Vikas Vaidya

By Vikas Vaidya Coming down heavily on private unaided educational institutions in State, Maharashtra Government has decided to constitute Comprehensive Fee Regulatory Authority to regulate fees for recognised professional courses run by these institutions, to prevent profiteering. State Cabinet took a decision in its meeting held on Tuesday, to implement the Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission Fees) Act, 2015, the draft of which was pending for past few years. The Cabinet decided to issue an ordinance in this regard during Monsoon Session of State Legislature, which will start after commencement of the academic year 2015-16. The ordinance will spell out appropriate fee structure for professional courses, thereby curbing profiteering. The Government has made it clear that the Supreme Court had directed to enact the law in this regard many years ago, but it could not be enacted as ‘education barons’ dominated in Maharashtra. Ac...

By Vikas Vaidya Finally School education department of Maharashtra Government has fixed the maximum limit of reimbursement for the students admitted in 25 per cent quota under Right to Education Act (RTE). The schools will get Rs 13,474 per student as reimbursement for the year 2014-15. Government has made it clear that the tuition fee being charged by schools and the fees fixed (Rs 13,474) by Government would be compared. The fees which is less between these two will be reimbursed. AS per the section 12 (1)(c) of RTE Act 2009 it is mandatory for the schools to leave 25 per cent seats for the students. The provision of reimbursement has been made under section 12 (2) of the Act. Central Government on April 8, 2010 had published RTE Rules, 2010. Maharashtra Govenment has published RTE Rules 2011 and 2013. Considering the legal provisions, Government was considering to reimburse the fees of the admissions done under RTE in the year 2014-15. Earlier the schools were irked by the s...

By Vikas Vaidya The earthquake that shook Nepal and parts of India, also panicked the people in Nagpur. Mild tremors were felt in several parts of Nagpur city on Saturday morning, triggering widespread panic and pulling fear-stricken people out of their homes and offices. Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Guardian Minister of Nagpur told mediapersons that 240 people from Nagpur in five groups are trapped in Nepal. “Government is trying to establish contact with them. As per the primary report they are said to be safe and people should not feel panic. They will be rescued,” said Bawankule. According to the highly placed sources in Seismic Broadband Observatory of Geological Survey of India, Nagpur the first tremor of 7.3 Richter scale was reported at 11.41 in the morning the epicentre of which was located 987 km from Nagpur 72 kms North-West of Kathmandu, Nepal). The latitude of which was 28.26 degrees while longitude was 84.958 degrees.     (Contd on page 2)The aftershoc...

By Vikas Vaidya The act of copying has been an integral part of the examination. Come March and news appear regarding copying in large scale in State Board examinations. To everybody’s surprise, after the measures taken by former School Education Minister Rajendra Darda, SSC, HSC board examinations have seen a substantial drop over its correponding period of last year in Nagpur division. the cases of copying have been reduced by almost 60 per cent in these examinations being conducted by Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. After measures like copy-free examinations being taken last year, the cases had come down by 50 per cent. In the year 2013, the total number of cases registered were 543 which were reduced to 221 in 2014, with further reduction to 116 in Class X examinations. In HSC, the cases of copying registered in 2013 were 773. Those were reduced to 334 in 2014. This year the number has come down to 111. Gondia was leading in the cases of co...

By Vikas Vaidya With advances coming in the technology, mobile has become an integral part of human life. Use of mobile has rose to large extent. Mobile has video, photos, songs and all. Attaching headphone to it and listening to any damn thing has become a common practice. Does this affect ear? Big answer is - scientifically not proven but extensive use of mobile causes damage to the ear. Head phones, bluetooth, all contribute largely in damaging ear. Dr Shabbir Indorewala of Indorewala Hospitals, Nasik says, there is no confirmation to this conclusion but when one uses mobile for longer duration, he or she uses microwaves for long which affects ear. Dr Indorewala was in city to be the chief guest of installation ceremony of Association of Otology held on Sunday at Hotel Centre Point. Dr Indorewala is called Lion of otology. One can not stop using mobile because of so many factors then what can be the solution. Dr Indorewala has an answer. He said, “We can talk on mobile wi...

 By Vikas Vaidya She used to watch her old grandfather having pains while climbing the stairs. Her family members tried walker, but it did not work. She was not finding solution what to do? Then idea struck to her mind-- what if she herself prepares a walker which her grandfather find useful. This girl started working on it. She endeavoured and came out with a fantastic design. Moved by the difficulties her grandfather faced, Shalini Kumari, a girl from Patna, Bihar invented a walker that ultimately landed her in National Innovation Foundation (NIF)- India’s league of winners. A walker to help the physically weak climb stairs was designed by her when she was only in class 9! Shalini Kumari’s grandfather, who loved spending time on his terrace garden, became dependent on a walking aid when he met with an accident. Unable to walk without a support, he was restricted to the ground floor and could not go for a daily walk in his beautiful garden. The incident in 2011 gave this 12-y...

By Vikas Vaidya The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD) which was on number 5 in the list of killer diseases in India in 1990 jumped to number 2, just behind heart ailment. This is the study done by Maharashtra Government itself. In 1990, Tuberculosis was on number one in the killer disease list while heart disease was on number 3 with Pneumonia standing on number 2. The scenario has changed.     In Europe and America main cause of COPD is smoking and they are concentrating to reduce smoking mainly in young people through awareness drive. But in India there are so many other causes are known besides smoking. As per statistics of Chest Research Foundation India there are 110 million smokers in India and out of which 12 million are female. It also says 56 % of non smokers suffer from COPD. So what are the other causes – outdoor air pollution, biomass fuel, mosquito coils, vehicle emission, burning of dry waste in open, construction pollution, emission of ther...

By Vikas Vaidya “Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, according to sources has come to conclusion that it was facing problems since software from the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) was procured.” “After facing so many problems because of the technical systems developed by MKCL, senate members of Mumbai University protested and the authorities have to say that Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) – entrusted with some responsibilities – to ensure error-free work this time, failing which its contract would be reviewed.” “In Kolhapur University people have demanded to cancel the contract with MKCL.” These are examples of some universities which have made agreement with Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) and students did not get the services supposed to be given. On the same lines Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University also faced same problems. It did not distribute the degrees of around one lakh students, thanks to MKCL. Univer...