The prize-winning master plan! Patna: In a major step towards realising the ambitious Nalanda International University, coming up in Rajgir in Bihar, an international jury has selected the architectural design of an Ahmedabad-based firm for the varsity. The design of Ahmedabad-based company Vastu Shilpa Consultants  was selected by a jury that comprised top architects from Singapore, China, Japan and India. Vice Chancellor Gopa Sabharwal, addressing the media here Thursday, said 79 proposals had been received and eight final entries were shortlisted. B.V Doshi, principal architect... 

  Zuckerberg: ‘let in talent freely’! The billionaire founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has launched a new initiative to push for immigration reform, describing America’s current system as “unfit for today’s world.” The group, called FWD.us, (pronounced Forward US), is backed by other Silicon Valley leaders including Google chairman Eric Schmidt, Yahoo boss Marissa Mayer and Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of Linkedin. “We have a strange immigration policy for a nation of immigrants. And it’s a policy unfit for today’s world,”... 

Ask, ask, ??: way of a child! Mothers are bombarded with around 300 questions from their children on a daily basis, with girls the most inquisitive lot, a new UK study has found. Researchers found that mothers are the most quizzed people in the UK, and on subjects far and wide, they are asked more questions every hour than a primary school teacher as well as doctors and nurses. The study of 1,000 mothers discovered girls aged four are the most curious, asking an incredible 390 questions per day – averaging a question every 1 minute 56 seconds of their waking day, a media report said. From... 

  Bihar police: changing strategy! Patna: it is well-known how the police often make it impossible for a Naxalite to revert to a normal life by hounding her or him constantly as a suspect. In the case of Bihar and specifically in the case of Rohtas district, the police seems to be trying out some innovative ways to remedy the Naxal menace. Coaching students may prove to be especially effective in states where coaching has become a huge industry and remains in great demand. Perhaps other states should now try out some less aggressive approach to the Naxal problem. In Bihar’s troubled... 

    Karate kick for the molester! The Bihar government has decided to train one million schoolgirls in karate so that they can use the martial art to protect themselves from sexual harassment, an official said on Friday. “Martial art training (karate) will be given to 10 lakh schoolgirls in 20,000 middle schools across the state,” Rahul Singh, the director of the Bihar Education Project Council, said. The programme will be undertaken as part of the National Programme of Education for Girls at Elementary Level, and reach 10 lakh girls by 2014. “At present, 1,500 girl... 

  The coding Marathon: AppFest Mangalore: In less than a week from now, thousands of students in Karnataka will get together at the St Aloysius College, Mangalore at the Beeri campus, to develop apps for the Windows platform. On February 26, more than 10,000 students from across the length and breadth of country will gear up to code applications for a whole day, at more than 50 hub centers like the St Aloysius Institute of Management and Information Technology (AIMIT). The colleges are currently holding training sessions for students who wish to brush up their coding skills as they register.... 

    Surya Namaskar: either or!! Patna: It would appear that the criteria for Indianness and plain Indian citizenship are becoming more and more stringent these days. Bihar BJP may be credited with adding a fresh clause to the pre-requisites for being Indian – you must do Surya Namaskar. The reasons oscillate between health and Indianness quite freely of course. While everyone wants better health, it is the imposition of a specific healthy practice that hurts the minorities and others, who may want to forgo the draconian health requirements. And anyway, why not make ‘sheershsan’... 

  Honest exams: at gunpoint! Sheikhpura/Patna: what is keeping the Bihar cops busy these days, with their nerves frayed, their muscles aching and their eyes straining to battle lack of sleep? To begin with, the Saraswati Pooja processions that create two kinds of problems. The Saraswati Pooja groups are always looking for a chance for a good fight with the rival groups and the cop’s job is to keep them disentangled. Second, the maddening traffic snarls of the order of Gordian’s knot, in brief impossible traffic challenges that no sane person, including smart traffic cops will want to resolve.... 

  Jharkhand’s many tongues: rich heritage! Ranchi: languages in India continue to evolve and develop by receiving recognition through the self-assertion and rise of the suppressed segments and tribes. This has a great potential for the creation of great literature, adding to the immense Indian inventory of narratives and images. In what seems an exciting development, UNICEF has supported the making of a dictionary for the tribal languages of Jharkhand. The dictionary, called Meri Bhasha Mein Meri Duniya, is theme-based and will visually depict items that people come in contact with in... 

  Newly born university: book capital! Singapore has decided to donate a library to the upcoming Nalanda International University in Bihar. Singapore will design, build and donate a state-of-the-art library, estimated to cost $5-7 million to the university, former foreign minister of Singapore George Yeo told reporters ahead of a Nalanda Monitoring Committee meeting in Rajgir in Nalanda district, about 100 km from here. Yeo, who heads the international advisory panel for raising funds for the university, said the board led by Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen that met in Patna Monday approved...