The Hindu : New Delhi News : Focus on visually impaired students

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 20, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Focus on visually impaired students

They may continue to be the `unseen' and `unheard' part of the society even today, but this coming week will see educationists and teachers from around the world come together to raise issues concerning visually impaired students from a common platform.

An attempt to examine the changing role of special schools and institutes attempting to integrate the education of visually impaired children with normal children and the visually impaired with additional disabilities like deafness and retardation, the West Asian regional Conference on "Inclusion -- the Right Approach'' from January 23 to 25 will discuss the possibility of community based rehabilitation, teacher preparation, low vision, and the sustainability of programmes to fund-raising and resource mobilisation.

Being organised by the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment in collaboration with the Blind People's Association of Ahmedabad, over 350 University teachers from across Asia including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal will be interacting with experts working in the field from the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Vietnam.

Aimed at promoting exchange and creating awareness about providing "Education to All'', through the conference, the organisers hope to give the participants not just a close account of the various challenges faced by the visually impaired but also the advances made and initiatives being used to bridge the gap around the world.

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It is time for one of Delhi University's most popular colleges to go down memory lane once again and honour its brilliant students. The list of Hindu College's achievers may be a long one, but this year has been a special one, or so feels the prestigious institute.

With four of its ex-students -- Akash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir, Murali Kartik and Rahul Sanghvi --playing for the Indian cricket team this year, the college is more than feeling upbeat. A "record'' is how the college is describing it as it is the first time that four cricketers from the same college have represented the country in test matches in a single year.

Not surprising then, that all four upcoming cricketers are part of the College's "Young Achievers'' Award list given annually by the Old Students' Association to distinguished alumni members. Some of the other Hindu family members who will be honoured at a function to be held on January 22 will be Maharashtra Director General of police, Kamal Kashyap, senior advocate Dinesh Mathur, Berger Paints Chairman, Kuldeep Dhingra, journalist Mahesh Rangarajan, Lakme Managing Director Anil Chopra, poet Bal Swarup Rahi, cricketer Man Mohan Sood and retired IPS Officer Arun Bhagat.

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This is a contest calling on engineering students to test their skills for winning an all-expense paid one-month internship at Agilent's best-in-class facilities in the US or the UK. A leading company offering test and measurement (T&M) solutions to the communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis market, Agilent Technologies has announced the All India Best B.Tech Project Award 2005 for engineering students in the country.

Open to B.Tech and dual degree (B.Tech.+ M.Tech.) students doing their projects in the electronics and telecommunications area, the contest will evaluate the projects done by students as part of their mandatory curriculum, to identify the winners. Participation is, as of now, through invitation with this year the participants being the IITs, BITS Pilani, and Delhi College of Engineering among others.

The contest would involve two rounds of short-listing, with the first being at the institute level and the second by an independent jury of eminent scientists, engineers and technocrats of national and international repute. The last date for registering for the contest is February 15, 2005, and for submitting short-listed entries by institutes is May 20, 2005.

Lakshmi B.Ghosh

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