

CUET-UG to continue till June 17, results expected in July: Officials
The Common University Entrance Test (CUET-UG) will continue till June 17 with more than 65,000 candidates yet to take the exam, according to officials.
This will be the second extension of the undergraduate admission entrance test. The exams were scheduled from May 21 to May 31, which was later extended to June 7. The National Testing Agency (NTA) has now released the admit cards for June 9 to June 11.
The NTA will soon announce the dates for further rounds of the exam. The results are expected to be announced in July.
The exams are likely to continue till June 17 and most of these tests will be conducted in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand. The results are expected within 15 days from the date of completion of the exams.
“According to the original schedule, the results were expected around June 20, which will now probably be announced around the first week of July,” a senior official said.
More than 14 lakh applications have been received for the CUET-UG this year, registering a 41-per cent increase from its debut edition last year.
The CUET-UG is the second-largest entrance exam in the country in terms of the number of applicants. In its first edition, 12.5 lakh students had registered for the exam and 9.9 lakh had submitted their applications.
Unlike last year, the exam is being conducted in three shifts.
Most of the pending candidates are from Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand, while there are some from other states and Union territories too who are waiting for the dates. So far, the CUET-UG has registered an attendance of around 75 per cent.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Jun 08 2023 | 11:35 PM IST

Interested in working with OpenAI? Please feel free to email Sam Altman
In a free-wheeling fireside chat with university students on Thursday in Delhi, the CEO of OpenAI and his team seemed eager to welcome bright young IT practitioners of India into the OpenAI work space.
“Many of our best researchers are undergraduates or are college dropouts. You certainly do not need a PhD to do great work. OpenAI will welcome you on the basis of talent, and we are certainly a good fit for undergrads,” Altman said while speaking at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi.
Both Altman and Eleti, responding to queries on ChatGPT plug-ins, invited students to email them and gain “developer access immediately” for working on these plug-ins.
Altman, who was earlier the president of Y Combinator, a start-up accelerator that has launched over 4,000 companies, said: “We had some conversations (on OpenAI Startup Fund) yesterday and we are excited to do more. We would love to invest in Indian start-ups.”
The CEO, who is currently on a tour to steer a conversation on global regulations for AI, plans to meet heads of states across the world. On Thursday, he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Altman’s meeting with the prime minister assumed significance, as the integration of ChatGPT with the government’s digital services is gaining speed. Also, the government is working on the Digital India Bill, a law that may govern emerging technologies including AI.
Asked about the increasing concerns about the possible weaponisation of generative AI by the world’s superpowers, Altman said: “We believe we can stand a lot of attacks. But if we continue to succeed to the degree (of technological advancement) as we think, we don’t really know what the geopolitical attacks by the superpower may look like. We are trying to think of what we can do for a world like that.”

50 medical colleges approved in this year, adding 8,195 UG seats: Report
Fifty new medical colleges have been approved this year, adding 8,195 more undergraduate seats and taking the total number of such seats in the country past 1,07,658, official sources said on Thursday.
With the addition of these 50 colleges (30 government and 20 private), the number of medical colleges in the country now stands at 702, they said.
The 50 medical colleges have been approved in Telangana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Nagaland, Maharashtra, Assam, Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the sources said.
The recognition of 38 medical colleges across the country was withdrawn in the last two-and-a-half-months during inspections by the Under-Graduate Medical Education Board of the National Medical Commission (NMC) for allegedly not following the prescribed standards, the sources said.
Further, show-cause notices have been issued to 102 medical colleges, they added.
Of the 38 medical colleges, 24 have appealed to the NMC while six have now approached the health minister.
The colleges that have lost recognition are allowed to appeal once with the NMC and then with the health ministry after rectifying the deficiencies and inadequacies.
The sources said the colleges were not found to be complying with the set norms and several lapses related to CCTV cameras, Aadhaar-linked biometric attendance procedures and faculty rolls were noticed during the inspections carried out by the UG board of the commission.
According to government data, the number of medical colleges in the country has increased significantly since 2014.
There has been a 69-per cent increase in the number of medical colleges, from 387 before 2014 to 654 as of now, Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar told the Rajya Sabha in February.
Further, there was a 94-per cent increase in the number of MBBS seats, from 51,348 before 2014 to 99,763 as of now, and a 107-per cent increase in the number of post-graduate seats, from 31,185 before 2014 to 64,559 as of now.
To boost the number of doctors in the country, the government has increased the number of medical colleges and subsequently, that of MBBS seats, Pawar had said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

UGC NET rolls out June 2023 Phase-I exams: Dates and details here
NTA declared UGC NET result 2023: Here’s how to download UGC NET scorecard
UGC NET 2023: NTA starts registration process, other details inside
UGC NET result for Dec 2022 cycle expected to be released this week
NET Result to be announced tomorrow on ugcnet.nta.nic.in, says UGC chief
DTE announces Assam PAT 2023 exam date, here’s how to apply for the exam
IELTS takers not required to score 6 band in individual sections for Canada
Kerala govt increases working days in state-run schools to 205 from 198
DU sanctions Rs 110 cr for expansion of central library: VC Singh
Faculties with PhD concentrated in top 100 institutions: Education Ministry
How students, teachers can maximise the use of generative AI tool ChatGPT

IELTS takers not required to score 6 band in individual sections for Canada
IELTS test takers applying through the Student Direct Stream category for Canadian study permits will not be required to achieve a minimum score of 6.0 bands in all individual sections of the test from August, according to IDP Education, the co-owner of IELTS.
The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has made the changes to the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) requirement which will be effective from August 10.
“In light of the recent changes made by the IRCC, we are delighted by the decision that IELTS Academic test takers applying through the SDS programme will now require only an overall 6 band score. There is no longer any requirement to achieve a minimum score of 6 bands in each section,” said Piyush Kumar, Regional Director, South Asia and Mauritius, IDP Education.
“This update represents a positive shift towards recognising the comprehensive abilities of test takers rather than focusing solely on individual band scores. We believe this change will provide greater opportunities for talented students worldwide to pursue their educational goals in Canada and also reflects authorities’ confidence in IELTS,” he said.
IELTS is one of the most popular English language proficiency tests for study, migration or work. Over three million people take the test every year and is accepted by more than 11,000 employers, universities, schools and immigration bodies around the world.
The Student Direct Stream (SDS) is an expedited study permit processing programme for those applying to study in Canada at a post-secondary designated learning institution.
The SDS programme has consistently served as a streamlined and expedited pathway for eligible students to study in Canada. It offers faster visa processing time and a smoother transition for students to Canadian educational institutions.
“Now test takers would find it even more attractive for the SDS programme. IELTS has the biggest network of test centres. It provides the option of paper-based tests in more than 150 venues across over 80 cities in India and computer-delivered tests in 46 centres, making it very convenient for the candidates. We also plan to introduce IELTS One Skill Retake (OSR) in India soon to ensure the candidates have the flexibility to retake any one section of the test,” Kumar said.
“We encourage students interested in pursuing their education in Canada to take advantage of the new English test requirements under the SDS programme. The removal of the minimum score requirement in all individual bands of the IELTS Academic test presents a more inclusive and holistic approach to evaluating students’ language proficiency, supporting a wider range of talented individuals in their pursuit of higher education,” he added.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Kerala govt increases working days in state-run schools to 205 from 198
The Kerala General Education Department on Wednesday said there would be a total of 205 working days in state-run schools in the ongoing academic year 2023-24.
The decision was taken during a meeting of various teachers’ associations convened by General Education Minister V Sivankutty here.
During the academic year 2022-23, state-run schools functioned for198 days.
The existing rules and court verdicts have suggested that there should be five working days in a week, and Saturdays have been made a working day in selected weeks to ensure this.
Though the government had earlier decided to increase the number of working days to 210 during the academic year, it was later revised and fixed at 205, based on the request of teachers’ associations, an official statement said.
There would be no change in the dates of summer holidays, it said.
In the statement, the education department also rejected the propaganda that all Saturdays would now be working days in state schools. Out of the total 52 Saturdays in the academic year, only 13 are designated as working days, it said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Jun 07 2023 | 6:55 PM IST

DU sanctions Rs 110 cr for expansion of central library: VC Singh
Delhi University vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh on Tuesday said the varsity has sanctioned a fund of Rs 110 crore for the expansion of its central library and construction work will commence soon.
Singh made the announcement at the launch of The Centenary E-Book Collection and Digital Archive.
The vice-chancellor said that libraries play a very important role in the life of universities. Now, a big change has come in the form of e-resources.
Today, students find it very comfortable to read e-books and supplement it with their reading of printed books; so we have to change our mindsets, he noted.
Asserting that the internet has brought a lot of changes in work practices in the last 20-30 years, Singh said, “India has emerged as the leading country in the world in UPI transactions.”
Things have to be changed in the system, similarly so that the library resources are accessible from anywhere.
When the concept of e-journals came, many educationists were not comfortable with it but now the mindset has changed, he said, adding that there is no difference between e-journals and printed journals.
The university has made financial provisions for e-resources and also sanctioned a fund of Rs 110 crore for the expansion and construction works of the library, the construction work of which will start soon, Singh added.
Rajesh Singh, Librarian, University of Delhi pointed out that the Delhi University Library System (DULS) is a distributed system of resources and services spread across both the campuses — north and south.
It has a collection of over 17 lakh documents consisting of books, print periodicals, monographs, theses and other resources, he said.
The librarian said the DULS has acquired subject collections from nine reputed publishers of the world this year and more than 83,000 e-books and digital archives have been added as centenary collections to strengthen the digital library services of the varsity.
The university has acquired subject collections and digital archives from publishers such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Bloomberg, SAGE Publishing, Taylor & Francis, Elsevier, Springer Nature and Wiley Online Books, he said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Faculties with PhD concentrated in top 100 institutions: Education Ministry
The faculty strength with doctoral qualification is concentrated in top 100 institutions while the remaining institutions have fewer faculty with doctoral degree, according to the Ministry of Education.
As per the ministry’s analysis for the eighth edition of National Institution of Ranking Framework (NIRF), the issue of less faculty members with doctoral degree is a serious “handicap” since mentorship received during the doctoral training can play a vital role in preparing the faculty for a teaching career in higher education.
According to the analysis, faculty with PhD in top 100 institutions vary from a minimum of 61.06 per cent in case of colleges to the maximum of 91.60 per cent in case of management institutions.
Whereas faculty with PhD in the remaining institutions vary from a minimum of 33.27 per cent in case of pharmacy institutions to the maximum of 64.29 per cent in case of universities. Moreover, average number of faculty in top 100 institutions vary from a minimum of 34 and 46 in case of pharmacy and management to the maximum of 685 and 645 in case of universities and overall categories, respectively, as opposed to a minimum of 15 and 25 in case of management and pharmacy to the maximum of 242 and 162 in case of universities and overall categories, respectively.
According to the ministry’s report said, “Engineering education has witnessed a phenomenal growth in India in past two decades with thousands of engineering institutions, in private sector as well as in government sector, coming-up in almost all parts of the country. As such, discipline of engineering is selected for analysis of faculty data to get a bigger picture of higher education institutions in India.”
“The discipline is also undergoing a major challenge in terms of quality and employability of its graduates,” it added.
However, only 44.51 per cent engineering faculty have doctoral qualifications while over 55 per cent faculty members have a master’s degree.
The eighth edition of NIRF was launched by Union Minister of Education for State Rajkumar Ranjan Singh on Monday.
The ranking framework evaluates institutions on five broad generic groups of parameters of teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practice, graduation outcomes, outreach and inclusivity and perception.
Ranks are assigned based on the total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters.
While from 2023, a new subject “Agriculture and Allied Sectors” has been introduced in NIRF, the “innovation” ranking previously executed by the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) has been integrated into NIRF with an aim to reduce the burden on institutions of providing similar data to two different agencies.
With the addition of the new category (innovation) subject domain (agriculture and allied sectors) and expansion of “Architecture” to “Architecture and Planning”, the existing portfolio of India Rankings has increased to 13 categories and subject domains.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Airtel Business partners with Centre for India’s edtech platform DIKSHA
DIC is under the aegis of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India.
The DIKSHA application and website will now be powered by Airtel Cloud and will be available to students across the country for free educational content in their preferred Indian language. Students, particularly those in far-flung and remote locations, would be able to simply enlist on the platform.
DIKSHA offers 9,300 courses in 35 Indian languages and has witnessed 50 billion learning sessions and 60+ billion minutes of usage by students, making it one of the largest free education platforms in the world, said Praveen Agarwal, head of government business for Airtel Business.
Airtel Cloud is a part of Airtel’s B2B arm, Airtel Business, and is India’s leading and most trusted provider of ICT services, with a diverse portfolio of offerings to enterprises, governments, carriers, and small and medium businesses. Airtel Cloud leverages private, public, and edge clouds to offer enterprises a one-stop destination for a hybrid cloud strategy.
Launched in 2017 by the Ministry of Education, DIKSHA aims to provide quality e-content in the form of e-textbooks and audiobooks for free to all teachers and learners across the country. The platform offers over 570 billion minutes of learning, and over 7,200 of its courses have witnessed an enrolment and course completion rate of 82 per cent.

IIT-Madras retains top position; check full list of top colleges
National Board of Accreditation (NBA) member secretary Anil Kumar Nassa said that the NIRF was started with four categories, but now with the eighth edition, there are 12 categories, including eight subject-specific rankings.
The agriculture and allied sectors made their debut on the ranking this year, while the architecture discipline was renamed as ‘Architecture and Planning’.
NIRF ranking 2023: Overall category
2. Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
4. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay
6. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi
8. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee
10. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi
1. Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
3, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
5. Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
7. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore
9. Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh
NIRF ranking 2023: Colleges
2. Hindu College, Delhi
4. PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, Coimbatore
6. Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, Delhi
8. Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centenary College, Kolkata
10. Lady Shri Ram College For Women, Delhi
1. Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
3. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
5. Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
7. Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
9. Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
NIRF ranking 2023: Engineering colleges
2. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
4. Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
6. Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
8. Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad
10. Jadavpur University, Kolkata
1.Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
3. Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode
5 Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
7. National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai
9. XLRI-Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur
NIRF ranking 2023: Pharmacy colleges
2. Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi
3. Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani
4. JSS College of Pharmacy, Ooty
6. National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Mohali
8. Panjab University, Chandigarh
10. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore
1. All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi
3. Christian Medical College, Vellore
4. National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences, Bangalore
5. Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research, Puducherry
7. Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow
9. Kasturba Medical College, Manipal
NIRF ranking 2023: Dental colleges
2. Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal
4. Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, Delhi
6. SRM Dental College, Chennai
8. Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore
10. Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
1. National Law School of India University, Bengaluru
3. Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad
5. Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
7. Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar
9. Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
NIRF ranking 2023: Architecture and planning
2. National Institute of Technology Calicut
4. National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli
6. Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
8. National Institute of Technology Rourkela
10. Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur
1. Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi
3. Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
5. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore
7. Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Fisheries University, Mumbai
9. Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science & Technology of Kashmir, Srinagar
NIRF ranking 2023: Innovation
2. Indian Institute of Technology Madras
4. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
6. Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
8. Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design & Manufacturing, Kancheepuram
10. Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) Varanasi