Campus Notes

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore today announced the list of candidates shortlisted by it for interviews, 11 days after the results of the IIMs' Common Admission Test (CAT 2009) were declared on February 28.

IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Shillong had put up their shortlists on the CAT website on February 28 itself, while IIM Calcutta (PGDM, PGDCM) and IIM Lucknow did it on March 2. IIM Kozhikode had announced its shortlist on March 5 and IIM Bangalore on March 8.

With this, all the seven existing IIMs have announced their shortlists for the interviews, which are the next step in their admission process. The new IIM at Ranchi, however, is yet to put up its list.

The CAT scorecards are used by the elite IIMs for admission of students to their flagship two-year post-graduate programmes in management as well as for their Fellow programmes. Many other business schools also use the CAT scores in their admission process.

CAT 2009 was the first time that the examination was conducted as a computer-based online test. It was conducted in the pencil-and-paper format for 33 years before that.

The original schedule for the test was between November 28 and December 7, 2009 which was extended by a day to December 8 to accommodate thousands of students who could not appear during the ten-day window because of technical glitches at several centres across the country.

The IIMs ultimately had to schedule a re-test on January 30 and 31 for about 11,000 candidates who faced problems during the original schedule.

A total of 241,582 candidates had registered for CAT 2009. The test is reputed to be the toughest entrance examination for business schools in the world.

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The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore today announced the list of candidates shorlisted by it for interviews, eight days after the results of the IIMs' Common Admission Test (CAT 2009) were declared on February 28.

IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Shillong had put up their short-lists on the CAT website on February 28 itself, while IIM Calcutta (PGDM, PGDCM) and IIM Lucknow did it on March 2. IIM Kozhikode had announced its short-list on March 5.

The IIM at Indore and the new IIM at Ranchi, which will begin its first academic session this year, are yet to announce their lists so far.

The CAT scorecards are used by the elite IIMs for admission of students to their flagship two-year post-graduate programmes in management as well as for their Fellow programmes. Many other business schools also use the CAT scores in their admission process.

CAT 2009 was the first time that the examination was conducted as a computer-based online test. It was conducted in the pencil-and-paper format for 33 years before that.

The original schedule for the test was between November 28 and December 7, 2009 which was extended by a day to December 8 to accommodate thousands of students who could not appear during the ten-day window because of technical glitches at several centres across the country.

The IIMs ultimately had to schedule a re-test on January 30 and 31 for about 11,000 candidates who faced problems during the original schedule.

A total of 241,582 had candidates registered for CAT 2009. The test is reputed to be the toughest entrance examination for business schools in the world.

Apart from IIM Ranchi, three more IIMs at Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Rohtak in Haryana were also due to start functioning from 2010-11. Two others in Uttarakhand and Rajasthan are due to be set up in the next year.

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The Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode today announced the list of the candidates shortlisted by it for interviews after the results of the IIMs' Common Admisssion Test (CAT) were declared on February 28.

With this, five of the eight IIMs have so far put up the lists of the candidates shortlisted by them for interviews - the next stage in their admission process.

IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Shillong had put up their lists on the CAT website on Sunday itself, while IIM Calcutta (PGDM, PGDCM) and IIM Lucknow did it on March 2.

The IIMs at Bangalore and Indore as well as the new IIM at Ranchi, which will begin its first academic session in 2010-11, have not announced their lists so far.

The CAT scorecards are used by the elite IIMs for admission of students to their flagship two-year post-graduate programmes in management as well as for their Fellow programmes. Many other business schools also use the CAT scores in their admission process.

CAT 2009 was the first time that the examination was conducted as a computer-based online test. It was conducted in the pencil-and-paper format for 33 years before that.

The original schedule for the test was between November 28 and December 7, 2009 which was extended by a day to December 8 to accommodate thousands of students who could not appear during the ten-day window because of technical glitches at several centres across the country.

The IIMs ultimately had to schedule a re-test on January 30 and 31 for about 11,000 candidates who faced problems during the original schedule.

A total of 241,582 had candidates registered for this year's CAT 2009. The test is reputed to be the toughest entrance examination for business schools in the world.

Apart from IIM Ranchi, three more IIMs at Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Rohtak in Haryana were also due to start functioning from 2010-11. Two others in Uttarakhand and Rajasthan are due to be set up in the next year.

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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved the establishment of 137 new General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) and 132 Auxiliary Nursing and Midwifery (ANM) schools in different states to increase the availability of trained nursing manpower.

The schools will be set up under the Scheme of Upgradation/Strengthening of Nursing Services (Human Resource for Health) in the high focus states like Bihar, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, North Eastern States, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal.

It will also cover districts in other states which do not have General Nursing and Midwifery schools.

The GNM schools will be set up at a total cost of Rs.1370 crore with a cost sharing pattern of 85:15 between the Central Government and States. The expenditure on the part of Central Government would be Rs.1164.50 crore and the states will contribute Rs.205.50 crore.

The ANM schools will be set up at a total cost of Rs.660 crore, again with a cost-sharing pattern of 85:15 between the Central Government and the States. The expenditure on the part of Central Government would be Rs.561 crore and the States will contribute Rs.99 crore, an official press release said.

The schools are also expected to improve the quality of nursing education in the backward and special category States of the country. They would also help improve the quality of nursing services in the hospitals, it added.

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The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ranchi has announced that it would launch its two-year two-year Post Graduate Programme in Management from the academic session of 2010-11.

An announcement by the newest IIM said IIM Calcutta would mentor the new institute in its formative years.

It said the Admissions Office of IIM Calcutta would receive and process applications from eligible candidates who would like to apply to IIM Ranchi for the programme. Fees for the programme will be Rs 3 lakh per year.

The announcement said the advertisement seeking applications from eligible candidates would be published in leading dailies and the downloadable application form would be available on the IIM Calcutta website by the end of February 2010.

The seven existing IIMs are located at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore and Shillong.

New IIMs at Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, Ranchi in Jharkhand, Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Rohtak in Haryana were due to start in 2010-11. Two others in Uttarakhand and Rajasthan will be set up the following year.

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The United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) has invited applications for the 2011-12 International Fulbright Science and Technology (IFST) Award for Ph.D. study in science, technology, and engineering at top U.S. institutions.

One of the most prestigious international scholarships in science and technology, the IFST Award is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and funds up to three years of study, a press release from the US Embassy in New Delhi said.

According to it, approximately 45 awards worldwide will be offered to candidates demonstrating unique aptitude for innovation in scientific fields. Up to two principal nominations and one alternate nomination from India will compete for the 2011-12 awards with candidates from around the world.

Eligible fields of study include aeronautics and astronomics/aeronautical engineering, agriculture (theoretical or research-based focus only), astronomy/planetary sciences, biology, biomedical engineering, chemistry, computer sciences/engineering, energy, engineering (electrical, chemical, civil, mechanical, ocean, and petroleum), environmental science/engineering, geology/earth and atmospheric sciences, information sciences and systems (engineering focus only), materials science/engineering, mathematics, neurosciences, oceanography, public health (theoretical research focus only) and physics.

The release said the application deadline was May 1, 2010. Details are available on the USIEF website at  or at USIEF offices in New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai.

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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved a proposal from the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare for strengthening and upgradation of State Government Medical Colleges for starting new post-graduate courses and increasing seats.

This will be done with the help of central funding during the XIth Plan period, an official press release said.

As per the proposal, the State Government medical colleges will be funded by way of a one-time grant of Rs 1350 crore under a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), with funding pattern of 75 per cent by Central Government and 25 per cent by State Governments for starting new PG courses and increasing the number of PG seats.

It said the release of funds under the scheme would be made conditional upon States committing to incur necessary recurring expenditure for maintaining the facilities created under the scheme after the XI Plan period (2007-12).

Funds will be disbursed directly to the Head of the Institute in two instalments. The State Government will undertake to refund the funds if the stipulated increase in PG seats or the new PG courses do not fructify within the prescribed period.

The proposal including quantum of funding will be decided by the Empowered Committee to be constituted under the Chairmanship of Union Health Secretary.

According to the release, the CCEA decision would result in an additional 5000 seats in post-graduate courses in 148 State Government medical colelges in pre- and para-clinical disciplines like Anatomy, Microbiology, Physiology, Pharmacology , Bio-chemistry, Forensic Medicine, Community Medicine and certain clinical disciplines like Obstretrics & Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Anaesthesiology, General Medicine and General Surgery. It will also result in strengthening the existing public health delivery system, the release added.

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Business school Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) of Mumbai said 40,000 students in 12 countries had appeared its maiden computer-based admission test between January 30 and February without any glitches reported from anywhere.

NMIMS had selected Pearson Vue as its partner for administering the test. Pearson Vue, which conducts more than 7 million tests in 165 countries, said no test batch was cancelled due to technical or infrastructure issues.

As part of its contingency plan, Vue had asked candidates to keep February 9 free in case their test needed to be re-scheduled. But with a smooth roll-out on each of the ten days of testing, the contingency was not invoked, a press release said.

Minor disruptions were managed quickly by the NMIMS Admission Test (NMAT) administrators on-site, the release said.

"The NMAT-2010 was a landmark event for NMIMS. Transition of the paper-based NMAT to CBT had its risks. However, we were reassured by Pearson Vue’s depth of planning and contingency framework," said Prof. Rajan Saxena, Vice Chancellor, NMIMS.

"NMIMS owes this success to Pearson Vue’s proven global test delivery system, execution excellence and administering the test with a personal touch," he added.

The CBT adopted by NMIMS enabled Pearson Vue to quickly respond to potential technology glitches, which would not have been possible in a paper and pencil single sitting format.

Each test session had a unique question paper to ensure standardization, test security and integrity. For NMIMS, Pearson Vue will follow standard global equating norms and practices to create comparable scores from multiple test forms.

"The idea,"Prof. Anupam Rastogi, Chairman, NMAT Admissions Committee, said, "is to offer a level playing field to all candidates."

"Candidates’ feedback - instant and on blog after the tests - has been heartening," Pearson Vue's Managing Director for Asia Pacific Sarvesh Shrivastava said. "We will strive to improve the student experience even further in subsequent test administrations," he added.

The NMAT results will be posted on the college website http://www.nmims.edu on March 2, 2010. The test results will be used for admission to NMIMS’ management programmes.

The NMIMS campus at Hyderabad will be ready by April this year and it has recently acquired land in Chandigarh for the establishment of a campus in north India, the release added.

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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today gave its nod to a proposal by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare for the expansion of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, for implementing the decision on 27 per cent reservation of seats for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

The Union Government has enacted the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 for reservation in seats for OBCs.

The implementation of the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in PGIMER over a period of three years without altering the number of unreserved seats, would necessitate an increase in the total number of seats in the medical post-graduate courses, nursing courses, and paramedical courses and a corresponding increase in the number of faculty and resident doctors as well as infrastructure.

On implementation of the decision, an additional 214 post-graduate seats would be created in the institute, taking the total number of seats to 610. Besides, the number of seats in nursing courses will go up by 192 to 552 and by 87 to 247 in paramedical courses.

With the introduction of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in all institutes under the Central Government, the total percentage of reservation will go up from the present level of 22.5 per cent to 49.5 per cent.

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The seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore conducted the online Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) for the first time in two out of 21 subjects yesterday.

As many as 1700 candidates were registered for the examinations in the two subjects - Textile Engineering and Fiber Science (TF) and Mining Engineering (MN). The test was conducted simultaenously in eight cities over two shifts, an official press release said.

Depending on the experience with the online format, it might be repeated on a larger scale in the coming years, an official press release said.

The offline version of the examination in the other 19 subjects will be conducted all over the country on February 14, the release said.

The GATE is an all-India examination administered and conducted jointly by the IITs in Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Chennai and Roorkee and the IISc on behalf of the National Coordination Board - GATE, Department of Higher Education in the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

Admission to post-graduate programmes with assistance from the MHRD or other government scholarship/assistanceship in engineering colleges/institutes is open to those who qualify through GATE.

GATE-qualified candidates with Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Technology or Architecture or Master's degree in any branch of Science, Mathematics, Statistics or Computer Applications are eligible for admission to Master's/Doctoral programmes in Engineering/Technology/Architecture as well as for doctoral programmes in relevant branches of Science with MHRD or other government scholarship/assistantship.

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President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Horst Kohler and the Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Prithviraj Chavan at the inauguration of the Indo-German Max Planck Centre on Computer Science, in New Delhi on February 03, 2010.

The Indo-German Max Planck Centre on Computer Science (IMPECS) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, which will engage in collaborative basic research in computer science between scientists of the two countries, was inaugurated here today.

The facility was inaugurated by German President Horst Koehler, who is on a week-long state visit to India, and Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Prithviraj Chavan.

Dr. T Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Prof Peter Gruss, President, Max Planck Society, Germany and Prof Surendra Prasad, Director, IIT, Delhi were amongst those present at the function.

The concept of setting up the centre in India was first discussed during the visit of the German Chancellor to India in October, 2007.

An official press release said the centre would engage researchers from institutions such as the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay and IIT Madras from the Indian side and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (MP-INF), Saarbruecken from the German side.

It will serve as a bridge between the computer scientific communities of the two countries and act as centre of excellence for faculty and students from both sides, the release said.

The research areas envisaged for the centre include Algorithms and Complexity, Database and Information Retrieval, Graphics and Vision and Networking.

The release said the centre would benefit both countries. The major benefits for India would be further strengthening of the research base in Computer Science that would develop expertise of highest calibre needed by academia and industry. Germany would benefit through improved collaboration with leading Indian scientists and a highly visible outpost with a professional environment and a large pool of young talent.

The centre has been set up jointly by the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, and the Max Planck Society under the overall aegis of the Indo-German S&T Cooperation programme for an initial duration of five years at a total cost of approximately Rs.12 crores from the Indian side and approximately Euros 2 million by the German side, the release added.

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The National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) at Kundli in Sonepat, Haryana, set up to provide core courses in Food Science and Food Technology, will start its activities from the 2010-11 academic session.

The Institute has been established as a "world-class institution" by the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries and will cater to the needs of various stakeholders such as entrepreneurs, industry, exporters, policy makers, the government and existing institutions.

The Institute will be fully supported by the Ministry while enjoying reasonable autonomy in its functioning. A state-of-the-art campus is being created with modern infrastructure, a library and residential facilities, an official press release said.

The objective of the institute is to promote cooperation and networking amongst existing institutions both within the country and international bodies, create a complete data base on domestic resources and bring in international best practices for improving the food processing sector, it said.

NIFTEM will also provide industry-friendly short-term courses as well as regular degree and management courses leading up to Ph.D programmes, for developing human resources for the sector, the release added.

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The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) today accorded in principle approval for the establishment of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) that will connect all knowledge institutions in the country through a high-speed data communication network.

The project, to be implemented by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), is expected to encourage sharing of knowledge, specialized resources and collaborative research.

The Government’s decision to set up the NKN was announced in 2008-09. An initial amount of Rs.100 crore was allocated to the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT for the purpose and a high level committee was also set up to coordinate and monitor the project.

An official press release said the architecture of the NKN would be scalable and the network would consist of an ultra-high speed core (multiples of 10Gbps and upwards). The core shall be complemented with a distribution layer at appropriate speeds. The participating institutions can connect to the NKN at speeds of 1 Gbps or to the distribution layer through a last mile connectivity bandwidth.

The NKN will provide a nation-wide ultra high-speed backbone/data-network highway. Various other networks in the country can take advantage of this ultra high-speed backbone, with national and international reach to create independent and closed user groups.

The NKN will have about 25 core Points of Presence (PoPs) and 600 secondary PoPs. It will connect around 1500 institutions. The physical infrastructure (setting up of core network) is expected to be completed in 24 months.

According to the release, the NKN will enable scientists, researchers and students from diverse spheres across the country to work together for advancing human development in critical and emerging areas.

It is expected to catalyse knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer between stakeholders seamlessly across the nation and globally.

The NKN is also expected to encourage a larger section of research and educational institutions to create intellectual property. It will enable use of specialized applications, which allow sharing of high performance computing facilities, e-libraries, virtual classrooms and very large databases.

Health, education, grid computing, agriculture and e-governance are the main applications identified for implementation and delivery on NKN. Applications such as countrywide classrooms will address the issue of faculty shortage and ensure quality education delivery across the country.

In the initial phase of the project, a core backbone consisting of 15 PoPs have been established with 2.5 Gbps capacity. Around 40 institutions of higher learning and advanced research have already been connected to the network and six virtual classrooms set up, the release added.

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The Union Cabinet today approved the implementation of a proposal for an increase in the number of Junior Research Fellowships (JRF) through the CSIR-UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) in the country.

The JRF-NET is aimed at identifying, through this national competitive examination, talented students who could be enrolled for Ph. D. programmes in specific domains across India's scientific and academic institutions.

It is also meant to identify those who fulfil the eligibility criteria for employment as lecturers across various academic institutions.

During the 10th Five Year Plan, the number of JRFs was doubled and a total of 6000 students benefited. In the XIth Plan, the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) proposes to double this number again.

According to an official press release, the total cost of providing fellowships for about 12,000 students in the XIth Plan is estimated at Rs.444.34 crore.

The release said the proposed increase in intake and the attractive remuneration being offered would help in attracting talented youth to take up scientific research as a career and help address the issues related to shortage of scientific manpower in the country.

The biggest beneficiaries of this programme would be the University system and scientific institutions across India as they shall be able to attract bright minds for their scientific programmes/research. It will also benefit students from all over the country who are keen to take-up scientific research as a career, it said.

The programme will be implemented by the Human Resource Development Group of the CSIR, which conducts the National Eligibility Test (NET) across the country in 25 cities and at 125 examination centres.

The JRF scheme was started in 1983. In 1989, the NET was recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC) as a pre-qualification for lecturership and is now being conducted twice a year in June and December. It is conducted in five subject areas - Life Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematical Sciences. About 1,50,000 students appear for NET every year.

The decision to increase the number of fellowships has come in the wake of the serious concern expressed by educationalists, scientists, policymakers and others over the declining interest shown by students in taking up careers in basic sciences.

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The public sector Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has signed memoranda of understanding (MoU) with the Birla Institute of Management and Technology (BIMTECH) in Greater Noida and the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad for academic collaboration.

The company has also entered into a similar agreement with the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Bangalore, which provides for the endowment of a SAIL Chair.

The MoUs are aimed at strengthening of industry-academic interface to foster collaboration between the institutions and the company to promote academic and research interactions.

The MoUs were signed by Prof. S Sadagopan, Director, IIIT, Bangalore, Prof. Anupam Varma, Deputy Director, BIMTECH and Dr B D Singh, Dean (MDP & Consulting), IMT, Ghaziabad on behalf of their institutions. SAIL Executive Director (HRD) S P Patnaik signed them on behalf of the company.

According to an official press release, such collaborations will foster a strong bond between academia and industry and contribute to faster industrial growth within the country, apart from helping SAIL and the academic institutions to achieve sustained growth.

"These collaborations will help SAIL immensely in opening up new horizons of knowledge for its executives and will also provide practical insights to the students of these institutions who will get rare opportunity to learn the working of a giant steel industry which is the pride of nation," he said.

SAIL, through its Management Training Institute (MTI), has already entered into similar arrangements with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, IIM, Indore, Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, technical institutes such as ISM University, Dhanbad and Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, and companies like SKF, Siemens and Bosch Rexroth.

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Energy-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has decided to set up a "new age world-class" university in India through a philanthropic foundation set up by it recently.

An Indian Chair will be established at the University of Toronto in Canada to foster international cooperation and research between India and Canada.

A delegation of Graduates Students of the Columbia Business School, USA calling on the Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal in New Delhi on January 06, 2010.

Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal today said his top priority was to get a critical mass of students into universities in India.

Interacting with a group of 22 students from the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University who called on him here, Mr Sibal said this meant that the gross enrolment ratio would need to be raised to 30 per cent from the present level of 12.4 per cent.

He was reacting to a question from the students about what his priorities were for the education sector. He said this would enable the country to develop wealth in a manner that it would want.

He said creating quality faculty at all levels of institutions in the country and inclusion of the disadvantaged sections, such as Scheduled Castes and Tribes and minorities, within the education sytem were his next two priorities.

Responding to the students' queries, Mr Sibal explained that the public sector was the primary vehicle for school education in the country with 93 per cent of the children in India attending government schools.

He said the private sector would also have to be roped in to supplement government efforts in this area, given the financial constraints faced by the government. The model for how the private sector can participate was being worked out, he said.

In the higher education sector, Mr Sibal said the government would expand opportunities for the private sector to play a much bigger role so that the gap between demand and supply could be bridged. He said the private sector would have to play a big role in vocational training.

Mr Sibal was confident that in the next 30 years India would emerge as the natural hub of education in the world.

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The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) will host the 3rd IIMA Doctoral Colloquium, an annual event in which doctoral students in management from across the country and abroad make presentations, here from January 8-9.

The colloquium is conducted by the institute to provide a platform for young management researchers to chisel their research ideas and skills from the symbiotic pool of budding researchers and experts.

The colloquium also aims to build a strong network for young management researchers, a press release from IIMA said.

The two-day initiative, which was started in January 2008 by the students of the Fellow Program in Management (FPM), the doctoral program of IIM-A, will bring together 55 students and 10 faculty members of University of Cambridge, NUS Business School, Singapore, IIM Bangalore, IIM-Calcutta, IIM-Lucknow, Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, XLRI, Jamshedpur, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi, Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, IIT, Kharagpur, II IISc-Bangalore, IIFT, IRMA, IIT-Kanpur, IIT- Kharagpur, IIT, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.

The keynote address at the event will be delivered by Prof. Girja Sharan, former professor at IIM-A. He works on development of sustainable technology to improve agriculture and rural life in hot arid regions. The other keynote speaker is Prof. Brij Kothari, who will present his award winning work on same language subtitling on television in India.

According to the release, IIMA runs several research centres specializing in different areas such as infrastructure policy and regulations, managing health services, innovation, incubation and entrepreneurship, telecom policy studies, retail, and e-governance. Heads of these centres will make presentations on the emerging research trends related to these areas.

Exploring the career opportunities available to the management researchers in India, the colloquium includes a panel discussion on "Career choices – opportunities and challenges", where FPM alumni will share their experiences and provide guidance to budding researchers.

Full time doctoral students will make presentations on their thesis topics. These topics represent a wide range, including finance, agri-business management, economics, human resource management, computer and information systems, production and quantitative methods, organizational behavior, strategy and public policy.

Besides discussion on research work of doctoral participants, a series of workshops, panel discussions and other events on theory building, research methodology and publishing facilitated by distinguished experts will also be held during the colloquium.

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The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) announced today that a re-test would be held on January 30 and 31 for those candidates who faced disruptions because of technical glitches during their Common Admission Test (CAT 2009) held between November 28 and December 8.

"Equity and fairness requires that candidates who faced disruptions during the test be given an opportunity to complete the test while not requiring those who completed the test successfully to take the test again," a statement posted on the CAT website said.

This was the first time that CAT was conducted as a computer-based online test after being conducted in the paper-and-pencil format for 33 years.

Hundreds of candidates could not appear for the test on their scheduled days or had faced problems because of technical glitches that arose during the examination. Many such candidates were given a chance to appear for test during the original 10-day window upto December 7 and an extra session on December 8.

On December 8, the IIMs had announced that all candidates who could not take the CAT on the scheduled dates would be given the opportunity to do so on a new test date to be announced later.

According to the statement, the following candidates would be scheduled for a test in the second phase of CAT 2009:

(* Clock-time refers to actual elapsed time from the start of the test to the end of the test for a candidate. This is different from the time indicated by the count-down timer which was displayed on the computer screen.)

The statement said the criteria had been arrived at based on the analysis of calls and e-mails received from the candidates; site reports filed by the site managers; computer logs; and information gathered from websites and blogs.

The rescheduling (based on the above criteria) and the psychometric equivalences that will be established across the tests address all issues of equity and fairness raised in various forums (including those pertaining to candidates getting additional clock-time), the statement said.

The candidates identified for the re-test in phase two would receive communication by January 10 from Prometric, which has been selected by the IIMs to deliver the test.

The results of CAT 2009 are now likely to be declared by the third week of February 2010, instead of January 22 as originally scheduled.

The computer-based online CAT involved the delivery of examinations on 17,000 computers in 361 temporary testing labs at 104 centres in 32 cities throughout India.

A total of 241,582 had candidates registered for CAT 2009. The test, reputed to be the toughest entrance examination for business schools in the world, used to be held across the country in a single session on the same day -- usually the third Sunday of November.

In the first few days of this year's CAT, hundreds of candidates could not appear for the test on their scheduled days because of technical glitches, which Prometric attributed to computer viruses, malware and other difficulties. Many of those who did appear for the examination also complained of a variety of other problems that they faced.

On day 2 and 3, about 50 of the affected labs had a planned closure to avoid further inconvenience to the candidates and to allow for all the necessary repairs to be completed.

The CAT is a pre-requisite for admission to various management programmes conducted by the IIMs, including their flagship two-year Post-Graduate Programmes (PGP) in Management. Many other institutions also use the CAT scores to finalise admissions to their management programmes.

The seven IIMs are located at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore and Shillong.

Four more IIMs are due to start functioning from the academic session 2010-11 at Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, Ranchi in Jharkhand, Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Rohtak in Haryana. Two others in Uttarakhand and Rajasthan will be set up the following year.

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The Directors of all the seven Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are scheduled to meet Higher Education Secretary Vibha Puri Das here tomorrow to discuss the issues arising out of the technical glitches that marred their Common Admission Test (CAT) this year after it went online for the first time.

Thousands of candidates could not appear for the test or had faced the problems because of the technical problems that arose during the examination that was held on ten days from November 28 to December 7.

Later, an extra session was held on December 8 in 20 cities to accomodate as many of those who were unable to give the test on their scheduled days. On the same day, the IIMs announced that all candidates who could not take the CAT on the scheduled dates would be given the opportunity to do so on a new test date to be announced in about a fortnight.

Tomorrow's meeting is being held against the background of a demand in some quarters for the scrapping of the computer-based test. The Human Resource Development ministry is expected to use the opportunity to express its serious concern over the turn of events and ask the IIMs what their plans were on dealing with the situation.

"This additional day would allow most candidates, who could not take the test in their scheduled slots, to take the test," the IIMs and Prometric, which has been selected by the elite institutes to deliver the examination, had said in a press release.

"There are still some candidates who could not take the test due to genuine reasons and test has not been rescheduled for them. A new test date will be announced in about a fortnight to provide an opportunity to ALL such candidates to write the test," the release had said.

It said Prometric would inform all such candidates about the date and the venue for the test.

Prometric had said candidates at various locations had experienced technical difficulties related to computer viruses.

The computer-based online CAT involved the delivery of examinations on 17,000 computers in 361 temporary testing labs at 104 centres in 32 cities throughout India.

A total of 241,582 had candidates registered for CAT 2009. The test, reputed to be the toughest entrance examination for business schools in the world, was held in the paper-and-pencil format for the past 33 years. Till last year, it used to be held in a single session on the same day -- usually the third Sunday of November -- across the country.

In the first few days of this year's CAT, hundreds of candidates could not appear for the test on their scheduled days because of technical glitches, which Prometric attributed to computer viruses, malware and other difficulties. Many of those who did appear for the examination also complained of a variety of other problems that they faced.

On day 2 and 3, about 50 of the affected labs had a planned closure to avoid further inconvenience to the candidates and to allow for all the necessary repairs to be completed.

The CAT is a pre-requisite for admission to various management programmes conducted by the IIMs, including their flagship two-year Post-Graduate Programmes (PGP) in Management. Many other institutions also use the CAT scores to finalise admissions to their management programmes.

The seven IIMs are located at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore and Shillong.

Four more IIMs are due to start functioning from the academic session 2010-11 at Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, Ranchi in Jharkhand, Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Rohtak in Haryana. Two others in Uttarakhand and Rajasthan will be set up the following year.

The CAT score cards will be available on the CAT website from January 22, 2010.

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The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have announced that all candidates who could not take their Common Admission Test (CAT 2009) on the scheduled dates because of technical glitches would be given the opportunity to do so on a new test date to be announced in about a fortnight.

The CAT, being conducted as a computer-based test for the first time this year and originally scheduled to run from November 28 to December 7, had already been extended by a day today.

The extra session of the examination this morning is being conducted in 20 cities: Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin (Kochi), Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, New Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Pune and Varanasi.

"This additional day would allow most candidates, who could not take the test in their scheduled slots, to take the test," the IIMs and Prometric, which has been selected by the elite institutes to deliver the examination, said in a press release.

"There are still some candidates who could not take the test due to genuine reasons and test has not been rescheduled for them. A new test date will be announced in about a fortnight to provide an opportunity to ALL such candidates to write the test," the release said.

It said Prometric would inform all such candidates about the date and the venue for the test.

Prometric said candidates at various locations had experienced technical difficulties related to computer viruses.

It said it was currently reviewing the experiences of all the candidates who might have been impacted by computer viruses and/or other sources of potential disruption.

"One of the key advantages of computer-based delivery is the ability to electronically record a candidate's exam and identify issues that might affect an individual's performance. That assessment is already underway and with the consent of the IIMs, Prometric will be offering a new test to the candidates who were impacted in this way," the company said.

"The vast majority of virus programmes are written to work with or corrupt commonly available file formats, such as executable files, and exploit functionality in commonly available applications such as e-mail programmes, internet browsers, and operating systems. The proprietary result files used by Prometric fall outside the scope of what a typical virus is capable of attacking, thereby vastly reducing the risk of exposure to these viruses," it said.

According to Prometric, the result files produced during an examination are encrypted prior to being written to disk. This procedure enhances the security of the content and provides a degree of protection from virus infection and/or destruction. Any such tampering with the files would be detected when the test results are imported into the data processing system and subsequent item analysis.

"To date, Prometric's ongoing event reconciliation processes have verified that no results have been deleted or modified by a virus attack. The majority of sites and candidates have tested without incident and their performance indicates that most candidates had a valid and fair experience," the company added.

The computer-based online CAT involved the delivery of examinations on 17,000 computers in 361 temporary testing labs at 104 centres in 32 cities throughout India.

A total of 241,582 candidates registered for CAT 2009. The test, reputed to be the toughest entrance examination for business schools in the world, was held in the paper-and-pencil format for the past 33 years. Till last year, it used to be held in a single session on the same day -- usually the third Sunday of November -- across the country.

In the first few days of this year's CAT, hundreds of candidates could not appear for the test on their scheduled days because of technical glitches, which Prometric attributed to computer viruses, malware and other difficulties. Many of those who did appear for the examination also complained of a variety of problems that they faced.

On day 2 and 3, about 50 of the affected labs had a planned closure to avoid further inconvenience to the candidates and to allow for all the necessary repairs to be completed.

The CAT is a pre-requisite for admission to various management programmes conducted by the IIMs, including their flagship two-year Post-Graduate Programmes (PGP) in Management. Many other institutions also use the CAT scores to finalise admissions to their management programmes.

The seven IIMs are located at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore and Shillong.

Four more IIMs are due to start functioning from the academic session 2010-11 at Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, Ranchi in Jharkhand, Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Rohtak in Haryana. Two others in Uttarakhand and Rajasthan will be set up the following year.

The CAT score cards will be available on the CAT website from January 22, 2010.

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Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran has laid the foundation stone of the Apparel Training and Design Centre (ATDC) at Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh that will help to meet to meet the shortage of skilled workers in the apparel industry.

The estimate cost of setting up a permanent campus for the ATDC is Rs 10 crore. Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Kamal Nath, who represents Chhindwara in the Lok Sabha, was also present at the function held yesterday.

Mr Maran said the apparel industry required five lakh trained workers and skill development centres such as the ATDC were needed to meet this demand.

He said the intake of students at the ATDC would increase from the present level of 500 to 2000 once the permanent campus was constructed.

Mr Maran also announced that Rs 1 crore would be sanctioned by the Ministry of Textiles for the holistic development of two existing handloom clusters at Saunsar and Lodhikhera in Chhindwara district. He also said that two additional handloom clusters would be developed in the area.

Mr Kamal Nath said the ATDC would be a boon to the skill development of textile workers in the area.

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The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), which are faced with serious glitches with their Common Admission Test (CAT 2009) after it went online for the first time this year, announced today that the examination would be extended by a day to accommodate candidates who were not able to test on their scheduled day due to the technical difficulties.

Accordingly, there will be an extra session of the examination on December 8 morning in 20 cities, the IIMs and Prometric, the company selected by the elite institutes to deliver the test, said in a joint statement.

"On 8 December (Day 11), CAT 2009 will be held over one morning session in 20 cities," it said.

The 20 cities are Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin (Kochi), Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, New Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Pune and Varanasi.

CAT 2009 began on November 28 and was originally scheduled to run until December 7, with two sessions on each of the ten days.

The statement said the computer-based CAT involved the delivery of examinations on 17,000 computers in 361 temporary testing labs at 104 centres in 32 cities throughout India.

It said that by the end of December 3 (Day 6 of CAT 2009), more than 112,000 candidates had completed testing.

"Majority of affected candidates have already been rescheduled and many of these have also completed their testing. In the meantime, virtually all candidates are continuing to successfully test without issues, and the number of impacted candidates has decreased significantly," it said.

"We understand and regret the additional stress and inconvenience caused to candidates who have not been able to test on their scheduled day due to technical difficulties," said Mr Ramesh Nava, Vice President & General Manager, Asia Pacific, Japan & Africa, Prometric.

"We are working with the IIMs to add an additional session on Day 11 to accommodate them within the city they were originally scheduled," he added.

According to the statement, in response to feedback from candidates, Prometric has extended the hours for the CAT Candidate Care (1800 103 9293), added more telephone lines and Candidate Care agents to accommodate the high volume of calls.

Effective December 3, the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) and phone support will be available everyday from 8 am – 8 pm throughout the testing period, it said.

A total of 241,582 candidates registered for the CAT 2009. The test, reputed to be the toughest entrance examination for business schools in the world, was held in the paper-and-pencil format for the past 33 years. Till last year, it used to be held in a single session on the same day -- usually the third Sunday of November -- across the country.

The statement said that, as part of their planned contingency, Prometric had prepared the registration and scheduling system to accommodate volumes in excess of the projected number of candidates to ensure that any additional demand could be fulfilled.

"The CAT 2009 has been extended to accommodate, within this year’s testing period, all the registered candidates to whom the test has yet to be delivered as scheduled. Some testing labs (one test centre could have several labs) have experienced technical difficulties mainly on the account of viruses and malware. Majority of these issues have been identified and eradicated. However Prometric, in partnership with NIIT, is continuing to monitor and assess all labs. In the event that testing is not possible for any session at specific labs, affected candidates will be contacted via SMS and email the day before. Rescheduling of these candidates will then be initiated and new appointments communicated again via SMS and email," it said.

In the first few days of this year's CAT, hundreds of candidates could not appear for the test on their scheduled days because of the virus, malware and other technical glitches. Many of those who did appear for the examination also complained of a variety of problems that they faced.

On day 2 and 3, about 50 of the affected labs had a planned closure to avoid further inconvenience to the candidates and to allow for all the necessary repairs to be completed.

The CAT is a pre-requisite for admission to various management programmes conducted by the IIMs, including their flagship two-year Post-Graduate Programmes (PGP) in Management. Many other institutions also use the CAT scores to finalise admissions to their management programmes.

The seven IIMs are located at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore and Shillong.

Four more IIMs are due to start functioning from the academic session 2010-11 at Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, Ranchi in Jharkhand, Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Rohtak in Haryana. Two others in Uttarakhand and Rajasthan will be set up the following year.

The CAT score cards will be available on the CAT website from January 22, 2010.

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The United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF)  has invited applications from Indian business managers for the Fulbright-Nehru-CII grants.