st January 2015 as a part of the celebration of International Year of Light by the University of Delhi at Acharya Narendra Dev College by the SPIE student Chapter. The SPIE Student Chapter at ANDC was one of the few selected institutions worldwide to have received the optics education outreach grant. This outreach programme was aimed at promoting optics and photonics at the school level. The primary objective of this programme was to provide the school students a practical hands-on experience that shall benefit them in enhancing their conceptual skills in the areas concerning optics. The activity involved SPIE student chapter members of Acharya Narendra Dev College visiting various schools across Delhi and conducting a hands-on workshop for the school students wherein they demonstrated the “Wave Optics” and “Geometrical Optics” developed by them using some comprehensible and unconventional pedagogical tools like CCD, light sensors etc. in order to simplify the understanding of complex topics of optics. Optics Fair 2015 was thus organized as an extension to this optics outreach activity which witnessed the active participation of 20 different schools where these workshops were conducted. Their students came up with some innovative optics-based projects which were judged under senior and junior category.   Kashish Madan [email protected]]]>

1. DU still awaits AICTE approval for B.Tech Courses The year 2013 saw thousands of students enrolling themselves in the University of Delhi under the FYUP system. The coming months witnessed the rollback of the same. While most of the courses were reverted to the TYUP system, the B.Tech courses were retained as four year courses. [caption id="attachment_29620" align="aligncenter" width="960"] B.Tech students of University of Delhi protesting at North Campus, demanding AICTE approval for their course on February 9th, 2015.[/caption] But the mere survival of the courses has not lessened the worries of the students pursuing them. No college offering these courses has paid any attention to seek AICTE’s i.e. All India Council for Technical Education’s approval for the same. The future of more than 6000 students is left dangling for want of the AICTE approval which is needed for any B.Tech degree to be a legal one. ABVP, in their manifestos, had promised AICTE approval for the B.Tech courses but this hasn’t yielded any result yet. For detailed information on the B.Tech issue, visit here.

 – Shaurya Sahai ([email protected])

 

 2. ‘Choice Based Credit System’ to be implemented

Conforming to the University Grants Commission’s directive for the adoption of a uniform Choice Based Credit System across all the universities in India, Delhi University may witness changes in the way the students are marked in the examinations. The idea is to ensure seamless mobility of students across the higher education institutions in the country as well as abroad, along with maintaining grade uniformity. This will especially aid migration from one college or university to another. A committee of seven members has been formed to draft a discussion paper on key issues like curriculum revision, examination and assessment systems and accountability of evaluators. The members of the Academic Council are demanding that the implementation of the system be deferred to the next academic session, because the teachers have already faced a lot of problems owing to the semester system and the recently introduced FYUP. The final decision will be taken by the Executive Council and Academic Council after a meeting regarding the same. For detailed information on the Choice based credit system, visit here. 

–  Namrata Gupta ([email protected])

3. Irregularities in the admission process

The last two academic years saw a lot of commotion in the admission season because of the FYUP fiasco. As a result, many ambiguities and irregularities in the admission system ensued. Students this year expect to be informed about percentage cuts which will be implemented if a subject is missing on the mark-sheet. Confusions also abound when applicants don’t know the final cut-offs for a course for different streams. The formula of ‘best of four subjects’ also varies from college to college. For ECA or Sports quota admissions, students wish to see coordinated schedules where scheduled of different colleges don’t clash. This system should also be standardised across all college. The structure of entrance exams in the University has also been seeing constant changes. After Bachelor of Business Economics, Bachelor of Financial & Investment Accounting, Bachelor of Bachelor of Business Studies replaced Bachelor of Management Studies, the group discussion and personal interview rounds were also dropped. Entrances like CJET and CATE for Journalism and English respectively are also sought to be be-indtroduced by many members of the faculty. Such tests and entrances projected the students to fair sense of competition and encouraged them to work hard for meeting the course requirements.

– Iresh Gupta ([email protected])

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th death anniversary, Indraprastha College for Women and Lady Shri Ram College for Women held prayer meetings to pay tribute to the ‘Father of the Nation’ and his works. It was on January 30, 1948 that Gandhi Ji was assassinated by Nathuram Godse and the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru famously announced that the light had gone out of our lives. While the relevance of Gandhi- his principles and works are debated in many academic circles today, his martyrdom at the hands of bigotry is widely acknowledged and marked all over the world. At IP College, the Gandhi Study Circle organized the meet and at LSR, the Students’ Union, in association with the Indian Music Society and the Department of Sanskrit, marked the day with a special assembly. Kavyayani, the President, Gandhi Study Circle, made a presentation on Gandhi’s philosophy. This was followed by soulful renditions of ‘Ae vatan ke sajeele jawano’ and ‘Raghupati raghav raja ram’ by Alaap- the Indian Music Society. Raghupati raghav raja ram is known to have been one of Gandhi’s favorite hymns. [caption id="attachment_29217" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Soulful renditions of ‘Ae vatan ke sajeele jawano’ and ‘Raghupati raghav raja ram’ by students of IP College for Women.[/caption] Pico Iyer’s ‘Eloquent Sound of Silence’ was revisited by the Gandhi Study Circle, General Secretary Narayani; the famous essay is on the importance of silence and how silence is not an absence but a presence where the mind is in the highest place of all. Iyer says that a moment of silence is the highest honour one can pay someone. The gathering at IPCW also observed a moment silence for Colonel Rai who died recently fight militants in Jammu and Kashmir. At LSR, the Martyr’s Day gathering opened with the college prayer and a moment of silent mourning following which students from different religious backgrounds recited prayers from their faiths honouring Gandhi’s commitment to communal harmony. Students from the Department of Sanskrit then recited some shlokas. This was followed by Dhwani- the Indian Music Society singing hymns like ‘Ek Onkar Satnam’ and a Sanskrit adaptation of ‘Ae mere vatan ke logo’. Dr. Maya Joshi from the Department of English was then invited to share her insights into Gandhi and Gandhian philosophy. She quoted from a factual account of the Mahatma’s last days by historian Irfan Habib; Professor Habib has written that Gandhiji insisted that he belonged to both India and Pakistan. Dr. Joshi also quoted the artist Nand Lal Bose on Gandhi’s love for music and how he believed that machines could not reproduce aesthetic qualities that human labour could. The meet ended with the screening of a short video on Gandhi’s life and death, and his famous quotes. A verse from read out from the Islamic scriptures saying that martyrs are living, not dead, encapsulated the essence of the day. Alankrita Anand & Kritika Narula for DU Beat. Featured Image Credits: www.gopixpic.com]]>

23rd January 2015 marked the 118th Birth Anniversary of Indian revolutionary and nationalist, Netaji Shubhash Chandra Bose. Integrated Talent Development Mission (ITDM) held its annual event ‘Yeh Desh Hai Veer Jawano Ka’ to commemorate Netaji’s Birth Anniversary and to present the most awaited ‘Yuva Pratibha Samman’ award at Sir Shankar Lal Concert Hall, North Campus, Delhi University.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting (State), Mr. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was present as the Chief Guest and Commonwealth Games’ gold medalist and Indian boxer Akhil Kumar was the Guest Of Honor. The event was also presided over by Professor Dinesh Singh, Vice Chancellor, Delhi University. Umesh Rai, Director of South Campus and Dr. Malay Neerav, Joint Dean, Student Welfare of Delhi University were present as special guests.

[caption id="attachment_29084" align="aligncenter" width="756"] Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore[/caption]

The program began with the lamp lighting ceremony by the Vice Chancellor. This was followed by a Saraswati Vandana which was performed by students Maithili Takhur and Rishabh Thakur from the Bal Bharati School, Dwarka. Maithili’s voice and Rishabh’s performance on the tabla was appreciated by the guests.

After the felicitation ceemony, General Saigal, President (ITDM) talked about the mission of the organization and ‘Jhalak Poorvottar’ which is a mega cultural event organized by team ITDM. “This cultural event is organized to create a pool between the people of North East and the rest of India and to spread the message ‘our culture is our identity“, he said.

Following that the ‘Yuva Pratibha Samman‘ award was presented to Assam’s Wrishiraj Kaushik who is currently a visiting professor at IIT Guwahati for his work on ‘Super X’, an operating system he developed in 8th grade. Mr. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore arrived a few minutes into the program just after Vice Chancellor’s and Akhil Kumar’s speech. This was followed by a performance by the students of the Manipur who put up a yoga act on stage. World renowned artist Baba Satyanarayan Maurya also gave a musical  and painting presentation.

ITDM was constituted in 2012 by a group of youth to harness the vast potential of our country and bring about positive changes in the society. It is a social organization currently active in 17 states and has been doing work focusing on North-East India since the last few years.

Image Credits: Ankit Kumar Meena

Arindam Goswami [email protected]

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