The annual music concert held in memory of Indian singer Mohamed Rafi will be held at Concorde Hotel, near Crazy Signal, Airport road, tomorrow. Doha Waves, which is organising ‘Rafi ki Yadein 2013’ said the concert, being held for the 16th year, will see many singers of the Indian expatriate community performing. The four-hour concert will also give an opportunity to budding singers to render Rafi’s songs, Doha Waves chairman Mohamed Thoyyib said. The show starts at 7pm.
India revives proposal for IIT model
India’s proposal to set up an International Institute of Technology (IIT) in Qatar has been revived after a lull of nearly two years, according to a report published in the widely circulated The Times of India.
The paper reported yesterday that the Qatari government had showed interest in the IIT during the visit of finance minister P Chidambaram to Qatar last month.
When contacted, an official at Doha’s Indian embassy said the issue of setting up an IIT in Qatar is very much “alive”.
The Indian HRD ministry has proposed that Sanjay G Dhande, former director of Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur who prepared the initial proposal for the institute, be deputed to develop the project report.
The newspaper said Dhande had said the IIT-Qatar, to be set up with the help of Indian Institute of Technology, has to be different. “IITs have got national stature but never displayed their quality internationally. This would be the first attempt to pitch the tent outside India,” he said.
According to Dhande, IIT-Qatar would be completely international in approach and emphasise on post-graduate education. “It cannot be a carbon copy of 16 IITs across India. Also, outside India, there would be freedom to do things that are not possible in India due to natural constraints,” said Dhande.
The faculty for IIT-Qatar would be drawn from Indian diaspora all over the world. Teachers from IITs would also teach on a temporary basis.
When the proposal was moved in 2009, it was decided that the institute would be set up with the help of the IIT Council, the supreme body of IITs. It was decided to have management faculty in IIT-Qatar. The funding was to be done through Qatar Foundation while academic and intellectual resources were to be provided by the IIT Council. A joint task force, consisting of members of IIT Council as well as Qatar Foundation, was to be set up to prepare the detailed project report, it said.
In early 2010, a detailed proposal was sent to Qatar. The Indian government raised the issue again in the joint high-level monitoring mechanism meeting between Indian and Qatar teams in 2011. Qatar was supposed to name its nominees to the joint task force but no response came. “The Indian government is keen. We look forward to early resolution of all the issues so that the proposed international institute comes up early,” sources said.
Call for strict implementation of safety norms in schools
Several citizens have lauded the instructions issued by the Supreme Education Council (SEC) on the implementation of safety measures by private kindergartens and schools in order to prevent fires and other accidents and also for including them on the list of schools benefiting from the educational coupons system, local daily Al-Sharq has reported.
Private schools that are not implementing the safety standards will not benefit from this system, as decided by the council. The SEC’s directives are aimed at saving the lives of children in schools and kindergartens, according to the report.
Citizens have demanded stringent implementation of the safety measures as a condition for continuation of the schools’ activities and the imposition of harsh punishment on erring schools, the report says. According to a citizen, the SEC should strictly monitor the schools in this regard, adding that proper enforcement of the guidelines is what is required.
Another citizen said the schools and kindergartens must implement the safety norms under the supervision of the General Directorate of Civil Defence to avoid a repeat of the Villaggio fire tragedy, according to the report.
Construction of bridge from F-Ring Road to Al Mamoura
The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has diverted traffic by installing a new traffic signal some 200m from the Mesaimeer Roundabout towards the Industrial Area so as to facilitate infrastructure development in the area, local daily Arrayah has reported.
The diversion will continue until early 2015 and facilitate the completion of road works and the construction of a bridge from F-Ring Road to Al Mamoura, the report says. The diversion involves providing an alternative to the road going from the Mesaimeer Roundabout towards Al Wakrah, passing through the Religions Compound on Mesaimeer Road.
A source from Ashghal has said the diversion will help ensure smooth traffic movement to and from the Mesaimeer Roundabout and prevent traffic jams that may have been caused by infrastructure development in the area, especially construction of the bridge.
According to the source, the closed section will see work on F-Ring Road, including the construction of four-lane tracks, service roads and intersections, the report says.
