At a glance

Honour for IndiaLONDON: Noted Indian educationist Prof Ram Takwale will be made an honorary graduate of the UK-based open university for ...

Honour for India

LONDON: Noted Indian educationist Prof Ram Takwale will be made an honorary graduate of the UK-based open university for his contribution to the development of distance education in India and throughout the world. A former vice-chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University IGNOU, Takwale will be awarded a D Univ at a graduation ceremony at Milton Keynes on June 30, university sources said on Thursday for 8220;radically reforming the curricula, shifting the focus from liberal arts to shorter-cycle vocational programmes and delivering training and education programmes at village level8221;.

Seeing the miasma early

LONDON: Opticians in UK have been told to throw away test contact lenses after each use amid fears they could transmit the human form of mad cow disease. The Department of Health said the order was made in a bid to prevent fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease CJD. Lenses designed for multiple use must now be discarded after just one test. CJD is the human formof bovine spongiform encephalopathy BSE, or mad cow disease. The order from Health Secretary Frank Dobson was on the advice of experts from a BSE advisory committee. Sir John Pattinson, chairman of the advisory committee, insisted it was a precautionary measure only, saying there was very little data available.

Running down architecture

SYDNEY: Sydney has been rebuked by some of Australia8217;s most prominent architects just as it makes preparations to impress the world with the 2000 Olympics. A Royal Australian Institute of Architects jury refused to hand out its 1999 civic works award after judging that none of the public works projects recently completed as part of Sydney8217;s primping for the Games deserved the prize. The jury also took repeated swipes at other new architecture projects during its awards dinner on Thursday night. Among them: the demolition of a state office complex which is being replaced by a new tower, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, and the city8217;s new American Expressbuilding.