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Published by the Press, Information & Culture Wing, Embassy of India |
Opinion: Warning from NATO Feature: Interview with Prime Minister Vajpayee
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SAARC CONFERENCE ON A five day SAARC Conference on Preparing Teachers for Universal Elementary Education begins on 26th of April. It is being organised by NCTE in collaboration with UNESCO. The Conference will focus on various aspects of elementary education, particularly those relating to the girl child and preparation of teachers to meet these challenges. The need for making appropriate interventions in the delivery system for training of teachers will also be discussed. Three persons have been invited from each of the SAARC countries – one of them a practicising elementary teacher educator, another an expert in curriculum development for teacher education and the third one representing policy formulating and decision making system. 15 delegates from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka and 10 Indian delegates comprising SCERT Directors and representatives of Ministry of Human Resource Development, NCERT and NCTE are participating in the conference. The country papers are expected to cover a wide range of issues like emerging roles of teachers, problems of elementary education with special reference to poor enrollment of girls, socially disadvantaged and economically deprived sections and their implications to teacher educational, quality in elementary and its implications for teacher education, the problem of drop outs in elementary education and its implications for teacher education, inadequate availability of infrastructure and innovative programmes in teacher education. The objectives of the Conference are the sharing experience on elementary teacher education, designing collaborative projects related to teacher education programmes, practices, policies and curriculum renewal/revision. They would be deliberate on issues relating to quality girl education and its implications for teacher education, teacher development strategies – pre service and in-service, information technology and alternative systems of teacher education, teacher performance : management and financial issues, future vision. Eminent resource persons will be initiating discussion on a number of themes – issues in elementary education – implications for teachers, pre-service teacher education – case for transformation, teachers for alternative schooling, in-service education-search for modalities, essential competencies for teachers of UEE, teacher commitment -strategies for strengthening, teacher performance-management issues, innovative experiences in teacher preparation, information technology in teacher education, future vision and potentialities, collaborative projects. SAARC CONFERENCE ON IPRs INAUGURATED A two-day Conference on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) was inaugurated on April 29, 1999 by Shri P.P.Prabhu, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce. The Conference is being jointly organized by the Department of Industrial Development, Ministry of Industry and Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. The Conference, attended by senior officials and personalities active in the field of IPRs, was also addressed by Dr.S.Narayan, Secretary, Department of Industrial Development. The purpose of the Conference is to evolve a coordinated approach to IPRs regime in SAARC countries. Technical cooperation among these countries will be established through a computer-based network which will enable each country to access latest information from other member countries. Recommendations of this Conference will be presented before the meeting of SAARC Commerce Secretaries to be held in May,’99. Issues relating to Patents, Bio-Diversity, Plant Variety Protection and Copyright are being discussed at the Conference. MFN STATUS FOR INDIA Pakistan has asked India to sort out
licensing and restriction issues before the former could extend the most-favoured nation
(MFN) status to New Delhi in trade as per World Trade Organisation (WTO) norms. "MFN,
in principle, has been acknowledged as an obligation for being a WTO member. But there are
practical issues which need to be negotiated between the two countries," Pakistan
High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi said at an industry meeting. Stating that there
were larger problems in according MFN status to India in trade, he said these related to
"licensing arrangement and restriction of trade besides other related issues".
Indo-Pakistan bilateral trade could touch Rs 100 bn by the first few years of the next
century but India should open up its market more for Pakistani products vis-à-vis
Islamabad, he said. Bilateral trade should have reasonable amount of balance and disputes
and obstacles between the two countries should be dealt with in a realistic manner and an
open mind, he said. |
