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The UK Art and Design Saturday Club Summer Show

Sir John SorrellLONDON, May 30: There are 26 different colleges and universities involved in Saturday Clubs across the country, attended by students from around 220 schools.

The National Art & Design Saturday Cluboffers young people aged 14 to 16 the chance to tap into art and design courses every Saturday morning at local colleges or universities for free, propelling them along a pathway to higher education, as well as careers in the creative industries. The concept was initiated four year ago by The Sorrell Foundation, a charitable organisation set up by Sir John and Lady Frances Sorrell, who laid the foundations for the scheme’s flourishing contemporary incarnation today.

Over the course of thirty weeks, members delve into disciplines as wide-ranging as drawing, ceramics and sculpture to digital media, photography and product design, as well as visiting London’s top museum - the V&A - and galleries. Moreover, the Saturday Club offers pupils a chance to attend masterclasses with leading industry figures, such as graphic designer and Pentagram partner Domenic Lippa, artist Antony Gormley and designer Thomas Heatherwick.

This finally cumulates in a showcase of work at Somerset House in their own Summer Show, casting the spotlight on the artistic output of the hundreds of teenagers who partake in the club. At the opening of this year’s exhibition, Lady Frances Sorrell announced ‘Creative Career Visits’, a new initiative for the scheme next year, which will see members visiting creative companies to help guide youngsters in making informed choices as they look towards the future. It'll be another springboard for catapulting them into the creative industries.

Sir John SorrellHere is an interview with Sir John Sorrell - who, as well as being co-founder of The Sorrell Foundation, also set up the London Design Festival, is a UK Business Ambassador for the creative industries and has just been named Chairman of University of the Arts London - to find out what inspired the Saturdary Club concept

Is there an international precedent for this kind of organisation?

It's actually a homegrown idea. There was a government policy in the 1950s, 60s and 70s that introduced the Saturday Club across the country. I went to Saturday Clubs myself, as did Frances [Sorrell], John Hegarty, Michael Foreman, and Christopher Lebrun. We set up the National Art & Design Saturday Club to revive what was a brilliant idea and which catapulted the careers of many leading figures in the creative industry. And now we are being asked by countries all over the world if we can help them replicate it.

Why didn't it keep going?

As far as I can tell, it stopped around the 1970s. Government cuts, perhaps? I've never been able to understand why.

What is different about what you are offering today?

What makes this different is that we have created a national network for it. There are 26 different colleges and universities (and one museum) involved across the country and we expect this to go above 30 in the next academic year. Once a year we bring all the tutors together to discuss best practice, and we bring the kids to London to visit all the galleries.

It's about giving young people 'a look in the kitchen', as my wife says. And to hopefully help them to take forward a love of the arts into their careers, no matter what they do. The age of 14 to 16 is a very important one to target because it's an age when a lot of people drop out of these subjects. The classes are providing about 100 hours of extra tuition throughout the academic year.

How is the show at Somerset House curated?

The tutors of each college or university decide what goes in, but the rules are that every young person who attends the clubs has to be represented. All of the people are presented with a certificate of involvement. It's like a mini graduation.

Where did you go to college?

I went to Hornsey College of Art in North London, which has now been swallowed up by Middlesex University. My education was absolutely amazing. I was taught by brilliant people, including Bridget Riley. Every single day there was a tutor in the room. You learned fast and you learned about the importance of working hard and the total joy of creativity. I went to art school when I was 16 and started my own business at 19.

How do you think the UK government can improve its teaching in the creative arts?

We believe that art and design needs to be taught very well at schools, at both primary and secondary stages and all the way through to higher education. We want to see a seamless pathway all the way through to careers in the industry, for those for which it is their vocation. We'd like to see art, design and technology rolled together as they are so closely related. It helps to have an understanding of different disciplines. If we manage to get it right, we have an opportunity to be the greatest creative nation in the world.

Boy genius diagnosed with autism has IQ higher than Einstein

NEW YORK, May 11: A 14-year-old boy from Indiana, who was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism at the age of 2, has an IQ of 170, which is higher than Einstein’s, and he is now on the road to winning a Nobel Prize. As a child, doctors told Jacob Barnett’s parents that their son would probably never even know how to tie his shoes.

But the 14-year-old prodigy has given TedX talks and is working toward a master’s degree in quantum physics.

His mother Kristine let Jacob be himself — and helped him study the world with wide-eyed wonder instead of focusing on a list of things that he was unable to do.

Jacob spent years in a special education system that didn’t understand what he needed, his school teachers tried to dissuade Kristine from teaching Jacob any more than the most basic skills.

Jacob struggled with that type of instruction and withdrew deeper into himself and refused to speak with anyone. But his mother noticed that when he was not in therapy, he did “spectacular things” on his own.

She told the BBC that Jacob was able to create maps all over our floor using Q-tips, asserting that they would be maps of places they visited and he would memorize every street.

One day, his mother took him stargazing, a few months later when he was just 3-1/2 years old, they visited a planetarium where a professor was giving a lecture and whenever the teacher asked questions, his hand shot up and he was able to answer questions — easily understanding complicated theories about physics and the movement of planets.

Kristine realized that her son might need something that the standard special education curriculum just wasn’t giving him, so the Hamilton County mom, a nursery school teacher, decided to take her son out of school and prepare him for mainstream kindergarten herself and he thrived.

By the time he was 11 years old, he was ready for college and is now studying condensed matter physics at the Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, the New York Daily News reported.

He has been working on his own theory of relativity and astrophysics Professor Scott Tremaine wrote to the family in an email that the theory Jacob was working on involves several of the toughest problems in astrophysics and theoretical physics and anyone who solves these will be in line for a Nobel Prize.

Canara Bank to train 300 unemployed JK youth under Udaan project

By Deepak Arora

NEW DELHI, March 13: Canara Bank has become the first bank in the country to train 300 unemployed youth from Jammu and Kashmir so that they can get jobs. Canara Bank, a premier Public Sector Bank, will give employment to 150 successful candidates after successful completion of training in the bank itself, according to Mr Ashok Kumar Gupta, Executive Director of the Canara Bank.

To fulfill this national goal, Canara Bank has partnered with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) for skill development and recruitment of Graduate unemployed youth of Jammu & Kashmir State under "Udaan" - a Special Industry Initiative of Ministry of Home Affairs for the State of Jammu & Kashmir.

Canara Executive Director Ashok Kumar Gupta exchanged documents with Dilip Chenoy, Managing Director and CEO of NSDC here on Wednesday to mark formal launch of the Project.

Canara Bank’s General Manager (HR) Mr Shyamalendu Saha and General Manager Delhi Circle Mr T Sreekanthan and Ms Gouri Gupta, Lead - Strategy and Programme Development and Ms Bint Abbas, Analyst Programme Development from NSDC were also present on the occasion.

The project aims at skill development and employability of youth in the State of Jammu & Kashmir and targets the unemployed graduates from the state.

Under the project, Mr Gupta said Canara Bank will impart residential training of three months to 300 unemployed graduates from the state of Jammu & Kashmir, shortlisted from amongst those enrolled for training. Canara Bank is implementing the entire project as a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility with an overall outlay of Rs 300 lakh.

The project will be implemented by the Bank in coordination with NSDC and the Government of Jammu & Kashmir. The bank will be bear all the expenses of the candidates, including boarding and lodging, and also give a stipend of Rs 2,500, added Mr Gupta.

After successful completion of training, 150 candidates will be selected for employment in the Bank as Probationary Officers (135) and Clerks (15).

Eligible candidates from the state of Jammu & Kashmir can enroll to the training programme by registering online at www.nsdcudaan.com or www.canarabank.com from March 18 to March 23. Candidates can also apply by submitting physical application at Canara Bank’s B R Road Srinagar Main Branch or, Shalimar Road Jammu main branch during the said period.

Mr Dilip Chenoy informed that 40,000 youth from Jammu and Kashmir will be trained in five years under the Udaan project.

Young women join FICCI CASCADE in youth movement against smuggling, counterfeiting

NEW DELHI, March 8: FICCI-CASCADE (Committee against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy) in collaboration with VIPS (Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies) affiliated to IP university organized a youth festival to continue its movement “Youth against Smuggling and Counterfeiting”.

This festival was organized on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

Meenu Chandra, Team Leader, FICCI CASCADE, called upon the young women, budding lawyers and youth to take up the “Quit Fake” movement.

Mr. Deep Chand, Retd. Special Commissioner of Delhi Police, Advisor FICCI CASCADE emphasized that “Women have always been the key decision makers as far as purchases are concerned. He said it is critical to work towards eradicating this menace, which affects all sections of the society”.

FICCI-CASCADE firmly believes that the youth as well as women are the major harbingers of change in society habits. Women are the key consumers in the society and they being aware of the issue is very important; hence FICCI CASCADE continually makes an endeavor to engage with these groups and sensitize them about the menace.

As part of the festival a painting and poster exhibition was organized. Students participated in group discussions, quiz and various activities including dance and street play on the subject.

Mr. Deep Chand, FICCI CASCADE Advisor, gave an overview of the problem of counterfeiting and smuggling in India. He added that the youth of the country are an important force to fight this socio-economic menace and “Be the change we want to see” by taking a pledge that we would not buy fake and smuggled goods. He further informed the students about the study commissioned by FICCI CASCADE on “Socio-economic Impact of Counterfeiting, Smuggling and Working Draft

Tax evasion in seven key Industry Sectors” which has revealed that the estimated annual Tax loss to the government in the year 2012 is estimated at Rs. 26, 190 crores. The study further estimates an annual sales loss to industry at a whopping Rs. 1,00,000 crores.

The key sectors which were included in the study were Auto Components, Alcohol, Computer Hardware, FMCG (Personal Goods), FMCG Packaged Goods), Mobile Phones and Tobacco. The highest loss to industry in terms of revenue is from FMCG (Packaged Goods) at Rs. 20,378 crores (23.4%), FMCG (Personal Goods) at Rs. 15,035 crores (25.9%), Auto Components at Rs. 9,198 crores (29.6%), Mobile Phones at Rs, 9,042 crores (20.8%) and Tobacco at Rs. 8,965 crores (15.7%).

The maximum tax loss on account of smuggled and counterfeit products to the government is from the Tobacco Sector at Rs. 6, 240 crores followed by FMCG (Packaged food) at Rs. 5,660 crores and FMCG (Personal Goods) at Rs. 4,646 crores. The study also reconfirms government estimates of 5% of medicines in the market being fake that have a direct impact on the health and safety of consumers.

Canara Bank sponsors Gold Medal

By Deepak Arora

PUNE, March 5: Canara Bank, a leading nationalised Bank, has sponsored a Gold Medal for the topper in Post Graduate Degree for Banking and Finance at National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM), Pune.

The convocation for the year 2011-13 was held here at NIBM Campus on Tuesdy.

The ninth convocation programme was graced by Dr. D. Subba Rao, Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Dr. Raghuram G Rajan, Chief Economic advisor to the Union Ministry of Finance, Mr Allen Pereira, Director, NIBM, and Mr R K Dubey , Chairman and Managing Director of Canara Bank amongst others.

The gold medalist is Mr Ashish Kumar who stood IInd among 41 students passed out this year and the medal was handed over to him by the dignitaries. This Post Graduation Program in Banking and Finance is a two years course. So far, NIBM has track record of 100 per cent placement.

Ajay Maken calls for drive against smuggling, counterfeiting to plug fiscal deficit

By Deepak Arora

NEW DELHI, March 4: Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ajay Maken has called for drive against smuggling and counterfeiting to plug fiscal deficit.

Inaugurating “CONFLUENCE ’13, a youth festival to energize the youth to take up the fight against Smuggling and Counterfeiting”, Mr Maken, in his inaugural address, said “the report released by FICCI-CASCADE highlighting the impact of counterfeit and smuggling on seven key sectors of the economy and the loss to government is a right step in creating awareness.”

To spread large scale awareness against the menace of smuggled and counterfeit products, FICCI-CASCADE (Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeit Activities Destroying the Economy) along with the Management Interaction Cell (MIC) of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (University of Delhi) organized “CONFLUENCE ’13 here on Monday at the Vallabh Bhai Patel Chest Institute Auditorium.

Mr Maken said that it was very important for this “invisible enemy” to become visible and customer awareness is an extremely important step for this in addition to supply chain management and enforcement.

The Minister highlighted that while products like alcohol and tobacco harm the consumers, if these products are fake and counterfeit, the harm is increased manifold. The Minister also stated that drive against counterfeiting and smuggling can help in plugging the fiscal deficit.

Dr. Arbind Prasad, Director General FICCI welcoming the Minister, stated that, "It is extremely important to understand the impact on society in terms of the involvement of organised crime cartels who are the people engaged in the nefarious activities of fake, counterfeit and smuggled goods. The main thrust of FICCI-CASCADE is creating awareness. This is being done through engagement with Consumer Affairs Ministry in the Jago Grahak Jago” programme, working with youth in various festivals and also creating a knowledge base like the study released to study the economic impact of fake, counterfeit and smuggled goods.

‘Confluence’ 13 had an array of events including Case Study Competition, Poster making, T-shirt painting, On-line photography competition, Broad walk Empire, Bid to win and ‘The Ultimate leader’.

A Cross-Country race was also organized in North Campus as a pre-cursor to the festival. The race was flagged off by Mr. Arjun Vajpai, the youngest Indian to climb Mount Everest. Around 200 participants ranging in the age of 10-45 years ran for the cause. College students hailed from Kirori Mal College, College of Business Studies, Shyamlal College, SOL, Miranda House, YWCA, DDU, DPS school, Bhagat Singh College, Hansraj College, PGDAV, St. Stephens College, Faculty of Law and many more.

The winners, Jitendra Kumar from Shyamlal College(category male) and Meenu Dabas from Miranda College (category female) received prizes worth INR 2000 each and goodies worth INR 6000 in the form of vouchers. The youngest runner Dev (12 years) from Pushpanjali Public School was also awarded a special prize.

Mr. P.C. Jha, Advisor FICCI-CASCADE gave an overview of the problem of counterfeiting and smuggling. A call was given for the youth to take up the “Quit Fake” movement and work towards eradicating this menace which affects all sections of the society. FICCI-CASCADE looks at the youth of the country as a harbinger of change. The committee has been supporting a number of youth festivals across the country with the agenda to inform the youth about the problem and involve them in bringing about a movement against the same.

According to a FICCI study on “Socio-economic Impact of Counterfeiting, Smuggling and Tax evasion in seven key Industry Sectors” the estimated annual Tax loss to government in the year 2012 is estimated at Rs. 26, 190 crores. The study further estimates an annual sales loss to industry at a whopping Rs. 1,00,000 crores. The key sectors which were included in the study were Auto Components, Alcohol, Computer Hardware, FMCG (Personal Goods), FMCG Packaged Goods), Mobile Phones and Tobacco.

The highest loss to industry in terms of revenue is from FMCG (Packaged Goods) at Rs. 20,378 crores (23.4%), FMCG (Personal Goods) at Rs. 15,035 crores (25.9%), Auto Components at Rs. 9,198 crores (29.6%), Mobile Phones at Rs, 9,042 crores (20.8%) and Tobacco at Rs. 8,965 crores (15.7%). The maximum tax loss on account of smuggled and counterfeit products to the government is from the Tobacco Sector at Rs. 6, 240 crores followed by FMCG (Packaged food) at Rs. 5,660 crores and FMCG (Personal Goods) at Rs. 4,646 crores. The study also reconfirms government estimates of 5% of medicines in the market being fake that have a direct impact on the health and safety of consumers.

Dr Waiel Awwad elected president of FCC

Dr Waiel AwwadNEW DELHI, Feb 27: Dr. Waiel Awwad, Senior Arab Journalist based in South Asia, and Baldev Kapoor, Polaris Images photographer, have been voted as as President and Vice President respectively for the 2013-2015 term of the Foreign Correspondents Club of South Asia here.

Hari Kumar Tyagi, a reporter with the New York Times, will take on the role of Treasurer, and Ragavendra Verma, foreign correspondent with International News Services will act as Secretary, according to a press note issued by Rachel Tanzer, Manager of the FCC.

The 2013-2015 Committee members are: Omar Achy (Arabe Presse), Nita Bhalla (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Karuna Madan (Yomiuri Shimbun), PM Narayan (ARD First German Television), Siddharth Srivastava (Channel NewsAsia International), and Pankaj Yadav (Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

The Foreign Correspondents Club of South Asia is a club whose 500+ members are journalists and photographers covering South East Asia, Tibet, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangledesh, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan. The club was founded in 1958, and has since been the most prestigious press club in India.

Dr. Awwad and the team will be continuing to bring in diplomatic press conferences and events, as well as continued recruitment of new members.

The past committee, headed by President Simon Denyer (Washington Post Bureau Chief) was influential in bringing in press conferences and discussions with the Foreign Secretary, The Foreign Minister, Mohammed Nasheed, (former President of the Maldives) as well as many others. Former office bearers include Dean Nelson (Vice President), Nicola Smith (Treasurer), and committee members Adam Plowright, Amanda Hodge, Kurt Achin, Ammu Kannampilly, Mustafa Qureshi, Sanjay Jha, Francis Elliot and Vivek Raj.

Dr. Awwads’ plans for the club, in his second tenure as a president, include creating a platform of interaction between top Indian decision makers and our members on a regular basis (In Conversation with FCC), host international cultural and entertainment events. In the food and beverage area, we’ll be bringing in the flavors of the Middle East with a Mezze and Schwarma table several nights during the week. As always, the club is open to host book launches, documentary screenings, photo exhibits and other cultural events.

Do animals have a language: nature's biggest unsolved mystery

LONDON, Feb 6: Whether animals have their own language is the mystery that people most want to know, according to a new survey.

Asked to choose from 10 unanswered questions about the natural world, almost a third (31 percent) of British people said whether animals use language was one of the issues they most wanted answered, the Daily Mail reported.

The second most burning question was over how the dinosaurs died out, with 29 percent of the 2,000 people polled putting that as one of their top queries.

And more than a fifth (22 percent) wanted to know why cats purr.

The poll for the launch of new TV show David Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities on UKTV’s Eden HD channel also revealed some of the most commonly believed myths about nature.

Almost half those polled (47 percent) believed female Praying Mantis eat the males after sex, although research has found that only happened once in 69 experiments, while 37 percent thought camels store water in their humps, rather than storing fat to provide energy.

The Natural Curiosities programme looks at some of the most extraordinary evolutionary anomalies of the natural world, including the giraffe’s long neck, a zebra’s stripes and the chameleon’s long tongue.

Revealed! Why we lie

WASHINGTON: In a new study, researchers have investigated what factors influence dishonest behaviour.

Previous research has shown that a person’s first instinct is to serve his or her own self-interest and that people are more likely to lie when they can justify such lies to themselves.

With these findings in mind, psychological scientists Shaul Shalvi of the University of Amsterdam and Ori Eldar and Yoella Bereby-Meyer of Ben-Gurion University colleagues hypothesized that, when under time pressure, having to make a decision that could yield financial reward would make people more likely to lie.

They also hypothesized that, when people are not under time pressure, they are unlikely to lie if there is no opportunity to rationalize their behaviour.

“According to our theory, people first act upon their self-serving instincts, and only with time do they consider what socially acceptable behaviour is,” Shalvi said.

“When people act quickly, they may attempt to do all they can to secure a profit—including bending ethical rules and lying. Having more time to deliberate leads people to restrict the amount of lying and refrain from cheating,” Shalvi said.

For the study, the researchers first tested participants’ tendency to lie when doing so could be easily justified - approximately 70 adult participants rolled a die three times such that the result was hidden from the experimenter’s view.

The participants were told to report the first roll, and they earned more money for a higher reported roll.

Seeing the outcomes of the second and third rolls provided the participants with the opportunity to justify reporting the highest number that they rolled, even if it was not the first – after all, they had rolled that number, just not the first time they rolled the die.

Some of the participants were under time pressure, and were instructed to report their answer within 20 seconds. The others were not under time pressure, and had an unlimited amount of time to provide a response.

The experimenters were not able to see the actual die rolls of the participants, to ensure all rolls were private. Instead, in order to determine whether or not the participants had lied about the numbers they rolled, Shalvi and colleagues compared their responses to those that would be expected from fair rolls.

They found that both groups of participants lied, but those who were given less time to report their numbers were more likely to lie than those who weren’t under a time constraint.

The second experiment followed a similar procedure, except that the participants were not given information that could help them justify their lies - instead of rolling their die three times, they only rolled it once and then reported the outcome.

In this experiment, the researchers found that participants who were under time pressure lied, while those without a time constraint did not.

Together, the two experiments suggest that, in general, people are more likely to lie when time is short. When time isn’t a concern, people may only lie when they have justifications for doing so.

“One implication of the current findings is that to increase the likelihood of honest behaviour in business or personal settings, it is important not push a person into a corner but rather to give him or her time,” Shalvi said.

“People usually know it is wrong to lie, they just need time to do the right thing,” Shalvi added.

The study has been published in Psychological Science.

 



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