In a novel step to check mushrooming of fake educational institutions, UNESCO has decided to include in its website names of genuine and accredited institutes of all countries.
About 30 countries, mostly Europeans nations, have already provided the list of their accredited institutes to UNESCO which has displayed them in its website, a UNESCO official said.
India has decided to provide its list of accredited institutes to the UNESCO by next month. HRD Ministry has entrusted the work to Education Consultancy India Ltd (EdCIL) to coordinate with the UNESCO in this venture.
The students can verify from the UNESCO list whether an institute is genuine or not.
"Now, we have given the list of genuine institutes of 30 countries. In next few months, accredited institutes from 60 countries, including those from India, will find their names in the list," the UNESCO official said.
The UNESCO is also preparing a set of criteria that can help students identify fake institutions.
The official said there is no accurate data about the number of fake institutions operating across the globe, offering higher education.
"But majority of them claim to be offering education in distant mode. Once our criteria are put in the website, students will be able to differentiate between genuine and fake institutions," he said.
The trend is very rampant in the US. About two lakh students are issued fake degrees by these institutions every year in the US alone, he said.
The fake institutes are duping a huge number of students in India every year, government sources said.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
UNESCO institute for promotion of peace and sustainable developement at New Delhi
I dont know why and what I feel, but I strongly feel something strange in this news:
The UNESCO on Wednesday gave its final approval to India's proposal to set up a world-class institute for promotion of peace and sustainable development in the region.
The general body of the UNESCO, which is meeting in Paris, gave the go ahead for setting up Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development in Delhi.
The UNESCO Category-I Institute will foster a culture of peace through education, promoting sustainable economic and social development and respect for human rights.
It will work in several areas, including global warming and non-proliferation.
It will do research on Gandhian thoughts on social justice, equity and peace.
The government will invest Rs 100 crore while UNESCO will put in USD five lakh (Rs 2.5 crore) for setting up the institute.
At present, there are 11 UNESCO Category-I institutes and most of them are located in developed countries
The UNESCO on Wednesday gave its final approval to India's proposal to set up a world-class institute for promotion of peace and sustainable development in the region.
The general body of the UNESCO, which is meeting in Paris, gave the go ahead for setting up Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development in Delhi.
The UNESCO Category-I Institute will foster a culture of peace through education, promoting sustainable economic and social development and respect for human rights.
It will work in several areas, including global warming and non-proliferation.
It will do research on Gandhian thoughts on social justice, equity and peace.
The government will invest Rs 100 crore while UNESCO will put in USD five lakh (Rs 2.5 crore) for setting up the institute.
At present, there are 11 UNESCO Category-I institutes and most of them are located in developed countries
Moving Bookshelves
Asom Sahitya Sabha has started mobile library-cum-bookstall which will go through various towns and villages. The vehicle is so designed that 4 persons can sit inside and read while a protable table when laid out outside will provide space for four more readers. It will also sale Asom Sahitya Sabha's over 600 publications at discount.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Employment to disabled under NREGA
In India the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act promises 100-day guaranteed unskilled manual work to every rural adult with the aim to alleviate poverty.
Under this act, this financial year West Bengal topped all states with giving employment to 29, 714 disabled people, Chhattisgarh stood second with 13,763 and Madhya Pradesh third with 9,787 jobs to disabled people.
Compared earlier fiscal year, there has been increased participation of disabled people in the programme.
During the last financial year of 2008-09 a total of 1,46,855 were offered jobs under NREGA, as per the records of the government.
Under this act, this financial year West Bengal topped all states with giving employment to 29, 714 disabled people, Chhattisgarh stood second with 13,763 and Madhya Pradesh third with 9,787 jobs to disabled people.
Compared earlier fiscal year, there has been increased participation of disabled people in the programme.
During the last financial year of 2008-09 a total of 1,46,855 were offered jobs under NREGA, as per the records of the government.
story telling tradition of Dastangoi being revived
storytellers called dastangos are striving to revive the Dastangoi- an ancient art of Urdu storytelling, which has got lost in the pages of history.
Under the practise two men dressed in white seated before the audience start narrating a story that conjures up a magical world of 'Aiiyars' (tricksters) and magicians who fight each other with the former always managing to outsmart the other.
Mahmood Farooqui, who has been working over the past few years to revive the art says, "It has been five years since I began. For my first show I did not have a clear sense of direction but was encouraged by the number of people who turned up to watch."
"We continued to perform dastans and people listened. I hope Dastangoi makes inroads in the street, in mehfils and there are dastans everywhere," he says.
'Tilism-e-Hoshruba' is the favourite 'dastan' of Farooqi, who travels with his companion and narrates in places in Delhi and Mumbai.
Translated it means 'enchantment that steals away the senses' this particular narrative follows closely the practice that evolved in 18th century in India and was popular both among aristocracy and the lay people in Lucknow.
The most famous 'dastan' version, the 'Dastan of Hamza' was printed in 46 huge volumes at the end of the 19th century in Lucknow. The illustrated manuscript created during the rule of Mughal emperor Akbar takes a look at the conflict between the righteous Amir Hamza and Laqa who falsely claims divinity.
Though parts of the Hamza Nama had been printed earlier, it was the famous Munshi Naval Kishore one of the early pioneers of printing in India who undertook the task of printing the whole dastan late in the nineteenth century.
Danish Hussein, who teamed up with Farooqui for the Dastangoi performance at the annual Journalism fest of Kamla Nehru College says, "I joined Mahmood in 2005 when Habib Tanveer introduced me to him in 2005 and it was very challenging for me as an actor.
Fortunately, we always found people receptive towards Dastangoi."
"In 1928, Delhi's last dastango Mir Baqr Ali died, I cannot say we perform dastans like the 'dastangos' of ancient times, we do it as per our understanding. We don't know how dastans were performed but all we know is we need to take it more beyond.
"It would be fun if there are more dastangos who can recite a 'Dastan' and spread this oral tradition," says Farooqi who picked up the 'Dastan of Hamza' lying with his Uncle SR Faruqi, said to be the only person who possesses a full set of 46 volumes.
With stalwarts like national award winning actor Naseerrudin Shah joining to promote the art, Dastangoi is set to catch the public interest.
But since the art of Dastangoi uses literal Urdu, was language ever a barrier to connect with the audience?
"Even if people don't understand the language you still can enjoy Dastangoi.There is no one who understands Urdu and even those who know the language find it difficult to comprehend the nuisances. The words have there audio sound which makes you understand the story," says Farooqi.
The duo have also tried to contemporarise the art form and make it a platform to raise contemporary issues in the society.
"There is direct conversation in dastangoi and we have performed dastans on Chattisgarh which is in turmoil and on Partition. For the Partition dastan we have taken excerpts from other writers and woven it to create the partition dastan.It depends on the dastango to take the art forward and create a dastan which can talk about politics and contemporary social issues, says Hussein.
"People go and see the opera even though not all of them would understand Italian. We want to take the the art beyond, I have heard about an epic 'Ganga Avtaran' in Sanskrit and we would love to perform that. We want people to listen to Ramcharit Manas and much more," says Farooqi.
Now, 'dastans' are being translated into English and the duo reckons that they have no problem if dastans are performed in English but they believe the orality has to be maintained in the translation. (BJ-05/10)
Under the practise two men dressed in white seated before the audience start narrating a story that conjures up a magical world of 'Aiiyars' (tricksters) and magicians who fight each other with the former always managing to outsmart the other.
Mahmood Farooqui, who has been working over the past few years to revive the art says, "It has been five years since I began. For my first show I did not have a clear sense of direction but was encouraged by the number of people who turned up to watch."
"We continued to perform dastans and people listened. I hope Dastangoi makes inroads in the street, in mehfils and there are dastans everywhere," he says.
'Tilism-e-Hoshruba' is the favourite 'dastan' of Farooqi, who travels with his companion and narrates in places in Delhi and Mumbai.
Translated it means 'enchantment that steals away the senses' this particular narrative follows closely the practice that evolved in 18th century in India and was popular both among aristocracy and the lay people in Lucknow.
The most famous 'dastan' version, the 'Dastan of Hamza' was printed in 46 huge volumes at the end of the 19th century in Lucknow. The illustrated manuscript created during the rule of Mughal emperor Akbar takes a look at the conflict between the righteous Amir Hamza and Laqa who falsely claims divinity.
Though parts of the Hamza Nama had been printed earlier, it was the famous Munshi Naval Kishore one of the early pioneers of printing in India who undertook the task of printing the whole dastan late in the nineteenth century.
Danish Hussein, who teamed up with Farooqui for the Dastangoi performance at the annual Journalism fest of Kamla Nehru College says, "I joined Mahmood in 2005 when Habib Tanveer introduced me to him in 2005 and it was very challenging for me as an actor.
Fortunately, we always found people receptive towards Dastangoi."
"In 1928, Delhi's last dastango Mir Baqr Ali died, I cannot say we perform dastans like the 'dastangos' of ancient times, we do it as per our understanding. We don't know how dastans were performed but all we know is we need to take it more beyond.
"It would be fun if there are more dastangos who can recite a 'Dastan' and spread this oral tradition," says Farooqi who picked up the 'Dastan of Hamza' lying with his Uncle SR Faruqi, said to be the only person who possesses a full set of 46 volumes.
With stalwarts like national award winning actor Naseerrudin Shah joining to promote the art, Dastangoi is set to catch the public interest.
But since the art of Dastangoi uses literal Urdu, was language ever a barrier to connect with the audience?
"Even if people don't understand the language you still can enjoy Dastangoi.There is no one who understands Urdu and even those who know the language find it difficult to comprehend the nuisances. The words have there audio sound which makes you understand the story," says Farooqi.
The duo have also tried to contemporarise the art form and make it a platform to raise contemporary issues in the society.
"There is direct conversation in dastangoi and we have performed dastans on Chattisgarh which is in turmoil and on Partition. For the Partition dastan we have taken excerpts from other writers and woven it to create the partition dastan.It depends on the dastango to take the art forward and create a dastan which can talk about politics and contemporary social issues, says Hussein.
"People go and see the opera even though not all of them would understand Italian. We want to take the the art beyond, I have heard about an epic 'Ganga Avtaran' in Sanskrit and we would love to perform that. We want people to listen to Ramcharit Manas and much more," says Farooqi.
Now, 'dastans' are being translated into English and the duo reckons that they have no problem if dastans are performed in English but they believe the orality has to be maintained in the translation. (BJ-05/10)
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