GLOBAL EDUCATION FAIR BEGINS Hyderabad : - The 70th India International Education fair, basically focused to give information about the institutions, has begun here today at Taj Residency. The two-day fair, organised by Global Events and Expositions Private Limited (GEE), has been facilitated with 46 educational consultants in which 17 consultants are providers of overseas education, along with one bank, three educational magazines and the rest are Indian institutes. Mr. Siddharth Jain, Chief Marketing Operations, of GEE, said that the fair would afford primary information on education facilities abroad and in India. The Indira Gandhi Open University, the Russian University and the Luthivian University are the new entries in the fair. At present, three to four overseas universities were offering admissions directly, he said. The event, organised twice a year in Hyderabad, has drawn nearly 6000 aspirants to the fair last year and the conversion rate is 15 to 20 per cent, he informed. The educational institutions include American International College, Johnson and Wales University, Dubai Knowledge Village, British Institute of Technology and E Commerce, University of Applied Sciences, Mangalayatan University, ZIMA, University of St. Andrews, etc. Apart from educational universities, Indian Coast Guard and Indian Air Force were the two Indian government consultants present in the fair. They have been offering job-oriented courses at officer's levels. Lack of communication splits Indian business families: expert Hyderabad : Simplistic as it may sound, the lack of tradition and communication is responsible for splits in major Indian business families, says an academician who has studied the phenomena around the world. To prevent such splits that are often very messy, family-controlled Indian businesses could learn a lot from US and European models where even in third generation conglomerates there is a clear separation of ownership and management, says K. Ramachandran, associate dean for academic programmes at the premier Indian School of Business (ISB) here. "The role of the family in running a business is to a large extent controlled if there is a strong board of directors that presides over the company," Ramachandran told IANS. "In India, what it comes down to is lack of communication because of which there are differences in goals and therefore, a lack of prioritising," he said, specifically stating that he was not referring in particular to any of the big-ticket separations that have occurred in Indian business families in the past few years. The diversified Reliance conglomerate and pharmaceutical major Ranbaxy are some of the Indian family- controlled businesses that have split up in recent times. As for lack of tradition, this is more of a north Indian phenomenon, said Ramachandran. "In the south, family traditions are stronger because money is not the main issue. South Indian families play the role of a trustee where the main aim is to preserve the wealth and hand it over to the next generation," he maintained. "Then, the women don't get involved in the business but concentrate on playing a social role," he added. "It's not that women don't run businesses in the south. In fact, many of them operate some very successful family-run ventures. But in companies where the men dominate, the women generally stay away from the day-to-day affairs of the business," Ramachandran said. Thus, in spite of deep divisions within many businesses in the south, they have still managed to stay together for their common good, the academic explained. This, however, is not generally the case in the rest of India, he added. Pointing to the US model and its separation of ownership and management, Ramachandran said that in family-owned businesses, third generation siblings routinely get together to "elect" which one of them will serve on the company's board. "Europe has a mix where the proprietor element is strong in industries like brewing but even then a lot of operations are delegated to professional managers," stated Ramachandran, who is a Thomas Schmidheiny Fellow of Family Business and Wealth Management at ISB. So, as India globalises what would be the ideal model for the country? One could be the holding company route, Ramachandran said. "Let's say there are three brothers. All of them will have shares in the holding company. This will ensure they do not create silos but that each one of them will be running a business and bringing in profits to the venture. "In this way, everyone moves to a higher corporate level," he added. The other could be the venture capitalist route for the new generation entrepreneur. "The venture capitalist puts in the money but leaves the running of the company to the entrepreneur who has the professionally acquired skills to do so. In this way, everyone is happy," Ramachandran said. Decision on IIM general category admission soon New Delhi : The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) will decide later Wednesday on allowing admission to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) before May 8 - when the Supreme Court will hear its plea to revive the quota law. After meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh indicated that the six IIMs may be allowed to release the admission list for the general category aspirants first but the final decision in this regard would be taken by the CCPA later Wednesday evening. The admission process at the prestigious business schools has been held up due to the March 29 Supreme Court stay on the government's law reserving 27 percent seats for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in all centrally funded institutes of higher learning. The apex court will hear the government's plea May 8. Arjun Singh briefed the prime minister on the vexed issue of admissions to IIM. "The prime minister was of the view that since the decision to put the admission on hold was taken collectively, the decision to allow admission should also be a collective one," he told reporters. "Since all top leaders of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) are the members of the CCPA, so it will be a collective decision of the alliance," Arjun Singh added. The minister denied there were differences between his ministry and the law ministry over the issue of including the 'creamy layer' of OBCs in the quota. He said there was no pressure on him to hold any decision till May 8. He, however, said: "Now in a changed scenario, the question is whether we can grant permission for admission to the unreserved category like previous years, and take up the reserved category when the issue is resolved." HRD ministry seeks PM's advice on IIM admissions New Delhi :  Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh is seeking the advice of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on whether they should allow the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to put out the first admission list before May 8. The process has been held up due to a stay on the government's quota law reserving 27 percent of seats for other backward classes (OBCs) in institutes of higher learning. "After the chief justice of India listed the centre's petition seeking vacation of stay on the quota law for a hearing May 8, all top officials of the HRD ministry went for a closed door meeting," said a source in the ministry. "There were two major issues discussed in the meeting - what if the admission process is delayed beyond May 8 and should they allow IIMs to put out the first list," he added. The source said that finally all the top officials, including the minister, decided to seek the advice of the prime minister. "The minister had already met the prime minister. In all likelihood, the ministry may give a positive answer to the IIMs by this evening," he said. The chief justice Tuesday accepted a petition by the government seeking vacation of the stay on the quota law. After a two-judge bench rejected the government petition Monday, the HRD ministry had appealed to the chief justice to vacate the stay Tuesday. Meanwhile, the authorities at IIM-Ahmedabad said they were hopeful of a "quick decision". "There is a sense of confusion among the students, professors and overall in the campus. We have expressed our grievance to the authorities," said a senior professor at the institute. "If the admission process is delayed, then there will two major problems - either the course will have to be shortened or the staff-starved IIMs would have to work harder to fulfil the loss of time. In both cases, there will be loss of quality," he added. "We hope we will have a decision at the earliest." NRI's homework clicks on online tutorials New Delhi : Tuitions have just gone online courtesy an NRI mother's initiative to help schoolchildren in the US and Canada who can, at the click of a mouse, now learn maths or English and finish their homework. Tutornext.com, the brainchild of Anu Bhave, an MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) graduate settled in the US, is a one-stop solution to all study woes faced by parents of schoolchildren. When faced with the problem of not being able to find a tutor for her child, Bhave created an online tutoring portal for children in the US and Canada. Just over 100 days old, tutornext.com has more than 200 students registered in various age groups. With the teaching outsourced mostly to India, most tutors are from Bangalore, while some are from Hyderabad and New Delhi. The programme fees vary from $25 an hour to $75-100 a month. Sanjeev Govindan, one of the four people who run the website, said: "Right now we are offering help only to people in the US and Canada because it's most difficult to get a tutor to come home and teach your child there. "Moreover it's a very expensive affair. But we will soon be spreading our services to other parts of the world and to India as well." In India, which does not have a dearth of tutors, the site may not gain the popularity it has in the other two countries, he added. More sought after for math tutoring than English, the site offers various programmes. For instance, there is a programme that gives students worksheets every week and an online session with a tutor. Both the tutor as well as the student can solve a math sum on the screen. There is also a programme in which a student can get help to complete his homework. Besides helping him complete the assignment, the tutor - sitting miles away - also helps him understand the concepts. "The best thing about this concept is that a person does not have to abide by strict timings. You can choose to sit for a session in the comfort of your home, after a game of baseball or after dinner. But we have to know the time in advance so that the session is fixed with the same tutor," said Govindan. Added Bhave: "I love what I do. I'm helping students reach their potential and enjoy learning, as well as giving some time back to busy parents along the way. What could be better than that?"