Here is a word of assurance for the candidates who have cleared the AIEEE and are now seeking admission into private engineering colleges of the State.

The fee structure meant for the JEE would also apply to AIEEE candidates. There will be no separate fee structure for the candidates seeking admission through the AIEEE route, Special Secretary, Industries Department, Vijay Arora said.

The fees for different professional programmes, recommended by Fee Structure Committee and notified by the State Government on July 12, covers them too, he said.

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Students are less likely to smoke if their high schools are near stores that sell high-priced cigarettes, have few in-store cigarette promotions and post health warnings, suggests a University of British Columbia-led study.

The survey of 81 schools in five provinces was published in the July-August issue of the Canadian Journal of Public Health.

It examined retail stores within a one-kilometre radius of schools in British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland, Ontario and Quebec.

More : business-standard.com/

The states entrance exam to engineering and medical institutions, the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination (WBJEE) will no longer determine entry to Bengal Engineering and Science University once it gains Institute of National Importance (INI). Students would henceforth be enrolled in this institute through an all India level examination.

The entrance to Besu may either be through All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) or through a separate all India entrance examination. A 50 per cent reservation would however be offered to students of the state. So long WBJEE was the sole gateway to Besu as it did not enrol students through AIEEE quota. With Besu leaving the JEE fold, it would be left with only two universities ~ Jadavpur University and West Bengal University of Technology.

Although the details of the entrance examination are yet to be drawn, the higher education minister, Prof. Sudarshan Roy Choudhury said that while opting for Besu students of the state will get a better chance in comparison to their counterparts in other states. There would be domicile option for applicants and half the number of seats would be offered to state students, said Prof Roy Choudhury, minister of higher education. He however failed to elaborate on whether there would be an increase in the intake of students.

More : thestatesman.net/

The state has finally given its nod in favour of upgrading Bengal Engineering and Science University to Institute of National Importance (INI) status. After upgradation, the institute would be renamed as Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST).

Admission procedure to gain entry into these institutes will be through a national level entrance test such as IIT-JEE or AIEEE but there would be 50 per cent reservation for students of the state. The governing body of the institute will have one state representative. Admission procedure and governance were the two issues due to which the INI status had been pending for so long. Finally, the state and the Centre seems to have arrived at a common consensus on these two issues.

With the INI status being conferred, the Union ministry of human resource development, and not the state government, will be the primary financier. The institute will receive a one-time grant of Rs 519.55 crore as well as a recurring annual grant of Rs 47.31 crore.

More : .thestatesman.net

The ongoing tussle between the State government and the Council of Architecture (CoA), regarding the compulsory introduction of the National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA), was further intensified by a letter from the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) on July 9. The letter reassures the State government that theres no provision in the Architects Act, 1972 whereby CoA can make the aptitude test compulsory.

The matter relating to holding of NATA by CoA and making it compulsory for all architectural institutions has been examined in detail by the ministry in consultation with the ministry of law, states the letter.

The dispute started several months ago when the State government refused to accept NATA at government and government-aided colleges for admissions to Bachelor of Architecture (BArch), which was made mandatory by CoA from 2007 onwards.

More : cities.expressindia.com

THE procedure for admissions to engineering and pharmacy colleges (other than the five autonomous colleges) will begin from Tuesday. This includes government-aided colleges, as well as unaided colleges that have consented to be a part of the Centralised Admission Procedure (CAP).

From Tuesday, online application forms will be made available on the website of the Directorate of Technical Education www.dte.org.in

The online application form will be available only for those students who have not confirmed their admission to the autonomous institutes, the procedure for which began on June 8.

More : cities.expressindia.com

This year students can choose from an array of 32 courses in Engineering and Technology and four courses in Architecture and Planning through the AIEEE. In addition to the 18 National Institutes of Technology, there are many other nationally reputed institutes including Deemed Universities that admit students based on this examination conducted by the CBSE. Last year, more than four lakh students contested selection for the 10,000 seats across India. In 2005, there were 150 questions 75 in Physics and Chemistry. And another 75 in Mathematics. In 2005, the first and the last 10 questions in each subject area carried a weightage of 1.5 marks and 4.5 marks, respectively. The questions in between carried a weightage of three marks each. This was a surprise change introduced last year. Another change is that students opting for Architecture courses need not take Physics at the 10+2 level. All said and done, the fundamental difference in the approach between the CBSE Board Exam and the AIEEE is for the Boards, you need to demonstrate your sequential thinking on paper whether it is through steps or text or diagrams. However, in AIEEE, you have to demonstrate your ability in short-circuiting these steps.

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