IGNOU to give its students ebook readers

Indira Gandhi National Open University will supply ebook readers pre-loaded with study material to its MBA students within six months.

The move is aimed at enabling students to carry the required material without having to carry 10-15 books. The move is also intended to reduce the consumption of paper.

Prof V N Rajasehekharan Pillai, vice chancellor of IGNOU, said, "We want to provide ebook readers to our students. These devices have become cheaper and we are looking to include it in our study material to reduce the number of books our student needs to carry, it will also help us reduce paper consumption."
He added that IGNOU is talking to a number of technology providers to supply these ebooks. He said, "We believe that we will get these books at affordable price as the numbers generated by us will be in millions, and will help in reduction of prices by increasing the economies of scale."

IGNOU is also planning a number of initiatives in the wake of 3G and BWA service launches, which will enable it to deliver richer content directly to its students.

Full report here Telecomyatra

Ignou's food for thought

Be it xukoti (a dish made of jute leaves and rice) or chicken cooked in rice powder in Assam, Bengal's puli pithe and Hydrabadi jahaji korma or dum ke baigan and many more, these dying cuisines from different regions of India may come back to the dining table. Lip-smacking ilish macher paturi, puran poli, eromba, iddyappam, puttu kadala, khar or goan patolleo, etc will soon be subjects of study at the Indira Gandhi National Open University's Maidan Garhi campus in New Delhi.

After getting the go-ahead by the board of management and academic council recently, Ignou will soon set up a first of its kind culinary institute in India that will offer courses in Indian gastronomy and regional cuisines.

According to Ignou vice-chancellor, V N Rajasekharan Pillai, the introduction of the new courses will help in documenting, preserving, developing and promoting India's regional cuisines. "Every region or state has a cuisine that is unique. With the passage of time, some of the most authentic recipes are already lost or dying. They need to be documented. That apart, the institute will offer professional programmes starting from certificate courses to PhD. It will also offer MBA with specialization in Indian culinary art.''

Full report here Times of India 

IGNOU to hold folk literature seminar

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will hold a National Seminar on Traditions of Folk in Literature on Aug 30-31, at its Maidan Garhi campus in Delhi.

Some of the important disciplines in this seminar may be: Folklore Literature, Critical Theory, Culture Theory, Feminism, Gender Studies, Museum Studies, Popular Culture Studies and Language Studies etc.

The dialogue of this seminar may be created through a discussion of some important literary texts from folklore literature covering folk novels, folk poetry, folk tales and folk theatre.

Full report here India Blooms

Namwar Singh unravels democracy in literature

"Our democracy may be in danger, but the democracy in Literature is thriving. Literature does not recognize caste, gender or colour. It does not follow the rules of society," declared Prof. Namwar Singh, noted litterateur and recipient of the Sahitya Academy Award.

He was delivering the Fourth Silver Jubilee Lecture on 'The Democracy of Literature: Place of the Marginalised', organized by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) at the Convention Centre in its main campus.

The focus of the lecture was on various stages in the history of conflict between society and literature. Prof. Singh stressed that Literature is democratic. He presented several examples from the writings of prominent Hindi writers like Nirala, Sudama Pandey ‘Dhumil'. He read out from the poems of the above writers to illustrate how they placed 'Dalits’in their compositions.

Full report here India Edunews

Women writers celebrate Women's Day at IGNOU

International Women's Day was celebrated at the Indira Gandhi National Open University's (IGNOU) Convention Centre with eminent women writers in the discussion panel such as Dr. Lakshmi Kanan, a renowned Tamil poet and fiction writer, Maitreyi Pushpa, a writer who started feminist discourse in Hindi literature and Rekha Awasthi, a literary critic in Hindi literature, presided over by the IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai.

In his presidential address, Professor Pillai said, "There is a crying need for education at all levels for women, especially in the fields of skill development, science and technology and small scale industries. There are schemes in the government in these areas, but implementation lags behind. IGNOU has the requisite programmes for facilitating these activities. It can also promote awareness about women's rights, and take it to the grassroots."

Full report here India Edunews