Educational Resources

Vimal Kumar Varun
Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, New Delhi-110016
Internet: vkv@usa.net URL: http://vkv.tripod.com

INTRODUCTION

India though one of the backward countries in the world in the sphere of education with its 52 percent literacy, has enormous specialist manpower in every possible areas conceivable, and outnumber many developed countries in terms of scientists, technologists, software specialists, management experts, and so on. Facilities available for education in all specialisation is also of no mean measure. It had 226 universities, 36 deemed universities, 9,278 colleges with nearly 6.426 million students and 0.31 million teachers at the end of 1996 .It has six Indian Institutes of Technology and six Indian Institutes of Management which rank among the topmost in Asia. Besides 17 Regional Engineering Colleges, the country has over 300 technical institutions at the first degree level and about 750 polytechnics at the diploma level with annual admission capacities of 65,000 and 90,000 respectively. Medical colleges providing Bachelors degree number above hundred. There are several institutions providing facilities for postgraduate and PhD degrees in medicine. Several Indian Institutes of Information Technology are also coming up in different parts of the country.

In order to make information about these institutions quickly available to students and researchers within the country and abroad, many of these institutions have already created their homepages, many are in the process of creation. An overview of some of the important educationsl resources are given below.

EDUCATIONAL RESOURECS

Department of Education, Government of India website available at http://www.education.nic.in/htmlweb/main.htm provides information on National Policy on Education, details of various schemes, scholarships, educational statistics and so on.

It also provides links to Autonomous organizations, Institutions and Public Sector Undertakings under the Department, State Education Profile, Malpractice Alert, Publications, Announcements, etc.

Learning Basket for elementary, secondary, higher and technical education is also available at http://www.education.nic.in/htmlweb/ basket_school_ele.htm

University Grants Commission (UGC) website at http://www.ugc.ac.in provides information on UGC Regulations, Regional Offices, Schemes, Guidelines, Activities, Malpractice Cell, List of Universities and affiliated colleges.

The site also has a What's New section which provides information on new schemes of UGC.

Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID) at http://www.isidev.nic.in has the following multiple objectives:

• to provide an overview of the personality, the evolution, research thrust, main projects on hand and other research and educational activities of the ISID,

• to provide access to On-Line Index of research articles and other contributions published in 53 Indian social science journals since inception and Press Clipping Index to articles, editorials and news items in 14 prominent Indian English language newspapers,

• to dissiminate working papers and other research output of the Institute, and

• to establish a `Discussion Forum' at the ISID Website to facilitate interaction and debate on various developmental issues of current and theoretical importance.

A User Name and a Password are required to access the site. The registration is absolutely free for researchers and scholars and the registration form is available at http://164.100.9.232/CGI-BIN/DB2WWW/ISID/USERISI3.D2W/NEWUSR

Information and Library Network Centre (INFLIBNET), an autonomous Inter-University Centre (IUC) of University Grants Commission (UGC), is a gateway to India's academic and research community available at http://www.inflibnet.ac.in.

It is involved in creating infrastructure for sharing information among academic and R & D institutions. Its major activities include: Library Automation, Database Creation, Software Development, Human Resources Development, Information Services and Networking etc.

The site provides online search facility to Books, Thesis, Serials, Experts and Projects databases. The details of SOUL _ a Software for University Libraries _ a state-of-the-art Windows-based user-friendly library management software developed by INFLIBNET, is available at http://www.inflibnet.ac.in/soul1.html.

It also provides alphabetical listing of Indian universities with a link to universities homepages developed by INFLIBNET based on the data sent by them. INFLIBNET Newsletter is available at http://www.inflibnet.ac.in/newsletter.htm.

Academics-India at http://www.academics-india.com provides information on higher education in India. It provides details of scholarships, study loans and links to UGC, AICTE, MCI, NCTE, NCERT, CSIR, ICAR, and ICMR.

Also provides details of forms for IITs, IIMs, IISc and links to details of entrance examinations with results.

National Informatics Centre (NIC) website at http://www.nic.in provides a Directory of Government Websites designed and / or hosted by NIC in addition to their own profile. The directory also includes links to educational institutions/universities.

Educational Institutions Resource Bank of India at http://www.indiaedu.com provides listing of state-wise schools (preparatory, secondary), colleges (engineering, medical, graduates), universities and others (management, computers and others).

The site is developed by http://www.allwonders.com, an intellectual asset of Compare Infobase Pvt. Ltd.

A pathway to future, delhischools.com at http://delhischools.com provides area-wise listing of all public schools with address and phone numbers in Delhi. It is also a free helpline for children, parents, teachers and free career counseling.

It also provides details of over 50 career options, Education abroad, Jobs for teachers and faculties and so on.

Unesco at http://www.unesco.org provides information on Field of activity, Information and Documentation services, Documents, Statistics, Legal instruments, Publications, Current events and so on.

Unesco produces about 90 bibliographic, referral (directories, projects, etc.) and factual databases in its domains of competence (education, natural sciences, culture, social and human sciences, communication and information). The Directory of Unesco Databases is available at http://www.unesco.org/general/eng/infoserv/db/unesdata-form.html .

Some of the databases include:

• ALADIN (Adult Learning Documentation and Information Network)

• DARE (Worldwide references to social science research and training institutions, specialists, documentation and information services, and social science periodicals; references to peace, human rights and international law training and research institutions)

• Social Science Online Periodicals Online (Full Text) Provides free access to over 190 periodicals specialized in Social Sciences

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Information Today & Tomorrow, Vol. 19, No. 4, December 2000, p.13-p.15
http://itt.nissat.tripod.com/itt20004/ruoi2k04.htm