May 27,2022:After a cabinet meeting in West Bengal, Bratyabrata Basu, the Minister of Education of the state announced that the state cabinet in the meeting gave its consent to the proposal to replace Governor with Chief Minister as the Chancellor of all state universities.
“This proposal will soon be introduced as a bill in the assembly” the Minister said to the reporters just a few days after he had informed of friction between Governor Dhankhar and the government. The recent point of friction was over appointments of vice-chancellors across universities. Governor Dhankhar had earlier alleged that the state government had appointed several Vice-Chancellors without Raj Bhavan’s consent.
NEW DELHI,Mar 21,2022: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras has partnered with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to launch a web-enabled, user-oriented programme on “Industrial AI” that is targeted at upskilling employees in corporates in the applications of AI to industrial problems.
“The 18-month-long course, designed in consultation with TCS, will be offered by IIT Madras in a completely online live teaching mode through virtual classrooms. The first cohort of students for the programme will be from TCS,” the institute said. Admission to this course does not require any entrance examination, JEE Advanced or GATE, as per the News18 report.
Each subject will have one mid-term and a final examination conducted in online mode, besides a project work. There will be a total of 28-30 hours of online classes per week. with post-classroom activities, such as assignments, reading, and preparation, likely to take up 20-22 hours per week. The key outcomes and benefits envisaged from the MTech in Industrial AI include:
Upskilling of Indian workforce in this important area
Improving the knowledge ecosystem that is critical for AI adoption
Translation of AI theory to practice
Industrial solutions that are sustainable
Development of AI theory and pedagogical methods for AI training informed by an application perspective.
Highlighting the strengths of this user-oriented program, IIT Madras director V Kamakoti said, “This program, designed in consultation with TCS, will have strong theoretical courses and labs covering important topics in data science and AI. Theoretical courses will cover concepts in fundamental mathematical techniques required for understanding data science algorithms, time series analysis, multivariate Data Analysis, machine learning, deep learning and reinforcement learning.” He further said, “Applied courses will describe implementations of AI solutions for industrial problems in a case study format. Put together, these courses are expected to provide a strong theoretical foundation and significant application perspective to the participants in the course.” Speaking about this collaboration, K Ananth Krishnan, executive vice president and chief technology officer, TCS, said, “TCS Research partners with premier academic institutes to explore emerging technologies with scientific rigor as they gain mainstream adoption. We are happy to collaborate with IIT-Madras, a member of the TCS Academic Co-Innovation Network, to create a new M Tech program in Industrial AI for working professionals so that they gain a deeper understanding of data science and AI which they can apply to drive innovation in industry.”
Course Coordinator Raghunathan Rengasamy, dean (Global Engagement), IIT Madras, said, “AI is going to impact every aspect of human experience in the years to come. This course will provide a unique perspective on the impact of AI in industrial systems. Leveraging AI techniques in industries can lead to processes that are robust, inherently safer and ultimately lead to environmentally benign processes. These are some of the key aspects that will be deliberated in this course.”
Vijayapura, Dec 26,2021: Taking note of drop in number of girl students in rural areas who enter high school and later enroll for PUC the state government has decided to extend the Raitha Vidya Nidhi scheme for girl students of 8th and 9th standard too.
A government order in this regard would be issued immediately, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced here on Saturday.
New Delhi, Dec 2,20201: Four days after the resumption of physical classes, Delhi government on Thursday order to close all schools and educational institutes from December 3 till further orders.
The decision came after the Supreme Court (SC) pulled up the Delhi government for resuming physical classes in schools amid a rise in the air pollution levels in the city.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister (CM) Manish Sisodia said that in view of pollution, schools have been closed physically till further orders.
“However, board examinations would be conducted as per the schedule,” Sisodia, who also holds education department, said in a tweet.
Schools had reopened this week after an almost three-week-long closure owing to air pollution. After remaining shut since November 13, physical classes in schools, colleges and other educational institutions had resumed from Monday.
Earlier in the day, Supreme Court came down heavily on both the Centre and the Delhi government, following continued deterioration in air quality in the national capital, and directed both to take serious measures immediately to reduce the AQI levels and submit a report within 24 hours.
September 28,2021: School for children in many nations has been going on for more than a month, and fears that the Delta coronavirus variant would derail personal learning have largely proved unfounded.
In a dozen countries with high vaccination rates in Asia, Europe and the United States, case rates, which rose in August, have mostly fallen back, according to local data and officials.
The jury is aware of how much this is due to seasonal factors in the midst of a global decline in cases, and how much it is linked to vaccinations and other preventive measures. Public health experts say they will continue to look for signs of an increase in cases as winter approaches.
“In the United States, school transmission is higher in places with low adult vaccination and no mitigation, but in general, schools have remained open,” said Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco Medical School. “It’s going better than expected.”
Cases among children rose nearly seven times in August, but peaked in the week ending Sept. 2, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics. But only about 2% of U.S. schools have closed temporarily due to COVID-19 outbreaks, according to research firm Burbio, which tracks school closures.
Children represent the largest shard of the unvaccinated in most affluent countries, either because shots for their age groups have only just begun or have not yet been approved.
August’s summer travel-related infections and boost in test-related cases have faded, say public health experts, and rising vaccinations, mitigation measures in schools and a larger drop in community cases are helping.
There are exceptions. In Singapore, cases among children have been on the rise throughout September, and in Japan, Tokyo schools are changing students in the classroom.
But in Scandinavia, Scotland, Germany, France, South Korea and the United States, cases are falling, despite fears that the more transmissible Delta variant would drive up infections.
Sweden, where schools have been largely open during the whole pandemic, saw an initial increase in COVID -19 infections among children after the summer holidays, but cases are now at a low level – both among children and the wider population.
In Norway, cases rose to a daily record of 1,785 after the first two weeks of school, before falling by 60% from last week.
“We expect the current downward trend to continue for a few weeks and then level off at a low level, at least for a few months. Then there is uncertainty about the winter season,” says Preben Aavitsland, chief physician at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health , told Reuters via email.
Aavitsland said everything from parties to music lessons drove teenage cases up in August.
Britain has seen some increase in cases at schools that opened early, but it has not spread to the wider population, said Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London.
In Scotland, schools reopened in mid-August and positive test results rose to record numbers by the end of the month.
In the week ending Sept. 3, about 1 in 20 children ages 3, 8, 13 and 16 were estimated to have COVID-19, compared with 1 in 45 in the wider population, according to government data. But cases among those under 19s have dropped every week since.
While cases began to rise in Scotland before schools opened, there appears to be some level of transfer at schools, Rowland Kao, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, told Reuters via email.
“It is very difficult to separate societal transfer related to schools for transmission in schools. However, clusters of cases in individual classrooms do not appear to be very high, suggesting that it is at least a mixture of both, ”Kao said.
UNITED STATES
In the United States, the number of child cases has grown as a percentage of total cases, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“Schools simply reflect what is going on in the surrounding community, and in most cases you have less transmission than in the surrounding community due to mitigation measures,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, a pediatrician at the University of Colorado.
In Kentucky, for example, 45 of the state’s 171 school districts have closed at least once since the school year began in August, according to Joshua Shoulta, a spokesman for the Kentucky School Boards Association.
Cases per 100,000 people in Kentucky are falling, but still among the highest in the country, and just over 50% of the population is fully vaccinated. State school districts were already struggling with staff shortages before COVID-19 cases and quarantines, Shoulta said. State legislators met in a special session last week where lawmakers gave local school staff more autonomy to implement COVID-19 protocols.
“What we know now and the tools we have in relation to where we were at this point last year make it a slightly different ball game,” Shoulta said.
A school district in Texas is struggling with less than half of the substitute teachers it needs. Brent Hawkins, superintendent of the Livingston (TX) Independent School District, said the district was forced to close for Labor Day week after more than 10% of the 600 members received COVID-19.
Hawkins said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to prevent school districts from claiming masks drives much of the increase in cases. Livingston recorded more positive cases among students and teachers in the first weeks of school than during last year, he said. Nearly 7% of the district’s approximately 4,000 students or nearly 300 children had been infected by mid-September.
“For a couple of weeks, we had people like myself and other administrators in the classrooms substituting teaching,” Hawkins said.
Meanwhile, California is nearly nine times the size of Kentucky, with a population of about 40 million. With masks, ventilation, and high vaccination rates, school districts in San Francisco and Los Angeles reported zero to few cases in their first few weeks. The state, according to Burbio, has had less than half the number of school or district closures like Kentucky.
Reporting by Alistair Smount in London, Richard Lough in Paris, Ludwig Burger in Germany, Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, Joseph Ax and Michael Erman in New York, Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, Johan Ahlander in Stockholm, Rocky Swift in Tokyo, Lin Chen in Singapore and Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen Editing by Michele Gershberg, Caroline Humer and Mark Potter
Jeddah [Saudi Arabia], March 4 ,2023: Saudi Arabia is set to introduce yoga in its universities due to its significance for mental and physical health, reported Arab News.
Several agreements will be signed with major universities in Saudi Arabia to support and promote yoga over the next few months, according to Saudi Yoga Committee President Nouf Al-Marwaai.
During her participation in the fourth session, titled “Development and Promotion of New Sports Games in Universities,” Al-Marwaai explained that the committee was striving hard to introduce yoga to universities, emphasizing the importance of practising it for health and wellness, reported Arab News.
“Yoga gives its practitioners many health benefits (for) both physical and mental well-being,” she said, adding, “one of the most important pillars of achieving Vision 2030 is to enhance participation in sports activities, and to achieve sports excellence locally, continentally, and internationally.”
She added that yoga is not just meditation and relaxation as some might believe, but “includes Asana posture practice, Pranayamas breathing techniques, Bandhas muscle control (and) then comes Dhayan and Yoga Nidra meditation and relaxation”.
She added that the committee “aims to discover the talents of distinguished yoga practitioners in all types of yoga in general or Yogasana sports, to hone their talents, and support them to participate and represent the Kingdom in local and international tournaments”.
The announcement was recently made in Riyadh during a forum titled ‘The Role of University Sports in Supporting the Kingdom’s Vision in Sports’, organised by the Saudi Universities Sports Federation in cooperation with the Ministry of Education.
A number of experts and international leaders in university sports, led by the president of the International Universities Sports Federation, Leonz Eder, and Paulo Ferreira, director general of the International University Sports Federation, attended the event, reported Arab News.