Universal Group of Institutions announces scholarship programme

The Universal Group Of Institutions, affiliated with Punjab Technical University, announced a scholarship programme named after Sangram Singh. The scholarship will be awarded every year to 50 deserving students of the university.

Singh is known for his charity and social causes. He has created awareness about animal welfare and adopted a school in Satara.

In an exclusive interview with Smarica Pant from India Today Education, Sangram Singh talks about the scholarship program and the condition of sports in our country. 

How will the scholarship named after you, help students?

Sangram Singh: The scholarship will be given to 50 meritorious students of the institution and it will help them to enrich in both sports and education.

Apart from the scholarship program, how would you like to help the poor students of this country?

SS: I always want to be the medium of poor students so that the students can enrich themselves in their desired field and last year, I also helped the poor students of a school near Lonawala. The youth is the power of the country and to construct a good nation, poor students needs to be helped.

In India, Cricket gets prime importance in the field of sports. According to you, which other sports has the capability to climb high in this country?

SS: It is true that Cricket has been given prime importance in the country but to me, wrestling is in number two and I am organising shows to boost the other sports as well.

Physical education and fitness is not given much importance in most Indian schools. How important is PE in schools? How do you think this situation can be changed?

SS: Physical Education is important for the development of body and mind, it is wrong if the schools are excluding that from their syllabus. It said that a sound body begets a sound mind and the development of a person is quite impossible without proper health.

If a student wants to choose between academic education and a particular sport, which would you advice him to choose?

SS: Which field they choose is up to the students as they have the opportunity to succeed in either of the streams. However, education is necessary for every person and without that, it is hard to reach the zenith of success.

Source:- Indiatoday

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‘Focus on 10 institutions will be a game changer’

Education Vijay, NEW DELHI: Claiming there has been a substantial hike in budget allocation for higher and school education, HRD ministry on Friday said proposals to establish Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) and turning 10 public and private institutions into world class educational institutions could be a game changer.

Education secretary Vinay Sheel Oberoi said the broad framework of how 10 institutions each from public and private would be selected will be worked out in the next few months. "The idea is to create enabling environment for these institutions. These institutions should be multi-disciplinary.

Also it should not only have foreign qualified faculty but even foreign faculty," he said, giving instance of how under Global Initiative of Academic Network (GIAN) more and more institutions are availing foreign teachers. HRD minister Smriti Irani said, "Framework for each institution will vary. We are not in favour of one-size-fits all policy." Identification of these institutions will take some time, Oberoi said.

As for Uchchatar Avishkar Abhiyan, additional secretary R Subramanyam said, "It has been very successful as 160 proposals have come. They are worth Rs 623 crore of which industry will contribute Rs 156 crore. In the first year only IITs were involved. This will give a big push to government's Make in India programme."

In school education, Irani said opening of 62 new Navodaya Vidyalayas — 11 in Chhattisgarh —will give a big push to taking quality education to rural India Asked about the discontinuation of highly successful Mahila Samakhya programme, school education secretary Subhash Khuntia said, "Mahila Samakhya will be taken over by the National Rural Livelihod Mission of Rural Development ministry." However, when told that rural development ministry has refused to make it a part, a senior official later said, "We will bring it back in HRD then."

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