Category Archives: Education

First Indian Elected to Board of Governors of the CFA Institute . October 2013 .

Sunil B. Singhania has been elected to serve on the Board of Governors of CFA Institute for a term of 3 years making him the first from India.

Singhania is among the 18-member Board of Governors that represent 11 countries – Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey, UAE, UK and the USA.

Sunil Singhania serves as the Chief Investment Officer (Equity Investments) of Reliance Capital Asset Management.

He graduated in Commerce from Bombay University. Then completed his Chartered Accountancy ICAI for Delhi. Subsequently his CFA. Additionally he completed a course for Derivatives conducted by the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Amongst other accompolishments, he also sat on the ‘Standards & Practice Council’ of the CFA Institute,USA for 6 years. Being the first and the only thus far based in India.

Sunil was the Founder of the Indian Association of Investment Professionals, the CFA India Society and was its President for a continuous period of 6 years.

CFA Institute : Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute is the global association of Investment Professionals. The Board of Governors is the Senior most body of CFA Institute, with ultimate responsibility for its strategy and management.

First ever Online Elections by IIM-A to Elect Campus Student Body. July 2013 .

In a first for Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad ( IIM-A), a Premier Business School of India, conducted its first-ever online elections on July 31st, 2013 to elect Representatives for its first-year Student Body Polls.

The Poll was conducted by IIM-A’s elected student body, The Students’ Affairs Council (SAC). The elections involved first-year students voting to select candidates for various portfolios like Cultural representative, Batch representative and Sports representative.

The system was developed by the Computer Centre Committee (CCC) of IIM-A. This online platform was an unprecedented success with voter turnout of nearly 95% for first year elections.

” A unique feature of this system was that, using a secure online link, voters may cross verify whether their vote had been cast for the right candidate, after the voting process” said IIM-A Secretary for IT Infrastructure, Anil Vishwanadhula.

Until the previous election, IIM-A elections were conducted using the traditional pen-and-paper ballet method.

India’s First ‘ Confucius Institute ‘ . July 2013 .

India’s first ‘Confucius Institute’ was inaugrated at the Kalinga campus in Santa Cruz, Mumbai by Mumbai University and Tianjin University of Technology (TUT), People’s Republic of China (PRC) on Thursday – July 18th, 2013.

The Confucius Institute (CI) will initiate a Chinese language course, promote art and culture in India . It will also start a student and faculty exchange programme between the two nations.

A symbolic plaque was unveiled by Rajesh Tope, Minister for Higher & Technical Education. Also present at the occasion were Padamalkar Valvi – Minister of Sports & Youth Welfare, Meng Qingong – Chairman of TUT Board and Liu Youfa, Consul-General of People’s Republic of China (PRC)in Mumbai.

The Confucius Institute, once set-up will be headed by 2 officials, one from Mumbai University and the other from TUT or Hanban. Once Indian teachers learn Chinese, they will then go to China and teach Hindi and English language to the Chinese students and teachers.

Confucius Institutes (CI) headquarters are located in Beijing. They are non-profit public institutions aligned with the Government of the People’s Republic of China that aim to promote language and culture, support local Chinese teaching internationally and facilitate cultural exchanges. The CI programme is overseen by the Office of the Chinese Language International (Hanban).

First Ever Indian Woman Entrepreneur to receive Dubai Government’s ‘ Emirates Women Award ‘ for Business Excellence . May 2013 .

Vandana Kumar Gandhi became the first ever Indian woman entrepreneur to receive the Dubai Government’s coveted and prestigious ‘Emirates Women Award 2013 ‘ (EWA) for ‘Business Excellence ‘.

The award was presented at a glittering gala ceremony held on May 26th, 2013 at The Palace Hotel in Downtown Dubai. Gracing the occasion was Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports, Chairman & Chief Executive of the Emirates Airline and Group and honorary Patron of Dubai Quality Group (DQG).

The ‘Emirates Women Award’ is an initiative of Dubai Quality Group (DQG) to encourage women, both UAE nationals and residents to be actively involved in social and economic development initiatives in the country.

The India born entrepreneur Vandana Gandhi was the “Overall Winner in the Business Category” for excelling and providing innovation in preschool education . The award selection was made from among several hundred entries by a jury based on various criteria like leadership, strategy, community services and innovation.

Vandana Gandhi is the  Founder & CEO of British Orchard Nursery – the Middle East’s only ISO-certified Nursery chain, with 10 branches across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and including Government franchises. She conceived and introduced ‘GymJuniorz’ – a first of its kind children’s gym & fitness center into the curriculum.

Vandana Gandhi is a versatile personality with varied interests in calligraphy, yoga, scriptural studies, squash, table tennis etc. A Masters in Education with distinction, she is pursuing a Doctor of Education from the University of Birmingham, UK. After initial schooling in Dubai, she completed her Bachelors from Mithibai College, Mumbai and followed up with her Post Graduate Diploma in International Business Adminstration from NMIMS University, Mumbai.

India’s first Technical University for Women . June 2013 .

The country’s first Tech University ‘The Indira Gandhi Delhi Technological University (IGDTU) exclusively for women was inaugrated by the Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, at Kashmere Gate based campus in North Delhi on Thursday, June 13th, 2013.

The Chief Minister released the admission brochure and the Delhi Education Minister A.K. Walia launched its website .

The IGDTU, a state university has now been upgraded from the existing Indira Gandhi Insititute of Technology which was set up as the very first Engineering College for Women in 1998 by the Directorate of Training and Technical Education, Government of N.C.T. Delhi.

The Indira Gandhi Delhi Technological University (IGDTU) is a non-affiliated, teaching and research University catering to women desiring higher education in technology & research , presently administered by the Vice Chancellor Nupur Prakash. The University offers 4 B.Tech courses and 5 M.Tech programmes.

India’s first Yoga University . May 2013 .

The country’s first private sector, self financed yoga university ‘Lakulish Yoga University’ was inaugrated on May 23rd, 2013 (Thursday) in Ahmedabad, by Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

The University has been set up by the Surendranagar based Life Mission Trust which already runs several yoga training centres across the state and overseas. The newly appointed Vice Chancellor is Bansidhar Upadhyay. The Varsity founder Swami Rjarshi Muni said “..there would not be just one medium of teaching in the insititution”.

The University will award degrees for the 3-year courses. Students of the 3-year degree course will be taught Ashtang yoga, Karma, Knowledge, Bhakti yoga, Philosophy, Psychology, Anatomy, Ayurveda and Naturopahy.

The Gujarat government had earlier enacted a law for the creation of Yoga University in the State.

The Varsity is established in a lotus-shaped building on the Sarkhej – Gandhinagar highway on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

India’s first ‘ Atlas of Thyroid Surgery ‘ published. May 2013 .

3 specialist ENT Surgeons, Dr.Madan Kapre, Dr.Devendra Mahore and anatomist Dr. Ashutosh Mangalagiri from Bhopal got together to provide a hand-on repository on thyroid surgery.

India’s first ‘Atlas of Thyroid Surgery’ was launched on May 11th in Nagpur by Dr.Ved Prakash, proChancellor and Chief Advisor at Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, Sawangi. It is a model guide on thyroid surgery for the post graduate medical students and thyroid surgeons.

It is the first time an ‘Atlas’ was put together keeping in mind the Indian context. This has been done previously in USA, Italy and Brazil. The uniquely Indian ‘Atlas of Thyroid Surgery’ was created as a byproduct of camps and workshops in the tribal villages of Central India ,with focus on Chikhaldara in Melghat. This scientific work was carried out with the support of the Rotary club of Nagpur South.

The foreword of the Atlas is written by Dr. Ashok Saha, a world renown authority on thyroid cancer, based in New York.