With some tweaking in the proposed format, National Institute of Technology (NITs) on Wednesday adopted the common entrance for admission to undergraduate programme from 2013 giving 40 per cent weight age to board results and 60 per cent weight age to the main exam for preparing merit list.

Students seeking admission to these institutes would not have to appear for the advance test as had been proposed earlier.

"The formula worked out is very simple...40 per cent weightage to board results and 60 per cent to the mains," chairman of the standing committee of NITs, R A Mashelkar, told PTI here after a meeting chaired by HRD minister Kapil Sibal.

He said the 40 per cent weight age to the board results will be given after the process of normalization of marks of the state board. A committee comprising NIT directors would be set up to look into the issue of normalisation.

Officials said the committee would basically look into validation of the formula already proposed for normalization of marks with the respective board results.

The meeting comes in wake of the IITs arriving at a compromising formula last week for admission to undergraduate programmes, taking the top 20 percentile of successful candidates of their Boards for preparing merit list and their performance in the advance test.

The government had on May 28 announced the common entrance test for IITs and other centrally funded institutes.

Under the new system, for admission to all the centrally funded institutes like the NITs there would be 40 percentage weightage for performance in Class XII (after normalisation of marks), 30 per cent weightage to performance in main and 30 per cent in the advanced test.

Source: TOI

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The number of engineering seats in Goa have gone up by over 35% in the last two years. The demand in the state is going up for electronics communication and mechanical engineering degree courses, while civil engineering is a less preferred stream.

The state-run Goa Engineering College (GEC), which was set up more than forty years ago, added the mining course last year with an intake of 30 seats. ""A booming mining industry in Goa provides mining engineers ample career opportunities within the state itself. But the lack of a mining course in Goa was forcing students to opt for institutes in far away states like Bihar until last year,"" deputy director for technical education in Goa, Pradip Kusnur, said.

The mining engineering course has taken up GEC's seats up to 410.

With only three engineering colleges in the state - the RIET at Shiroda with an intake of 189 seats and the Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, Verna with 252 seats, other than GEC - Goan aspirants were forced to turn to engineering colleges in the neighbouring states of Maharashtra and Karnataka until 2010.

But before the last academic year 2011-12 could begin, the Don Bosco College of Engineering in south Goa was granted approval by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for 252 seats in computer, mechanical, electronics communication and civil engineering streams.

This year, the Fr Agnel College of Engineering in north Gao was given a nod by AICTE for 180 seats in electronics communication, mechanical and computer engineering.

All the new engineering seats have taken the number of seats up in Goa from 810 two years ago to 1272 during the current academic year.

Officials said that rise in the number of engineering seats will not mean the quality of students is compromised. ""These students from Goa would opt for courses outside the state when they could not get into the Goa colleges anyway and would become qualified engineers and come back to the state. These students can now study in the state itself,"" Kusnur said.

Source: TOI

Read Amore About Goa Engineering College (GEC)

This time, there will be only two rounds of counselling for bachelor of technology (BTech) and bachelor of architecture (BArch) courses of Punjab Technical University (PTU).

This time, there will be only two rounds of counselling for bachelor of technology (BTech) and bachelor of architecture (BArch) courses of Punjab Technical University (PTU). Counselling under the fee waiver scheme will also be done simultaneously.

According to this schedule announced by PTU, admissions would be on the basis of AIEEE merit and in four universities of the state and affiliated colleges. The universities include PTU Jalandhar, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar; Panjabi University, Patiala, and Punjab Agriculture University in Ludhiana.

University officials said the primary reason for reducing the number of counselling rounds from three to two was that with three counselling rounds, studies start in September as admissions and reporting time of the students in the third round would extend till August.

However, it is learnt that the latest decision would give more room to colleges and after counselling sessions, the colleges can fill the seats on their own by making merit on basis of applications reaching them directly.

According to information provided by the admission cell of the university, the last date of fee submission for the first counselling session is June 27 and for second session is July 1 to 13. In the second round, fee submission will be made compulsory for those students who failed to submit their fee in the first round.

University VC Dr Rajneesh Arora said 85% seats would be reserved for students from Punjab and 15% seats would allotted to outsiders.

Source: TOI

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The industry, which previously witnessed fear of knowledge transfer has now evolved. It now understands that sharing knowledge can mean more profits. And this means more organised avenues are mushrooming across India to teach candidates nuances of jewellery industry. Until recently, the core group (ancestors, owners) in any given jewellery house kept tricks of the trade to themselves. "A person had to ideally work at least a decade until he could claim some genuine domain expertise," says Hayagriv.

But the good news is that the way things are done in this industry is changing owing to the 'scaling-up .' Earlier couple of jewellery houses were worth a hundred million, but now they are spoken in terms of billions.

Captive units are now established out of city limits so the production department can have access to larger working spaces. In Bangalore these are typically located around Peenya."

Hayagriv talks about the three major levels in the jewellery industry. "First is mining. Second is production, where s/he can specialise in working either at the refinery, or gem cutting establishments, or in casting and manufacturing and finally designing if that suits the candidate. The third level is in distribution or retail. "There are developments even at the micro level," he informs. Earlier there were no specialised departments within a jewellery house, and everyone did everything — of course under the specialist eye of the boss. But people can now choose where he is best suited. "Crafting skills or production department, assessment department, designing, sales, supply-chain management, or the finance department-all is available for the pick. The starting salary across departments is from 3 lakh to 3.5 lakh per annum."

And because this industry deals with natural substances 'organised approach' in this industry continues to remain a challenge. However, knowledge of geology, gemology and mineralogy can be an important starting point, Hayagriv tells. There is an increasing demand for jewellery engineers. "This industry needs people who can tackle complexities at different stages in the design and manufacturing process, because we are dealing with extremely expensive raw material."

Recognising the importance of skilled manpower the industry has taken upon itself to associate with academia to offer specialist courses in jewellery. "All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) has partnered with National Skill Development Corporation to set up the Gems and Jewellery Skills Council of India. The focus of this council is to develop a set of comprehensive guidelines to improve the manufacturing and retailing of jewellery for the benefit of the consumers. The GJF has set up an independent committee to oversee this major drive to develop over 50,000 members across India," says Hayagriv.

There are many developments in the industry says Hayagriv . "Social marketing and e-commerce among retailers has caught on." This industry also seeks professionals who bring forth to the customers the 'healing and astrological' effects of gems. "Wearing jewellery is not just all glamour but there is science to it and that's why individuals with a metaphysical understanding are sought," he adds. "This industry also demands novelty; jewellers are increasingly looking to fit a person to the jewellery. And that's why they have to understand their audience, the price point they can afford jewellery at, the age factor, the facial shape, etc," he says.

Some of the educational institutions offering courses in jewellery designing are: Indian Institute of Gems & Jewellery, Mumbai; Manipal Institute of Jewellery Management, Udupi; Jewellery Design & Technology Institute, Noida; NIFT has a Industrial Jewellery Design & Training Centre, and finally Gemological Institute of India offers relevant diplomas and certification to enter this industry, informs Hayagriv.

Source: TOI