Arora is putting to use the Video on Demand (VOD) facility that is now available at IIT-B.

Introduced by the Centre of Distance Engineering Education Programme (CDEEP), a VOD is a recording of a classroom lecture, uploaded within 24 hours, which can be viewed on the institute's in tranet.

Started as a pilot project early this year with three VOD courses, followed by another project to check its effectiveness, CDEEP has now been extended to 37 courses and can benefit 1,500 oncampus students of BTech, MTech and PhD.

"I missed lectures when I was ill. Accessing lec tures on the in tranet allows me to take my own notes and recap concepts," said Arora. "Ideally, the entire class should participate in a discussion. But while some stu dents can't make it to class due to other commitments, others are sleepy VOD helps students catch . up with any lecture," said Kan nan Moudgalya, CDEEP head.

The proposed system would reduce the registration and examination processes in few days unlike prevailing practice that takes over four to five months.

The civil aviation ministry has already initiated the process of setting up computerised examination centres in the capital for the prospective aviators. It expects to conduct first online test by the year end.

"To begin with, we are planning to conduct online examination for the candidates in Delhi. The proposed system will allow candidates book a slot for the exam online. Thereafter, they would be given time and place for the exam. Soon after the test, the candidate would get the result," an official in the civil aviation ministry said.

"Every year, nearly 60,000 students, half of them from Delhi, sit for commercial pilot test. We plan to put in place same system for private pilot licence (PPL) as well in the second phase," he added.

The test papers for all would be multiple-choice. The similar test arrangement would be later made for other tests as well such as aircraft engineers and flight engineers.

Time from the day of examination to the declaration of result takes more than a month, thereby taking the total time to two-andhalf months. Moreover, the test for commercial pilot is currently held once in three months.

The proposed examination pattern and system would complete the whole process in a matter of few days.

According to IGNOU Vice-Chancellor Prof. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, fresh graduates with 50 per cent marks for general category and 45 per cent marks for reserved category are eligible for OPENMAT entrance test of IGNOU.

The essential clause of three years experience in supervisory and managerial category for graduates has been removed. Graduates who have cleared the entrance test for admission to management programmes conducted by institutions like CAT, MAT and State-level tests need not sit for OPENMAT.

The development is significant as several thousand seats for B.Ed course are currently lying vacant in the two states.

Pronouncing the orders in an open court on a bunch of petitions, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Jasbir Singh allowed the pleas "but only in part and to the extent" that "the colleges, duly recognised by the NCTE and affiliated to the universities in the states of Punjab and Haryana and those who have been included in the list of colleges eligible for admitting students by the university holding the CET, shall be free to fill up the seats that are lying vacant by admitting suitable candidates eligible for such admissions to the B.Ed courses."

The Bench ruled the "admissions against the excess seats shall be made only on the basis of merit of the candidates in the qualifying examination. In the event of seats being less than the number of candidates seeking admission to any college, the college shall grant admission strictly in accordance with the inter-se merit of the candidates.

The largest players in the aviation training business--Air Hostess Academy and Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training--are negotiating with international carriers after big Indian airlines like Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways stopped recruitment.

Delhi-based Air Hostess Academy founder and director Sapna Gupta told ET, "We are going global and will start offices in London and Dubai next year. No doubt there is a job crunch in the Indian market, but recruitments are swelling with international carriers as there is demand for skilled manpower overseas. We are diverting Indian talent to other countries and when aviation industry pick up, our student can shift back here."

There was an annual intake of 30,000 candidates in the Indian aviation industry in the high-paying cabin crew category and the labour-intensive ground support services till last year, when the aviation industry was booming. Around 40,000 cabin crew alone were expected to be absorbed in the next three to four years.

Reductions on that scale would be equivalent to 20 per cent of the global workforce at financial companies before the credit crisis began, said Sullivan, whose firm has worked with Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Banks, brokerages and funds have eliminated about 1,70,000 positions worldwide.

"It's unprecedented," said Sullivan. "You're seeing a seismic shift in the population of banking." Banks are racing to cut jobs from New York to Sydney as frozen credit markets cause revenues to tumble and the financial industry tries to digest al- most $1 trillion of writedowns and losses. The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression will reshape the investment banking industry, Sullivan said.

CTPartners is shifting headhunters from banking to industries such as pharmaceuticals and clean energy as demand for finance professionals dries up. The company is the world's sixth largest executive search firm.

Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have converted themselves into bank holding companies regulated by the Federal Reserve. As such, their ability to take risks will be curbed, lowering profitability, Sullivan said.

Stripped of their ability to use balance sheets for making big trading bets, investment banks will revert to their traditional role of advising on acquisitions, providing research and underwriting stock and bond sales, said Sullivan.

That may spell bad news for the mathematical engineers -- so-called quants -- who concoct exotic derivatives products or devise computer-driven trading strategies. They were among the most sought-after professionals before the credit freeze.

"I don't have a choice. I have to secure a seat. I will also apply to other preferred schools and if we make it, then I will have to forfeit this money," said Panja.

Many schools have also asked parents to pay huge money under the garb of development fund and building fund. "At Venkateswar International School, Dwarka, I was asked to pay Rs 25,000 as development fee. They wanted only cash and said no receipt would be given," said Sumit Singh, parent.

Singh does not know if he would get the money back if he decided to take his son to some other school. "I won't have proof that I have paid that amount," he said.

An official looking after admissions in the school said on conditions of anonymity that the school follows the guidelines of the Directorate of Education (DoE) in this regard. Headmistress Meenakshi Malhotra was not available for comment.

The DoE guideline says that if any parent or guardian chooses to withdraw the child from the school within one month from the date of the admission, then the school may retain the registration charges, admission fee and the tuition fee for one month only All other charges have to be refunded.

"Giving or taking money without a receipt is illegal. Both the school and the parents are to be blamed for this," said S.L. Jain, principal of Mahavir Senior Secondary School.

But desperate parents are giving in to such pressures. "Since we cannot show that we have given the money, we cannot claim any income tax rebate on the sum," said Geeta Anand, a parent, who said she had to pay Rs 31,000 at Indraprasta World School in Paschim Vihar as development fee.

Principal of the school, Rajesh Hassija dismissed the claim. "Nothing like that is being asked and we charge only nominal admission fee," Hassija said.

Principals said a non-refundable amount ensured that parents did not hop schools. "Reputed schools do not have this problem because no one wants to leave. But many new schools know that given a choice, parents would change schools.So they charge hefty amounts," said the principal of a North Delhi school, not wanting to be quoted.

The new scheme wil1give learners the flexibility to decide the exam dates as per their convenience.

"This will make the exam pattern more flexible and learner friendly Instead of waiting for the six-monthly term end exam, a student can walk into any identified test centre of the university on the prescribed days and take the exam," said Ravi Mohan, spokesperson, IGNOU.

He added that walk-in-examination would reduce the possibility of malpractices. "Each student will get a different set of questions and the exam will happen under camera surveillance," Mohan said.

Registration of students, allotment of dates and issuing of ha11ticket would be done online. Initially selected regional centres of the open university would be conducting the exam once a week.

The appreciation programme on sustainable science, open to graduates from any discipline has been designed in collaboration with the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation and was launched in presence of Prof. Swaminathan himself at the function.

The objective of the programme, said Swaminathan, is to build the capacity of the policy makers and other stake holders about the principle of sustainable development and help those in agriculture to launch an era of ever-green revolution to enhance productivity without inflicting ecological harm.

"It is primarily an action education programme where students as per the course curriculum have to prepare an agenda 21 for their locality based on sustainable development," he said.

On the occasion, IGNOU Vice Chancellor Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai also kicked-off the on-line admission service.

The system covers programmes where examination is required.

At the function, noted economist Abid Hussain said education should be such that it is able to foster a liberal and sympathetic human heart and develop a society of culture, beauty and aesthetics.

A booklet prepared by IGNOU was released on the occasion.

The IITs may be currently stretched to the limit, but the XIth five-year committee for higher education is working with these centres of excellence to expand their charts. The committee, headed by educationist Yash Pal, that is meeting IIT heads on Friday will discuss how the tech schools can change their character and, like American universities, enlarge their menu.

``Currently, IITs are premier undergraduate engineering schools doing some postgraduation and research work. Now, we want to give them a bigger role,'' Yash Pal told TOI. The noted scientist said he had discussed his suggestions with some IIT directors and a clearer picture would emerge after this week's meeting.

While the IITs will be given more oxygen in terms of starting courses of their choice, it's difficult to predict whether the new subjects offered will compare in excellence with the engineering departments, or be relegated to the sidelines, like the IITs' management schools. However, Yash Pal said, ``All great universities around the world offer a range of undergraduate courses. Our IITs can't be great unless they think in that direction.''

The committee is looking at the Big Daddy of engineering colleges for inspiration. ``If MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) or Caltech (California Institute of Technology) can offer a wider range of programmes that are wellknown, why not the IITs? Our IITs have produced wonderful engineers for the country. It's time they looked at offering more,'' he added.

Former Indian Institute of Science director Govardhan Mehta, who's also on the committee, said the country was currently at a stage where an institute running one programme is being termed a university.