The helplines for CBSE schools have found a lot of takers not only among students but also among the parents.

With the board exams having already kickstarted, the helplines have registered a number of calls from anxious parents.

Experts agreed that parents too need counselling ahead of exams on how to guide children without stressing them out. "Parents need more help on how to prepare their child for exams as well as support them," Dr Srinivasa Murthy, counsellor, CBSE helpline said.

After creating history on March 13, 2006, when 34-year-old Wahida Prizm from the militancy-ridden state of J&K became the first commissioned lady officer to command a parade in the armed forces in the country, the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) is all set to repeat the feat.

This time, a lady medical cadet, Harleen Chopra, hailing from Ludhiana, will command the parade on Thursday at the premier military institution in Pune.

AFMC spokesperson Lt Col Abhijit Rudra confirmed that Harleen is all set to become the first lady cadet ever to command a passing out parade (PoP) in the history of the Indian Armed Forces. Harleen joined the AFMC in 2004.

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.