TOWARDS A BIO-DEGRADABLE PLASTIC

A team of three students at NIT Raipur created a material out of starches that could potentially be a substitute for plastic.

STAYING RELEVANT BY UPSKILLING ONLINE

Why upskilling is not a matter of choice anymore but of survival.

HOW THEY SHOT UP

Despite initial struggle, the eight second-generation IITs set up in 2008 have matured in under a decade. Careers360 looks at how they did it.

BEING AN EXCEPTIONAL TEACHER

Most engineering programmes hope to achieve what Jayashri Ravishankar does. Ravishankar, who teaches at Australia’s University of New South Wales, has found a way to keep a very large and diverse student body engaged by developing “research-led and professionally relevant” strategies that have now been adopted elsewhere. An electrical engineer with a special interest in renewable energy and micro-grids, Ravishankar earlier taught at Anna University, Tamil Nadu for a decade. In 2019, she received a citation from the Australian Awards for University Teaching for ‘Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning’. It acknowledges her as one of “Australia’s most exceptional university teachers”. She spoke to Careers360 about how engineering must be taught so that students are engaged and come out job-ready.

EXPLAINER: THE FIGHT OVER OBC RESERVATION

A court battle is on over OBC reservation in the AIQ seats in state medical colleges. What is the controversy about?

BACK INTO THE FOLD

How a government programme is helping women in science and tech who have faced a career break get back on track.

AIR, WATER, SOIL: ENGINEERING COLLEGES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

State engineering colleges are working to address environmental challenges in their backyards.

Online Admissions: Easy For All?

Online admissions have relieved the universities of a huge burden. But the process is less convenient for poor and rural students.

UNIVERSITIES OF THEIR OWN

India’s 16 women’s universities are training women to thrive, not just in professions typically associated with women, but also in science and tech.

PROTESTS, POLICE, PUNISHMENT

Students have been at the forefront of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019. They have also been at the receiving end of the state’s efforts to push back.

OUTSIDE LABORATORIES

Some of the most elite research institutions in the country are engaged in explaining what they do to school children and the public.

MEGA UNIVERSITIES

The five largest universities in India have 4,209 affiliated colleges and centres among them.

IMPERMANENT STAFF

What does having thousands of ad hoc appointments mean for a public university, its teachers and students?

GOING DIGITAL

The Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Kerala is becoming a ‘digital university’. The digital world will dictate what it teaches and how.

BEYOND TECH

The IITs have begun the transformation from premier science and tech schools to multidisciplinary institutions

BEING NON-BINARY AT WORK

A new consultancy is helping members of the LGBTQI+ community find work in friendly firms. But many participants of a job fair in February had already had bruising experiences at the workplace.

COLLEGES @HOME

Seven universities have been permitted to launch full-fledged degr programmes online. What are their plans?

Democracy In Action

Run by activists who fought for the right to information, Loktantrashala in Bhim, Rajasthan, shows students how laws work on the ground.

How The Mechanism For Training Lawyers Is Changing

As the legal discourse responds to growth and transformations in other fields – most obviously, in technology – here’s a look at how the mechanism for training lawyers is also changing.

How Important Is English?

The short answer: very. Law is also taught in the vernacular medium, but there are challenges.

THE CLEAN-UP PLAN BY BCI

Suspecting that a large number of advocates hold fake degrees, the legal education regulator, Bar Council of India, has launched a country-wide verification process. The BCI has also imposed a three-year ban on new colleges during which it will take stock. It will plan the development of new colleges and shut down “nonperforming” ones. Speaking to Careers360, Satish Abarao Deshmukh, vice-chairman, BCI, said that 30 colleges have been served show-cause notices for flouting faculty-recruitment norms and may be facing closure.

LEGAL AID CLINICS: IN NEED OF AID

An important way of introducing students to the practical application of laws, why are legal aid clinics of state law colleges faltering?

HOW MURAKHALI GOT A LAWYER

IDIA has supported youths from India’s most marginalised communities through law school and in doing so, placed legal assistance within their reach. That’s how a West Bengal village got its only lawyer.

BATTLE OVER FEES

Two candidates and a premier fashion design institute have been locked in a court battle over fee refund for more than a decade.

ALLIES IN A CRISIS

Around 175 students from law schools across the country joined Parichay, a platform set up by five NLUs to assist Assam lawyers representing those left out of the NRC.

CYBER LAW: ‘NEW LEGISLATIONS WILL INCREASE DEMAND FOR CYBER LAWYERS

New laws on data protection, compulsory disclosure of security breaches and others will also mean new career avenues for cyber lawyers.

‘MY PARENTS PAID FOR HOTELS, FOOD AND TRAVEL'

Why a 23-year-old woman left her “very interesting” first job with a non-profit? Her team was bullied by its leader and she was reimbursed months later for thousands spent on work trips.

A NEET Scam

Experts suggest better use of technology and further centralisation of the exam’s management. Some want a reset to the old system of state exams.

From Jhola To Briefcase?

The introduction of engineering and management to JNU has been controversial. Their launch was hasty, interest in engineering is waning, and they can alter the campus culture shaped by students and staff over decades.

IIM Graduates Debut With Degrees

Indian Institutes of Management that used to grant postgraduate diplomas are now granting degrees thanks to the IIM Act. What di­erence does it make to graduates?