Asia’s largest cultural festival became an exhilarating chapter at end of the year for students from Delhi University and other universities across the country.

This edition of Mood Indigo, IIT Bombay attracted hefty number of more than 126000 students from over 1800 colleges across India. With a Limca record for the maximum number of international artists at a cultural festival, Mood Indigo this year featured Epica, a symphonic metal band from The Netherlands. The festival also witnessed Sander van Doorn, an international DJ for EDM night on Day 1.

Indian artist line up included Vishal & Shekhar and Adnan Sami along with famous authors like Neelesh Misra and Amish Tripathi for Litfest segment and prominent chefs like Vikas Khanna for the food festival.

Here is a list of all the personalities who visited IIT Bombay for Mood Indigo this year.

Amish Tripathi

Amish Tripathi, author of Shiva Trilogy addressed a group of aspiring writers and a few members of teaching faculty from IIT Bombay on 26^th December 2014. As a speaker for the LitFest, he talked about his journey as a management graduate and then a writer. Dispensing his thoughts about character building as a writer, he stressed on creativity instead of organized and surrendered art.

Tripathi also sermonized the crowd with information about Indian mythology and how India is a land where liberalism and religionism go hand in hand. The author also revealed the possibilities of his book to be a Karan Johan movie soon.

[caption id="attachment_28467" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Amish Tripathi for LitFest at Mood Indigo[/caption]

Sander van Doorn and Zaeden – EDM Nite

Mood Indigo danced to the Electronic Dance Music on Day 1 of the festival. Sahil Sharma a.k.a Zaeden performed the opening act for EDM night. The 18 year old DJ transformed the calm competitors at IIT Bombay to exuberant youngsters.

Sander van Doorn, the main artist for the night played the best tracks of electronic music for about two hours. SVD is a Dutch EDM producer and DJ. The physical set at IIT campus for EDM night complemented the Indian and international artist line up in an extraordinary manner.

The headbanging crowd at EDM night very well paralleled the enthusiasm of both SVD and Zaeden.

[gallery ids="28464,28466"]

Neelesh Misra

Neelesh Misra, venerable author and Bollywood lyricist visited IIT Campus on 26th December 2014 as part of the LitFest. Neelesh addressed the audience as he talked about enthusiasm of writers and authors in the present age. The storyteller briefed everyone about his new rural newspaper called Gaon Connection and expressed his inability to accept all applications by new writers.

His session was followed by a Q&A round where he shared how lyrics of Bollywood songs today are different from those in early 2000s.

[caption id="attachment_28468" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Mood Indigo member hands over the token of appreciation to Neelesh Misra[/caption]

Adnan Sami – Contemporary Nite

The Pakistani origin singer performed on Day 2 of Mood Indigo. Adnan Sani wooed his fans with the exclusive musical delight. He sang his famous numbers like Sun Zara, Dil Keh Raha, Kabhi toh Nazar Milao and Lift Kara De.

Apart from this musical gratification, the singer was also indulging in jugalbandi with his esteemed band. Adnan also amidst his performances shared with the crowd his experience of losing 145 kgs in a few months.

[caption id="attachment_28469" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Adnan Sami performing on Day 2[/caption]

Rajdeep Sardesai

Senior journalist, Rajdeep Sardesai spoke on “Corporatisation, Politicisation and Sensationalisation of News” for the LitFest. He emphasized on responsible online media reporting and talked about importance of independence of media in our country.

The session was followed by a Q&A round, where Rajdeep also added that the world is headed towards digitisation of media. He also threw light on revenue system of media agencies.

[caption id="attachment_28473" align="aligncenter" width="599"] Rajdeep Sardesai at Mood Indigo | Source: Hindustan Times[/caption]

Epica – Livewire Nite

Epica, the symphonic metal band visited India for the first time for Mood Indigo at IIT Bombay. Epica’s performance featured an opening act by SLAIN which is reputed as country’s finest group of live acts in Melodic Progressive Rock/Metal.

Epica’s songs revolved largely around topics like philosophy, science, religion and world events. The group was witnessed employing human choirs and orchestras with additional embellishments such as spoken word recitals and lyrics in Latin and Arabic.

Epica was the only paid concert at Mood Indigo.

[caption id="attachment_28471" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Epica, Livewire Nite | Source: IIT Bombay, Mood Indigo[/caption]

Vishal-Shekhar – Popular Nite

The Bollywood music-directing duo of Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani performed the closing act at Mood Indigo 2014. Right after the closing-award ceremony, Vishal-Shekhar entered the performance arena pumping energy into the crowd of more than 7000 people.

The pair performed to the popular Bollywood numbers from composed albums like Student of the Year, Bang Bang, Om Shanti Om and Jhankar Beats. Open Air Theatre, IIT Bombay recorded exultant crowd singing along as both the singers individually also sang for them.

Shekhar played the keyboard as he set the record on romantic mode by singing Zehnaseeb and Ishq Waala Love. Vishal Dadlani then enlivened the tranquil audience by performing Madaari, Aao Na and Jee Le Zara among many more.

[gallery ids="28463,28465"]

Dr. Subramanian Swami

“It’s not the political position a person holds that matters, it’s the influence he has on the people”, said former cabinet minister and BJP leader, Dr. Subramanian Swami who quoted the line by Shri. Mahatma Gandhi. Part of the Mood Indigo LitFest, he guided a group of students on how to become better and responsible citizens of the country.

Realizing the need of young brains in the political system, he encouraged more and more students to enter the Indian politics and advised them to look into the intricacies of politics in our country. Emphasizing the need of innovation that fuels growth of the nation, Dr. Swami talked about innovational intelligence as well.

Others

Apart from the personalities visiting the campus for literature fest and popular nights, there were many others who enthralled the 126000 visitors by their special appearances. For the Humour Fest, Mood Indigo witnessed Carlo Jacucci, Marcel Mohab and Korean artisits for the Jump Show performing on different days.

Stand­up comedians of the viral Youtube series “Pretentious Movie Reviews” fame, Kanan Gill and Biswa Kalyan Rath were also seen performing on the campus. Raju Srivastava performed at the Comedy Show. Ayushmann Khuranna came to judge Mr and Ms. Mood Indigo contest and to promote his movie ‘Hawaizaade’.

Food Fest featured Chef Vikas Khanna who released his book ‘World Feast’ among other prominent chefs like Chef Ajay Chopra, Chef Varun Inamdar, Chef Dhaval Ajmera and Chef Sandeep Pande.

[gallery ids="28470,28472,28474"]

Pt. Rupak Kulkarni visited for Mood Indigo Classical Morning. Apart from Adnan Sami, the category of Contemporary Nite featured Purbayan Chatterjee who is popular for amalgamating traditional Indian classical music with contemporary world music genres.

The International Music Festival had artists like The Los Dorados, Barmer Boys and indierock band Amsterdams from Romania. U-Theatre group from Taiwan performed their act called ‘Swords of Wisdom’, martial arts act to the beat of percussion instruments.  The FringeFest saw Yoshi and Gilard Shabtay entertaining the onlookers by juggling capabilities and surreal balancing acts respectively.

Images by Chirag Sharma, Ankit Kumar Meena and Mehr Gill

Iresh Gupta [email protected]

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Delhi University in the year of 2014 has had its share of controversies, confusions and unpopular decisions. While a few policies were altered, others were taken down for welfare of students or just to avoid overdone criticism.  A few changes also came across as positive and were welcomed by various related bodies across the University. Political parties, students, and teachers were all affected by these alterations in someway or the other.

As we enter the year of 2015, we list all that changed in Delhi University in the past year.

April 2014: University of Delhi rejected reservation of 85% seats for Delhi domicile students

The University of Delhi rejected the proposal of Delhi government for the reservation of 85% seats for the Delhi domicile students in April 2014. The demand was in all 12 colleges wholly funded by state government and other 16 colleges receiving 5% of its fund. These colleges included Maharaja Agrasen College, Shaheed Rajguru College, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Keshav Mahavidyalaya and Deen Dayal Upadhayay College.

However, students from Delhi met Dr. Harshwardhan inn June 2014 to demand quota for Delhi students but there were no results recorded.

Read full article here.

May 2014: Delhi University allowed 5 % sports quota in post graduate courses

In an attempt to increase sports participation at higher studies level, Delhi University’s Academic Council(AC) had introduced five percent quota under sports category this year for postgraduate admissions. The reservation was imposed on all faculties barring medicine, engineering, technology and management studies.

Students applying under sports category were supposed to sit for the entrance examination but the admission under this category was determined by trial and interview.

Read full article here.

June 2014: Roll Back of Four-Year Undergraduate Programme

The programme that supported a four-year course study for undergraduates had amassed a lot of criticism since its inception. While protests to both roll back and not roll back FYUP continued in the University in April-June, the UGC has also appealed to the University of Delhi for review of FYUP on the basis of it being illegally introduced.

UGC claimed that the new course violates the National Policy on Education’s section on National System of Education that states for a 10+2+3 educational structure all over the country. Also, the University required the Visitor’s approval according to the Delhi University Act, the Visitor of all central universities, being the President of India. After a huge number of protests by students, teachers and political parties, FYUP was rolled back in June 2014.

Read full article. Demands | Rollback

[caption id="attachment_28418" align="aligncenter" width="600"] FYUP[/caption]

June 2014: BMS exam scrapped, admissions took place for BBS, BBE and BFIA courses

In a major development this year, Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) was officially scrapped off. Instead, students were admitted to the three-year BBS, BBE and BFIA courses as was usual before FYUP was introduced. This will now be followed for the years to come. For the current session, results of BMS Entrance Exam were considered valid and were given 50% weightage. The remaining 50% were based on the results of board exams.

Read full article here.

August 2014: Transgender students recognized as third gender

After recognition of transgenders as a third gender by the Supreme Court in April 2014, Delhi University’s application form from this year gave space to the third gender. University had finally allowed transgender applicants to enroll in post graduate courses in the ongoing session.

Due to the FYUP debate this year, this proposed change couldn’t be implemented for the undergraduate courses but the same will be done next year for the session of 2015-16. Teacher recruitment forms also included the third gender category.

Read full article here.

[caption id="attachment_28420" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Transgender students recognized in DU[/caption]

September 2014: Ad Hoc teaching staff exceeded regular teachers in Delhi University

Four months after the FYUP ‘miscarriage’ where ad-hoc teachers were left in jeopardy, Delhi University witnessed ad-hoc teaching staff outnumbering the regular teachers in September 2014. 5000 ‘temporary’ teachers were tagged as ‘permanently’ ad-hoc in the University. UGC norms however, only validate the appointment of ad hoc teachers in the time of emergency and also limits the proportion of these teachers at 10% of the total.

Read full article here.

[caption id="attachment_28415" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Teachers protesting for the rights of ad-hocs[/caption]

October 2014: Delhi University introduced revaluation again and allowed readmission

Following ABVP’s protest in October 2014, Delhi University promised to restart the system of revaluation in the University. According to the notification, the sheets were now to be checked by a single examiner. The students who had failed in their 1st year under the FYUP were allowed to apply for readmission to 1st year till the 29th of October, 2014.

Read full article here.

[caption id="attachment_28416" align="aligncenter" width="900"] ABVP’s dharna to bring back revaluation and readmission[/caption]

October 2014: Environmental Studies’ made mandatory in Delhi University

University Grants Commission this year made it mandatory for students enrolled in the undergraduate courses at Delhi University, to take up the course in Environmental Studies in their first or second semester. The qualifying course introduced had to consist of 100 marks as per the scheme notified for the three-year undergraduate programme, of which 25 per cent weightage had to be given to fieldwork.

Read full article here.

All images used have been taken from the articles mentioned in the post. Credits for the same have been mentioned in the original article.

Iresh Gupta [email protected]

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Delhi University added many new entries to the list of its achievements in the past year like high ranks in surveys, faculty and alumni awards and student distinctions in different fields. But apart from all the reasons Delhi University has to celebrate 2014, there were a few incidents that we weren’t  proud of. Here’s a look at some of these:

April 2014: Professor manhandled by ABVP leader for derogatory comments on Narendra Modi

Joint Secretary of Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU), Raju Rawat was accused of hitting Professor Umesh Rai, a Zoology professor and South Campus director.

Rawat had reportedly told the professor that his attitude would not last long since the Modi government would come and get rid of FYUP. To which Rai replied by saying, “Chaiwallahs are not equipped to come and take University decisions”. Rawat and a few other students also smeared black paint on the professor’s face.

Read full article here.

May 2014: DU student committed suicide over harassment

A 19-year old student, who was pursuing B.Com (Hons.) via a correspondence course from the University of Delhi, was found hanging from a ceiling fan at her residence in May 2014. She left a video message behind saying that she was deeply frustrated with a group of five from her neighbourhood who had been regularly harassing and stalking her.

Read full article here.

May 2014: DU professor arrested for Naxal and Maoist connections

Prof. G.N Saibaba, Assistant Professor at Ramlal Anand College, Delhi University was arrested by the Maharashtra police in May 2014 from the university campus. After months of alleged suspicion of Saibaba’s naxal and maoist links, the police finally held him after which he was taken to the Nagpur jail.

Read full article here.

June 2014: The FYUP debacle

Delhi University scrapping FYUP and switching back to the old TYUP has had after-effects even till the end of the year. It effected not just the FYUP batch and all the freshers, but even the final year students of the class of 2012.

Delhi University witnessed a lot of protests by students, teachers and different political groups. With a lot of unrest in the campus, University for months fought with the education system. This fight came to an end with FYUP being scrapped off almost hurriedly.

Read full article here.

September 2014: DU students requested removal of three teachers over homophobic comments

A letter was signed by over 200 postgraduate students of English demanding removal of three teachers newly recruited for the academic year of 2014-15. According to the students, the reason behind this demand was the unsatisfactory teaching along with communal, homophobic remarks and incorrect facts being taught in the classes.

Read full article here.

November 2014: Student killed by parents for marrying outside caste

In an incident in November 2014, parents murdered their 21-year old daughter for secretly marrying a man from other caste. Bhawna Yadav was a final year Sanskrit student of Sri Venkateswara College (Delhi University) and was strangled and beaten for three days after her marriage. Rajasthani girl had married Abhishek Seth, a 24-year old contractual assistant programmer at Rashtrapati Bhawan who is a Punjabi.

Read full article here.

November 2014: Delhi University’s B.Com fifth semester paper an exact copy of earlier test

The question paper of the financial management for the fifth semester B.Com student at the Delhi University was the same which was given to varsity’s School of Open Learning (SOL) students to solve during their annual exam in May-June this year.

The sequences of questions were also exactly the same which appeared in the earlier paper. A committee was set up to look into the issue but no re-exam was conducted.

Read full article here.

December 2014: Students caught cheating over Whatsapp

During the Biology exam in SGTB Khalsa College on 8th December 2014, six students were caught cheating, pointing at paper leak possibilities. Reportedly, there were two incidents, one in which two students were using unfair means of information inside the examination hall and the other six students were caught with the photographs of the same question paper in their smart phones while the exam was happening.

Read full article here.

All images used have been taken from the articles mentioned in the post. Credits for the same have been mentioned in the original article.

Iresh Gupta [email protected]

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The year gone by gave University of Delhi enough reasons to be proud, with multitudinous achievements by students in fields of academics, sports, fashion and social activism. Societies and clubs at various colleges also fetched laurels for the University at both national and international level.

We take a look at some of these achievements from 2014.

April 2014: Koyal Rana titled Femina Miss India 2014

The 2014 edition of the Femina Miss India beauty pageant was held on April 5, 2014 in Mumbai, India. Finalists had been selected in a round with 25 women competing for the title of Miss India World. Koyal Rana from Deen Dayal Upadhaya College, University of Delhi was crowned Femina Miss India 2014 by Navneet Kaur Dhillon, the previous year’s winner.

July 2014: Enactus SSCBS won National Championship, represented India in the World Cup

Enactus  at Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (SSCBS) made Delhi University proud with its victory at the Enactus Nationals held in Mumbai, this July. The finals saw numerous teams coming in from all over India to compete on whose social endeavours had the maximum impact.

Enactus SSCBS, with its three successful projects- Project Akshar, Gramodhar and Sanitation Solutions also represented India at International World Cup on October 20.

Read full article here.

[caption id="attachment_28331" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Enactus CBS[/caption]

August 2014: Delhi University’s alumnus Shreyasi Singh won Silver medal at Commonwealth Games 2014

Shreyasi Singh, a shooter from Delhi got back a silver medal for the country in the double trap event. The 22 year old was a student of Hans Raj College, University of Delhi. The Commonwealth Games 2014 that were held in Glasgow got back many laurels to the country.

Read full article here.

[caption id="attachment_28336" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Shreyasi Singh at Commonwealth Games 2014[/caption]

August 2013: KMC’s Robo Physicists society wins accolades at NASA

The Robo Physicists society of Kirori Mal College added yet another achievement in its name this year. A team of twenty undergraduates of Physics honors, headed by Dr. Sumitra Mohanty went to NASA for two major competitions which were Revolutionary Aerospace Concepts and Academic Linkages (RASC-AL) and Mars Society’s University Rover Challenge.

At RASC-AL, the team became the only international team whose paper for ‘Enabling Long Duration Missions Through Holistic Habitat Design‘, got selected for a further presentation at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, USA. At Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, USA, the team secured 13th position out of the 31 teams from over 190 countries across the world.

Read full article here.

August 2014: Saachi Soni from IP College became the first Indian to climb Europe’s highest peak, Mount Elbrus

Saachi Soni, a BA (Hons.) Mass Media and Mass Communication student from Indraprastha College for Women went on to achieve laurels for herself and her country this year as India’s youngest woman from the country to reach Mount Elbrus, Europe’s highest peak. Her achievements also include her selection for an expedition to Mount Everest where she completed 90% of her climb and gave up the final summiting due to bad weather.

Read the full article here.

[caption id="attachment_28335" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Saachi Soni[/caption]

August 2014: Hans Raj College alumnus Abhishek Verma felicitated with Arjuna Award for Archery

Abhishek Verma did Hans Raj College and Delhi University proud by receiving honorary Arjuna Award for his performance in Asian Archery Championship where he won three gold medals. The 25 year old also participated in Asian Grand Prix tournament recently in 2014 and bagged one gold and two silver medals.

Read full article here.

[caption id="attachment_28330" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Abhishek Verma[/caption]

October 2014: DU Student won ‘Young Achievers Award’ for Information Activism in the area of Media & Information Activism

A first year student of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Himadrish Suwan is pursuing Political Science Honours. On 5th of October on the occasion of World Teacher Day -United Nations, The International Association for World Peace (Affiliated to United Nations-ECOSOC,UNICEF,UNESCO,UNICED,DPI) & The Confederation of Indian Universities had awarded him the youngest international award – YOUNG ACHIEVERS AWARD for Information Activism in the area of Media & Information Activism.

He is well acquainted as an RTI activist with having filed more than 100 RTI’s. With help of his RTI’s, 16 coaches of Ranchi-New Delhi Rajdhani Experess got changed; earlier there were ICF coaches which are actually not meant for Rajdhani Express but with the help of RTI they could be changed to LHB Coaches which is actually meant for Rajdhanis.

November 2014: Project on ‘women empowerment’ by Enactus LSR gets recognition by Government of India

Enactus, Lady Shri Ram College for Women displayed the products of their “Project Yuvaakti” at Dilli Haat’s Vatsalya Mela from 12th-19th November 2014. In accordance with the success of past projects, the team LSR was granted a pro-bono stall under the name “Women of India” on recommendation by Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Indian Union Cabinet Minister for Women and Child Development.

Read full article here.

[caption id="attachment_28334" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Enactus LSR’s stall at Dilli Haat[/caption]

November 2014: Two Delhi University students awarded Rhodes Scholarship for University of Oxford

Sonali Chowdhry, an economics graduate from Miranda House and currently on a Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University, intends to study economics for development. Mayanka Mukherji is a final year sociology student at Lady Shri Ram College for Women and wishes to pursue an M.Phil in Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology.

Read full article here.

December 2014: Koyal Rana ranked 6^th at Miss World 2014

After completing her Bachelors of Business Studies from Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College in May this year, she underwent training from various industry experts for the Miss World 2014. The pageant was held on 14th of December 2014 at ExCel in London where she was ranked 6^th out of 121 contestants. She was also titled as the ‘Continental Queen of Asia’.

Read full article here.

All images used have been taken from the articles mentioned in the post. Credits for the same have been mentioned in the original article.

Iresh Gupta [email protected]

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