United States and India Bolster Teaching Skills

New Delhi: The United States, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has announced a new $4.3 million partnership with Arizona State University’s (ASU) Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.  This program will share educational best practices with Indian teachers.

In partnership with the Government of India Ministry of Human Resource Development, the India Support for Teacher Education program (In-STEP) will send 110 educators from teacher training institutes in the eastern and northeastern states of India to ASU to participate in a three-month program.  The intensive training course will cover a range of topics including teaching methods, in-service and pre-service teacher education, and assessment techniques.

As part of this customized program, ASU will provide the Indian educators with opportunities to observe American schools and educational best practices.  They will see firsthand innovative teaching and learning approaches.  In addition, the Indian participants will work closely with ASU professors to prepare proposals for reform in specific areas of education, which they would then be able to implement in their respective states.  The ultimate goal is better-trained teachers and improved educational outcomes for Indian students.

Classical status to Odia hopefully within a month: Katoch

BHUBANESWAR: “I have complete faith that the Odia language will get classical status within a month,” said Union Culture Minister Chandresh Kumari Katoch in her speech at the foundation stone laying ceremony of peripheral beautification project of the Sun Temple at Konark on Sunday.

Katoch said that her Ministry has taken all the steps to give classical status to Odia language. Her Ministry has recommended to the Union Cabinet to accord classical status to Odia language, she added.

“From the day I became Culture Minister, I get frequent telephone calls regarding declaration of classical tag to Odia like Malayalam recently,” said Katoch.

Notably, the linguistic committee under the Kendra Sahitya Akademi on Tuesday had recommended the Union Culture Ministry to accord classical status to Odia language.

If the Union Cabinet approves the recommendation, Odia would be the first Indo-Aryan language to get classical tag besides four Dravidian languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam and ancient language Sanskrit.

Duped Investors to stage demo in city on July 31

BHUBANESWAR: Investors duped by financial institutions would stage a massive rally at the PMG Square in the city on July 31 demanding recovery of their money deposited in the fraudulent companies. Investors from different districts would attend the rally, said convener of duped investors’ body Jayant Das.

Das said the Centre and the State failed to protect the interest of the investors and left the non-banking financial institutions to loot them. The State allowed the common police to probe the financial fraud committed by Artha Tatwa Group which is unfortunate. The State has recently declared to form a corpus fund of Rs 300 crore to help the investors, but the State is yet to publish a gazette notification regarding this, alleged Das.

The body demanded the State Government to open grievance cells at block level to take actual data of individual investors regarding their investment in the companies. It also demanded that the seized property should be kept with the Finance Department instead of keeping that with the police.

Among other demands, probe by Enforcement Directorate with active supervision of the High Court, exemplary punishment to the fraudsters, a special law should be passed for the recovery and protection of the investors’ deposited money.

Brave Kartik gets CM’s applaud for nabbing armed looter

BHUBANESWAR: Kudos to Kartik Maharana for his courage to nab the armed looter who was trying to snatch away a necklace from a woman at the Nageswartangi colony under Lingaraj police station limits here on Friday. Maharana didn’t leave the looter scot-free even he get received a bullet fired by the miscreant.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik congratulated Maharana for his bravery and directed his officials to provide him treatment fees from Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Patnaik in a Press release on Saturday wished speedy recovery of Maharana.

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Mayor Anant Narayan Jena and local MP Prasanna Patsani met Maharana and congratulated him for his brave work which created an example in the city. Nobody was coming to nab the culprit though there were many people watching the incident, but Maharana did it despite receiving bullet injury in his thigh.

While expressing his experience, Maharana said the miscreant fired at me thrice when he headed towards the armed looter who was trying to run away from the spot after snatching a necklace from his neighbour Jhunu Patnaik, but the last bullet slightly pierced into his thigh. “I didn’t look back and captured the looter,” he said.

Maharana, who has a shop at Unit-I market in the city, is now out of danger. Official proceedings have been initiated to nominate his name for an award, sources said. The Commissionerate Police is planning to appoint Maharana as SPO, said the sources.

Creation of work charged post in N’kanan zoo demanded

BARANG: Members of the Nandankanan Workers Union (NWU) have been demanding before the State Government for the creation of work charged post in the Nandankanan Zoological Park, but they are yet to get any concrete information regarding their appointment, stated NWU secretary Prafulla Kumar Behera expressing grave concern over the delay in taking final decision in the issue.

Behera said the Union had staged nine days of strike started from February 22 this year demanding wage hike and permanent jobs of 117 temporary workers of the zoo. They had called off the strike after getting positive assurance from the State Government on March 2.

At the behest of Forest and Environment Minister Bijayshree Routray, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests JD Sharma to discuss the demands of the workers, but they are still waiting for the positive decision of the State Government in favour of the Union, lamented Behera.

On the problems of the workers, Union’s chief patron MLA Debasis Samantaray had written a letter on June 28 to Routray requesting for joint discussion to create work charged post in the zoo. Even he had urged Routray to hold a joint discussion with the Finance Minister in presence of NWU office bearers for amicable settlement of the grievances, but the Union could not get any reply from the Minister regarding their joint discussion, said the NWU secretary.