To give a modern face lift to its distance education, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has entered into an agreement with Nokia to offer a Certificate English Course through Nokia phone. Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU said, “We will initially start this programme in six districts of Maharashtra. After six months, depending on the response, we will launch it on a national level.” The course education would be in functional English to be provided through SMS. Prof. Pillai further added, “we have entered into an exclusive agreement with Nokia for this programme. This is a first-of-its-kind collaboration to provide English education on a large scale.” Mr. D. Shivakumar, MD, Nokia India, said “Nokia's Ovi Life Tools is aimed at bridging information gaps by providing timely and relevant information customized to the user's location, language and personal preferences directly on their mobile devices.” Source: September, 2010, New Kerala

NIIT Imperia in alliance with Google India has launched 'Advanced Online Advertising' program for advertising and marketing. This programme is a Google-certified programme, which has been specially designed by Google experts to provide an in-depth knowledge of Google's global advertising program Google “AdWords” to the Indian advertising and marketing professionals. The program will commence on October 5, 2010 for which the last date for the registration of the program is September 21, 2010. Mr. Shraman Jha, Head, NIIT Imperia said, “"This is a strategic tie-up with Google that will enable NIIT to offer a structured training program in online advertising and marketing for the first time in India. Through this cutting edge training program we hope to create a pool of professionals trained in effective use of the online medium to ensure that the marketing budget is spent more effectively and measurably.” Source:  Digital Learning      

T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), a Mangalore-based B-school, has started the India Blue Ocean Strategy Research Centre in association with Blue Ocean Strategy Regional Centre, Malaysia. The primary aim of setting up this institute is to provide adequate training to corporates, students and faculty members. Dr. Saji Gopinath, Director of TAPMI said, “We believe that this institute will help industry, the student community and faculty for better understanding of the market strategies in the wake of ever-changing market dynamics.” Mr. Peter Tan, Blue Ocean Strategy Institute, Malaysia, said, “The cornerstone of blue ocean strategy is ‘value innovation’ and a blue ocean is created when a company achieves value innovation that creates value simultaneously for both the buyer and the company.” Source: September, 2010, Business Standard