Gusi Peace Prize awardee

Bhubaneswar-based educationist and social entrepreneur Dr. Achyuta Samanta is among 15 laureates selected for the prestigious Gusi Peace Prize 2014. The list was announced recently by Gusi Peace Prize International, the Philippines-based awarding foundation. He was selected for the award for his efforts and achievements in “poverty alleviation through education and humanitarianism”, said the announcement. Dr. Samanta is only the third Indian and first citizen from the eastern seaboard state of Odisha to receive this award since its inception (2002). The Gusi Peace Prize (aka Asia’s Nobel Peace Prize) is awarded after detailed assessment of nominees by an international jury with members from the US, Europe, Australia and Asia with the list of awardees also requiring approval of the Philippines senate.   Also conferred the EducationWorld Lifetime Achievement 2013 Award in Education Leadership and inducted into the EW Education Hall of Fame, Dr. Samanta is the promoter-director of the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (estb. 1993), a free-of-charge K-PG school-cum-college with an enrolment of 22,500 children of marginalised indigenous tribes of Odisha. He is also founder of KIIT University, Bhubaneswar. Bluemix training platform The Coimbatore-based Sona College of Technology (SCT, estb. 1997) which has been associated with the US-based IT multinational IBM since 2009, launched IBM’s Bluemix training platform for students in the presence of Robyn Selge, director of ecosystems development (IBM Asia Pacific) and Lawrence Mohanraj, deputy general manager, IBM, India on November 15. Sona College of Technology was recently conferred the AICTE-CII Award for Best Industry-Institute Interaction in Information Technology/Computer Science in India, 2013.  “There will be a huge requirement for qualified developers with expertise in Bluemix platforms for building, managing and running applications of all types, such as web, mobile, big data, and smart devices. This platform provides extensive support for  scalability and security,” said Selge, speaking on the occasion. Added Chocko Valliappa, vice chairman of SCT: “IBM’s Bluemix platform has given opportunities to the young minds of SCT to transform innovative ideas into products and become successful entrepreneurs. With exposure to IBM Bluemix, we expect our students to develop innovative apps for the benefit of society and emerge as winners of the IBM Great Mind Challenge Contest.” EduSports health & fitness survey School-going children in India, regardless of age or gender, are heading towards an unhealthy future with lagging health and fitness levels. This is the conclusion of the 5th Annual School Health and Fitness Survey 2014 of the Bangalore-based S.V. EduSports Pvt. Ltd. One of India’s largest sports education companies, EduSports (estb. 2009) has contracted with 400 schools countrywide to deliver sports education services to 300,000 children in 80 cities/towns countrywide. According to the survey which covered 115,559 children in the 7-17 years age group enrolled in 287 schools in 85 cities across the country, children of all ages show alarmingly poor fitness levels. The survey was built into the co-scholastic curriculum of schools during the academic year 2013-2014 and assessed key health and physical fitness parameters such as anaerobic capacity, flexibility, lower and upper body…