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Kartikeya Bhatotia

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What does #AAPkaCM have in store for us as students?

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After a clean sweep in the 2015 Delhi state elections, the Aam Admi Party will soon roll out their ambitious plans for Delhi catering several fields including education, healthcare, social issues, environment etc. which were discussed in its manifesto and 70-point action plan. While most of the plans related to education will be implemented fully in the state universities, some of them will affect DU and its students.

Here’s a lsit of all what possible things does #AAPkaCM have in store for students:

1. Complete rollback of FYUP Plan

In their most recent national manifesto released in January 2015, AAP declared their support for the complete rollback of the four year undergraduate programme, calling it ‘undemocratic’. The rollback is supported by the HRD Ministry of the Central government under Mrs. Smriti Irani. This will for the most part, ensure lesser conflicts related to the controversial reforms.

 2. Twenty  new colleges

In their 70-point action plan, AAP talks about introducing 20 new degree colleges on the outskirts of Delhi in partnership with villages of Delhi. This might finally be a sigh of relief for students residing either on the outskirts of Delhi or in the NCR region who otherwise have to commute long distances to reach the colleges. New colleges are obviously a necessity for Delhi, where increasing enrollment every year is putting pressure on admissions and resulting in sky-high cutoffs. However, 20 colleges might easily dilute the image of DU as a premier university known for its high standards in teaching and research.

 3. Startup Hubs

AAP government promises to encourage various startups by setting up business and technology incubators in various universities and colleges across Delhi, which includes DU. This will increase employment and provide access to infrastructure and technology needed for business ventures.

4, Free WiFi?

Inarguably the most important plan if you ask most people, AAP has promised  WiFi services in all public places in Delhi. Whether the WiFi will be free to access for an unlimited period of time remains a question. Since this promise has been greatly misinterpreted and the details of the plan have not been released yet, we can only hope to assume that WiFi service will be free and unrestricted. Most of us are waiting for the day we’ll be able to surf the internet and chat with our friends without spending from our pockets. Attending boring lectures might just become tolerable.

We congratulate Arvind Kejriwal on officially becoming the Chief Minister of Delhi today and hope he is able to fulfill his promises made to the Aam Aadmi who is looking up to their #AAPkaCM.

 

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Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies

Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies conducts FinWiz 2015 

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FinWiz 2015 – the annual finance fest of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies hosted by the finance society FinX was held on 5-6th February at Vallabbhai Patel Chest Auditorium in the North Campus. The multi-event saw participation of students from various colleges of Delhi University as well as other universities.

Day 1 of the fest included the Corporate Suite, a competition targeted at corporate exposure, managing costs and anticipating demands. This was followed by Finquizzitive, an amalgamated business and Finance quiz. FinWiz also included a pre-event online competition called ‘24 to 60’, an online life simulation game where the player starts at age 24 and experience the art of financing in each stage of life for a final goal of becoming a millionaire at the age of 60. The competition witnessed participation in hundreds.

Day 2 showcased Bulls N Bears, a stock market simulation competition. The event witnessed a jam-packed auditorium with the competition stretching for more than 6 hours. The competition involved participants investing their capital into various companies, commodities, mutual funds and fixed deposits after analyzing news and rumors presented as well as deducing the market demand. The event, which got an overwhelming response ended with Hans Raj College emerging as the winners. During the course of the fest, prizes worth more than 1.5 lakh rupees as well as merchandise were distributed among the winners.

Filler events included lectures on changing trends in finance and uses of finance in daily life.  People were kept entertained by fun contests including The Price is Right with a FinWiz twist where participants had to approximate the cost of each item presented to them using their general knowledge, financial ability and the good old tukka.

“We decided to carry forward a 20 year old tradition and made FinWiz 2015 a mega scale event”, Dr. Neeraj Kumar Sehrawat, the Teacher Coordinator of the Finance Society of the college said. The fest was, no doubt, a success with the chief guests and participants complimenting the student committee for holding a one of a kind event in DU.

 

Image Credits: Shivanshu Tomar

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Flicks

Oscars 2015 Nominations: Some highs, too many lows!

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The nominees for the 87th Academy awards were announced last month in Beverly Hills, California. Wes Anderson’s comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel and the genre-defying Birdman turned out to be the academy favorites, gathering nine nominations each.

Each year there are a few expected snubs and surprises but this time the Academy witnessed universal criticism for a whole lot of reasons which include complete exclusion of non-white artists from the 4 acting categories, biased judgment in technical awards and alleged Eurocentric preferences for the Best Foreign Language Movie category.

The most obvious snubs included Christopher Nolan’s science fiction Interstellar which missed important technical awards including Best Direction for Nolan. Ava DuVernay’s Selma, a movie based on the 1960s American civil rights movement, despite being nominated for Best Film, failed to feature in any acting categories – which ironically are entirely filled with white Caucasian actors. In the best animated film category, The LEGO Movie failed to get nominated despite the critical and commercial success it received. Singers Lorde and Lana Del Rey were also robbed off a deserving nomination in the Best Original Score category according to their fans.

The most celebrated nominations included 6 for Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, an extraordinary movie shot over the span of 12 years and expected to take home the maximum number of awards. One of the biggest commercial and critical Hollywood successes of the year, Gone Girl failed to get nominated for any awards except Best Actress for Rosamand Pike. James Marsh’s romantic biographical drama The Theory of Everything based on the life of renowned physicist Stephen Hawkings gathered a total of 5 nominations including Best Picture. Liar’s Dice – India’s entry for the foreign language category was already out of the race after failing to make the cut back in December.

The 87th Academy Awards are scheduled to take place on February 22nd 2015. Actor Neil Patrick Harris will be hosting the awards for the first time.

 

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Features

Campus ki Pathshala: The rise of Delhi University Community Radio

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Delhi University Community Radio (DUCR) is a community radio station broadcasting on 90.4MHz. Located inside the University Stadium at G.C Narang Road in North Campus, it is entirely managed by students from various colleges and departments of University of Delhi.

Established in 2007 by Mr. Kapil Sibal, the main thrust area of DUCR 90.4 is to broadcast student centric and community based programmes on health, general knowledge, stress management and examinations. The most popular programmes include Hulchul DU Ki, Campus ki Pathshala and Indradhanush. DU Bands often get featured on the radio.

Some special programmes were also introduced, for example in 2008; the University started using the station for disseminating information about the admission process, through live phone-in programmes in admission season. In March last year, the whole journey of Gyanodaya Express – An Educational Train Journey of DU was covered by the media team of DUCR.

The broadcast however covers radius of only 10-12 km. But, due to the growing popularity and demand of the listeners, the DUCR is also available at DU intranet and the internet at DUCR’s official website (ducr.du.ac.in).

“DUCR is running completely on the concept of community participation without professionals. We encourage local talents like singers, storytellers, poets as well as others in DU too” Ashish Suman, Administrator and Website Manager at DUCR told us.

“We are not paying a single penny to the students but we are providing a platform so that they can harness and polish their talent by knowing tips and techniques from senior volunteers and from R.K. Singh (Consultant, Former Engineer In Chief, Doordarshan) and Isaac John (Asst. Consultant), who have the great experience of AIR and Doordarshan”, he added.

Volunteers at DUCR come from all corners of DU – North, South and off campus colleges. Students interested in volunteering for the radio can register at the official website of DUCR (ducr.du.ac.in).

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Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies

Beyond The Obvious- Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies

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Beyond the Obvious is DU Beat’s weekly series where we talk about colleges apart from the ‘obvious’ choices! Through the series we hope to give students an insider’s insight into what life is like, in these colleges.

 

Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies often referred as just CBS is one of the star colleges of University of Delhi. Regarded as one of the top undergraduate management institutions in India, it is otherwise famous for the outstanding job placements of its students. The current campus is an ad-hoc building located in Vivek Vihar in East of Delhi. Though its infrastructure is not up to the mark, the new campus equipped with modern facilities is currently under construction in Rohini and is expected to be completed by 2017.

As you enter the front gates of the College, you see the main pink building and the front stairs, which seems to be the most popular place to hang out. Right next to the main building is the BMS block exclusively for students pursuing BMS. Behind the campus there is a large parking ground, a small football field as well as two buildings adorned with wall art known as the cultural block which are strictly for college societies to function.

One of the most prominent things a person new to the College will notice is the active society culture. The extent of the society activities is such that nearly every student of the college is a member of at least one society.

CBS boasts of 27 different societies catering to the wide spectrum of individual interests – Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Western Dance, the list goes on.

 

The competitive environment of CBS keeps you motivated and pushes you to outperform others. Every person in the College is obsessed with internships, placements and packages (these three words are the most used in a CBSite’s vocabulary). The thing that sets CBS apart is the ability of students to balance between academics and extracurricular activities.

Free Wi-Fi service given by the College is also a relief when the lectures stretch too long.

The 9 to 5 schedule of the college as well as the unending series of seminars, lectures, live projects and anything you could expect from a B-School is present but luckily no classes are held on Saturday which for the most part, ensures a stress free weekend.

The College is located at a walking distance from the Cross River Mall, the perfect place for escapism. The College Canteen seems to satisfy most people but foodies are often seen juggling between Chinese outlets and roadside joints nearby. Not to forget the notorious Sutta Point located right next to the College premises.

The CBS calendar is lined with competitions, cultural fests and flagship events. The most prominent and upcoming ones include the annual cultural fest Crescendo and Manthan, India’s largest street play festival conducted by the street play society, Verve.

 

Kartikeya Bhatotia

[email protected]

Image Source- www.sscbs.du.ac.in

 

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