New set of guidelines for the educational sector

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the apex self-regulatory body for advertising content of the Indian advertising industry, has proposed a new set of guidelines for the educational sector.

The new guidelines will apply to ads of all educational institutions, coaching classes and educational programmes. The draft of the guidelines has been put up for review, feedback and suggestions on ASCI's official website — www.ascionline.org.

The Council has called its members, educationists, institutions and the general public, to send in their suggestions and feedback on the proposed guidelines by September 6 to The Secretary General of ASCI. According to Prof. Dhananjay Keskar, ASCI's Chairman and Director, IBS Pune, who also heads the committee for drafting the guidelines, ASCI has been receiving several intra-industry complaints against claims being made in ads of various educational institutions and many students and parents too have complained against claims made in advertisements by educational institutions.

Guidelines

The proposed guidelines prohibit institutions and programmes from claiming recognition, authorisation, accreditation, or affiliations without having proper evidence. The guidelines also require that the name and place of the Affiliated Institution, which provides degrees and diplomas on behalf of the Advertiser who may not be accredited by a mandatory authority, is also prominently displayed in the ad.

Under the guidelines, educational institutions will not be able to promise jobs, admissions, job promotions, salary increase, and so on without substantiating such claims and also assuming full responsibility in the same advertisement. It discourages institutions from claiming success in placements, student compensations, admission to renowned institutes, marks and rankings, and topper student testimonials unless every such claim is substantiated with evidence.
After September 6, and based on the feedback received from the public and concerned stakeholders, the ASCI Committee will finalise the guidelines and put it up for the ASCI Board's approval. Once the Board approves the final draft, the guidelines will become a part of the ASCI's Code for Self Regulation in Advertising.
source - Hindu Business Line

CFL campaign in Kerala enters final lap

The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) has entered the final stages of a ‘CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) campaign' aiming to distribute 1.5 crore energy-efficient CFL bulbs in the State in place of incandescent bulbs.

This is part of ‘Bachat Lamp Yojna' (BLY), the larger countrywide project and reputedly among world's largest such, approved under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The KSEB has already distributed 1.23 crore CFL bulbs, having covered the southern districts, says Mr Damodaran Namboodiri K. S., Chief Engineer, Corporate Planning.

Being implemented by the Energy Management Centre-Kerala (EMC), an autonomous centre under the Department of Power, the campaign is currently going live in the northern districts.

It is expected to close by Tuesday, Mr Namboodiri told Business Line here. Kerala is the first State to embrace the BLY idea and go the whole hog implementing it.

Demand reduction

According to Mr K. M. Dharesan Unnithan, Director, EMC, about 25 million light points in the State used to feature incandescent bulb connections.

By providing 1.5 crore CFLs, the technically possible reduction in demand has been estimated at nearly 690 MW. Effective reduction could be around 250 to 300 MW, giving allowance for the stock of CFL bulbs already in use.

The switchover to CFL bulbs in the State should enable the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of an estimated 30 lakh tonnes, Mr Unnithan said.

Lagging at times

On completion, the campaign effort would be audited and validated by the competent authority for deciding on the eligibility for issue of carbon credits.

According to Mr Namboodiri, the campaign has at times, lagged because of the ignorance of consumers in the rural areas of the State.

“It takes some time before they can fully comprehend the benefits flowing from the switch-over to energy-efficient CFL bulbs,” he said.

The BLY envisages the replacement of an estimated 400 million incandescent light bulbs countrywide. CFL bulbs are made available at a subsidised price of Rs 15 each (against actual cost of around Rs 100).

This is expected to lead to prevention of at least 40 million tonnes of carbon from being spewed into the atmosphere annually.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) is facilitating the implementation of the programme through respective electricity distribution companies (Discoms) in the State, with assistance from CFL suppliers.

The KSEB has estimated that electricity demand that peaked to 54.9 MU before the introduction of CFL, has come down to 49 MU after its introduction. Total number of domestic consumers in the State as on August 31, 2009, was 75 lakh.

source-The Hindu Business Line