Edge-to-edge displays might be the talk of the town right now thanks to the iPhone X, but as anyone with even a passing interest in the smartphone industry would know, Apple’s newest flagship is not the first smartphone to embrace this design. That feather belongs in the cap of Xiaomi, which released the Mi Mix last year when the iPhone X when was nothing but a rumour you read about on a site like this one. Xiaomi released the Mi Mix with an all-ceramic body and striking display as a ‘concept’ smartphone, much like the concept cars that manufacturers showcase in the auto world.…
Author: Loknath Das
Read More
The University Grant Commission (UGC) has asked 12 institutions to get the status of a university to continue offering online and distance learning courses from 2018. According to a notification issued on Tuesday called “UGC (open and distance learning) regulations 2017, (first amendment)”, the standalone institutions can offer courses till 2017-18 the way they have been. However, thereafter, they have to get affiliated to a university, or get the status of a deemed university to continue offering the courses. If they fail to comply, the commission will not give any approval to the courses being offered by the standalone institutions.…
International bodies, politicians, policymakers and researchers have always been interested in the way teachers are prepared for the classroom. This is because the quality of a country’s teachers is an indicator of its developmental level. Distance education is often viewed as a way to speed up the process of producing well qualified, good teachers. This approach involves a model in which students are physically separated from the university or training college in question. Students usually communicate with the institution through emails, online learning support systems or occasional face-to-face tutorials. Distance education tends to be flexible and more affordable than full-time study. It’s useful for…
The Supreme Court on Friday cancelled the engineering degrees of students who earned them through distance learning from three deemed universities after 2005, Live Law reported. The court said the amount paid by these students towards tuition will have to be refunded by the universities by May 31, 2018. The students who had their degrees suspended were from the JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth in Udaipur, the Institute of Advanced Studies in Education in Rajasthan’s Churu district and the Allahabad Agricultural Institute in Uttar Pradesh. The Times of India reported that a fourth, Vinayaka Mission Research Foundation in Tamil Nadu, is also included in the list. The…
Facebook was dealt a setback on Tuesday when an adviser to the top European Union court said any data protection authority in the bloc had the power to take action against it for breaching privacy laws. Facebook has its European headquarters in Ireland and has argued that only the Irish data protection authority has the power to police it for its processing of Europeans’ data. Nonetheless other European privacy regulators, including the French, Belgian and German authorities, have taken action against the US company. Yves Bot, advocate general at the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ), said in a non-binding opinion that…
Instagram on Tuesday announced users can now live stream with a friend. Called ‘going live with a friend’, the new feature can be found in version 20 of the Instagram app for Android and iOS, already live on the respective app stores. The feature will be rolling out globally in the coming weeks, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing network said. Detailing the new feature in a blog post, Instagram said, “Live video helps you share in an authentic way, but sometimes it can be intimidating when you’re on your own. It’s easy to add a guest while you’re broadcasting. Simply tap the new icon…
The Odisha government on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ITE Education Services, Singapore for collaboration on skill development in the state. The Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA) and the ITE Education Services (ITEES), a subsidiary of the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), inked the MoU to transform the skill development ecosystem in the state. “This initiative will certainly step up the quality of our skilled youth. I thank the ITEES for helping us with knowledge, collaboration and international linkages,” said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Informing that the ITE is a global leader in vocational education and has…
Government’s top planning body Niti Aayog has selected five students of the prestigious IIM Calcutta in course of its talent hunt in the famed management institution this year. National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog visited the campus for the first time and made five offers during the summer placement this year, an IIM Calcutta press release said. Living up to its reputation IIM Calcutta registered 100% placement again with big companies such as Goldman Sachs, Coke and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) enrolling talented students of the business school. While Goldman Sachs made the highest number of offers in finance,…
The Bihar government may move the Supreme Court against a Patna high court order that second-category teachers in the state (called Niyojit teachers) should be given the same salary as regular ones. The verdict of the division bench was pronounced on Tuesday. According to advocate general Lalit Kishor, the government categorically told the high court that bearing the huge financial load of paying the prescribed scale to all teachers would be next to impossible. “Still, the court has given its ruling, and I will give my opinion to the government. It is for the government to take a call. I…
Those aspiring for a college teacher’s job are likely to get only one attempt in a year to clear the National Eligibility Test (NET), the eligibility criterion for getting a job of assistant professor in colleges and universities. According to sources, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has conveyed to the HRD ministry that it is not in favour of conducting the exam twice in a year. In case the ministry accepts the plea of the CBSE, a single exam will be conducted next year. The HRD ministry is likely to take a call on the issue soon. The…