Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday made the announcement at the Fullerton Hall of the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), where Vivekananda had delivered his famous speech 119 years ago.

According to a University of Chicago release, “The one-quarter visiting professorship will be given to distinguished scholars from a variety of disciplines with an interest in the fields of study most relevant to the teachings and philosophies of the Swami, such as Indian philosophy, politics and social movements.”

Dedicating a plaque of Vivekananda at the AIC, Mukherjee said, “Swami Vivekanda was practically India’s first cultural ambassador to United States.” He also inaugurated an art exhibition of Rabindranath Tagore at AIC.

In a release, university president Robert J. Zimmer said, “The ministry’s generous support will allow us to expand on the university’s tradition of rigorous scholarship in Indian studies.”

Martha Roth, dean of the Humanities, said: “The University of Chicago is proud of our exceptional group of faculty and students with interests in the scholarship of South Asia.”

This will be New Delhi’s second chair at an American university after the Bhim Rao Ambedkar chair at Columbia University.

“IGNOU should get more international presence, so we will have more foreign tie-ups as we want to provide more quality education to large number of students. We are also trying to bring in faculty exchange programme,” said Aslam.IGNOU is operating in 43 countries across the world through 82 partner institutions.

The Universities of Berkley and Maryland in the United States have shown interest in faculty exchange programme with IGNOU, he said.

“Apart from this IGNOU will soon come out with a food safety lab. Already we have a certificate and diploma programme for food safety, we will soon start a master programme,” he said after receiving award for best teaching practices at the India Today Aspire Education Summit 2012.

IGNOU, which started with two courses and 4,000 students in 1985, has evolved into one of the world’s largest varsities by offering about 450 programmes. It now has over three million students on its rolls.

In Charkha Katai programme, people from the marginalised sections will be taught weaving through the charkha, or the spinning wheel.

There will be  classes for slum children in English, Hindi and Mathematics, womens’ vocational training programme in which they will be taught stitching and embroidery. A clinic will also be set up for psychological counselling.

Charkha training

“We have bought five charkhas for the training to start with, then 30 schoolchildren from the nearby slums will be given extra classes on Mathematics, English and Hindi.

“The psychological clinic is aimed to counsel people who come to the legal aid clinic, as well as otherwise,” said Anshum Gupta, director, Gandhi Bhawan.

The charkha weaving training centre and psychological clinic will open once a week.

Members of National Social Service (NSS), social work society in colleges, will assist the students in teaching various subjects.

“The classes will be of two hours and will take place from Monday to Thursday, from 3:30 pm,” said Gupta.

Funding

The programme for training of women was still being worked on. “Some people have donated sewing machines and other machines needed.

“We are trying to arrange more; we have also requested Delhi University  to help us in the funding of this programme,” she said.

The psychological clinic will address stress, depression and other mental disorders.

“We have a psychiatrist in place. This clinic is open for everybody. It will work as an added advantage for people seeking help from the legal aid clinic here. There are cases of disputes, and several people are disturbed. Thus, this clinic can counsel them effectively,” she added.

The annual fests of Jesus and Mary College’s, ‘Montage’, Sri Venkateswara College’s ‘Nexus’, (south campus colleges) Indraprastha College for Women’s ‘Shruti’ and Miranda House’s ‘Tempest’ (north campus colleges) will be between February 23-25.

“Now that there are two colleges from the south campus and two from the north, the students will be going to attend JMC’s Montage and Miranda House’s Tempest.

These are the two most sought after college fests every year. Also Venkateshwara College will not see a huge response as they have a system of passes in which a student can bring along only three to four friends. IP’s fest have been seeing a downfall.

“With interesting events scheduled every year, Miranda House College will be the student’s perfrence after JMC,” said Shweta Arora, member of the hindi dramatics society and a student of Miranda House.

While a union member from Venkateswara College stated that despite the fest dates are clashing, Nexus has its loyal fans.

“The events scheduled for every day is designed keeping in mind the earlier response of students. So we are hopeful that it will be a huge student turnout,” said the union member.

The clash of dates has not gone down well with the students who are a part of various societies in colleges.

“We are not just spectators who go to fests to enjoy. We are the ones who make it enjoyable.

With the clash of dates, it gets very difficult to chalk out our schedule of taking part in events.

Sometimes, the date and time clashes, so we have no other choice but to drop one fest. That is our loss. After such gruelling practice sessions, if you are unable to perform at the end of the day, it is disappointing,” said Siddharth from the music society of Ramjas College.

The annual fests ‘Crossroads’ of Shri Ram College of Commerce and ‘Crescendo’ of College of Business Studies will be held between February 15-18.With the start of February, prominent college fests have been lined up. Kamla Nehru College’s fest, will be held between February 1 and 2 which will be followed by Lady Shri Ram College’s fest Tarang, scheduled for February 3 – 5.

Hindu College’s fest Mecca is slotted for February 2 – 4 which be followed by Gargi College’s Reverie, scheduled for February 9 – 11.

“China has proved its superiority over the United States and the European Union. The competitiveness of the people of that country is a key factor pushing them to new heights in the fields of construction and urban development among others. In China, the government, which works like a corporation, is a performance-oriented structure,” said Ashoke K Dutta, director of IIM Shillong, while addressing the media here on Tuesday.

Dutta said most universities in India are tying up with educational institutions of the US and the countries representing the European Union. “Unlike some of the leading institutions, IIM Shillong is working with institutions in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and China. These Asian educational institutes can compete with the best in the world,” he added.

Only aspirants with two years of work experience in a company will be considered for the executive MBA programme, which will cost around Rs 12 lakh. The government of Meghalaya has already nominated 20 officials who will be part of the programme in the first year.

“The first batch will comprise 30 students. We will increase the number of seats to 40 in due course,” Dutta emphasised.

IIM Shillong conducted the first part of the advanced management programme – titled ‘Sino-Indian Global Reciprocal Advanced Management Programme – on “Understanding China: Business and Culture” from January 9 to January 15.

Once, PU, the seventh oldest university of the Indian sub-continent, used to have academic jurisdiction over the institutions spread all over the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and even Nepal. But, with the passage of time, its jurisdiction was confined to just a few colleges and post-graduate departments located within the Patna Municipal Corporation area.

In 2003, its constituent unit, the Bihar College of Engineering was upgraded as the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Patna by the Central government. Later, it was declared “deemed university” with PU losing all its control over this institution. Some time back, the Patna Medical College, which was academically affiliated to PU, was shifted to Aryabhat Knowledge University (AKU). Consequently, PU has lost its faculties of engineering and medicines.

If the move of the state government succeeds, some more constituent colleges of PU namely, the College of Arts and Crafts, the Patna Law College, the Patna Training College and the Women’s Training College, might be attached to AKU. All these institutions have been imparting teaching in professional courses for the last several decades under the academic and administrative control of PU.

PU, on its own, has recently initiated a move for introducing five-year integrating teaching in different subjects leading to MA, MSc or MCom degree. Students would be admitted to these courses after Class XII and would be free to leave the course after passing the examination at the end of the third year (with graduation degree).

If the plan materializes, Patna College and Patna Science College, or for that matter, all other colleges of PU, would lose their relevance. PU will then, assume the shape of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) or Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Heads of some post-graduate departments of PU have welcomed the move and observed that there is no harm if the university is developed as a centre of excellence in post-graduate teaching and research.

Showing the Way
There are other Indian Americans too who run B-schools in the US: 46-year-old Jaishankar Ganesh at Rutgers School of Business-Camden and Anand Anandalingam at the Robert H Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. The spate of appointments signals a few changes. First, Indians are finally breaking through the glass ceiling in global management education. And secondly these highly influential men will now exercise India’s ‘soft power’ over swathes of global B-school students.

Top management thinker and professor of international business at the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, Vijay Govindarajan, agrees that Indian management professors have an edge in being educated in English and well-versed in Western pedagogies. “We are masters of data and facts,” he said.

Organized by the Delhi University’s Campus Law Centre, the competition in its 8th edition saw teams from National Law University, Dwarka, and Indian Law Society, Pune, adroitly argue in a criminal corporate liability case.

While ILS, Pune, was declared the first runner-up, the title for the Best Speaker Team went to George Washington University Law School, US, out of the 62 participating teams.

“A solved case is selected and the teams are assessed by lawyers and judges,” said J L Kaul, professor in charge of the Campus Law Centre. The final rounds were presided over by Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Hima Kohli and Manmohan Singh of the Delhi high court. Justice T S Thakur of the Supreme Court was the chief guest.

 A little lesser known fact is that Sardar Dyal Singh was one among the 17 “good men and true” who decided in 1884 to found the Indian National Congress. He sailed for England in 1874, and in his interactions  with  intellectual luminaries there,  he  gained  an enormous intellect. While in India,  he came  into  contact  with  many  architects  of  Modern  India such as  Rabindranath Tagore,  Swami Vivekanand, Swami Dayanand,  Dadabhai Naoroji and Mahadev Ranade,  which influenced his beliefs and  thought  processes. After independence, the torch of his three Trusts was kept alive in India. In the field of education,
one college was established at Karnaland another in Delhi by late Dewan Anand Kumar, an eminent educationist and ex-Vice-Chancellor of Punjab University.

The College started functioning in the capital as a constituent College of the University of Delhi in 1959 and was taken over by the University of Delhi as a University maintained College in 1978.

The College is  centrally  located  at Lodhi Road  in  South Delhi in the vicinity  of  Lodhi Gardens,  Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Stadium ,  CII ,  WWF, Safdarjung Tomb ,  Humayun Tomb, India Habitat Centre, India International Centre, CGO Complex and many other institutions of national / international significance.

During recent years, the College has registered an  impressive  quantitative and qualitative  improvement.  The  quality  of  the  incoming  students  and  the University results have shown a progressive upward movement;  the addition of essential amenities and other facilities for students has made the College a prestigious  institution for  academic and co-curricular activities. The College magazine, The NEW STAR provides a  forum  to  the students  for expressing  their views and  reviewing the various activities  during the year.

Presently, the College is imparting education to 3300 students including foreign students in 19 courses (including 2 post graduate courses) through 19 departments consisting of over 200 well qualified faculty members and about 100 non teaching staff members.

The faculty of the College has been encouraged to take interest in research programmes besides teaching and at present eight research programmes are going on in the College in the departments of Physics, Chemistry, Political Science and Commerce.

Presently, the College has the following infrastructure ;

1.   36 class rooms

2.   Laboratories in seven departments

3.   A seminar hall with a seating capacity of 120,

4.   One open air amphitheatre with a seating capacity of 1000,

5. Two computer laboratories one each for commerce and computer science departments

6.  A well equipped library with over 90000 books and subscribe to a  large number of periodicals and journals.  The library has been fully loaded with internet facility.

7.   A spacious canteen.

8.   The College has a generator for power back up

During the last about one year the following additions have been made to the College infrastructure:

1.  An auditorium with a seating capacity of 210 with state of arts facilities

2.  The College has installed Security Lights for sufficient visibility during night.

3.  The College has 600 KVA Electric Panel

4.  The College has state of art synthetic basket ball court

5.  40 computers internet enabled  laboratory for students and faculty

6.  A lush green lawn which won prize in University Flower Show.

7.  7 Eco friendly bamboo based class rooms.

8.  Furnished Faculty Rooms

 Projects in Progress

1. Multi Storey Science Block ( 7000 sqm covered area) after due approval of funds to the tune of Rs. 11.25 crores by University of Delhi
2. New Academic Block for the Evening College.  Project is estimated to the tune of Rs. 4.5 crores.
3. Disabled Friendly College Campus ( hand rails, ramps, toilets signages etc.)
4. New Computer Laboratory(2500 sqft) (one each for Morning and Evening Colleges ) with 80 computers each linked through optic fiber with Delhi University.
5. Disabled Friendly lift
6. Re carpeting of College roads
7. Proposal submitted to UGC for Girls Hostel for capacity of 120 inmates costing about Rs. 7.5 crores
8. The University of Delhi has also sanctioned grant to the tune of Rs. 2 crores separately for undertaking the various repair and renovation works in the College.

The College has been selected as one of the Centres for evaluation of scripts of University Annual Examination and is also providing infrastructure for conduct of classes for students of School of Open Learning, University of Delhi.

Website : Dayal Singh College –   dsc.du.ac.in

                Dayal Singh College Evening – www.dsec.in

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