Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday demanded a probe into the alleged massive breach of personal data of candidates who had appeared for NEET 2018 exams.

In a letter to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Chairperson Anita Karwal, Gandhi highlighted media reports about the breach of over 2,00,000 students’ data who appeared for the National Eligibility and Entrance Test.

“It is alleged that this data is available on certain websites for a price,” he said.

The media reports have claimed that details of the candidates, including their phone numbers, e-mail IDs, and addresses, were put up online for a price of Rs two lakh.

The Congress leader said that he was shocked by this wide-scale theft of personal data that could compromise the privacy of candidates across the country.

“This highlights the serious lack of safeguards to prevent the data breach, and calls into question the ability of the CBSE to ensure the sanctity of the examination process,” he said.

Gandhi said: “I strongly urge you to order an inquiry against this shocking lapse and take action against the officials responsible for the same.”

He also asked the CBSE to put in “additional safeguards” to prevent the recurrence of such data lapse in future.

Students willing to apply for engineering courses in Karnataka will see a fee hike of 10% from that of the past academic year. The decision was gone up against Thursday after a meeting between private school management and the State government.

Senior authorities in the Higher Education Department said that fees for seats overall quotas will see a hike of 10%. But, management of a few private building schools are not satisfied.

“College management had really looked for a 20% hike in fee structure, however, the government has consented to top it at 10%. A consensual understanding in such manner is probably going to be marked on Friday itself,” said an administration individual from a private engineering school.

Nearly five lakh candidates, mostly engineering and Ph.D degree holders, have applied for 4,257 posts of guest teachers in the government-run schools of Bihar, officials said on Tuesday.

“We have received nearly five lakh applications for 4,257 posts of guests teachers in schools. It is much beyond our expectation,” an official of the Education Department said.

According to the officials, nearly 80 percent of candidates who have applied are from engineering stream, mostly B.Tech and M.Tech degree holders.

The state government decided to appoint guest teachers to cope with the shortage of teachers in its schools.

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Monday said the education system in the world should be based on common sense and scientific knowledge and not on religion.

The Dalai Lama was here to inaugurate the Happiness Curriculum of the Delhi government along with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.

“What we need in the world today is an education of values, not based on any religion, but based on common sense and scientific knowledge,” he said.

Stressing that India is the only country that can bring together modern education and ancient Indian knowledge, the Dalai Lama said: “This is needed to deal with the destructive emotions in the world. So what is being started in Delhi schools can have an impact on the whole world.”

The curriculum, with a focus on meditation and mental exercise, is designed with the aim to make students not only good humans who will spread happiness but also relaxed professionals who will not indulge in corruption.

The daily Happiness Class of 45 minutes will include mindfulness practice, gratitude, morals and value-based stories and activities.

The curriculum has been launched for over 1,000 government schools and will help improve the lives of about eight lakh students studying between Nursery and Class 8.

Sisodia, who is also in-charge of the Education Department, said the levels of happiness and well being are going down while stress, anxiety and depression are increasing.

“It is going to be the most important development in the education system with focus on good mental health, character and resilience. It will address the ever-growing concern levels of happiness and well being.

“A child’s mental well being is important. Happier children learn more, cope better and are much more likely to make the most of their potential,” he added.

Kejriwal called it a “landmark day” which will “completely transform the modern education system”.

“This should have been done 100-150 years ago. We forgot the real meaning of education. Our education system only generates clerks and failed in making kids better humans,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met a group of tribal students from Maharashtra who had scaled Mt. Everest last month.

The students were a part of a team of the ‘Mission Shaurya’ initiative of the Adivasi Vikas Vibhag of the Maharashtra government. Five students out of the group of 10 had successfully scaled the world’s highest peak in May.

The students shared their experiences during the training and ascent of Mt. Everest. The Prime Minister congratulated the students on their achievements.

Felicitating the students, he exhorted them to take up a sport and pursue it regularly.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was also present on the occasion.

Learn how to resolve mathematical puzzles and paradoxes, mind-bending concepts and their surprising solutions; know how to put the pieces together to create a powerful social media presence; flick through the story of five youngsters who have to deal with extreme circumstances and learn how the consequences made these ordinary individuals extraordinary.

Finally, wade through a collection of “real stories for tough kids” that features crisp and easy to read biographies of 56 inspiring women.

The IANS bookshelf has all this on offer for its readers this weekend.

1. Book: Weird Maths; Authors: David Darling and Agnijo Banerjee; Publisher: Harper Collins; Price: Rs 499; Pages: 269

Is anything truly random? Does infinity actually exist? Could we ever see into other dimensions?

In this journey of discovery, David Darling and child prodigy Agnijo Banerjee draw connections between the cutting edge of modern mathematics and life as we understand it, delving into the strange — would we like alien music — and venturing out on quests to consider the existence of free will and the fantastical future of quantum computers.

Packed with puzzles and paradoxes, mind-bending concepts and surprising solutions, this is for anyone who wants life’s questions answered — even those you never thought to ask.

2. Book: The Essential Social Media Marketing Handbook; Author: Gail Z. Martin; Publisher: Rupa; Price: Rs 295; Pages: 235

It’s time to take the fear and frustration out of social media.

In today’s crowded marketplace, it’s harder than ever to rise above the noise and clutter. For millions of businesses, a savvy approach to social media is the secret to creating sustainable engagement with a profitable niche audience. Social media done right can build and strengthen your relationship with your customers, encourage brand loyalty, extend your influence, and expand your credibility.

Social media changed the world and its platforms have evolved to meet the world’s changing needs. You’ve got more choices than ever before in online video, web audio, tele-seminars and more, plus new ways to attract prospects, retain customers, and reach a bigger audience. The trick is learning how to put the pieces together to create a powerful social media presence that draws in your ideal clients around the clock and around the world.

By using the powerful strategies in “The Essential Social Media Marketing Handbook”, you will jump ahead of the competition and get to expand your visibility and influence as a leader in your industry.

3. Book: The Blue Moon Day; Author: Santhosh Sivaraj; Publisher: Invincible; Price: Rs 220; Pages: 213

Things were never the same for five ordinary individuals who were lost at crossroads and there was no way back. They had no other choice but to take a plunge into their deepest fears and leave the rest to destiny. The individuals were tested away from their comfort zones and it produced abstruse results — a PhD scholar fights to win a pizza-making contest and a tennis prodigy runs for his life on a war-torn, bloodied island.

Extreme circumstances and their consequences made these ordinary individuals extraordinary. Was the test imposed on them by someone? Or did they invite it on themselves? “The Blue Moon Day” questions an individual’s priorities, ridicules worldly routines and finally redefines happiness.

4. Book: Like A Girl; Author: Aparna Jain; Publisher: Westland; Price: Rs 799; Pages: 197

Do you ever get the feeling that girls have it less easy than boys? Have you been told to behave ‘like a girl’? That you should learn to cook and be nice and keep your legs crossed? Well, here are the stories of 56 women who broke the rules to forge new paths for themselves and others.

Adventurous and ambitious, they fought battles and legal cases. They won elections and matches. They climbed mountains and mastered science. Best of all, they never stopped chasing their dreams. The book features chapters on the like sof M.S. Subbalakshmi, Aruna Roy, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Leila Seth, Gauri Lankesh, and among several others, Sunita Narain and Kalpana Chawla. Read about them. Talk about them. Get inspired.

Much before the Indian parliament promulgated the Right to Education Act (RTE) in 2009 that guaranteed education to all a committed local teacher had already pioneered the idea of making school access a reality for hundreds of underprivileged children, irrespective of their social status or economic background.

Meet Lakshmi Kaul, the unassuming woman, originally Lakshmi Krishnamurthy from Kerala, who is not only responsible for imparting good education to hundreds of children of housemaids, drivers, office boys and other low-income families but also ensuring that there is no discrimination against them at school.

In the heart of the city, in Indiranagar neighbourhood, Kaul runs a school named K K Academy where children of professionals like chartered accountants, doctors, lawyers and the rich mingle with the poorest. Kaul found this school in 1989 as a place where her daughter could take the formative steps in primary education.

“Schools at that time too were very expensive and out of reach for the poor sections. So it struck me and my husband (Arvind Kaul) one day that why shouldn’t we start a school of our own,” Kaul told IANS while reminiscing how that seed of an idea has now grown into a full grown tree.

An IIM-Bangalore graduate of early 1980s who worked in Indian Telephone Industries, Bangalore, Kaul narrates how she decided to take a break from the “maddening corporate world” and do “something more meaningful and fruitful”.

The school started with a skeletal staff and five children in a garage of their house. Soon, students were coming in droves, largely owing to its affordability and accessibility and the couple purchased a house a few hundred metres away from their own.

“As management professionals, we realized that while goals were good but they had their own pressures…something that our sorted out minds were not ready to be ambushed with,” she says with a chuckle while recalling how she and her husband decided to go full throttle, purging their own domestic expenses and giving “our best shot to the school”.

The school has grown manifold since then and has a 3,250-plus strength now and has classes from first to seventh standard.

“Our core belief is that quality education should be accessible to children from all backgrounds, irrespective of caste, creed, religion, special needs or economic background” Kaul says while adding how the school has very often had instances of the saheb’s (master’s) child studying in the same class as her family’s driver.

“These have been true case studies of seamless integration. We have not had any complaints from parents or children; those who don’t ascribe to this concept of equal opportunity probably choose to send their children to more cosmetically fancy schools,” a teacher adds.

“I have never seen children making comparisons based on family background. As a matter of fact, I have seen them being extremely supportive and mindful. A large part of the credit for this goes to the teachers, who do not differentiate and do not tolerate any kind of bias. Children very much follow this lead,” the founder says.

In the year 2011, the school instituted an annual award for the graduating class, in the memory of a dear professor from IIM, Dr G.K.Valecha. The selection was based on academic progress, leadership qualities, innate desire for learning and interaction with students and teachers. It has been five years now. The recipients of this award in four years have been children whose education the school is supporting.

Many of its former students of this school are now working for multinational companies and are successful in their own spheres, she informs.

“A large number of them have gone on to study science, and then engineering. Also commerce and law. They have gone on to become lawyers, chartered accountants, teachers, engineers, bankers, IT professionals and even a published author. They are supporting their families and are role models to many others in their communities,” she said.

In this year’s Class X CBSE Board, Hritik Verma, the school maid’s grandson scored 93 per cent marks and Harsh Kanaujiya, a driver’s son, scored 91 per cent.

“Both studied till Class VIII in our school.”

In the ICSC Board exam, Kabir Ali, whose father is a tailor, scored 92 per cent, she adds.

Through generous help off and on from her IIM batchmates who are now at powerful positions in the corporate world, the school has managed to operate with a modest fee and no re-admission fee.

Lakshmi happily informs that the school now has a computer lab, many tablet computers for the children and a library that has a decent collection.

An alumni, who long ago studied at the school and is now working for an IT-major recently visited the school along with his girlfriend.

“I was touched when the boy told me that he wanted his would-be-wife to first meet me and then his parents,” says a nostalgic and emotional Kaul.

Phoolmati, the aging ‘aayaa’ (maid) working at the school, had three of her grandchildren study here and they are now up with good schools for their higher education.

Chirpy as a child she informs, between motherly requests to allow her to make some coffee, that the school changed their lives forever.

Gulab Devi, mother of the first RTE student at the school, shares the sentiment and says how her son Durgesh would not even speak and now after two years in school he does not stop talking.

“Ab to bahut accha hai, pehle to bolta hi nahin tha, ab to din bhar padhta hai aur bak-bak karta hai (Now he is very good. He didn’t talk much earlier but now he studies the whole day and keeps talking about it),” she says breaking into a big smile.

Shreya Verma, daughter of a pharmacist, too says that her life has had so much of a value addition that words fall short.

Aavya, daughter of a woman police inspector posted in Hathras, is asked to sing a song. “She is our singing leader” informs a teacher who has been working at the school since its inception.

“Ekla chalo, ekla chalo re…” the girl belts out a soulful rendition of Rabindranath Tagore’s famous song. Its lyrics beautifully explain how one should not be afraid of venturing alone if no one else heeds your call. Lakshmi Kaul just did that and never felt the need to look back.

The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) discharged the CET 2018 results today at 1 pm. The results will be accessible online on the site http://kea.kar.nic.in, http://cet.kar.nic.in and http://karresults.nic.in at 3 pm.

Shridhar Dodamani from Vijayapura turned into the topper in engineering, followed by Narayan Pai from Dakshina Kannada. Tuhin Girinath, son of bureaucrat in state, positioned fourth and is the topper from Bengaluru. Aneeta James is the only girl topper from Bengaluru and holds fifth rank in CET engineering.

The confirmation of reports will begin from June 5 at 16 centers over the state, said KEA. Both KEA and Directorate of Medical training will incorporate counselling of Medical and Engineering students with the end goal that both have satisfactory choices.

At last, the government permitted additional chief secretary of department of medical education and principal secretary of department of higher education to make the announcement.

This comes as a tremendous break to lakhs of understudies who stepped through the exam for engineering degrees in universities in Karnataka. The exam was held between April 18 and 20.

The Central Board of Secondary Education will be conducting the 11th edition of Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) on September 16 (Sunday). The test will be conducted in 92 cities all over the country.

The detailed Information Bulletin containing details of examination, syllabus, eligibility criteria, examination fee, examination cities and important dates will be available on CTET official website www.ctet.nic.in w.e.f. June 12 (Tuesday).

The aspiring candidates are requested to download the Information Bulletin from above-mentioned website only and read the same carefully before applying.

The aspiring candidates have to apply online only through CTET website www.ctet.nic.in. The online application process will start from June 22 (Friday) onwards.

The last date for submitting online application is July 19 (Thursday) and fee can be paid upto July 21 (Saturday) before 3.30 PM.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

MVJ College of Engineering best known for its quality education, creating environment for progressive learning and development is initiating a new B.E. program in‘Aerospace Engineering’ from this academic year 2018-19.

The program will be alongside the existing Aeronautical Engineering curriculum. The first year of the program is common with Mechanical Engineering, and it is from the second year onwards that varied curriculum will be initiated from Aeronautical program, while the third and final year are exclusive to space related subjects.
In this branch of engineering, a student goes through hypersonic aerodynamics, space structures, space propulsion, spacecraft systems, launch vehicles, orbital mechanics, satellite designs, satellite communications, and space robotics. There are many more subjects e.g., space flight mechanics, space related avionics, satellite navigation and control, aero acoustics that a student learns apart from familiarization with aeronautical subjects in the second year. Aeronautical and Aerospace related labs are part of the curriculum.

In the AerospaceIndustry a huge scope and need would arisebecause of emerging newer concepts in this dimension. The new program in Aerospace is envisaged to meet the demanding and challenging role in this domain. There are vast job opportunities for an Aerospace Engineer in Aerospace Companies, AerospaceLaboratories, Defensesector and many more.
Prof. S.C Gupta,HOD –Aerospace Engineering Department, MVJCE shared his thoughts that the Aerospace Engineering is one of the most challenging areas which majorly deals with the development of new technology in the field of aviation, space and defense systems. It is a very interesting subject for the students to learn as it focuses on design, development, testing and production of Aerospace Vehicles and launch Platforms. We at MVJ College of Engineering are very glad to start thisnew program and wish to produce the best of Aerospace Engineers in the country.
About MVJ College of Engineering
Established in 1982, MVJ College of Engineering, the flagship institution of Venkatesha Educational society, imparts education in technology and management. Situated on 15-acre campus in Whitefield, Bangalore, MVJCE is permanently affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi and approved by All India of Council for Technical Education (AICTE).