Four NMIMS students' idea won the prize at the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition in the US

"We offered a Nano-type food product for the slumdwellers and it won a global award," said a jubilant Sreejit NG.

Sreejit and his colleagues Ankit Jain, Siddharth Bedi, Rahul Kumar Agrawal — all students of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) — won the $10,000 grand prize at the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition (GSEC) at the University of Washington Foster School of Business. The product they offered was a full nutritious meal for slumdwellers containing rice, lentils, vegetable peels and jaggery for just Rs5.

As students twitter away in their board exam answer sheets, a problem of 'ggntic' proportions is in the making. When these answers end up with SMS-illiterate moderators, not only will they be left fazed, but given the lack of an official stand on the matter, will also have to individually determine whether 'textisms' are acceptable or not.

It is not that the students are unaware of the pitfalls of writing 'Us' and '2s', but hundreds of quick-fire smses seem to have formed an unbreakable habit, and try as they may, SMS lingo creeps in unconsciously.

The ban on carrying mobile phones and other sophisticated gadgets inside the examination rooms is reason enough for schools to cheer, as they feel the move has considerably checked use of unfair means during examinations this year. If the past two years have witnessed a steep rise in cases of unfair copying, then high-tech gadgetry was to be blamed, they opine.

Painter MF Husain is "irrelevant" in Himachal Pradesh and "does not inspire" its schoolchildren. So, the BJP government in the state has decided to do away with a chapter on the painter in the class XI Hindi book prescribed by the NCERT.

The decision was taken on the recommendation of a committee constituted by the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education to study the contents of the NCERT book.

Board chairman Chaman Lal Gupta said the chapter on Husain would be replaced with one on painter Sobha Singh. He said Singh would make more sense to students in Himachal Pradesh because he was based in the state and incorporated Himachali culture in his paintings.

The women who lend their voices to prepare reference material for blind students say the emphasis is on a clear and loud voice, but at the same time the narration should be slow so that a student can grasp it well. The pronunciation should also be clear. The director of BPA, Saroj Kapoor, said many volunteer for the job, but usually for a short stint. "The women we have now are among those who have invested their time and have patiently served the institute," said Kapoor.

Sonal Gandhi, 44, helps the students in revising English and has been recording material for them for 14 years.

Many A’bad women are investing time & wisdom to record audio-books for visually impaired

They could have chosen to sit at home, idly watching soap operas on TV. Some homemakers in the city, however, decided to use their spare time constructively and, in doing so, have given themselves a new identity. They volunteered to lend their voices to record study materials in various subjects. The recordings are used by visually impaired students to understand and master subjects for examinations.