Vikas Vaidya

      By Vikas Vaidya THE sinking of the ‘Phoenix’ gave Captain Saroor Ali a deep satisfaction. A seafarer of over 23 years, he was accustomed to such situations. There was nothing fishy. It was his job, being the East Coast executive Manager of the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), at one of the biggest ship breaking yards of the world in South Africa. It was another feather in the cap of this Nagpurian. Capt Ali has remained a man for sea for most part of his life. He is in and around the sea for almost 40 days, away from his home in Durban. After doing initial education at Nagpur, Capt Ali did his graduation from West Bengal and then with an aim to join Merchant Navy did LLM in Marine Law and appeared for Entrance. He passed the entrance and went to South Africa. However, he never lost touch with Nagpur. Though Capt Ali stays in Durban he made it a point to admit his son, Sahil, to Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management i...

By Vikas Vaidya Eventhough Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has given green signal, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Corporation Limited has not put educational institutions, hospitals and dispensaries in non-commercial category. If this is done then these institutions will have reason to smile. Two years ago, Association of Private Managements of Professional Education had pressed that the educational institutions should be put under non-commercial category. Association had argued that education sector can not be called as commercial one as they do serve poor people and impart education. Government agreed and decided to put them under non-commercial category ( (A) (i) - Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Dispensaries so that they had to pay charges fixed for non-commercial activity. Sources said that MSEDCL has sent the proposal to MERC which also approved the same. The Director of MSEDCL has issued the circular in this regard in March 2013. The...

Valuation Mess-Up By Vikas Vaidya A boy studying in B.Sc II  was surprised to see his marksheet where he was shown failed in Physics paper. He had asked for his answersheets of Physics papers, when he checked, he was shocked to see that the supplement was checked but original answersheet was kept unchecked. The student may go for revaluation, but then who would be the valuer! Would it be the same person who did it casually? In that case this student might get failed again. If suppose some other teacher would do the valuation but still what would be the guarantee that he would do his duty properly. The question is who will evaluate valuer? If a student after studying sincerely appears in an examination, how he should feel assured that his or her answersheet would be check scrupulously with sincerity? This question has no answer. Not a single Vice-Chancellor throughout the Maharashtra, not a single expert, not a single academician. The question is as difficult as what is the par...

· By Vikas Vaidya Though Medical Council of India (MCI) has relaxed the rule of giving Eligibility Certificate for the students wanting to study in foreign countries, the troubles have not ended so far. Now Maharashtra Government has refused to give admission in the State quota of Post Graduate intake. Due to severe shortage of MBBS seats in the country, most of the Indian students are opting for medical colleges in China, Russia, Central America, the Philippines among others every year. Getting the degree in these countries is relatively cheaper. A student can complete MBBS abroad in less than Rs 30 lakh. In the state, the student has to pay, apart from the fee, a donation of up to Rs 80 lakh to get a seat in management quota. All this totals to Rs 1.5 crore. Earliers these students had to obtain eligibility certificate from MCI. This data has been obtained from Board of Intermediate Education to verify the age and qualifications for doing MBBS in foreign countries. Now MCI has ...