immunisation and water purification.

“The idea was to make the workers understand that they are not tasked to just distribute mid-day meals, but to play a larger role — of being a mother, friend or a family member,” says IGNOU’s Dr Harkirat Bains, the coordinator of the programme.

“To make anganwadi workers understand the special needs of women and children, IGNOU developed a set of four books. The books were based on the intellectual levels of anganwadi workers since the challenge was to address the huge educational and language differences among them,” says Dr Bains.

The workshop, however, was not all theory. “The workers were given practical knowledge about the importance of haemoglobin in blood, blood pressure, nutrition, weight-loss and other health-related problems that adolescent girls face,” she adds.

And the programme has visibly empowered the anganwadi workers. “After attending the sessions, they feel more self-confident and are helping women and children understand the benefits of a healthy and wholesome lifestyle,” says Dr Bains.

For Sarvesh Malviya, a worker at an anganwadi near Pedi school, the training was a boon. “It was a challenge to under-stand the needs of girls and children. Today, I feel more confident and am able to address their problems more diligently,” says Malviya, a mother of two.
Similar is the experience of Savita Tiwai, 45, who runs the anganwadi centre near Kartik Chowk. She is today almost like a family doctor for those who visit her.

“The IGNOU trainers helped me understand how best to address the symptoms of anaemia and malnutrition among women and children and the problems teenaged girls face during puberty,” says Tiwai. “The discussions with paediatrics and gynecologists were really helpful.”
Although the training was focused on health issues, the anganwadi workers derived other benefits from it as well.

Take the case of Manju Srivastava. Posted at Vidya Nagar anganwadi centre, Srivastava is today an expert in waste management, thanks to the training sessions. And she now creates beautiful toys for kids from waste products.

The quiet change sweeping Vidisha has not gone unnoticed. While Madhya Pradesh intends to take the IGNOU programme to all its districts, other states have evinced interest as well.

“Chhattisgarh is keen to implement the programme in the state and has approached us,” says IGNOU Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, adding that the project may soon also be launched in Assam.
The small step taken in Vidisha may well prove a big leap for the 5.7 crore malnourished children in the country.

Meet Mithilesh Kumar, a civil engineer by profession and currently the country head of Layher Scaffolding Systems Pvt. Ltd., a firm that specialises in scaffolding and roofing systems.

In his own words, “The journey to the top post was made easy with my four years at IGNOU’s School of Engineering and Technology, pursuing B. Tech (construction management)”.

“The beauty of this programme was the industry-oriented courseware, such as design detailing, construction works supervision and repair and maintenance of buildings, that are not available in the curricula of other universities in the country,” says Kumar, who did his M. Tech in civil engineering from IIT-Roorkee.

“Face-to-face counselling sessions over the weekend with Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) professors, study programmes on Gyan Darshan and FM channel Gyan Vani, e-gyankosh and National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) materials, etc., helped me a lot during my B. Tech,” says Kumar.

He has written several papers and articles like ‘Scaffolding with More Possibilities’ and ‘The Art of Scaffolding Systems,’ among others, for magazines like Civil Engineering & Construction Review.

At Layher, he leads the business development section that covers design, strategic planning and marketing.

Admissions for law programmes jointly by Indira Gandhi Open University(IGNOU) and Rainmaker are open now.

These are online programmes(Master of Intellectual Property Law --> www.ignouonline.ac.in/mipl , Post –Graduate Diploma in Legal Process Outsourcing --> www.ignouonline.ac.in/pgdlpo , Post –Graduate Certificate in Cyber Law --> www.ignouonline.ac.in and distance education programmes (Diploma in Paralegal Practice and other Law Programmes)

In the two year Master of Intellectual Property Law ,Law graduates have the added option to obtain a dual certification by studying at the QUT(Queensland University of Technology) in Australia. It is open to graduates from any discipline.

One year Post –Graduate Diploma in Legal Process Outsourcing is open to law graduates including final year students. Top performer are offered internship with LPO industry leaders.

Six – Month Post –Graduate Certificate in Cyber Law is open to graduate from any discipline and Final year students of the 5-year integrated law programme.One year Diploma in Paralegal Practice is available through distance mode and eligibility is 10+2 or equivalent or BPP from IGNOU.

Other School of Law Programmes include Ph.D in law, Diploma in Intellectual, Property Rights, P.G Certification in Patent Practice, Certificate in Human Rights, Certificate in Consumer Protection.

Programmes commence on March 1,2010 and Last date for enrolment is March 31,2010 A late fee of Rs.200 on all enrollments between March 1 to March 31,2010.Programmes are being delivered and managed by Rainmaker. Prospective students may also contact Rainmaker for additional information on the programmes.

IGNOU to launch Certificate Programme in Dialysis Medicine in collaboration with Directorate General of Health Services

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU)signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Directorate General of Health Services (Dte. G.H.S) for launching a Post Doctoral Certificate programme in Dialysis Medicine. The landmark programme is expected to be offered by IGNOU’s School of Health Sciences(SOHS) from the July 2010 session.

In his presidential address at the ceremony, which was telecast live , Dr. DK Chaudhary, Pro-Vice Chancellor, IGNOU said, ”The Post Doctoral Certificate in Dialysis Medicine is a year long programme and is being offered through the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode. The programme is expected to fulfill the need of trained Health manpower in the field of Dialysis at the district level.”

The one year programme, includes six months of skill development training at the Nephrology departments of 10 centres. These centres have been already been jointly identified by IGNOU and Dte. G.H.S.

Speaking on the occasion, the Guest of Honour, Dr. RK Srivastava, Director General of Health Services said,“Dialysis is a life saving therapy for patients suffering from chronic renal failure and it affects a large number of people in the country. These patients move from one hospital to another, seeking redressal, dialysis and kidney replacement. Dialysis requires the services of nephrologists, which requires 5 years’ training after an MBBS degree. We plan to train 250 doctors in dialysis in two years, through this Post Doctoral Certificate programme. This will go a long way in helping patients, especially those living in the countryside.”

New Delhi : World’s libraries with rich repositories and connective links to the identified topics will soon be available online for students, researchers, scholars, teachers, trainers, writers, artists, evaluators and all other inquisitive members of the knowledge society. They will get access to solutions and the linkages to their topics.

Experts from over 30 nations will present in the third International conference on digital libraries, ICDL 2010, at India Habitat Centre beginning 23rd for four days here what they consider to be the solution to knowledge barriers in online libraries.

A vast canvas has been created for the agenda such as : How digitization modules can be used for converting the entire corpus of existing print and manuscript resources into digitized format, how education and libraries can be interlinked through web world, what is the latest in the semantic web in an automated sense, etc.

The challenge is being seen as extremely difficult for the knowledge society world over today, on which over 30 internationally celebrated experts in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) would deliberate. The conference is organized jointly by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi.

Explaining the concept, IGNOU Pro Vice Chancellor and India’s leading ICT expert Prof K R Srivathsan said that today’s students do not want to go to libraries, but would love to pursue knowledge through web. So it is necessary to customise the libraries online, network all libraries of the world for all domains of knowledge for sharing, research and development. The key theory is to ensure that the value from information must link the due references to the contexts of knowledge, for example, the law consulting web. One can get relevant reports of a context automatically linked to the main context. There are other areas also, such as multimedia, e-content, e-Books, i-pads, which can allow you gather knowledge easily, or enjoy reading a book through your mobile phone lying on a railway berth while travelling.

Solutions to more difficult part of the challenge will be presented. This challenge is how to make the entire corpus of knowledge accessible to students, researchers, scholars, teachers, trainers, writers, artists, evaluators and all other inquisitive members of the knowledge society.

The conference will also address a good deal of copyright issues tagged to the corpus in the print and manuscript resources, and evolve regulatory policies required to handle the intellectual property rights issues. A team of experts will constitute a Recommendation Committee to examine during the four days the presentations on technical problems, issues and challenges and submit recommendations to governments of India and abroad. As ICDL is a series of conferences, starting from 2004, it matured over the years to be the advisory body to create new digital paradigm for libraries.

The ICDL 2010 will be inaugurated by Union HRD minister Shri Kapil Sibal at 6 p.m. at the IHC. Smt D Purandaeswari, MOS, HRD will be the guest of honour. IGNOU Vice Chancellor Prof VN Rajasekharan Pillai, TERI DG and Nobel Laureate Mr R K Pachauri, and Prof N Balakrishnan of Indian Institute of Scuence, Bangalore are the co-chairs of the ICDL 2010.

The conference will have two-parts. In the first part, on the inaugural day on the 23rd right from the morning, a workshop will be conducted at IGNOU Convention Centre to initiate the participants into the concept of the ICDL 2010. The workshop will have four sessions in each half of Feb 23rd addressed by Prof Paul Nieuwenhuysen of Belgium’s Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Prof Sally Jo Cunningham of University of Waikato, New Zealand, Prof Daniel Chandran of University of Technology, Sydney, Australia and Prof K R Srivathsan, IGNOU in the first half of the day. Prof Andreas Rauber of Vienna University of Technology, Austria, Dr Hiranmay Ghosh of Tata Consultancy Services, India, Dr Alejandro Bia of Universiad Miguel Hernandez, Spain and a professor from IGNOU’s NCIDE will initiate the participants in the second half of the workshop.

On each day of the next three days, there will be a plenary session in which an eminent scholar of ICT will deliver the key note address on the day’s theme. The parallel sessions will follow to discuss technical problems, issues and challenges.

New Delhi : Indira Gandhi National Open University today launched an open course guide (IOCG) system for the learners of MCA and CIT. The IOCG is a next generation framework of open e-learning. It is IGNOU’s new innovation in the domain of Information and Communication Technology. The system can translate the content in Hindi instantaneously, which will make the programmes more learner-friendly.

The (IOCG) is based on the platform of Open Distributed Technology-Enabled Learning (ODTEL) framework is developed by the Advanced Centre for Informatics and Innovative Learning (ACIIL) of the university under the guidance of Prof K R Srivathsan, Pro Vice Chancellor, an ICT technocrat.

IOCG is the first of its kind open e-Learning system anywhere which effectively addresses the complex course events management required for open education programmes. It promotes better interactions among the course instruction team, students and counsellors, asserts Prof Srivathsan.

(i) Programme and Course Headers for IGNOU related information;
(ii) Course Wiki area for the course coordinator, expert teams, counsellors, students and interested communities who can post course related supplementary content for enriching the study and promoting web-community;
(iii) Query and Messaging Services referred to as 'IGNOU Prashnottari Sewa' (IPS);
(iv) Counselling plan that outlines detailed week-by-week activities and guidance to students;
(v) Open discussion forum for students and between students, instruction team and interested persons.

The IOCG for the MCA and CIT Programs are are accessible from the IOCG Wiki pages:

To these, plans are afoot to add the Students Satisfaction Survey with built-in analytics and visualization for each course and programme.

Explaining the software, Prof K R Srivathsan said that the IOCG pages are set over an open Wiki area. For each course, the IOCG serves as an interactive 'Community Dashboard' for the concerned course coordinator, the counsellors, registered students and anyone interested in the courses of IGNOU.

IOCG supports pedagogically disciplined modes of engaging the learners and managing course events through multiple modes. These modes are study materials, recorded video lectures, multimedia and mobile content, course wiki, discussion forums, TV, webinar and community radio sessions and where desired a Learning Management System is also provided.

Today, the Hon’ble Minister of the State for Information & Broadcasting Shri Chaudhury Mohan Jatua launched 6 new Gyan Vani FM Radio stations at Agra, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Srinagar, Trichy and Thiruvanathapuram at the Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU),New Delhi on the occation of a decade of Gyan Darshan , Educational TV Channel of India, of IGNOU.

These 6 FM channels are in addition to 31 stations already existing. Launched in November, 2001 Gyan Vani is an education FM Radio channel operating through several FM stations from various cities in the country. Gyan Vani aims to enhance and supplement the teaching-learning process by reaching the learners through a low cost popular mass medium using interactive formats.

Gyan Vani Stations operate as media cooperatives with the day today programmes contributed by various educational institutions such as NCERT, NIOS, IGNOU and State Open Universities, NGOs, Ministries, government organizations and foreign broadcasters. Gyan Vani radio stations enjoy sufficient autonomy as they are guided by local Steering Committees consisting of representatives of various stakeholders and eminent educationists. EMPC provides vital linkages for policy planning, monitoring, budgeting and administrative support.

Each Gyan Vani Station has a range of about 60 kms and covers and entire city/town including the adjoining rural areas, Gyan Vani serves as an ideal medium for niche audience addressing the local educational, developmental and socio-cultural requirements. Renowned experts are drawn from the region for talks, lectures and discussions. Live phone-in progrmmes are popular components of the network.

The Gyan Darshan – I Channel, which was launched on January 26th 2000 with an initial four hours transmissions is today, free to air, round the clock TV channel, reaching out to millions of viewers across the subcontinent. The Channel is today, Kaleidoscope offering a wide variety of education programmes for diverse audiences. The major stake holders / contributing organizations for this channel are IGNOU, UGC, NCERT, IIT, NITTTR, Different Ministries, and Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan etc. Subsequently exclusive channels were launched within Gyan Darshan bouquet to address the specific needs of different sectors of higher education. Accordingly, GD – II serves to distance learners through real time interactive programmes. Gyan Darshan – III (Eklavya), offers programmes for vocational and technical education and GD – IV (Vayas), serves to higher education sector. Plans are afoot to launch Gyan Darshan – V channel which will be dedicated exclusively to the programme on science, technology and sustainable development. The test transmission for this channel is already underway from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The programmes for this channel are being introduced by IGNOU, Vigyan Prasar, DST, Deutche welle, Transtel etc. As per recent TAM data the channel enjoys a viewership of 8% in the seven metro cities of India.

“The UN Refugee Welfare and Advocacy (UNRWA) run schools encourage children to attend school 365 days a week”, stated Prof M.B. Menon, its Chief (Education) at Jordon. This, he said, keeps them away from the clutches of the religious fundamentalists.

He was delivering a lecture on “Educating Children in a Fragile Environment- Palestine Context”, at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Maidan Garhi campus.

It was chaired by Prof. KR Srivathsan, Pro Vice Chancellor, IGNOU and organized by School of Education of IGNOU.

Speaking on his own personal experience in Palestine , Prof Menon said,” Palestinian children are extremely motivated about education. They think that education will provide them a way out of the mess and get them to US and a better life. The major problem facing the UNRWA is Coverage and Quality of education. Children with special needs, with stress and trauma are not being covered through the education programmes. Arabic and mathematics remain problems for children. Another big problem is the issue of violence in schools.”

Prof. Menon’s main focus , as the manager of the UNRWA project in education, is using education as a Recovery Programme for Palestinian children. UNRWA is providing Elementary education till 10 th standard in the region, with a strong emphasis on vocational/ Technical programmes.

The UNRWA was started by the United Nations to take care of problems related to refugees, 60 years back.

New Delhi : Indira Gandhi National Open University is humming with activities to chart a blue print for holding the 6th Pan Commonwealth Forum (PCF6) conference on 'Access and Success: Global Development Perspectives to Learning for Development', from 24 to 28 November at Le Meridien, Kochi.

A meeting on last Wednesday (Feb 3, 10) of the Directors of Schools and high officials of the university, chaired by Vice Chancellor Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai, as the Co-Chairperson of the PCF6, took a number of decisions for the conference.

One of the novel decisions is that a complete session in the conference will be assigned to successful internationally reputed professionals who studied through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) pedagogy. They will deliberate on various aspects of community development through ODL and other themes. Eminent scholars who scaled themselves up in the ladder of success are likely to be the key speakers at this session of the 4-day brainstorming Conference on development of Open and Distance Learning in Commonwealth countries.

The PCF6 website will be further spruced up to invite applications from these professionals and expertise, the meeting decided.

The PCF is the biennial conference on worldwide Open Learning, started by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL). Earlier five PCFs were held in Brunei, Darussalam (PCF1); Durban, South Africa, (PCF2); Dunedin, New Zealand (PCF3); Ocho Rios, Jamaica (PCF4), and London, UK (PCF5). The PCF6 is awarded to India and IGNOU is hosting the forum for the country. Over time, the PCF has turned out to be a sought-after conference of the world and is often regarded to be a movement.
There will be four themes in the PCF6, which are :

• Social Justice
• Community Development
• Skills Development, and
• Formal Education
The cross-cutting issues -- Gender, Disabilities and Quality – also could be discussed under the above main themes.

The organizers are inviting researchable papers in various aspects under these four main themes, even as over 300 abstracts have already been received, over 200 of them are from abroad. Considering the flow of abstracts submitted already, which is likely to go up by another 200 plus, the organizers are also mulling to stage two Pre-PCF6 and Post-PCF6 conferences.

Eminent speakers on development issues will be invited to deliver key note addresses for every plenary session. There will be one plenary session for each sub-theme followed by subsequent parallel sessions and discussion by panels.

There will be two Co-Chairs of the Conference -- Sir John Daniel, President and Chief Executive Officer of Commonwealth of Learning (COL), and Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai, IGNOU Vice Chancellor and Chairman of the Distance Education Council (DEC).

Director of IGNOU Staff Training Institute of Distance Education (STRIDE) Prof PR Ramanujam has been appointed as the Programme Chair. Prof Manohar Khushalani, former director of Environment Management at Central Water Commission and member secretary of National Environmental Monitoring Committee for River Valley Projects has been selected as the PCF6 Conference Manager. Prof Khushalani is also a noted thespian.

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) organized a lecture on “Inhuman Practices of Manual Scavenging: Cleaning up shit” in the IGNOU’s Main Campus today.

The lecture was delivered by Dr Berzada Wilson, President, Safai Karamchari Sanghatana(SKA). The lecture was followed by screening of Documentary on” Lesser Humans”. Dr Wilson is involved in a movement to eradicate manual scavenging since 1986,which was later formalized as the SKA in 1996.

The lecture was coordinated by IGNOU’s ‘Dr Ambedkar Chair on Social Change and Development’, a part of the School of Social Science and convened by Prof Vimal Thorat, IGNOU.

The lecture emphasized the social basis behind the practice of manual Scavenging in the country, the reality of the life of a manual scavenger and the response by SKA.

Dr Wilson remarked that manual scavengers fall at the very lowest category of sanitation workers in the country, after sweepers, sewerage workers and septic tank cleaners. There are 6.76 lakh manual safai karamcharis (manual scavengers) in India, though unofficial figures put the figure at 13 lakhs, he said.
He further remarked that the practice of manual scavenging has been banned in the country since 1993, but still continues, in few government institutions.

Delineating the ideological basis of this inhuman practice, Dr Wilson said,” Manual scavenging is considered one of the lowest, polluted and most degrading occupations. The caste system dictates that those born into particular Dalit sub-castes should enagage in manual scavenging , and should remain doing so throughout their lives.”

Dr Wilson was born into a Dalit community in Karnataka. His family was engaged in traditional manual scavenging. He is a post graduate in Political Science and was elected in alternative ‘25 people who will never make it to the power list’ by Outlook magazine . He was also elected as Ashoka Senior Fellow in the Year 2009 from India.

Some of the other main achievements of Dr Wilson’s SKA include a PIL petition filed by it in 2003, which resulted in the Supreme Court demanding affidavits from various states. Most states were in denial mode about manual scavenging , but SKA proved the existence of dry latrines with video and photographic evidence , and they were later forced to demolish them.

Dr Wilson is dedicated to total eradication of manual scavenging from India. SKA has made a planning call ’Action 2010’ for the purpose to eradicate manual scavenging by 31st December, 2010.

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) organized a lecture on “Inhuman Practices of Manual Scavenging: Cleaning up shit” in the IGNOU’s Main Campus today.

The lecture was coordinated by IGNOU’s ‘Dr Ambedkar Chair on Social Change and Development’, a part of the School of Social Science and convened by Prof Vimal Thorat, IGNOU.

The lecture emphasized the social basis behind the practice of manual Scavenging in the country, the reality of the life of a manual scavenger and the response by SKA.

Dr Wilson is dedicated to total eradication of manual scavenging from India. SKA has made a planning call ’Action 2010’ for the purpose to eradicate manual scavenging by 31st December, 2010.

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is conducting Entrance tests for Management Programmes (Openmat-XXVII) and Openden-II, for Post Graduate Certificate in Oral Implantology and Post Graduate Certificate in Endodontics on Sunday, 7th February, 2010, between 10 am to 1pm.

The Entrance Test is being organized in 131 examination centres , accommodating 18,061(16,712+1,349)candidates for Management (Openmat-XXVII) and Openden-II programmes. All candidates are advised to report at the Examination centre 45 minutes before commencement of the Entrance test.

The Hall tickets have already been dispatched to the candidates by IGNOU. The particulars of Hall tickets are also available on the IGNOU website, www.ignou.ac.in.

In case of non-receipt of Hall ticket by any candidate, it can be downloaded from the University website by entering Name and Date of Birth of the candidate.

In case candidates are unable to download the Hall ticket, they can contact the Regional Centre and obtain the information of Examination Centre allocated and report to the Examination Centre with proof of submission of Entrance test application form, along with a recent passport size photograph. In this case, they have to submit an undertaking at the Examination Centre stating that if the information furnished by them is found to be incorrect, their candidature will be cancelled.

IGNOU has deputed Central observers in all the 131examination centres to ensure smooth conduct of the entrance test.

Six students enrolled in Indira Gandhi National Open University’s(IGNOU) Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Safety, Health and Environment Management -PGDM(ISHE) have been selected for the post of Safety officers in leading cement plants across India at a package of 5.5 lac/annum. The students will be paid a stipend of Rs. 29,000/pm for the first 6 months.

The students were selected during campus placement held on 22 January 2010 at the Institute of Industrial Management for Safety, Health and Environment (IIMSHE) Bhopal,a partner of IGNOU.

Out of a batch size of 45 students, 32 students have already been placed. The next campus interview is slated for 10th February 2010 in the IIMSHE campus and the left-over students are also expected to be placed successfully.

The PGDM (ISHE) is being offered by IGNOU’s School of Engineering Technology(SOET).

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) is set to educate & train Below Poverty Line (BPL) youth in six states of UP, Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Orissa and Tamil Nadu, announced IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. Five vocational training and educational programmes have been identified for online delivery. These are Certificate programmes in Computer Basics, Advanced Computing, Job Training and Interview Etiquette, along with a Diploma in Advanced Computing. The proposed programmes will be offered online from application to certification stages.

The programmes will be conducted through a Common Service Centre (CSC) in each village panchayat office at the six selected states of Assam, Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar , UP and Tamil Nadu.

IGNOU has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with SREI Sahaj e-village Ltd., a Kolkata based company which is implementing the CSC project in six short-listed states.

Sahaj is setting up one ICT enabled centre per 10,000 of rural population. They have already obtained a mandate from the Department of Information Technology (DIT) to set up over 27,000 CSCs at these states at the village panchayat level, within the current fiscal year.

Teachers from nearby areas are being hired to teach and guide the IGNOU students in every village panchayat.

The concept of CSCs is especially helpful to women and children of the villages and the BPL families who for various socio-economic reasons can’t travel far for attending schools or training institutes.

The IGNOU Certificate programmes are for six months each, while the Diploma programme will be for a year. After clearing the certificate or the diploma programme, the successfull candidates will be given employment. The students will also be given opportunities to enroll for the programmes of IGNOU on a flexi-mode of learning system.

According to Prof. Pandav Nayak, the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for the Regional Institute of Vocational Education and Training-East Zone (RIVET-EZ) project, “ RIVET is a part of IGNOU initiatives to provide education at the grassroots. For the eight states in the North-East, a RIVET type IGNOU Institute of Vocational Education and Training (IIVET) has already been made functional at Shillong, Meghalaya. Four more RIVETS will be set up soon for other zones of the country.

“In India there are over 2,50,000 public educational and training institutions, all of which can become skill-development centres without affecting the formal teaching and other activities during class hours. These can be harnessed to provide skills to the untrained youth of the country. IGNOU with its country-wide network of 2,500 Study centres has the greatest potential in the country to address the issue of skill deficit in Indian youth,” said IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai, in the forthcoming issue of IGNOU’s OpenLetter.

He further remarked that these Regional and study centres can network with local educational and training institutions for providing modular skills in different trades and vocations. “Linking with the activities of the local micro , small and medium enterprises and grassroots-level civil society organizations, skill upgradation initiatives are being taken up by the Community College Centres, through the two –year Associate Degree programme by a credit accumulation process. Vertically integrated engineering programme, assessment and certification of prior learning and the telecentre movement for skill- upgradation, the village knowledge and resource centres and the collaboration with the rural NGOs are the recent IGNOU interventions in the skill development sectors,” the VC said.

It is estimated that India has the capacity to create 500 million certified technicians and skilled workers by 2020. In this context, 2010-2020 has been declared as the ‘Decade of Innovation’ by the Government.

Speaking on the skill deficit among Indian youth, Prof. Pillai stated “Creating opportunities for our youth to become the largest pool of skilled and technically trained human resource is the greatest challenge before us in this decade. This would enhance the Gross enrollment ratio, along with providing opportunities to our young population and large number of school drop-outs. As an Open University with flexible and innovative educational, training and skill-building capabilities, we need to lay more emphasis on these objectives of the National Skills Mission,” Prof. Pillai remarked.

Peace has good chance in J&K, inclusive education can bring it: ADG Sabharwal

New Delhi : Al-Quaida or the types of terrorist groups can not cause injury to Indian Army because the Indian Army is much advanced technologically. We are more focused on ensuring the indicators of normalcy in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, said Lt General Mukesh Sabharwal, Adjutant General of Indian Army at an interaction with media persons today.

Delivering the third Silver Jubilee Lecture at IGNOU, Lt Gen Sabharwal said, “Today there are cases when the arrested terrorists approach us requesting to admit their children in schools for general studies and development inclusively in the mainstream of the society. They realized their mistake.”

Generations are changing. Referring to the Pakistani tribals’ invasion of India at the dawn of Independence, Lt Gen Sabharwal said the people of Kashmir were motivated against the Pakistani aggressions right from those early days of our Independence. After the signature of the Instrument of Accession in favour of India on October 26, 1947, which was accepted by the then Governor General next day, the troops were rushed to vacate the aggression. The Army fought sustained battle with the tribals and after several sacrifices pushed them out of the Valley and other areas in the Jammu region. At that point, people of Kashmir were mobilized to resist the enemy. Till the arrival of troops, it was mainly the Muslim volunteers under Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah who braved death to push back the invaders. There are several instances where people put up a gallant resistance and stopped the advance of the invaders.

“Internal security is a reality and cannot be wished away. We need to strengthen the local responders. These involve capacity-building of the state police, para-military and civil forces, inclusive education and effort to change hearts. The responders need to see eventualities. Gyan Deep is an excellent opportunity to this direction”, Lt Gen Sabharwal said. For this, presence of the mainstream media in the Kashmir is very important, he said, adding that the local media people have many kinds of slants and favours, and their reports are not conducive enough to ensure inclusive growth of the society.

Asked if the Army was trying to do any thing to establish the country’s mainstream media houses in the state and protect them enough to function freely, a brigadier who accompanied the Lt Gen Sabharwal said that such possibilities may be realized in gradual process.

After getting defeated in three wars and two adventurous movements, Pakistan today has wielded proxy wars through terrorism, that too by importing foreigners in terrorist activities. However, the good sign is, increasingly people of Jammu and Kashmir are realizing the futility of these proxy wars. By 2004 the terrorist activities were reduced to 100.

Peace is possible through development measures. Indian Army has taken a number of steps to empower the unemployed youth, women, ensure justice in the civil administration, as Army believes that the fulcrum of all operations being the populace, all operations must aim at isolating the terrorists from the populace through people-friendly operations.

“There are two bus services between India and Pakistan. These are Uri-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalkote buses. Feedback received from the passengers who have taken these buses reveals that the grass is definitely greener on the India side,” Lt Gen Sabharwal said. Today the statistics between 1985 and 2005 speak for themselves. The per capita income in Kashmir has increased by six times from Rs 2,874 to Rs 17,174. The people below poverty line (BPL) of the state are 8 to 12 times lesser in number than those in other states. The Imports and industry have increased in the state several times with taxable export value improved from Rs 89,000 lakh to Rs 6,33,000 lakh.

In tourism alone the state recorded 4.75 lakh in 2009. Indeed Ladakhis and Kasmiris have excellent opportunities of growth.

The function was presided over by Vice Chancellor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. Prof Salil Mishra gave a critique of the Lecture as a discussant. Pro Vice Chancellor Dr Latha Pillai gave the vote of thanks.

Security Forces need Legal Provisions to function effectively in J & K- Lt General Mukesh Sabharwal

Lt. General Mukesh Sabharwal, Adjutant General, Indian Army today outlined internal security arrangements in Jammu and Kashmir.

He was delivering a lecture on “Internal Security in Jammu and Kashmir: Historical Perspective and Emerging Scenario”, as a part of the Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) Silver Jubilee Lecture today in the IGNOU Maidan Garhi campus.

Remarking on the role of the security forces in the future, Gen Sabharwal said,“In order to operate effectively, security forces need necessary legal provisions to permit them to function/operate. Any dilution of protective laws for security forces could thus be damaging. Such laws are the only safeguard for security forces, and give them the requisite legal framework which permits them to conduct proactive operations against terrorists”.

He further remarked that internal security is a reality and cannot be wished away. For internal security, there is a need to strengthen the local first responders. This involves capacity building of the State police forces, to include training of State police and the Central Reserve Police Force. The importance of leadership of the Paramilitary Forces also cannot be overemphasized, he said. “All first responders need to be empowered. First responders need to foresee, rehearse and train for eventualities. Thereafter, we gradually need to reduce the Army’s visibility, especially in cities/along roads, “General Sabharwal added.

General Sabharwal stated that there is an urgent need to reduce the Army’s visibility, especially in cities and along roads. There is a requirement of having enough security forces, suitably trained, armed and deployed so as to operate where required within a timeframe, which enables their being effective. The form of mobility chosen could vary from vehicle based mobility to mobility on foot, combining speed with surprise.

Excellent communications are essential to enable security forces to operate effectively within their given areas. In turn, for these to be effective, intelligence is a must. This is best gathered through the populace, which in Jammu and Kashmir has been largely won over, convinced of the just cause of the Nation.

Another important issue, which must be given due significance in the valley, according to Gen. Sabharwal, is governance and development. “It would be desirable for more industries to mushroom in Jammu and Kashmir, and for the national media to proliferate to an ever greater degree. Development of the state is perhaps single most important factor, essential for bringing lasting peace to the state. While there is no gainsaying the fact that the levels of development in Jammu and Kashmir out-distance the levels of development in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and the Northern Areas, increasing levels of development can help the greater cause of restoring normalcy to the State,” declared Lt. General Mukesh Sabharwal.

The IGNOU Silver Jubilee Lecture was chaired by IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. The Lecture was coordinated by Dr. Latha Pillai, Pro Vice Chancellor,IGNOU and it was attended by eminent guests, academics , students and staff of IGNOU.

Prof. Salil Misra, School of Social Sciences, IGNOU, presented the Discussant’s Remarks after the lecture. The lecture was followed by an open discussion.

“IGNOU is the largest University in the world’,according to the UNESCO website: www.unesco.org.

“Enrollments of nearly three million students and networks across the country making the best use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) – IGNOU’s accomplishments are recognised worldwide”, declared Ms Irina Bokova, Director General UNESCO.

“Almost three million students in India and 33 other countries study at IGNOU which is also India’s National Resource Centre for Open and Distance Learning and a world leader in distance education. Through its 21 schools of study, 59 regional centres, 2300 learner support centres and some 52 overseas centres, the university offers certificate, diploma, degree and doctoral programmes, comprising around 1500 courses, the university provides access to sustainable and learner-centred education and training to all through quality, innovative and needs-based programmes at affordable costs, thus reaching out to the disadvantaged. It promotes, coordinates and regulates the standards of education offered through open and distance learning in India,”quoted the UNESCO Website.

The website further announced that,” IGNOU’s staff consist of 380 faculty members and academic staff in headquarters and regional centres while some 36,000 counsellors from conventional institutions of higher learning and professionals from different spheres. With the launch of EduSat (a satellite dedicated only to education) in 2004, and the establishment of the Inter-University Consortium, IGNOU has ushered in a new era of technology-enabled education.”

“Today, there are 134 active video-conferencing centres; all regional, sub-regional and high enrolment study centres have been connected, and exchanges using interactive digital content are possible. Emphasis is currently on developing interactive multimedia and online learning. Using these innovative technologies and methodologies, IGNOU ensures the convergence of existing systems to achieve the goal of ensuring access to Education for All, providing continual professional development and training and promoting integrated national development and global understanding,” according to the UNESCO website.

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) are jointly organizing the International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL) 2010 as part of IGNOU’s Silver Jubilee Year celebrations. ICDL 2010 is proposed to be organized during 23-26 February 2010 in New Delhi.

The theme of the three-day conference is ‘Digital Libraries: Shaping the Information Paradigm’ and the focus is on the strengths and potential of digital libraries and their role in education, cultural, social and economic development. ICDL 2010 is the third conference in TERI’s ‘International Conference on Digital Libraries’ series.

The Speakers in the conference would be Prof. Michael Seadle ,Director, Berlin School of Library and Information Science, Prof. Dr Erich J Neuhold
Professor, Computer Science, University of Vienna, Austria and Edie Rasmussen ,Professor and Director, School of Library, Archival
and Information Studies, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

The Conference will include Tutorials, in which leading researchers and practitioners will present the tutorials to familiarize participants with the new and innovative tools and techniques DL development, Workshops with international experts,Business sessions, Exhibitors and Valedictory sessions.

Give Peace a chance, don’t piece humanity, family : Karan Singh urges world leaders

New Delhi : This world needs to develop Peace Economy and Peace Environment. Let us shun spending multi-billion dollars in flourishing the war infrastructure. What is needed is to develop counterveiling mechanism to give Peace a chance, said veteran champion of peace and culture, Dr Karan Singh.

Dr Singh was delivering the key note address in the international conference on ‘Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Peace Science’ organized jointly by Indira Gandhi National Open University, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti and Unesco.

The conference is also a Silver Jubilee year activity of the university in the run up for establishing its 22nd school, ‘School of Gandhian and Peace Studies (SOGPS)’, passed by the 100th meeting of the Board of Management on July 4, 2009.

Former Governor of Tamil Nadu Bhism Narain Singh inaugurated the conference. New York State University Professor Manas Chatterjee explained the objectives of the conference. Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti Director Savita Singh, Honorary Director of IGNOU’s Gandhian Studies Programme Pro RP Mishra, and Prof D Gopal, professor of IGNOU Political Science department were present on the dais.

There are four C’s people need to abstain from, Dr Singh said, “These are Communalism, Casteism, Corruption and Criminalisation.” He said that people definitely need to attack the manufacturing of poverty to make the world fit to live. Terming the 20th century as the bloodiest, he said, “Most people died in the 20th Century than ever before. After two Wars, people who died of civil wars are more than those who lost life in those Wars.”

Dr Singh suggested that there are six dimensions which humanity can develop. He said, “The first is Peace from wars, the very attitude of aggression (civil wars) defeats the purpose of peace. Rajiv Gandhi had convened a 6-nation-5-Continent Plan which could have been a well-sustainable move. The second dimension is Peace from Regional Conflicts. We can create like they did in Europe with the concept European Parliament. Pound, Lira, Fran, Deuschemark, etc all submerged to create Euro, which is running very well all over Europe, We could have one for SAARC and Latin American countries. The third dimension is Peace from within. Insurgency, naxalism, local strifes all can be solved. The fourth dimension is, religion as a great assimilator. No religion has tenets to preach violence. We do not care much for the annual event, the Parliament of Religion, a move which started from Chicago. The fifth dimension is Family Peace. Let us develop a rational approach to consolidate familial bonds. Let us shun the extreme familial detachment of the West and extreme possessiveness of the East. The last dimension is Inner Peace, which come from within us. The Unesco started the Inner Peace movement for sometime, and Indian Vedas have the best saying about it in the Shanti Paath.”

The Peace Conference was attended by as many as 20 top world experts across the disciplines of Geography, Mathematics, Economics, Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, Psychology, International Relations, History, Religious, Gender and Defence studies and others. Scholars from universities of USA, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Norway, Spain, Poland, China, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, besides India, are presenting their latest findings on issues relating to Peace Economy and Conflict Management.

Four of them are Nobel laureates. They are : Walter Isard (Economics, Geography,), founder of the discipline of Peace Science, Kenneth Arrow (Economics), Bruce Martin Russet (Political Science & Conflict Management), Kenneth Josef Arrow (Economics) and Michael D Intriligator

A host of inland scholars from research groups, such as Calcutta Research Group, People’s Rights, Bastar, Sustainable Development Society, Allahabad, Delhi Society for Non-Violence etc. have joined the conference to submit their findings for solution of Peace Conflicts.

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) today signed an Agreement of Cooperation (AoC) for identifying special programmes and activities of IGNOU for Co- branding and the development of strategic cooperation through academic exchange and collaboration for advancement of quality education and training.

Her Excellency Ms. Irina G. Bokova, Director General, UNESCO who delivered the IGNOU Silver Jubilee Special Lecture on “Building Inclusive Knowledge Societies in a Globalised World: Opportunities and Risks”, in the IGNOU campus, signed the AoC with IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Prof. VN Rajasekharan Pillai, today.

Under the AoC, IGNOU and UNESCO have decided to collaborate in promoting an integrated system of research, training, demonstration, knowledge management and documentation activities in the fields of journalism and media studies, science education, teacher training and ICT-enhanced distance learning through effective and innovative use of new communication technologies, particularly in the rural, urban and semi urban areas, both in the country and in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The collaboration is also expected to enhance interdisciplinary research, strengthen local and indigenous knowledge systems and developing methods for evaluating and applying science and technology with a view to the development of sustainable practices for human resource development.

Stating that this will be a year to build bridges between cultures and people, Ms Bokova also announced the launch of the International Year of Rapprochement between Cultures, for which UNESCO is the lead agency. “As part of it, we shall be setting up an interdisciplinary programme around the works of three great poets, three resoundingly human and universal voices: Rabindranath Tagore, the Chilean Pablo Neruda and Aimé Césaire from Martinique”, she added.

Speaking about the other future endeavours of UNESCO in the Special Lecture, the Director General said, “Here in India, our General Conference approved the creation of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Peace and Sustainable Development, which I am confident will contribute to shaping more inclusive knowledge societies”.

The UNESCO Director General further said that UNESCO will be inaugurating the 2010 edition of the ‘Education for All’ Global Monitoring Report, which will focus on deep inequalities within societies, next week at the United Nations, along with the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The report addresses the scale of deprivation and its underlying causes. It has developed a new tool for measuring marginalization that will help identify the key characteristics of those who are being left behind. The results highlight the powerful influence of social circumstances – being born in a poor household, living in a rural area, speaking a minority language – on life chances.

There are also plans to create a High Level Panel on Peace and Dialogue among cultures composed of eminent persons from all fields and a similar panel on science which will advise UNESCO on the most effective policies to alleviate poverty and promote sustainable development.

The function was presided over by Smt. D. Purandeswari, Honorable Minister of State, Human Resource Development and chaired by IGNOU VC, Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. Mr A. Parsuramen, Director UNESCO(India) was also present.

In her presidential address, Smt. Purandeswari said, “India’s demographic advantage can only be realized if opportunities to the youth expand through education. Education is a powerful driver for socio-economic change and the expansion, inclusion and quality improvement of higher education through more spending and partnerships with private institutions, is the goal of the Indian Government.”

Consequent upon recent World Bank Project of over Rs. 1 crore to Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU), temporary vacancies of Research Associates (RA) and Senior Research Fellows(SRF) have been created in the University.

The detailed bio-data including name and address, date of birth, qualifications , experience etc. may be sent to the Principal Investigator, School of Agriculture, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068. It can also be e-mailed to baljitsingh45@yahoo.co.in, Ph-011-29533166,Fax-29533167, latest by 25.1.2010.

IGNOU’s School of Agriculture has got the research grant of Rs. 1.04 Crores to undertake the prestigious project on ”Innovations in Technology Mediated Learning”-under ICAR-NAIP Project(Indian Council of Agricultural Research –National Agriculture Innovation Project).

The vision of the project is to create a community of National Agricultural Educators and Researchers who will teach and add the latest learning material, contributing to sustainable agriculture and poverty reduction.

This collaborative approach to education offers the chance to link research and learning into a coherent framework which focuses on problems of small farmers and generates more agricultural entrepreneurs.

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) shall pay more attention in addressing the issue of meaningful employment to its graduates this year, announced Vice Chancellor Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, in his New Year message, today.

Initiating its series of campus recruitments, IGNOU is making arrangements with multi-national corporations and IT companies for placement of its students in the areas of Information Technology and Communication services. Interested students and companies may get in touch with the IGNOU Placement Cell.

IGNOU has undertaken an ambitious and relevant study to understand the extent and level of EMPLOYABLE SKILLS that IGNOU students have been exposed to.

The honest and quick response of students is being solicited on this issue through a specifically designed questionnaire that will reflect the desired outcome.

Students can fill up an on-line questionnaire (www.ignou.ac.in and click on Campus Placement) and submit. They may also inform and encourage their classmates to do so. IGNOU will be happy to share the results and acknowledge their contribution in this exercise.

Addressing the academics and administrative officials of IGNOU, Prof. Pillai emphasized that IGNOU’s Distance education system has proved itself to be an effective education and skill development model for highly populated countries all over the world.

“We are also trying to enhance the quality of our services to the ever- increasing student population. Innovative and flexible use of different strategies of teaching and learning needs to be adapted in all our activities”, Prof. Pillai added.

Post Graduate Certificate in Oral Implantology and Post Graduate Certificate in Endodontics- OPENDEN-II

The Last date for submission of admission form for Management Programme – OPENMAT-XXVII, Post Graduate Certificate in Oral Implantology and Post Graduate Certificate in Endodontics- OPENDEN-II of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is 10th January 2010.

Student Handbook & Prospectus for Management Programme’ can be obtained from the registrar (SRD), IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-68 and from all the Regional Centres of IGNOU by sending a sum of Rs. 550/- through a Demand draft/IPO in favour of IGNOU payable at New Delhi/ city of concerned Regional Centre or by paying Rs500/- in cash at the respective sale counters. The application and Prospectus can also be downloaded from IGNOU website www.ignou.ac.in.

The entrance test “OPENMAT-XXVII” will be held on Sunday , 7th February’2010 all over the country.

There will also be an Entrance Test for Post Graduate Certificate in Oral Implantology and Post Graduate Certificate in Endodontics- OPENDEN-II.

Filled in form for Entrance Test “OPENMAT-XXVII”/ OPENDEN-II must reach, the Registrar (SED), IGNOU, Maidan Garhi New Delhi-68 by Registered Post/ Speed Post on or before 10th January,2010.