Education Briefs

National Child Rights Research Fellowships for the year 2007-08 were awarded to six scholars and researchers on January 25. Instituted by CRY (Child Rights & You) the fellowships are awarded to individuals researching child rights issues within the broad framework of justice for children.

This year, special efforts were taken to expand the outreach of the fellowship programme to states in the south and north- east. As a consequence over 200 proposals were submitted, more than 45 in languages other than English. Based on criteria such as originality, alignment with CRY values, clarity of concept and method and quality of published material, a high-powered selection committee awarded research fellowships for 2007-2008 to Digambar Narzary of the Nedan Foundation in Kokhrajar, Assam; V. Pavan, a school teacher from Manganoor village in Andhra Pradesh’s Mahboobnagar district; Arpita Mitra, an M.Phil student in the department of history, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Jaideep Hardikar, a journalist researching farmer-suicides in Vidarbha (Maharashtra), and human rights lawyers Debolina Dutta and Oishik Sircar, Kolkata.

"CRY hopes these research fellowships will illuminate the least understood aspects of child rights violations, encourage greater emphasis on children’s issues within the research community, and enable committed individuals who would otherwise be unable to get support for their work," says Ingrid Srinath, chair of the selection committee.

Delivering the 42nd convocation address of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), a deemed university under the ministry of commerce, on March 25, Union commerce minister Kamal Nath said that only knowledge and skills development education can sustain and surpass the growth and recognition attained by India in recent years.

The highlight of this year’s IIFT convocation was graduation of the first batch of 60 students from the institute’s Kolkata campus inaugurated in 2006. In all, 153 students including 30 executives of the public sector Oil and Natural Gas Commission and 18 business executives from Tanzania (who had flown in from Dar-e-Salam for the occasion) were awarded MBA degrees and diplomas. "We have expanded our reach and are planning for more distance and online capacity development projects. This year we’ll be training 22 executives of Larsen & Toubro Ltd and have developed an exclusive programme for them," says K.T. Chacko, director of IIFT.

The Mumbai-based Strategic Human Resource Management India Pvt. Ltd (SHRM India) — a wholly owned subsidiary of the US-based Society for Human Resource Management, the world’s largest HR organisation — inaugurated its first student network in India at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, on March 11. This is the first SHRM network launched outside the US.

The India student network was launched with 57 students of TISS coopted as members of SHRM India and SHRM, USA. As such the students will be able to access 60,000 pages of HR information, research, networking and learning opportunities through the SHRM website (www.shrm.org).

"We are delighted to welcome TISS students to the SHRM membership family and to work with them in India as our pilot student network outside of the US. We see this as an opportunity for students to leverage SHRM’s experience and knowledge to build global competitiveness," said Nina E. Woodard, executive director of SHRM India speaking on the occasion.

L’Oréal, Paris, a global leader of the cosmetics industry with a major presence in the hair care, hair colour, skin care, make-up and fragrances sectors, announced Team Chrysanthemum of the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai as winner of L’Oréal Brandstorm India 2008 on March 10. Coached by Prof. Mala Srivastava, the NMIMS team will represent India at the 16th L’Oréal Brandstorm finals scheduled to be held in Paris on June 10.

Open to all business management schools worldwide, L’Oréal Brandstorm is a prestigious international marketing competition in which students assume the functions of L’Oréal brand managers and apply marketing knowledge and creativity to develop international brand strategies, design new packaging and develop a real communication campaign with a world famous advertising agency.

The NMIMS winning team comprised first year MBA students Ishani Behari, Anupam Haran and Sharad Sinha. The trio will represent India and present their innovative marketing strategies to L’Oreal’s CEO, Jean-Paul Agon, who together with other senior L’Oreal managers will judge the international competition in Paris on June 10.

The Pune (Maharashtra)-based DSK Global Education and Research Pvt. Ltd has promoted its School of Industrial Design (SID), a vocational training institute in collaboration with the Institut Superieur de Design (ISD), a subsidiary of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Valenciennois (CCIV), France. SID is sited on the sprawling campus of DSK International Institute of Animation, Gaming, and Industrial Design, Fursungi, Pune.

"SID is the first school of its type in India and one of very few worldwide. Its main focus is to impart training that will prompt product designers to factor prevailing socio-economic and cultural values, and manufacturing constraints while conceptualising and designing new and/or improved products for mass production. The school offers three industrial design courses — automotive and transport design, product design, and digital design — of five years duration divided into fundamental (three years) and advanced (two years) levels apart from several diploma programmes," says Dr. Ashok Kolaskar, managing director of DSK Global.

The picturesque DSK International campus on the Pune-Solapur road is equipped with single and double occupancy hostel accommodation and facilities including 24 hour internet connectivity, library, and playgrounds for outdoor games.