News Analysis India

Tag: IIT Madras

  • UP govt signs contract with IIT-Madras for online classes for students of 100 schools

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: While the Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Council made it mandatory to promote all students from Class 1-8 of Council schools to the next class without examinations through a notification, the UP Basic Education department has also signed a contract with IIT-Madras under project ‘Vidya Shakti’ to teach the students of government smart schools of Varanasi online.

    The IIT Madras teachers would commence teaching the students of 100 government smart schools in Varanasi online initially as a pilot project. They will teach mathematics, science and English to the students. The project would provide jobs to around 100 people, said an official source.

    According to official sources, the tie-up is part of the Yogi Adityanath government’s efforts to bring UP government schools on par with the convent schools running in the state. The state government initiated its efforts by sprucing up the infrastructure of government schools under Project Kayakalp and now all the facilities are being arranged to match the standards of smart schools. “Now we have been able to arrange smart classes in the majority of schools,” said basic education officer Arvind Pathak.

    ALSO READ | UP govt to ensure online disbursal of incentives to investors with zero human intervention

    Pathak said that the contract with IIT-Madras would facilitate online classes by the IIT faculty for students of class 6-8 studying in Varanasi government schools. He said that the classes would run after the regular school timings. Pathak said that of the 100 schools selected in Varanasi to run the pilot project, 70 had the smart classes. “Rest 30 schools will soon be elevate to the standard of smart schools with the help of IIT-Madras which will appoint a local coordinator in each school covered under Project Vidya Shakti for technical support. This is how, at least, 100 people will get jobs and the expenses will be borne by IIT-Madras,” said Pathak.

    Meanwhile, the notification issued to promote the students of UP Basic Education Council Schools is an annual affair as there is the provision of promoting children of Class 1-8 to the next class under the Right to Education Act. They cannot be failed under any circumstances.

    LUCKNOW: While the Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Council made it mandatory to promote all students from Class 1-8 of Council schools to the next class without examinations through a notification, the UP Basic Education department has also signed a contract with IIT-Madras under project ‘Vidya Shakti’ to teach the students of government smart schools of Varanasi online.

    The IIT Madras teachers would commence teaching the students of 100 government smart schools in Varanasi online initially as a pilot project. They will teach mathematics, science and English to the students. The project would provide jobs to around 100 people, said an official source.

    According to official sources, the tie-up is part of the Yogi Adityanath government’s efforts to bring UP government schools on par with the convent schools running in the state. The state government initiated its efforts by sprucing up the infrastructure of government schools under Project Kayakalp and now all the facilities are being arranged to match the standards of smart schools. “Now we have been able to arrange smart classes in the majority of schools,” said basic education officer Arvind Pathak.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    ALSO READ | UP govt to ensure online disbursal of incentives to investors with zero human intervention

    Pathak said that the contract with IIT-Madras would facilitate online classes by the IIT faculty for students of class 6-8 studying in Varanasi government schools. He said that the classes would run after the regular school timings. Pathak said that of the 100 schools selected in Varanasi to run the pilot project, 70 had the smart classes. “Rest 30 schools will soon be elevate to the standard of smart schools with the help of IIT-Madras which will appoint a local coordinator in each school covered under Project Vidya Shakti for technical support. This is how, at least, 100 people will get jobs and the expenses will be borne by IIT-Madras,” said Pathak.

    Meanwhile, the notification issued to promote the students of UP Basic Education Council Schools is an annual affair as there is the provision of promoting children of Class 1-8 to the next class under the Right to Education Act. They cannot be failed under any circumstances.

  • Ashwini Vaishnaw makes first 5G call from trial network at IIT Madras

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday made the first 5G call on a trial network set up at IIT Madras using indigenously-developed telecom gears.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated the country’s first 5G test-bed, incubated at IIT Madras, to enable startups and industry players to test and validate their products locally and reduce dependence on foreign facilities.

    “Aatmanirbhar 5G. Successfully tested 5G call at IIT Madras. Entire end-to-end network is designed and developed in India,” Vaishnaw said in a social media post.

    The telecom minister, after making a video call on indigenously developed 5G technology gears, said that it is the realisation of the prime minister’s vision.

    “His (PM’s) vision is to have our own 4G, 5G technology stack, developed in India, made in India and made for the world. We have to win the world with this entire technology stack,” Vaishnaw said after making the call.

    The government expects commercial roll-out of 5G services to start in the country by August-September this year.

    At present, telecom companies have been allowed to only conduct trial of 5G services.

    The 5G test-bed has been developed as a multi-institute collaborative project by eight institutes led by IIT Madras.

    In the absence of a 5G test-bed, startups and other industry players were required to go abroad to test and validate their products for installation in a 5G network.

    The other institutes that participated in the project are IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IISc Bangalore, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER) and Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT).

    The test-bed facility will be available at five locations.

  • LTI, IIT Madras collaborate to innovate in 5G space

    By Express News Service

    CHENNAI: Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI) has partnered with IIT-Madras for collaborative research in 5G.

    Through this collaboration, LTI, a global technology consulting and digital solutions and IIT Madras aim to innovate in the emerging 5G space and enable 5G frameworks validation, use case testing with 5G testbed and design low-cost low-frequency 5G network for rural connectivity, said the statement issued by IIT Madras.

    Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras, said, “IITM’s 5G testbed project is an effort to encourage Indian startups and the industry to take an early lead in 5G. The goal is to build a testbed that closely resembles a real-world 5G deployment.”

    LTI will also work with IIT Madras to build and validate use cases leveraging the 5G testbed for application in multiple domains like Smart manufacturing, Industry 4.0, Smart Cities and Media.

    “LTI’s partnership with IIT Madras reflects our commitment to leverage this technology to connect people from remote parts of India in a better way,” said Nachiket Deshpande, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Board Member, LTI.

  • Covid-19: India’s R value drops to 2.2 between January 7 and 13, shows IIT Madras analysis

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: India’s ‘R-value’, which indicates how rapidly COVID-19 is spreading, was recorded at 2.2 between January 7 and 13, a drop from the previous two weeks, according to a preliminary analysis by IIT Madras.

    The R value of Mumbai was 1.3, Delhi 2.5, Chennai 2.4 and Kolkata 1.6, according to the analysis by IIT Madras’ Department of Mathematics and Centre of Excellence for Computational Mathematics and Data Science headed by Prof Neelesh S Upadhye and Prof S Sundar.

    It was close to 2.9 nationally from December 25 to December 31 while it was 4 between January 1 and 6. The R value marks the number of people an infected person can spread the disease to. A pandemic is considered to end if this value goes below 1.

    Dr Jayant Jha, an assistant professor in the department of mathematics at IIT Madras, said the R value depends on transmissibility probability, contact rate and expected time interval in which infection can happen.

    India added 2,71,202 new coronavirus infections to the Covid case tally that reached 3,71,22,164 on Sunday, including 7,743 cases of the Omicron variant.

    The country saw 1,702 new cases of Omicron variant, the highest in a day so far, and an increase of 28.17 per cent since Saturday.

    Experts said it is not possible to undertake genome sequencing of each and every sample, but stressed that this wave is largely being driven by Omicron.

  • ‘Pose major threat to farming community’: Over 400 academicians flag concern regarding agri laws

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Over 400 academicians from India and several universities abroad have extended support to the protesting farmers and urged the Centre to repeal the three new agri reform laws, which they said, “pose a major threat to farming communities”.

    Expressing concerns about the ongoing farmers’ agitation and their suffering at the borders of Delhi, they, in a joint statement, said: “The three new laws that have been enacted by the government are aimed at bringing in fundamental changes in the way farming will be done in the country and they pose a major threat to farming communities all over India.”

    The government must re-look at these issues and a nationwide debate should be launched starting at the village level, involving stakeholders from all sections of society before framing laws and policies which will help farming communities and other marginalised communities in the long-term, the statement said.

    Last month, over 850 academicians from various educational institutions across the country had signed an open letter backing the legislations.

    The 400-odd academicians in their statement said, “The three new laws that have been enacted by the government are aimed at bringing in fundamental changes in the way farming will be done in the country and they pose a major threat to farming communities all over India.”

    “The government must re-look at these issues. A nationwide debate should be launched starting at the village level, involving stakeholders from all sections of society before framing laws and policies which will help farming communities and other marginalised communities in the long-term. To pave the way for solving farmers issues, the current laws should be abandoned without any further delay,” it added.

    The 413 signatories to the statement include academicians from universities and institutions including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jadavpur University, IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IISc Bangalore, Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata, Delhi University, Panjab University, Tezpur University, Central university of Punjab, IIT Bombay and IIM Calcutta.

    A few signatories are from foreign universities including University of Zagreb, Croatia; London Film School, University of Johannesburg, University of Oslo, University of Massachusetts and University of Pittsburgh.

    The academicians recommended that farming could be made into a sustainable and profitable activity by announcing minimum support price (MSP) for a large number of crops, specifying state-wise quotas for government procurement, and making the MSP rate legally binding for all other buyers as well.

    The statement also called for price control on farm inputs such as manure, seeds and power, farm loan waivers, and a revival of the village-based development model so that migration to cities could be curtailed.

    It warned that the Centre’s proposed “commodity market model” was not viable in India as it could lead to food instability and exploitation of small farmers.

    “The winding up of government controlled markets allowing contract farming by companies will lead to land-owning farmers slowly being forced to become tenants, the way they were in the older feudal system of land holdings,” said the statement.

    Thousands of farmers have been camping at several Delhi border points, demanding a complete repeal of the three farm laws — the Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act — and legal guarantee of minimum support price for their crops.

    Enacted in September 2020, the government has presented these laws as major farm reforms aimed at increasing farmers’ income, but the protesting farmers have raised concerns that these legislations would weaken the minimum support price (MSP) and “mandi” (wholesale market) systems and leave them at the mercy of big corporations.

    The government has maintained that these apprehensions are misplaced and has ruled out a repeal of the laws.

    (With PTI Inputs)