The award of the prestigious Fields medal to a Stanford University mathematician of Indian origin, Akshay Venkatesh, four years after Manjul Bhargava won the coveted award has once again led to the familiar lament about India’s lack of academic talent and its scarcity of world-class institutions. Shortly after gaining independence, India saw the birth of a number of exemplary institutions such as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). The initiative and ambition of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was pivotal in building these world-class institutes. The…
Author: Loknath Das
Gone are the days when universities and other higher educational institutions under MHRD would, beside maintenance grants, receive every five year development grants for creating physical facilities, infrastructure development and for starting new courses and programmes. Beginning from the current financial year, they would instead have to approach the Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA) for loans. Established as a joint venture of MHRD and Canara Bank, HEFA is a not-for-profit non-banking finance company. With an equity base of Rs 10,000 crore, the agency targets to mobilise Rs 1,00,000 crore through a mix of government guaranteed bonds and commercial borrowings to…
Shares of SREI Infrastructure Finance fell more than 2 percent intraday on Monday after sources told CNBC-TV18 that its IPO of equipment finance business is likely to be postponed or called off. The initial public offering was planned for Q4FY18, which was rescheduled to Q1FY19 and again to Q2FY19. Sources said investors see Srei Equipment IPO impacting wealth of SREI Infrastructure Finance’s shareholders. Investors said turning Srei Infra into a holding company will impact stock discounting. Post Srei Equipment IPO, Srei Infrastructure will be left with no strong business of its own but merger of Srei Infrastructure & Srei Equipment will create…
The UK economy could benefit from more people of all ages attending university, a report has concluded. It also suggests the advance of automation, robotics, artificial intelligence and digital technology, as well as the challenges of Brexit and an ageing population are creating greater demand for those with qualifications above level 4. These include HNC/Ds, foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. The Universities UK report highlights the need for continual upgrading of skills, lifelong learning and study of higher education qualifications at all levels. The percentage of young people from England entering higher education has reached 49%, but there has been…
One of the biggest challenges recruiters and higher educational institutions face is ascertaining the authenticity of the school and college certificates of the candidates. With the incidence of doctored certificates growing, recruiters and companies have been seeking the help of verification companies, which are found to be not too well-equipped to identify the fake certificates. Zebi Data, a start-up building blockchain technologies for various sectors such as revenue and hospitality, has built an exclusive blockchain platform for the education sector. The EduChain platform has already bagged the IIIT (International Institute of Information Technology – Basar) as a client for deploying…
Popular messaging app WhatsApp has announced two new developments for its WhatsApp for Business app, which is only available for Android at present. Firstly, the Facebook-owned company is opening up the WhatsApp Business API for more businesses, with an aim to reach potential customers at scale. Secondly, Facebook ads are getting a new click to WhatsApp shortcut to connect advertisers with users – however, this feature will initially not be available in India. With the WhatsApp for Business API opening up, businesses across the board will have a new avenue to reach customers. Companies can use this API to send customised notifications with relevant,…
Facebook stunned and angered organisers of a protest against white supremacists when it disabled their Washington event’s page this week, saying it and others had been created by “bad actors” misusing the social media platform. The company said the page – one of 32 pages or accounts it removed Tuesday from Facebook and Instagram – violated its ban on “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” and may be linked to an account created by Russia’s Internet Research Agency, a so-called troll farm that has sown discord in the US But the organisers of next weekend’s protest in Washington say Facebook has unfairly and recklessly…
Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos, who was a key figure in the fight against the spread of fake news and misinformation, on Thursday officially announced his decision to quit and join Stanford University as a full-time teacher and researcher. The announcement came as Facebook investigation, under Stamos, revealed on July 31 that it discovered and banned 32 bad actors who were using the platform to manipulate political discourse as US mid-term elections approach. “I have had the pleasure of lecturing at Stanford for several years, and now I will have the honour of guiding new generations of students as an Adjunct Professor…
Technology is developing rapidly and the world as we know is changing accordingly. New technologies are looking to increase convenience and ease of interaction for the general consumer in various sections like e-commerce, grocery, transportation, and banking. For example, peer-to-peer lending, robo advisory, and UPI are just some of the elements in this new wave of evolution which is looking to aid the general consumer. The objective of it all remains seamless user experience, increased security, and greater convenience. In 2018, a number of these technologies will come to the fore (some of them already have) and look to evolve how we transact…
The week saw the bellwether indices hitting new highs. Investors in stocks and equity mutual funds saw their portfolio values surge as the up-move turned broad based. Yet, there are many investors who preferred to remain cautious given macro pressures and not so inspiring growth in corporate earnings. The current upswing in prices helped traders who were stuck in small and mid-cap names. The up-move is seen with a lot of scepticism owing to volatility in global markets. However, one cannot stay away from stocks altogether. This could make many focus on quality stocks than growing broad-based. Systematic equity plan can help you buy…