Nearly 6.99 lakh students are appearing in the Class XII exams, which started with the physics paper.

For Class X students, music was the first exam. A total of nine lakh candidates are appearing in the Class X exams.

The CBSE said that the exams went off peacefully across the country and abroad.

The students appeared satisfied with their performance.

“The paper was a standard one. It was neither very easy nor very tough. But it was a little lengthy, though I completed it on time,” said Harsh Prakash, a student of Eklavya Education Complex in Patna.

Prohibitory orders in Ghaziabad

Keeping in mind the recent theft of questions papers from an educational campus, the district administration on Wednesday issued prohibitory orders under section 144 Crpc around all exam centres.

District Magistrate R Ramesh Kumar ordered the arrest of all those who attempt to loot examination papers and answer sheets and has told police to open fire if unruly elements try and to botch the examination process.

High school and intermediate exams are scheduled in March 4-5 in about 105 centres and the orders. The DM’s orders would remain in force till the end of the examinations.

Secretary, Meerut region of UP education board V N Singh has begun an inquiry into the stolen examination papers of high school and intermediate examination from Haidri college last saturday.

Police has arrested four persons including a college principal in the theft

Around 6.99 lakh candidates took their Class XII examination for physics while a number of students out of a total of 9.02 lakh candidates in Class X took their exam in music.

According to CBSE, the number of students appearing for the Class X examination is 8.65 per cent more than last year. Among the candidates, 5,33,715 are boys and 3,68,802 are girls.

For the Class XII examination, the increase in the number of candidates is 8.8 per cent.

There will be 13,311 students appearing for the Class X and 8,596 candidates appearing for the Class XII examinations in 56 and 45 centres abroad respectively.

The number of centres for Class X and Class XII in Gulf countries were 37 and 33 respectively.

The 44 deemed universities, which were found unworthy for the status by the committee, secured less than 19 marks out of a total of 45, according to official sources.

The committee found that the failed deemed universities were being run as family fiefdoms rather than on academic considerations. Nearly two lakh students are studying in those institutes.

Another 44 deemed universities, which have been found having deficiencies and have been told to rectify them within three years period, secured poor marks in the range of 19 to 27 out of a total of 45.

The committee, headed by P N Tandon, has submitted its report to the HRD Ministry which has accepted the findings. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court.

The committee has prepared three lists – the first one of 44 unworthy deemed universities, the second one on 44 deficient institutes and the last one on 38 others, which were found to be up to mark.

The list of deficient deemed universities include 31 private institutes and 13 public

institutions. The average score obtained by such institutes is 23.

The Medical Council of India (MCI) issued showcause notices to the college authorities, threatening them with de-recognition for failing to adhere to MCI norms despite repeated warnings.

These 11 colleges, which have two months to rectify their shortcoming or else get de-recognised, have among them over 1,300 MBBS seats.

According to Times of India, MCI president Dr Ketan Desai said, ” … we carried out inspections, several deficiencies were noticed in these colleges in terms of teaching staff, number of resident doctors, patient load of the resident hospital and infrastructure.”

Explaining the circumstances, Dr Desai said once medical colleges get recognition, they are reviewed by MCI every five years on whether the colleges are maintaining standards as stipulated by the MCI and upgrading their facilities.

If found lacking, the colleges are given a maximum of two years to rectify the shortcomings. A final showcause notice is issued when colleges don’t adhere to the norms even at the end of the two years.

“In the next two months, if the 11 colleges don’t put in place the required norms, we will recommend the withdrawal of recognition of the MBBS degree of these colleges to the Union health ministry,” Dr Desai said.

The list of colleges under fire include GSVM Medical College (Kanpur), SN Medical College (Agra), MLN Medical College (Allahabad), Guru Gobind Singh Medical College (Faridkot), LLRM Medical College (Meerut), Maharashtra Institute of Medical Sciences (Latur), J N Medical College (Aligarh), BM Patil Medical College (Bijapur) and Vinayaka Missions Medical College Hospital (Pondicherry), the ToI report siad.

Meanwhile, MCI has also sent reminders to 30 other medical colleges across India for renewal of permission to run an MBBS course, failing which they will not be able to admit students in the 2010-2011 academic session. The maximum number of colleges in question in this category are from Kerala (7), followed by Uttar Pradesh (6) and Orissa (3).

At least the signals from Hyderabad is green. As the process of campus placements started at the Osmania University (OU), where exams have been postponed and situation remains volatile, offers from top companies brought some cheer for students amidst the gloom and apprehensions of missing out on job prospects due to the agitations and shutdowns.

However, students are keeping their fingers crossed hoping that the final exams are not postponed and the results are not delayed indefinitely if agitations for a separate Telangana start all over again.

“If exams are delayed or postponed and results are not out in time the companies may withdraw offer letters or keep them suspended. Companies showed solidarity and faith in the students by visiting even during the agitations, but they may not tolerate postponed or delayed exams and uncertainty of results,” says Shiva Kumar of the College of Engineering.

The top four IT majors — Infosys, Wipro, TCS and Cognizant Technology Solutions — have made 408 job offers in the OU College of Engineering. Placement Officer Shiva Kumar says that 15 IT companies made a total of 444 offers. “The four top IT majors made 408 offers, which is amazing. This year, we are expecting 98 per cent of our 680 students of BE, B Tech and M Tech will get jobs through campus placements,” Kumar says.

At the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), it is a bonanza. IT firms, including TCS and Infosys, have made 300 job offers and 22 students have received multiple job offers with salaries of Rs 3 lakh per annum. Yahoo and Google have made two job offers with remuneration packages ranging between Rs 8.5 lakh to Rs 9.5 lakh. For the first time, Oracle Corporation has picked up 18 interns, Essar Steel and Maqsoft have picked up 10 each, while ADB and Idea Cellular have picked up several management students, The Indian Express report claimed

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) ruled by the Shiv Sena is struggling to run Marathi-medium schools in Mumbai and ended up closing at least 27 such schools in 2009.

Reason: there are not enough students to sustain these schools, reported The Indian Express.

On the other hand, BMC, the country’s richest civic body is witnessing a steady rise in the number of students wanting to study in its Hindi medium and English medium civic schools or go to private schools.

Officials said this was a reflection of the demographics and cultural aspirations of even the city’s not-so-well-off classes who generally send their children to civic schools.

BMC schools cater to about 4.4 lakh students of the total estimated 16 lakh in Mumbai who study in classes one to 10. Data accessed by The Indian Express showed that the number of Marathi-medium BMC schools fell to 407 last year from 434 in 2008, the number of students in these schools fell by nearly 20 percent to 107,413 in 2009 from 132,725 in 2008, the report said.

On the other hand, the number of students studying in Hindi-medium BMC schools went up to 113,726 from 111,149 and those in English medium BMC schools went up to 26,637 from 21,138 during the same period. While the number of Hindi medium schools stayed the same at 234, BMC opened two new English medium schools last year to take the total to 48.

BMC also runs Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati and Urdu medium schools and officials said that besides Marathi other regional language schools also saw a fall in the number of students last year. Urdu medium schools, which teach nearly 1 lakh students, were the other which saw a rise in students along with Hindi and English.

“Parents feel that their child’s future is limited if he or she studies in Marathi and that English can boost their chances of securing a better living,” said a BMC education department official.

The numbers have come as an embarrassment for the Shiv Sena at a time the party is seeking to up the ante on identity politics, largely seen as an attempt to outdo its rival Maharashtra Navnirman Sena which hurt the Shiv Sena badly in the Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections.

The students belonging to occupational and physiotherapy courses in Seth G S Medical College in central part of Mumbai were detained yesterday following the institute lodged a complaint against them with the police.

The Bhoiwada metropolitan magistrate approved bail to the detained students on furnishing a bond of Rs5, 000 for each one.

The students, in the age group of 18 to 25 years, have been booked under different sections of the IPC and the Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act.

The suspected happening came to light on Saturday when about 10 first-year students of physiotherapy department accused their seniors of ragging them. The civic-body run Seth G S Medical College is allied with the King Edward Memorial (KEM) hospital.

In the meantime, KEM dean Dr Sanjay Oak said action against the accused students will be taken only following a meeting with the additional municipal commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM).

An investigation by the anti-ragging committee of the college was also planned into the accusation.

Vampire Squid

Perhaps the most-quoted sentence of the year in business journalism by Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone: “The first thing you require to recognize about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most influential investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped about the face of humanity, persistently jamming its blood funnel into everything that smells like money.”

Hactivism

A portmanteau word; ‘activism’ taking digital forms, similar to ‘hacking’ Websites. It is in addition commonly spelled ‘hacktivism’. For example, Anonymous Iran (iran.whyweprotest.net) serves up what is basically a Hactivism 101, with loads of suggestion and resources. Or the army of Chinese hackers angry on the “biased” coverage on the Olympic Torch Relay messing with the CNN Website.

And of course, nearer to home, we have ‘patriotic’ Indians and Pakistanis, every one attempting to cause awkwardness by defacing the other country’s official sites

Slacktivism

One more portmanteau word, perhaps encouraged by the preceding one. It refers, with a scorn, to activism that doesn’t call for very much action. Not even the tech information that hacking requires.

Rather than go out in marches, or trudge from door-to-door canvassing for donations or signatures, slacktivists find it a lot easier to sign an online petition, promote an e-mail or light a virtual candle.

Sexting

Distribution of sexually explicit text messages and pictures via cell phones. A number of studies came out this year on the number of young (even under-age) couples engaging in sexting, and numerous lawsuits are still awaiting on sexting gone wrong.

Unfriend

Subsequent to the verbing of “friend”, credit to the acceptance of the term by social networking sites; it means to get rid of someone as a friend. It’s the Oxford dictionary’s word of the year. It has brought up debates on who are the self a person shows online, the hazard of online relations, and the easiness with which the internet encourages dishonesty.

Zombie Bank

A bank that is, by every definition, dead, however has been kept floating by government support. A bank with financial net worth less than zero. First Republic Bank and Citibank are renowned zombies.

Staycation

Taking a holiday from work, however not travelling anywhere, for financial reasons. As an alternative, one explores one’s native land. Far less money and strain. Even Fodor’s currently writes about good staycations.

Even in the most horrible scenario, calendar 2010 will generate approximately 50,000 fresh IT/ITES jobs against zero fresh jobs apart from a very thin campus hiring – in the previous year. The calendar 2007 had witnessed a bumper hiring at more than 3 lakh whilst the development got narrowed off towards the third quarter of 2008 clocking a sum hiring of just 1.8 lakh.

B S Murthy, CEO, Leadership Capital says the New Year will guide in improvement and a wave of general hopefulness across segments. “This means a total change from the present skeletal and need-based hiring. The outsized volume-hiring realm (services space) will warm up by the second quarter of calendar 2010. A 15% increase in hiring volumes is anticipated in the first two quarters whilst the development could cross 20% or double towards third and fourth quarter.”

According to Nirupama V G, MD, AdAstra, requirements will begin pouring in like tsunami, HR departments of many corporate have by now geared up for large scale hiring following a extended standstill. “Normalcy will return to the industry by April. In addition to domestic hiring, India is going to come out as an enormous sourcing ground for worldwide jobs across segments, positions and profiles.”

“When we like a vantage position in human resources, talent is still a scarce commodity in global markets. The year 2010 is going to be brilliant year for India in terms of domestic and global placements,” adds Mohan Menon, CEO, Sentient Consulting.

The HRD Ministry shot off a letter to Deodhar, asking him to present a realistic description on the entire matter of disturbance in the test, which is being conducted by an American firm Prometric, a ministry official said.

Due to “virus attack” in the computers, almost 4,000 students could not appear in the examination throughout the initial two days of the 10-day long spread out entrance that commenced on Saturday.

Scores of students were not able to emerge in the examination at quite a few centers on Monday as well as technical glitches sustained to disturb and upset the exam. Candidates could not attempt the test at a few centers in Mumbai, Bangalore and Ghaziabad due to out of order and malfunctioning of computers at these places.

About 2.41 lakh students are planned to appear in the test for admission into seven IIMs and a few other B-Schools. The American firm Prometric has been awarded a $40 million agreement by the Indian Institutes of Management to computerize the prominent CAT.