Education Notes

Rajasthan Challenged citizens’ PIL order   The Rajasthan high court has issued notice to the state government to provide enabling facilities to the visually impaired in public institutions. A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Arun Kumar Mishra and Justice N. K. Jain (Sr), issued notice to the state government on May 8 while admitting a public interest litigation filed by Sharat Tripathi.   Citing Census 2011, the petitioner claimed there are 753,952 visually impaired citizens in Rajasthan, to whom the state government has failed to provide basic education, computer literacy in government institutions and Braille books in public libraries. The petition averred that even the state government-funded Rajasthan Knowledge Corporation Ltd, which offers IT and computer training programmes to the general public, has failed and neglected to provide special learning facilities for visually challenged citizens.   Responding, the court issued notice to the government and its interim order.    Madhya Pradesh   AIIMS-Bhopal ready to roll   Modelled after the famous AIIMS, Delhi, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhopal is set to become functional within three months, providing state-of-the-art medical education and facilities to the people of Madhya Pradesh.   “We are striving hard to meet the July-August deadline for inaugurating this prestigious institute with our first batch of 50 students,” says AIIMS-Bhopal director Prof. Sandeep Kumar. Recruitment of 40 faculty members is in its last stage. Construction of staff quarters is already complete while the medical college building on the 154-acre campus is 70 percent complete.   Initially, five departments — anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, community and family medicine, and emergency medicine and trauma — will become operational in AIIMS-Bhopal, and a new 1,000-bed attached hospital will begin functioning within three years.   The entrance exam for admission into the MBBS degree programme will be held conterminously with that of AIIMS, Delhi and six other institutes on June 1.   Uttar Pradesh   AMU’s tripartite programme   Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has entered into a trilateral collaboration project with Ohio State University, USA and Bristol University, UK, for student exchange and faculty training programmes in the fields of stem cell research and physics. The agreement was signed at a meeting of representatives of the three universities in Aligarh on May 15.   The project will focus on cancer research, X-ray nano and wireless technologies and will include an exchange programme under which six scientists from Bristol and Ohio will conduct specially designed courses and guide research at AMU.   Prof. Wasi Haider, chairman department of physics, says the programme is likely to continue beyond its two-year time frame with institutional support and grants to researchers with the Ohio Super Computer Centre providing state-of-the-art facilities. The tripartite programme will be funded entirely by agencies in the US, UK and the department of science and technology, India, he added.   Bihar   Child rights commitment   Addressing a seminar on ‘Right of Children and Law’ in Patna on May 5, Bihar’s education minister P.K. Sahi…