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Sale of plastic water bottles banned on campus of Kalindi College

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The Delhi Government has recently launched the second phase of the Odd Even scheme, keeping in mind the environmental concerns of the day. Environmental degradation needs to be combated by not just the government but also institutions and individuals to see some changes in the prevalent conditions.

Taking cue from that, Kalindi College, University of Delhi has recently put a ban on the sale of plastic water bottles on the campus. This announcement was made during the Annual Prize Distribution ceremony of the college which was attended by senior officials from the University Grants Commission (UGC) along with other dignitaries.

The college Principal, Anulya Maurya talked about the responsibility of each individual towards environment conservation. She added that the college has started using earthen pots and will discover new and alternative measures for water consumption.

“Every human being has a responsibility towards the environment. Keeping this in mind, we have decided to ban the sale of plastic water bottles in the college starting today,” college principal Anulya Maurya said in a statement as reported by NDTV on April 18th.
“We will discover alternative methods for water storage and consumption. For now we have started using earthen pots. Kalindi is the first DU college to introduce this kind of a ban,” she added.

Kalindi College is the first one in Delhi University to propose and work on such a move.

 

Akshara Srivastava
[email protected]

 

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Campus Central

Gandhi and food: Round table conference explores the connection

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Indraprastha College for Women organized the third Round Table Conference on Gandhi on the theme ‘Gandhi and Food’ on 8th April, 2016.
The session began with a welcome note by the Principal, Dr. Babli Moitra Saraf, who acquainted the audience with the idea of the Round Table Conference and the theme of the third edition. She mentioned that the incidents involving beef ban and the contentious issue of cow slaughter that gave rise to religious tensions recently, were, what triggered discussion on this topic. As per the Concept Note of the Conference, in the Gandhian discourse, food is not just what one eats, but is visualized as a paradigm that exhibits a range of issues. The whole exercise of the conference was perceived to be useful to engage and confront many key quandaries of our times, and answer many conundrums ranging from diet control for personal reasons, being vegetarian on moral grounds, fasting for religious or political expediency, to debate contestations between right to culture and food choices.

Shri Anil Nauriya, Advocate and Member, National Gandhi Museum, New Delhi, delivered the introductory remarks, and quoted instances and anecdotes of Gandhi’s meetings with different people, Sam Higginbottom and Richard Gregg to name a few. This was followed by 12 well-fleshed out paper presentations. Dr. Madhulika Banerjee, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi and Dr. Babli Moitra Saraf, Principal, Indraprastha College for Women judged these paper presentations.

The students presented a variety of riveting and thought-provoking presentations, ranging from a critique of Gandhi’s moral basis of vegetarianism to food in the context of Brahmacharaya as perceived by Gandhi in his times, with peppy titles like “You are not what you eat”. A plethora of viewpoints were discussed: how food is a cult in itself, and how unless there’s moral disgust in animal slaughter, there’s no moral superiority associated with vegetarianism.

The first prize was awarded to Asmita Jagwani, who presented the paper on “Food Asceticism: The Gandhian Grammar of Diet” where she explored the idea of gastro politics, explaining that for Gandhi, vegetarianism was a way of life that  was rooted in his moral convictions and not just an adherence to a filial vow. She was praised by the judges who mentioned that “such sophistication of rhetoric as a means of persuasion leaves you stupefied.” The second position was bagged by a team comprising of Anamika Dass and Ateka Hasan who explored food from the perspective of untouchability. Prerna Mishra, who explored “Salt and Satyagraha” in her paper, was adjudged as the winner of the third position. A judges’ special mention was awarded to Nihita Kumari who spoke on how food was a weapon for Gandhi. All winners were given cash prizes.

Dr. Jyoti Trehan Sharma, the Conference Convener, explained the philosophy behind the theme, and also drew the attention of the audience to the significance of the date when the conference was being held, as the date coincided when Gandhi got arrested at Palwal in 1919, just a few days before the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Punjab. This was also the date when in 1929, Bhagat Singh, alongwith Sukhdev and Rajguru, made his motherland echo with the slogan “Inquilab Zindabad”.

The Judges congratulated the participants on building such relevant arguments that led to a very pertinent discourse. They also provided constructive feedback and inputs on the same.

The round table conference at IPCW

Image Credits: Kritika Narula

Kritika Narula

[email protected]

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DUB News

Legal Literacy – A DSLSA and DUCR collaboration

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DUCR

Making at least  one person in every family legally literate is one of the integral components of DSLSA-DUCR’S vision of “LEGAL LITERACY”.

Our constitution has provided many fundamental rights to every citizen of the country but  unfortunately in the absence of basic legal knowledge citizens are unable to access justice due to the absence of legal literacy.

Legal awareness through radio programme is an initiative taken by DUCR which was initiated by DSLSA (Delhi States Legal Services Authority) to make every citizen legally aware and to make legally literate through this legal awareness programme. The programme was inaugurated on 10 February 2016. On this day the DUCR in collaboration with DSLSA started the radio programme for legal awareness titled “NYAY HUMARA MAULIK ADHIKAR”.

After the successful inauguration of the project, finally the day has arrived on the doorstep of DUCR and  the most awaited first episode was started and this chain kept growing with successful recordings of programmes with honourable judges/secretaries from different district courts.

The 11 episodes were recorded with 11 learned judges/secretaries nominated by DSLSA. Each judge was specialised in a particular subject.

Radio University

The enthusiastic DUCR volunteers and the Para legal volunteers also showed their keen interest towards the legal literacy programme and successfully covered the topics like sexual harassment, domestic violence, juvenile justice act, senior citizens rights, child rights.

 

In all the sessions, frequently asked questions like legal queries or perceptions of every second individual, were being put up before the judges. The judges with equal grace, keeping the target audience in mind, answered and explained the questions in a very simple manner.

The interactive session was successfully hosted and conducted by the DUCR Anchor Shikha Johari and there were other participants who are voluntarily based with DUCR and few other PLVs were also there who energetically raised questions during the interactive session. They were M. Gayathri, Ritu Gupta, Heena Vashishta, Priyanka Girder(PLV), RohiT (PLV) and Puneet (PLV).

University radio

The session was successfully recorded by the technical expert Mr. Zakir Hussain under the guidance of  Mr. Isaac John,  assistant technical consultant of DUCR.

Mr. Mohit Kumar Gupta is the leader of this project and also is associated with DSLSA and Para legal volunteer (PLV) AND MR.R.K SINGH is the incharge of this project.

It was an interactive session in which the volunteers came to know about many schemes, special laws and rights of citizens of this country. The main motto of this project is to spread legal awareness through radio programme to the people and youth who are the future shining star for a development and change in the country.

Heena Vashistha, senior volunteer at DUCR had this to say, “Being a student of SOL(school of open learning) i got an opportunity to join DUCR and also to participate in this legal literacy project. I coordinated this whole legal literacy project as deputy coordinator  on behalf of DUCR and also as a girl and citizen of this country. I got to know about many special schemes, rights and special laws ”.

Mr. Zakir Hussain, senior volunteer at DUCR, expressed his gratitude, “In this esteemed orgainsation i got to learn so much from editing to recording, OB and programme production and also got this oppurtnity to record and edit this whole legal proramme recordings and by editing this programme i got to know about many special laws and rights that every citizen must know and i believe that after broadcasting this episode, students and people like me will benefit and become aware about legal rights.” Mr. Hussain is a technical expert and a student of Arts Faculty.

Du BEAT

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DUB Speak

Professor G.N. Saibaba granted bail: A timeline of Saibaba’s case.

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GN Saibaba

The DU Professor, G.N. Saibaba, alleged and arrested for Maoist links in May, 2014, has been granted bail. The bench led by Justice J.S. Kehar, also fired at the Maharashtra government who had tried to convince the authorities to do otherwise. What started with the arrest of Prashant Rahi (a journalist) and Hem Mishra (a student), eventually led to the professor’s arrest. Here’s an overlook at the timeline of G.N. Saibaba’s case:

 14th September, 2013

Maharashtra cops search his house, claiming he had info about Maoist leaders hiding in the forests of Abuj Maad in Chhattisgarh.

Agencies claim Saibaba had been associated with an organisation called the Revolutionary Democratic Front which is considered to be a front outfit for the CPI (Maoist).

He acknowledged knowing JNU student Hem Mishra, who was arrested by the Maharashtra Police for alleged links with Maoists, but denied giving him any coded chip.

18th September, 2013

The president of the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) wrote to the Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde seeking his intervention.

10th May, 2014

The Professor was arrested by the Maharashtra police to be produced before a court in Aheri town of Gadchiroli from the University Campus; seized hard-drives, chips serving as evidences.

16th May, 2014

After a recommendation from the Ram Lal Anand College itself, the Professor was suspended by the University. While DUSU and ABVP stood for the motion, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) The Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association spoke against the violation of his rights.

28th May, 2014

Investigation revealed that professor was affiliated with some prominent persons from Pune and guide movements of the ‘Urban Maoist Fronts’.

3rd June, 2014

The Professor’s family received an eviction notice from the University to vacate his Gwyer Hall residence. The notice asked Saibaba and his family to vacate the house on the grounds of “unauthorised possession of the premises in question since March 31, 2010 due to the absence of any valid agreement in the eyes of the law.” DUTA President, Nandita Narain consulted with the Vice-Chancellor Dinesh Singh.

14th June, 2014

Principal and Sessions Judge of Aheri in Gadchiroli, D R Shirasav, rejected the bail plea application of G N Saibaba.

19th June, 2015

The wheelchair-ridden Professor, then lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail, went through a medical examination.

20th June, 2015

Neurosurgeon Pramod Giri, who conducted a check-up of G.N. Saibaba declared that he did not need a surgery and was referred to a neuro-physician for his shoulder and neck pain.

1st July, 2015

The professor was granted bail by the Bombay High Court for three months, owing to his medical conditions.

21st November, 2015

The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court asked the government lawyer and G N Saibaba’s lawyer about why they had not objected to the Mumbai bench taking up his case and sought transfer of the case to Nagpur. Earlier in the year, the Nagpur bench comprising Justice Shukre (who later moved to the Mumbai bench) had rejected Saibaba’s bail plea “on merit”.

24th November, 2015

Justice A.B. Chaudhari of the Nagpur Bench raised questions over the intervention of the bench taking over and giving out decisions. Asked what determines such actions.

24th December, 2015

The professor was asked to surrender within 48 hours or face arrest following the resentment by The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court who believed that there was no need to interfere with an order refusing him bail earlier and that too when, his affiliation with the Maoists was based on solid evidences.

25th December, 2015

Delhi University Professors, activists and writers protested against the rejection of his bail. His wife, G Vasantha spoke against the order, saying she wanted to file a case against the “system”.

23rd February, 2016

The Supreme Court ordered the Maharashtra Government to provide basic medical facilities to the professor and asked the counsel for Saibaba to file an exemption plea.

Shreya Srivastava

[email protected]

Image Credits: http://static.indianexpress.com/

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Campus Central

Dalit student physically attacked by students of Hans Raj College; casteist remarks passed

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A Dalit student of Delhi University, Puran, was allegedly attacked by a group of students from Hans Raj College on 4 April 2016, Monday. The victim further alleged that the group hurled casteist and communal remarks at him, while physically assaulting him.

Puran, who is an activist from the Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), was in the college premises pasting posters of a student protest against the rape and murder of a Dalit girl, when the accused gang of goons approached him. On learning about his Dalit background, they started abusing him and passed several anti-caste comments.

Harish Gautam from Anti-Caste Cell of KYS in his press release said, “The goons, shockingly took Puran to the College Principal themselves, an act which openly stated that they had direct links with the administration. The Principal snatched away his phone and kept him illegally confined in the room. This was especially shocking as it was done with the sole purpose of harassing him further.”

Meanwhile, Puran has taken the issue to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) to seek justice under SC/ST Atrocities Act. The NCSC on Wednesday ordered a probe into the allegations and the panel also sought a detailed report in the matter from the Delhi Police Commissioner.

On 5 April 2016, Tuesday, students and other activists of KYS held a militant protest outside Hans Raj College regarding the incident.  A complaint was also filed by Puran on Monday, at the Maurice Nagar Police Station. However, official action is pending.

On being contacted, the College Principal said, “I asked him for his identity card. On ascertaining that he doesn’t belong to the college, we informed the police and a complaint was launched against Puran for entering the college and pasting posters without seeking permission from the authorities.” Other members from the authority were unavailable to comment. Inputs taken from The Asian Age, The Hindu and The Press Release issued by the Krantikari Yuva Sangathan(KYS).]]>

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Innovation Projects

Innovation projects 2015-16: Assessing stress in young adults by Bharati College

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The innovation projects were conceptualised by the Delhi University Vice Chancellor against the background of opportunities and limitations reported in colleges of the University. Over 300 projects submitted by students and faculty of colleges around the University made it to the final list. A project submitted by the faculty members and students of Bharati College has made the cut.

 

Project title: Assessing Stressors Among Young Adults: A contribution towards building a stress-free and youthful India

 

Principal investigator: Dr. Anupama Mahajan

 

Co-investigators: Dr. Rekha Sapra, Ms. Deepika Dewan

 

Students’ team: Amprapali Aggarwal, Anjali Kalra, Garima Choudhary, Pragya Malhotra, Priya Jain, Sukriti Jain, Sanjukta Chauhan, Tanisha Malik, Vanshikha Khandelwal, Yukti Sinha.

The project aims to comprehend levels of stress among young adults between the ages of 18-35. Through the medium of specially created questionnaires, a pilot study was conducted. The team worked on samples of young adults and found that innovative and creative minds can show maximum efficiency only when they are free of stress. The project which commenced in September last year is still underway.

 

According to the team, the reason behind selecting a sample of young adults is that people aged 18-33 are the most stressed individuals in the world, and that after the age of 33 stress levels tend to reduce. Statistics show that in India about 46,000 suicides occurred each in the age groups 15-29 and 30-44 in 2012 (about 34% of total suicides).

Initially, the team considered issues related to personal relationships, sexual life, peer pressure, parental pressure, etc. while studying the factors responsible for stress among the population, but gradually other reasons surfaced like medical problems, gender bias etc. Stress-busters were also identified.


“Considering the fact that persons in 15-29 age group are most stressed, we visited both South and North campuses of DU. For the assessment of stress factors among working classes, we conducted surveys in various areas across Delhi, like Gurgaon, Noida, Connaught Place, etc.” said Garima Choudhary, one of the students involved in the project. “It is obvious that the problem can’t be completely controlled, but at least some of it can be,” she added.

Workshops, interactive sessions, seminars, and open house discussions were conducted by the team during the course of their study. The team hopes to make innovative brains stress-free through their project.

 

Image credits: bharaticollege.com

Mir Uzair Farooq
[email protected]

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Events

Entrepreneur Society of Aryabhatta College organises Innovacia’16

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The Entrepreneur Society of Aryabhatta College, University of Delhi organised Innovacia- The Business Plan competition on March 30, 2016. The competition principally encouraged innovative minds to come and share their own vision and understanding about emerging business venture and structures. The shortlisted teams were required to present their unique business plan idea to the judges within the given time limit of 15 minutes via a PowerPoint Presentation.

The participating teams were from various colleges of University of Delhi including- St. Stephens College, College of Vocational Studies and Deen Dayal Upadhaya College among many others. Students from IP University, Ambedkar University and IRAI (Indian Agricultural Research Institute), PUSA too participated in the event. The teams introduced very distinctive concepts like instant ready to serve millets-meal, a herbal substitute to tobacco products, concept of service dogs for India, etc.

The event came to a closure with the valedictory session, which was graced by the Honourable Principal of Aryabhatta College, Dr. Manoj Sinha, who also awarded prizes to the winners. Ankit from IARI, PUSA and Baksheesh from Ambedkar University took away the runners up prize, while Shrenik Jain from Deen Dayal Upadhayaya College, University of Delhi emerged as the ultimate winner.

Image Credits: The Entrepreneur Society, Aryabhatta College

Riya Chhibber

[email protected] 

 

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Arts & Culture

Delhi Odia Students Association (DOSA) celebrates ‘Utkal Divas’

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Delhi University has been a home to a variety of students who come from various states of India. They bring with them various cultures, languages and regionalism, which constructs an image of a multi-cultural India in most of the classrooms across colleges. The Odia students of Delhi University celebrated ‘Utkal Divas’ on 1st April at Ramakrishna Hall of Institute of Economic Growth. The event was marked with a speaker session followed by Odiya music and popular mouth-watering regional sweet ‘Chenna Poda’.

The speaker session, based on the theme, ‘Odisha’s contribution towards development of India in 21st Century’, started with an introductory speech by Sibananda Mishra, a member of DOSA who spoke about how Odisha has overcome its problems in the past and its rich contribution in India’s cultural panorama. This was followed by the address of Dr. Arun Kumar Rath, an ex-bureaucrat who was one of the key persons behind the Right To Education Act, 2009(RTE 2009).  Mr. Rath spoke about how Odisha’s educational demographics have significantly changed in the past years.

IMG-20160401-WA0034
Eminent speakers present at ‘Utkal Divas’ spoke about Odisha’s contribution in India’s development

This was followed by an interactive speech by Tapas Dasmohapatra who asked the audience to learn the importance of support in one’s life. Being one of the most popular motivational speakers, he inspired the audience to go after their dreams with both their efforts and support of others.

This was followed by the address of Dr. Manoj Panda, director of Institute of Economic Growth (IEG). He gave an academic account of how Odisha has contributed significantly in the industrial growth of the country. He also discussed about other problems like urban migration and its solutions in context of Odisha.

This was followed by vote of thanks by Arya Tripathi, a student of KMC and a member of DOSA. The programme ended with the audience and the panellists singing ‘Bande Utkal Janani’, the anthem of Odisha. Sabyasachi Puhan, a student of Dyal Singh College said “The event made me feel like being in Odisha”. 

12888777_951747121607144_2808232023378121797_o
DOSA student members singing ‘Bande Utkal Janani’ at the closing of ‘Utkal Divas’

If you are an Odia student, you too can join DOSA. For more information, visit their Facebook page here. 

Image credits: Nikhil Agrawal 

Srivedant Kar

[email protected]

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Admissions 2016

Notice for BMS/BBA/BA(B.E) Joint Admission Test out for DU

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The Faculty of Applied Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Delhi (South Campus) has issued the admission notice for admission into Bachelor of Management Studies, Bachelor of Business Administration (Financial Investment Analysis), and BA (Hons.) Business Economics for the year 2016. The joint admission test for enrollment in any of these courses will be held on the Sunday, 5th of June, 2016.

The timing for the test would be from 3 pm to 5 pm. The online application to register will start in May. Admission to the courses will be based on the combined weightage of entrance examination and marks scored in qualifying examination. As per the notice, the entrance exam will be held at centres in Delhi only.

There is a variation in application fee depending on the number of courses one is applying for and the category one belongs to. For those in general and OBC category, the fee for applying for one course is Rs. 600, for two, Rs. 800 and for three courses, it is Rs. 1000. For SC/ST/CW/PwD candidates, the fee for applying for one course in Rs. 300, for two, Rs, 400 and for three, Rs. 500.

Here is the seat breakup for the entrance:

Source: sscbs.du.ac.in
Source: sscbs.du.ac.in

 

Read the official notification by DU here

Also read:  How to ace the DU BMS/BBA/BA(B.E) entrance

 

Uzair Farooq Mir

[email protected]

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St. Stephen's

St. Stephen’s College’s BA Programme Society organises the first edition of its annual fest, Confluence 2016

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After some period of inactivation in the previous year, the BA Programme society of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi organised a number of events this year ranging from talks to trips to seminars. On Monday, the society organised the first edition of its annual fest, Confluence 2016. The fest was spread across five events. There were two talks, a story-writing competition, a fun event where students were required to caption pictures, and a Dastangoi performance – an Urdu storytelling art form.

The fest kicked off with an informal event, ‘Caption That’ in which students were to caption the pictures and paintings handed out to them by the organisers. Prizes were distributed among the winners.
‘Caption That’ was followed by a talk on the Monumentalisation of Buildings by Dr. Hilal Ahmed who is an assistant professor at the Centre for Study of Developing Societies, Delhi and also a Rajya Sabha fellow. He talked about the concept of monumentalisation of buildings in general and about the religious contextualisation that buildings find themselves today in.

Another talk was organised after the lunch. The speaker was Dr.Pulapre Balakrishnan who teaches Economics at the Ashoka University. He spoke on Inclusive Growth in India focussing on inclusive growth, political economy and economic equality. The talk was followed by a vibrant discussion between the speaker and the studentswho were enthusiastic enough to keep the speaker indulged during the time refreshments were being served.

There was also a story-telling competition held in which the participants had to select random genres and end their stories with random plot twists. The students were seen writing very passionately and all appeared captivated by dramatic twists of plots.

The fest ended with the major highlight of the day – Dastangoi. Dastangoi is an Urdu oral storytelling art form that originated in the 16th century. The artists who performed were Nadeem Shah, Shankar Musafir and Manu Sikander Dhingra. Nadeem Shah has been doing Dastangoi since 2010 and teaches history at the University of Delhi while Shankar Musafir is an educationalist with an avid interest in the art of storytelling and Manu Sikander Dhingra is an entrepreneur, an eminent theatre personality and a veteran storyteller having done show across India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The artists delighted the audience through their art.

They started with Husn-e-Faiz covering the legendary revolutionary poet, Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s life and ended with an adaptation of one of the folktales of Vijaydan Detha, ‘Kahani Pandit Ki’. The event was concluded with a vote of thanks and some interactions with the performers in the lawn while the refreshments were being served.

 

Mir Uzair Farooq
[email protected]

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