Chords of contention
Last updated February 5
Anjali K & Anusha S
Chennai: No substantial step has been taken despite ongoing debates on the amendment of Intellectual Property Right on film music and literary work. Even after Chief Minister, M.K. Karunanidhi’s promises of full support to the artistes, lack of awareness on the repercussions of the un-copyrighted intellectual works has lead to many unresolved litigations. V Rengasamy, Deputy Controller of patents and designs, said “Cases of copyright violations will always be there. Once an intellectual work is created it automatically becomes copyrighted. But given the lack of regional offices many artistes do not get protected under the act.”
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Passage to England
Ashish Kumar
Last Updated on Feb 5
Chennai: Studying abroad is a dream nurtured by many in India. United Kingdom has traditionally been one of the hot-spots for foreign education. According to the article published in The Hindu, currently there are more than 44000 Indian students in Britain and the numbers are rising every year. Only China has more students than India, in UK. British universities have realised the significance of the Indian market and y organise education fairs regularly in all major Indian cities.
One such fair held in Chennai on February 4 had representatives of all major British universities present to talk to potential students. In all, 58 universities had set up their stalls. Immigration consultants like Chopras and GEEBEE education, authorised representatives of these universities were also present.
The fair was attended by all sorts, from the fresh-out-of-school to people with six-seven years of work experience. The fair provided a platform for students and their families to know about the requirements and formalities for studying in UK.
Courses being offered ranged from floristry to fashion. But the most popular ones were the all time Indian favorites: computer engineering, business and finance, particularly MBA. A major attraction for the masters degree in the UK was that most of them were one year degrees instead of the two years in most countries. MBA in UK is different from India as in all universities a minimum of three years of managerial work experience is required.
Dustin Rhodes (name changed) representative of a leading business school said “the problem with Indian degrees are that in the bachelors level generally there are no specialisation as the focus is on basic understanding of a broad range of subjects. Therefore, at times it becomes difficult for them in our masters programme.” Media and journalism courses in universities like Cardiff and Leeds also had many takers.
In the coming week, many universities would be offering spot admissions to students performing well in the interview and having good academic record or work profile. Josephine Nithya has a Bachelors in biomedicine from the Pondicherry University and wants to do masters in same discipline. “I have zeroed in on Durham University; they liked my performance in graduation and have called me for an interview tomorrow.”
Tier 1 scheme is also a major attraction for Indian students as after completion of education it allows students to stay in UK for two years and look for employment without having to apply for a work permit.
India has become a major player in the international market. All major players want their share of the pie. Most western countries like the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand are trying hard to woo Indian students and this education fair was a prime example of this trend.
Bridging the gender gap
Last updated on Feb 5:
Armstrong Chanambam
Chennai: “Women should cooperate rather than confront men,” said R.Bhagya Devi Regional Director of the Staff Selection Commission (Southern Region) while giving the valedictory address at the national level seminar organised by the Post Graduate and Research Department of Economics, Queen Mary’s College. In a world equally divided gender wise, the status shared by the fairer sex in society is a secondary one.
The seminar with the focus on ‘Economic Contribution of Women’ with a multi dimensional approach as its theme was sponsored by the Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education. MP Kanimozhi giving the inaugural address, said there was a need to conduct a serious study on the economic contribution of women in this country as data was non-existent. She further added, “Though there are 10 percent seats earmarked for women in Parliament, only 7 percent of the quota remains filled.” Kanimozhi was of the opinion that it was only when women had greater representation in politics that women could make bigger contributions in other areas.
Research Scholars, students, Professors and people working in women empowerment related areas presented 30 papers during the seminar. Dr S. Anand, an associate professor from Guru Nanak College, mentioned the case of Sweden which had been able to bridge the gender gap the most among a selected group of 58 countries. “Sweden, he said, “practiced ‘family friendly’ and ‘female friendly’ policies and has lessened the ‘feminization of poverty’.” He also mentioned how India performed badly in all the indicators in the study conducted by the World Economic Forum.
.“One must realize that the fight for equal rights is not women empowerment at all. Its ultimate goal is to be a part of the decision making process,” said R.Bhagya Devi, who reiterated that if women were to be really empowered then it could be achieved only by educating them. |
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