Sunday, November 8, 2009
NCR's first ever Children Carnival by Rit
The Carnival has been an attempt to bring out the hidden talent among the school going children and give a platform to show case them among their own peer group, parents and educationists. The Carnival and Chuckkle Quiz was aimed at developing awareness and pride among the children about their heritage. Vaishnavi Sridhar emerged as the winner of the first Chuckkle India Quiz, while Rishabh dey was the runner and Shiv Chawla and Rohit Yadav were declared the third and fourth rank respectively.
The meritorious children from the orphanage were also felicitated on the same occasion. To encourage creativity and talent among them, participation certificates were also awarded to them. The Children Carnival has been organized at Great India Place, Noida on Saturday evening. The Carnival was organized alongwith the final of the Chuckkle Quiz among the schools of the NCR. On the eve of the Children’s Day, it proved to be an ideal platform to encourage the children with such an event dedicated to showcase their talent.
Speaking about the Carnival, Chitra Awasthi, Managing Director of Rit International said, “Just like mom and dad, our children too need their own carnival but we have tried to make sure it is a wholesome, family friendly affair. This carnival is the beginning of a series of events for the kids and we are taking this carnival to the children across the country. There can’t be a better way to treat your children than to take them to Children Carnival.”
The Children enjoyed mimicry, performance, and they had on their platter loads of entertainment, while the quiz competition was an exciting feature of the carnival. The Carnival provided a chance to everybody to come forward and showcase their talents to the audience. Pick and drop, accommodation and other conveniences were provided and planned well in advance leaving no stone unturned for the children
In celebration of Children’s Carnival as newest and largest project, Rit International today also announced the Chuckkle All-India Quiz Contest, inviting children across the country to participate in a call for entries. Children between the ages of 7 to 18 have the opportunity to become the National Chuckkle champion.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Nurturing holistic development of children
Request by a journalist friend to meet an educationist working for kids and young adults was honoured by me like any normal invitation. To be honest, it was more to do with personal obligation than meeting or finding a platform to work for the social cause, so I thought. That is how I met educationist Chitra Awasthi and her organization, Rit International. Rit means truth in Sanskrit, and as the name itself indicates she set up this organization more as a cause and with a social purpose in mind. A strategic brand consultant in me never thought that it is not necessary to compete with the existing education in order to bring a meaningful reform. If there is a will, you can add value to the existing educational framework in the given society. What is all the more important is the fact that the society and educational institutions will be more than willing to accept and adopt you. A number of emerging replicas of this model is a testimony to the fact.
Of course, there has to be initial skepticism with many of the existing players feeling threatened. But the continued acceptance by the society only reflects the fact that there is absence of quality education in the country. More importantly, there is an urgent need to shape the young minds that are going to be our future. No wonder, the innovative approach in education management has driven Rit International to the forefront with various schools, institutions and children’s’ associations. However, and I must admit it honestly that as against the advice of TRACK2MEDIA as a strategic consultant, Chitra Awasthi has resisted the temptation to convert it into a business venture in the conventional term.
For Chitra Awasthi and her team of educationists Rit International has more to do with a mission than business vision. Actually, it was while working as consultant on various educational Programmes that she did realize the need to create a platform for the same purpose. Moreover, in a technology driven new
In the kitty of TRACK2MEDIA it is interesting to have an organization where Vision and Mission Statement is derived from the social philosophy that every kid is special in his/her own unique way. And hence they believe in the holistic development of the child. More importantly, Rit International is a platform to provide academic and other creative avenues to each and every child, unlike some other platforms like the talent shows on various TV channels where it is meant for a select and privileged lot.
This is because Chitra Awasthi feels that unless we succeed in laying a solid foundation for all the children irrespective of the economic strata that they belong to, this sort of vacuum and demand-supply mismatch in education will always be there. The difference and the surprise package do not end here. Actually, in all their educational and other creative Programmes for the children and young adults, you will find a Brand Ambassador from the same age group only. Well, I am indeed impressed.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Dr Ketan Desai at MCI shows the way
With a distinction of being the world’s largest trained manpower in healthcare, medical education in
Dr Ketan Desai, President, MCI has been repeatedly taking initiatives so that the Council incorporates the global needs in the ambit. All due to the excellence in performing the role of the medical education watchdog,
This is only considering allopathic medicine. When we consider Ayurved and other systems, the number gets even larger. However, the respective governments never seem to have made it a priority sector. Medical education per-se has never been construed as a priority in any of the budget making exercises of either the Central or State Governments and therefore to that extent the annual budget of the financial year 2009-2010 does not make any exception.
It needs to be borne in mind that ultimately medical education is the platform from where the trained health manpower is expected to be generated. The efficacy and efficiency of this trained health manpower therefore is directly proportional to the standardized sustenance of medical education. If the necessary requirements of medical education in the context of ‘developmental grants’ are not met with, the desired standards would not be attainable. This will result in the compromised generation of the health manpower, which is suicidal. The Medical Council of India under Dr Ketan Desai can only pave the way; the onus of excellence in the medical education ultimately falls in the power corridors.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
DEFAMING MCI TO MALIGN DR KETAN DESAI; VESTED INTERESTS CALLING THE SHOTS
It is ironic that while the Medical Council of India is working on the modalities to have a curriculum for medical education that caters to the growing needs of the nation, a section of media instigated by certain vested interests are targeting it for reasons more than one. It seems that MCI has become the latest media obsession and in the name of investigative journalism, mud slinging has become the norm. For instance, if we see some of the media reports on the MCI, it is found that the apex body of medical education is being criticized even for the follies of the respective state medical councils.
One wonders whether this is borne out of ignorance or whether certain vested interests are working overnight behind it. Had this blogger not been writing on the medical education for quite sometime now, it would have been difficult to get an answer to this. But some of the recent anonymous mails clearly suggest that there is a deep rooted conspiracy to malign the MCI. Some further investigation brings to the light that the character assassination is targeted more against the MCI President Dr Ketan Desai who has time and again refused to toe their line and entertain such vested interests into the realm of medical education.
Dr Ketan Desai has been clearly advocating the concern of the Medical Council of India that the curriculum for the various modern medicine courses needed to be updated in a periodic manner, so as to make them commensurate with immediate and long term requirements. In order to give an academic direction and fillip, ‘Academic Cell’ has been constituted in the MCI, which is primarily vested with the responsibility of catering to the academic requirements of medical education in the country.
Curriculum update is the one of the premier tasks, which is being dispensed, for which a ‘standing mechanism’ in the forms of 72 Boards of specialties with expert members included thereat has been constituted. This Board of specialties taking stock of the various developments updates the curriculum in the concerned specialties for the consideration of the authorities of Medical Council of India. The council has also defined the ‘unit of update’ which in case of the postgraduate studies is three years and for the undergraduate 5 years, which incidentally is the duration of the said courses.
It is ensured that the updated curriculum is affected in a prospective manner. Likewise, a continuous effort is made by the academic cell to evolve desired innovations in the domain of teaching, learning and evaluation process and also evolving quality measures to be inculcated in to the system, so as to make the model of medical education ‘competitive and sustainable’. The context worked out by the council is in the paradigm that the ‘national objectives’ for the health care delivery system are required to be set in and a commensurate national curriculum is to be evolved for the fulfillment of the said objectives. It is also envisaged that the curriculum is not only expected to be catering to the national needs but as India is required to generate trained manpower even for the global requirements, hence the global needs are also incorporated in the ambit.
Does anybody still have any questions on the functioning of the MCI or the integrity of Dr Ketan Desai? No wonder, in
ENDS….
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
No MCI, No UGC; Minister wants to have his way
Strange are the ways of functioning in the power corridors, so it seems. Instead of curing the disease, its symptoms are treated more often than not. When the issue of the capitation fee in medical colleges erupted in the media, suddenly the powers-to-be wanted to be seen in the media with their own wish list. Not only an ambitious blue print for reforms in the higher education mooted out, it was conveniently leaked to the media as well. The moot point here is what was the need to have a super regulator in the first place.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Media into the hands of vested interests
The expose of the Times of India on the capitation fee in the medical colleges and deemed universities is a Case Study for reasons more than one. The alacrity with which the expose was followed by a series of editorially driven news stories defied all news sense because the whole issue was merely stating the obvious, something we all know and have subconsciously accepted as a way of life. Even at the cost of being a devil’s advocate I must say that this was not something that came as a shock.
However, there is more than what meets the eyes in this case. There were very many factual anomalies in the whole reportage. It was said that the business of capitation fee is flourishing because the Medical Council of India is on largesse in granting the nod to all these medical colleges and deemed universities. It was alleged that it is the MCI which is actually encouraging the high capitation fee in these colleges and deemed universities.
As a communication professional I have been covering the sector for quite some time. To the best of my knowledge the Medical Council of India has no role in determining the fee of these colleges. Whenever a proposal to establish a medical college or deemed university is sent to the MCI, it is entitled to review it on a specified parameter only. It seems the sting operation was done in such a hurry that the reporters had no time to find out what is under the purview of the MCI and what the role of the University Grants Commission is.
Even when the UGC chairperson came on record to clarify to some other newspapers, the Times of India conveniently kept lambasting the MCI in its headlines. The satisfaction of “I did it” and “Impact of our expose” often takes us so high that we fail to see the logic and rational. The question that needs to be addressed here is that was it just the problem of perception in this case or there has been a bigger picture behind the episode.
Actually, the fact is that there is more than what meets the eyes. In the following week of the TOI expose, when the controversy started dying its own natural death, certain vested interests in whose hands the ropes of sting operation seem to have gone, started getting restless. The TOI had by then started downplaying it. It had never been earth shattering news in any way. And hence, the next round of media plant was planned.
But in their over zeal to do the things, they forgot the fact that the anonymous mail with fictitious and malicious information is never sent to all and sundry, including the competing newspapers of the TOI. Media got suspicious of the intentions of the mailer and in their cross checking of facts, it was clear that somebody was just using the media for their own vested interests.
The tonality of the media reports have since then been a bit different, though a section of them still seem to be determined not to accept that they have erred in their judgment. But their over zeal to rake up the same issue every now and then has been both perplexing and funny. The moot point here is that whether there should be any defined parameters for sting operation, or should the media be left alone to defame whosoever they wish to as per their whims and fancies.
ENDS……