Amity University organized its 7th Convocation, spread over three days ie. December 14-16, 2011 at Amity Campus, Sector-125, Noida.
Mr. Atul Chauhan- Chancellor, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh announced the commencement of Convocation 2011 and Maj. Gen K J Singh- Vice Chancellor, Continue reading
The government funded Dr. Zakir Husain Memorial Trust, which runs the college, decided to change the name of the Zakir Husain College. The new name – Zakir Hussain Delhi College – will be officially declared in January 2012. Continue reading
Delhi Police today claimed to have smashed a gang of pickpockets with the arrest of four youths, including a Delhi University student, and recovery of 18 stolen mobile phones and Rs 50,000 cash. The arrested have been identified as Shehzada Kashif (26), Ravi Kumar (34), Shehzada Ashiq (32) and Varun Thakral (22). Thakral, who is doing graduation from Delhi University, allegedly received the stolen articles from the gang. “The gang operates generally in congested Metro Trains running between Raja Garden, Kashmere Gate and Rajouri Garden Metro Stations. With their arrest, 10 cases of pick pocketing have been worked out. 18 mobile phones and Rs 50,000 have been recovered from them,” DCP (Crime) Ashok Chand said. Kashif, Kumar and Ashiq were arrested from Kashmere Gate last Friday when they came there to sell stolen mobile phones. Thakral was arrested following their interrogation. “They used to target victims travelling alone. The three members of the gang surround the victim while the fourth picked the pocket. The fourth member of the gang Wasim is absconding,” Chand said. Thakral owns a mobile shop in Gaffar Market and he allegedly purchased stolen mobile phones from the gang and further sold them to his contacts in Agra and Ludhiana
Delhi University reached the finals of the All-India Inter University Men’s Tennis Tournament after a nine-and-a-half hour battle with Jain University here on Sunday.
The decision came only after all the five matches and all the three sets in the second reverse singles were played. Delhi play Gujarat in the final on Monday at the Manipal University Sports Complex, Marena. Gujarat beat Osmania University 3-0.
It was Siddharth Rawat who carried the day for Delhi. He emerged the hero of the 3-2 win. Jain University depended on Vinod Gowda for a place in the final. He gave them a good start in the morning with an easy 6-1, 6-2 win over Rubal Shandilya, but went down fighting Siddharth under floodlights in a nail-biting encounter. Siddharth put Delhi on par with Jain by beating Kiran Nandakumar. The pair of Vinod and Sagar beat Siddharth and Suraj 6-3, 6-2 to give Jain 2-1 lead once again. In the first reverse singles Rubal put Delhi level once again when he beat Sagar in three games at 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. Then it was the Battle Royale between Siddharth and Vinod.
The never-say-die Delhi lad played with true grit and determination. While playing the second singles against Kiran he had dropped the first set 6-7 (7), but came back into the game strongly and won the next two games giving away only one point to Kiran in the two games.
In the final encounter too, Siddharth was down a set when he rallied strongly to win the next two. He raced off to a 3-0 lead in the second set and won it 6-1. The final set was brilliantly fought.
He managed to break Vinod in the eighth game to draw level 4-4 and that was the end as he won the next two games.
Gujarat Beat Osmania University 3-0; Pradeep Gowda bt Sameep Maheta 6-1, 4-6, 6-0; Vaidik Munshaw bt Pradeep Deswal 6-2, 6-0; Vaidik Munshaw bt Taran/Ajith 6-1, 6-1.
Delhi University beat Jain University 3-2: Vinod Gowda bt Rubal Shandilya 6-1, 6-2; Siddharth Rawat bt Kiran Nandakumar 6-7(7), 6-1, 6-0 and Sagar/Vinod bt Siddharth/Suraj 6-3, 6-2; Rubal Shandilya bt Sagar M 6-3, 3-6, 7-5; and Siddharth beat Vinod 0-6, 6-1, 6-4.
With Anna Hazare stealing much of the media limelight, social activists this year mounted a determined offensive over issues ranging from corruption and black money to tribal rights.
While social activism has for long been an important part of the world’s largest democracy, the trend got a boost from the anti-corruption movement of Hazare, who became the face of India’s war on corruption.
A former army driver, Hazare fasted in Delhi thrice this year, forcing the government to take steps to unveil an independent body with powers to investigate and prosecute corrupt officials.
The 74-year-old from Maharashtra caught the imagination of millions. Thousands took to the streets in support, waving the tricolour and the now famous ‘I am Anna’ caps and T-shirts.
Shadab Fayaz, a Delhi University student who has been participating in anti-graft protests in the capital, sees “a change India is witnessing for the founding of a better and more democratic India”.
“It has become easier for leaders like Hazare to seek support for any cause through social networking sites, internet forums and SMSes. We have seen a rise in the awareness among students,” he said. “They are becoming participatory rather than silent spectators.”
Hazare apart, there were other movements in small towns and cities that marked the dawn of a new revolution in India.
In July, social worker Nileema Mishra, who works in the field of micro-credit, was named one of the two winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the other being Harish Hande, founder of a solar power company that seeks to bring electricity to rural areas.
The 39-year-old Mishra got major recognition for her work among poor villagers that led to 1,800 women’s self-help groups in Jalgaon and other parts of Maharashtra.
On June 4, yoga guru Baba Ramdev, taking a leaf out of Hazare’s book, commenced an indefinite hunger strike in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan to protest against corruption and black money.
Thousands of his followers trooped to the site. But in less than 24 hours, a police crackdown ended the demonstration before it gained greater momentum. Ramdev later went low profile but continues to speak against graft and the government.
In Himachal Pradesh, Rattan Manjari, 59, took on patriarchal laws that bar tribal women from inheriting property in the hill state.
She and her supporters daily visit a village in tribal areas to create awareness about her movement that has seen thousands rallying behind her for amendments to the customary laws.
Down south, a 75-year-old activist in Tamil Nadu successfully led a legal battle that saw several commercial establishments in Chennai’s busy T. Nagar area sealed by authorities for violating building norms.
The activist, popularly known Traffic Ramaswamy, is a former mill worker and a self-appointed traffic policeman — as much of his activism relates to regulating traffic in Chennai.
The Indian School of Business will begin operations at its second campus coming up at Mohali in April next year.
“Mohali will be another Hyderabad in the North. ISB should set up a pattern for other universities and institutes in excellence,” Mr Adi Godrej, Chairman of ISB’s Board of Governors said at a function to mark the tenth anniversary of the Hyderabad-based business school here on Saturday.
“In India, there is no unemployment. There is only unemployability,” Mr Godrej said while stressing the need for quality of education.
Mr Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, ISB said his school had grown from 128 students 10 years ago to 570 now.
“After the Mohali campus (goes on stream) next year, it will have 780 students,” he added. The 3,800 students who graduated from the school were working in 25 countries, he added.
The collective output of the 50 faculty members had already made ISB the most productive business school in the country, Mr Rangnekar claimed.
Mr Godrej also launched the book, ‘An Idea Whose Time Has Come’ by Mr Pramarth Sen, the founder-dean of the ISB.
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, a scholar from the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, recalled his student life at the varsity campus during the early 80s at a function organised here to launch the JNU Alumni Association Nepal (JAAN).
57-year-old Bhattarai said he has emotional attachment with the New Delhi-based University that has produced a number of scholars and politicians.
“I have learnt many things from JNU which I have been able to put into practice in the real life,” said Bhattarai, who got his Ph.D. from the university.
“I have gained knowledge and learnt to be a hardworker from JNU and I am trying to put into practice the JNU culture in my real life,” he said.Bhattarai said that he got his first political lesson in JNU.
Indian Ambassador to Nepal Jayanta Prasad, who had also studied in JNU in the early seventies, said that JNU has promoted connectivity among different people.
Prime Minister Bhattarai seemed to have more emotional attachment with JNU than myself, he remarked.
A gathering of around 50-60 people which included JNU graduates and current students at JNU formed JNU Alumni Association Nepal (JAAN) at a function yesterday in the presence of Prime Minister Bhattarai, Ambassador Prasad and JNU’s Professor Alka Acharya.
Prof Madan Kumar Koirala was appointed as the chairman of the 13 member adhoc committee and Deo Kumari Gurung became its Vice chairman.
Rajiv Singh was appointed as the secretary and CB Budhathoki as Joint Secretary.
“We will utilize the knowledge gained from JNU for the upliftment of the Nepalese society,” said Koirala.
“We will be involved in different academic exercises in the society with the experience and knowledge we have gained from JNU,” he added.
Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is in a jubilant mood. After a court battle for three years, the Supreme Court has relaxed the age limit to 30 years for research scholars to contest in elections. Known for its democratic and peaceful student union elections, soon the university will now be able to student union elections, the last election was in 2007.
Welcoming the verdict of the Supreme Court, Janesh Gautam, a JNU student said, “The peaceful and democratic ethos of the university has been upheld by the SC.” But, with an exception of a few, universities and colleges across the country are not holding elections for many years clearly flouting the Lyngdoh’s committee’s recommendations.
“University campus is one of the nurseries of democratic consciousness. But with a general exception of Congress and Mulayam Singh, all the parties that came to power have destroyed the democratic space in campuses,” says professor Anand Kumar from JNU, a former student leader and president of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) as well as JNU. The student politics has given the nation leaders who later led revolutions from the Quit India movement to Jai Prakash Narayan movement during the Emergency. Even contemporary leaders, Lalu Yadav, Sushma Swaraj, Prakash Karat, Nitish Kumar, Arun Jaitley, Ajay Maken and Shivraj Chahuan were all active student leaders.
But, where are the student leaders of today? “New leaders are not being found since there is no proper platform for students,” says congress affiliated National Students’ Union of India secretary, S Sharat who is in charge Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Lakshadweep.
To streamline the campus democracy, the SC-appointed committee came up with a set of guidelines in 2006 for holding elections in colleges and universities, which said that every educational establishment should have an elected student representation. “No doubt, an extreme fringe of lumpens are there. It’s a part of social pathology,” says Kumar. “A great vehicle of reforms, student politics should not be rejected, rather it should be reformed.”
It is not only the fragile atmosphere in the campus that makes universities ban elections. “They don’t want students to question their managerial skills, they don’t want student activism,” says Milind Marathe, president of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarti Parishad, a BJP affiliated student’s body.
“In absence of Student union, the power balance gets distorted,” says Shahan Ahmad from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). From suspending students to banning campus entry on frivolous charges, or not allowing to put even posters are the few methods used regularly in other campuses throughout the country to curb the demand for student’s union elections.
Students across the country have voiced their opinions via online platforms, protests and using the RTI to get an explanation from their universities why they have not held elections. Some unfortunate students have even felt the backlash of their university’s bureaucracy.
At Allahabad Central University (ACU) students got lathi-charged during a protest to demand elections, a media student in AMU was expelled on charges of defaming the university and was re-instated only after a High Court order. Pondicherry university asks students not to indulge in political activity inside and outside campus, a Jamia student got hounded by proctorial team for asking a question on the absence of union during a lecture on student democracy.
But it is not all lost. Some universities do conducting elections every year. Delhi University and Hyderabad Central University, and state universities in Kerala, West Bengal and Karnataka, successfully hold elections.
AMU is holding elections for last two years, and has seen encouraging results this year with a girl candidate giving male counterparts a run for their money This year BHU has re-started elections for its student council after a gap of 13 years, since the last election saw a violent protest where two student were killed in a police firing. Though the president of the council this year is nominated by the university itself.
ACU is also mulling adopting the same model, of nominating the council president, not everyone is happy. “It’s a curtailed form of democracy, not confirming to Lyngdoh’s recommendations,” says Surya Narayan, a faculty at ACU, who raised the issue of democratic representation of students in the university.
The SC said in its JNU judgment that student union election can not be suspended forever, campus democracy which has historically thrown up leaders who led movements, is essential, with all its shortcomings like violence and money games. “University campus is one of the nurseries of democratic consciousness. Students learn about active citizenship from campus democracy,” says Kumar.
Cross-university education will no more remain a dream for students in Delhi. Pursuing two courses simultaneously at Delhi University (DU) and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) or graduate students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) trying their hands at technical courses offered at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) may soon become a reality.
To make this possible, four city-based institutes — DU, JMI, IIT and JNU — will join hands to tap their best faculties and make cross-discipline education available to students.
“We are looking at making courses like environment sciences, biotechnology, disaster management and mass communication available to students. We also have a good social sciences faculty, especially in social work, which can prove to be useful for the students,” said Najeeb Jung, vice-chancellor, JMI.
The university is also aiming at making the flow of education smoother for students so as to enable them to transfer their credits from one system to another.
“We want to make it easier for students to transfer their credits from one university to another. So, if a student is pursuing economics (hons) in DU, he can take up mass communication in JMI or some technical course in IIT at the same time. The idea is to make the system of education smoother for students,” said Jung.
DU, too, has given its go-ahead for the project and has already started identifying students from various streams to be part of this pilot programme.
“We are trying to create a programme that complements the strength of each university. For instance, Jamia has a strong faculty in media and IIT has a similar technical backing. Similarly, both JNU and DU are strong in several fields. By July 2012, we would have launched this as a full-time programme. Students from streams like economics, physics and mathematics have expressed a keen interest in joining the programme,” said Dinesh Singh, vice-chancellor, DU, at a ‘Learn Today’ meeting.
Meanwhile, the institutes are awaiting further clarity on the matter to decide the future course of action.
“Two weeks ago, we had our last meeting with representatives of the other three universities. Our next meeting will take place on January 7, which will give us greater clarity on the matter,” said Najeeb Jung.
Jung added that there would be no central campus to carry out the programme, as it would be based on an exchange model of education.
The University of Rajasthan (RU) has been reeling under severe faculty crunch for several years and it was in 2005, when the last recruitment was held. “About 10 professors were recruited in 2005 during the tenure of vice-chancellor NK Jain,” said Bhupendra Singh Shekhwat, public relations officer of RU. By July 2012, about 24 faculties from various departments will retire.
At present, there are about 450 permanent faculty members in RU.
In sociology department, there are only seven faculty members of whom one will retire by July 2012. Notably, the department has about 350 students on the campus and thousands in various associate colleges. Speaking to DNA, HoD Rajiv Gupta, said sociology department is unable to cope with its current strength and it urgently needs faculties. “We need more faculties as there are a large number of students pursuing the subject,” said Gupta.
Ditto with the psychology department, which has only 13 faculty members. “The department needs more senior faculties. Else it will be difficult to run it.” said prof Asha Hinger, who retired recently.
“There are only nine faculty members in the statistics department. I had joined RU in 1980 and there were 22 faculties then, but now it’s just nine,” said a professor.
Vice-chancellor BL Sharma said the recruitment would start soon. “We have already begun the process of career advancement scheme and will soon start fresh recruitments. We are waiting for some change in eligibility norms from UGC,” he said.