Schumer told The Associated Press that the win shows that states making “hard choices” will be rewarded by the federal government.

New York missed out on $700 million in the first round, but has since increased the number of charter schools and made other improvements in schools and their governance, changes that the state’s politically influential teachers’ unions initially blocked.

“New York’s schools have made strong strides towards excellence and this grant will accelerate that progress,” said Schumer, who had met with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on New York’s proposal. “This is great news for parents, teachers, and taxpayers across the state.”

Schumer spokesman Max Young said part of the senior senator’s argument to Duncan was that denying New York the grant after it made changes to its application would have a “chilling effect” on reform movements in other states.

The grant will be critical during a fiscal crisis that forced a $1.4 billion cut in school aid in the current state budget, about a 5 percent cut in aid to public schools. “New York is now reaping the fruits of doing right by its students when it raised the statewide cap on charter schools, instituted a new teacher evaluation system based on student achievement data, and raised performance expectations on state exams.”

A statewide foundation that promotes charter schools and other reforms including using student achievement in teacher evaluations warned that winning the money is just part of the equation.

“While New York proposed a strong, coherent set of promising reforms in its application, it remains to be seen what reform options individual districts will end up fully implementing,” said B. Jason Brooks, director of research and communications at the Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability. “The potential long-term impact this funding will have on student achievement really comes down to local leadership and a willingness to abandon the status quo.”

The number of charters available for the innovative public schools run by private entities will increase to 460 over four years, from the current 200.

New York was among nine states and the District of Columbia awarded grants Tuesday. Eighteen states and the district were finalists.

Lawmakers and Gov. David Paterson agreed in March to expand opportunities for opening more charter schools and take other steps, working with the Board of Regents, Education Commissioner David Steiner and New York City schools Chancellor Joel Klein. The number of charters available for the innovative schools will increase to 460 over four years, from the current 200.

In May, Duncan said New York’s charter school cap cost the state 13 points off the rating on its first grant application. The state placed 15th out of 16 states that applied. Duncan said New York had a “great chance” to win a grant in the second round.

Paterson, legislative leaders and Steiner declined immediate comment.

Last month, the federal education department provided more than $814 million in education stimulus money specifically to avoid thousands of teacher layoffs.

Currently Indian origin students account for about 10 percent of the enrolment at the Ted Rogers School of Management, which is Canada’s largest undergraduate management school and sits right in the heart of the country’s financial hub here.

According to Ken Jones, dean of the school, the university has set up an India strategy group, which also includes prominent Indo-Canadians, to chalk out its plans for India.

“We have an India strategy group and I expect that we will be going to India in the new year with our India strategy in place,” Jones told the sources.

“India is on our radar for a whole series of reasons: not only that we have a large Indo-Canadian community which is a good fit. But we have made a commitment to linking the Ted Rogers School to that country. We have a large number ofIndian students (born here) and India is a fast growing economy,” the dean said.

He said, “Though Indian origin students – numbering more than 500 – account for about 10 percent of the undergraduate courses, there are not many from India. But there are quite a few from India in the masters courses. These numbers will grow as the government has taken initiatives to have more international students.”

Jones said his school plans to offer its world class courses in retail management and hospitality and tourism to India students.

“One of our strengths is retail management and there is a huge burgeoning retail economy in India. Hospitality and tourism is another area which will benefitIndian students. I was told this sector will create 40 million new jobs in India,” he said.

Ruling out campuses by his school in India, he said, “Unlike Toronto-based York University’s Schulich School of Business which has set up a campus in India, our strategy is to partner with select Indian universities, with faculty going back and forth and researchers working on joint projects in the two countries.

To begin with, he said, his school will concentrate on tie-ups with universities in highly accessible big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

Referring to the recent signing of nuclear and other deals and visits by many Indian leaders, he said, “Suddenly, there seems to be a huge interest by the government of India to do something with Canada.

“Canada is on their radar now. And here not only the federal Canadian government but also provinces are starting to take India seriously – we sort of sat back whereas countries like Australia were being really aggressive in India.”

Unlike other countries, he said, Canada offered “a welcoming environment” to international students. “But there has to be addressing of some fundamental issues of visas and residence for international students. These are for the government, not for the school. But if Canada is serious about global competitiveness, they have to do it.

Covering popular streams like arts, medicine, engineering and MBA among others, the survey also threw up cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Pune as popular edu- destinations.

Talking about carrying out the first ever study of this nature, Kavita Iyer, CEO and Co-founder Minglebox.com said that while there have been surveys earlier to determine the top colleges across streams, there have not been any that take into account a student’s perception of where they would like to study and for what streams.

Carried out among 2190 students between the age group of 18-25, the online survey included respondents from tier I as well as tier II cities. 40 per cent of the respondent belonged to smaller cities not only going to prove that students from these centers where actively seeking information online, but also that they were willing to make the move to a new city to pursue better education.

“Understanding the pulse of the Indian students has always been the forte of Minglebox.com, India’s number one education portal. Our reach to nearly 4 milllion students through the Minglebox.com network gives us constant insights into the needs and aspirations of Indian students. The aspirations of the Indian student community have grown immensely over the years and they are looking for the best education options. The findings of the study are a reflection of that,” elaborated Iyer.

Some of the key findings of the survey were as follows:

Delhi best for arts: 35 per cent of the students voted the capital as the best destination to pursue a degree in arts. It was followed by Mumbai (16%) Chennai and Bangalore (9%).

Delhi best for commerce: Delhi also emerged as the favorite for commerce students at 31 per cent, followed by Mumbai (20%) and Bangalore (13%).

Delhi best for Medicine: The capital was a clear winner even among medical aspirants with 30 per cent of the respondents voting for the city. The other top cities included Bangalore (15%), Chennai (14%) and Mumbai (13%).

Bangalore best for science: 20 per cent of the students chose Bangalore as the best destination for a science degree, while the other top destinations were Delhi (20%) and Chennai (13%) respectively.

Bangalore best for engineering (outside of the IITs and RECs): In keeping with the perception that science related courses are best provided in the south of India, the IT hub was the favorite edu-destination for engineering as well with 29 per cent of the respondent opting for the city. The other top cities included Delhi (16%) and Chennai (15%)

Bangalore best for MBA (outside of the IIMs): The city again scored high with B-school aspirants as 18 per cent of the students chose Bangalore. Close on its heels however are Delhi (18%), Mumbai (16%) and Pune (16%)

The survey also highlighted why students wanted to shift to new cities and reasons why they did not want to make that shift. Close to half the students wanted to pursue their education in a new city to gain experience in being independent (49%) while the lack of options in one’s own city (30%) and desire to experience staying away from home(18%) made up for the other reasons.

On the flipside, factors like high costs of studying (36%), unfamiliarity with courses and colleges (25%), safety issues (18%) and parental pressures (9%) are factors that prevent students from relocating to a new city.

“Our universities manage to produce a large number of Ph.Ds. But what about the value of these degrees? If we do not fix the problem of quality we will face the prospect of being left behind in a world racing towards a knowledge society?” he said.

He was speaking at the 78th annual convocation of the Osmania University held at the Tagore Auditorium here on Tuesday.

“The great challenge before the universities is to access this knowledge and to mould it in a manner amenable to our societal needs and requirements. If this challenge can be successfully met, India can maintain its intellectual leadership and occupy its rightful place among the comity of nations. I believe that we could together strive to change the things for the better and to make ours a great nation,’’ he said.

Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University T.Tirupati Rao speaking on the occasion focussed on the achievements and initiatives of the university.“The primary focus in our efforts is a shift from teacher-centric teaching to student-centric mode. This is facilitated by interventions and innovations such as choice-based credit system, project work, assignments, seminars, enrichment of classroom teaching, continuous evaluation, student mentoring and feedback.

There is an overwhelming support and positive response to this move from the staff and students. There is discernible improvement in the quality of teaching- learning processes among the students,“ he said.

Rao also informed that the university figured among the top ten universities of the country according to the recent India Today-Nielsen survey.

The chief guest Sukhadeo Thorat, chairman, University Grants Commission, threw some light on the activities of the government in the field of higher education.

“The government of India has taken steps for the expansion of higher education as a part of 11th plan 2007-2012.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, termed Eleventh Plan as ‘Education Plan’. The high priority to higher education is reflected in setting a target of 15 percent enrolment rate which is equivalent to seven million more students by 2012. This is an ambitious target and so far as we have achieved an increase in enrolment rate from about 1% in 1950 to about 11% in 2007,’’ Thorat observed.

Successful candidates were conferred degrees and gold medals were awarded to those who excelled in the examinations.

A total of 967 candidates registered for counselling, in all four centres put together. 488 candidates registered at JNTUH, 142 at AU, 98 at SVU and 239 at NTRUHS. Counselling will be held on Monday for ranks 1001 to 2500.