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Daulat Ram College

Admit Card Blunder Leaves Students Miffed

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Many students studying Journalism Honours and Psychology Honours under CBCS guidelines received information about the Skill Enhancement Course’s external and internal assessments’ final marks distribution from their college’s faculty members close to the date of their final examination. With the dates of receiving this information varying in different colleges, students from Journalism Honours in Kamala Nehru College (KNC) learnt about the same from their teachers hours before their examination. Interestingly, the confusion of the Psychology Honours’ batch of Daulat Ram College (DRC) was clarified only upon receiving the question paper.

The discrepancy was found out in various colleges upon receiving the admit card. Students of Journalism Honours in KNC and Lady Shri Ram College (LSR) found a 50-50 marks distribution for external and practical assessment for SEC in their admit cards. While KNC students had been studying the course keeping the 50-50 distribution in mind, LSR students were uncertain as they had been following the 75-25 marks distribution, with 25 being allotted for internal assessment. Students from other colleges also underwent similar confusion. “Our admit cards said that the SEC paper that was documentary production would be of 50 marks. But the paper actually was for 75 marks.”, said Aditya, a Journalism Honours student from DCAC.

The situation varied across different colleges and different departments. In certain colleges, the final distribution came to the students’ knowledge quite late, while in certain colleges like Indraprastha College for Women (IPCW), there had been no discrepancy about the same neither in the admit cards, nor with the faculty.

The entire situation around the distribution of marks created confusion and hustle among students. “We were pretty confused since we didn’t know how the marks would be divided and how we are supposed to answer had it been for 50 marks.”, said Utkarsha, a Psychology Honours student from Daulat Ram College, where no clarification from the faculty had been received regarding the SEC Emotional Intelligence paper.

DU Beat reached out to faculty members, but received no comments from their end. There is still uncertainty whether the discrepancy had been for the Journalism Honours and Psychology Honours courses only.

Such action by the college administration as well as the faculty members makes us question whether the students’ best interests are really at heart. After all the formalities and unnecessary steps the students are forced to go through to receive their admit cards, such a massive error with regards to the marks distribution is a careless mistake by the authorities. Students who prepared accordingly, having faith in the college administration and the teachers, were shocked on the day of the examination. With all the buzz around exams and the pressure on students, why was this matter handled so inadequately by the authorities?

 

Priyal Mahtta
[email protected]

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Miranda House

Miranda House Installs Digital Signages

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Under the “mapped by digital vision” program, Miranda House has installed a hundred QR Code acrylic scanning sheets at several important places across the campus like the library, canteen, classes etc. Miranda House’s Principal, Dr. Pratibha Jolly, feels proud on taking a step towards making technology more accessible to the visually challenged.

The digital signages work through a customised smartphone app that sends out digital signals when a user is found in a proximity of three feet of the QR Code. The app identifies that location and gives  signals in the form of verbal messages. These messages direct the visually challenged to the direction and number of steps to be taken to enter a place. “If a student wants to meet me, the digital signage in the office corridor gives a warning about the glass door and verbally directs the student on how many steps she should take to reach the spot”, said the college’s principal.

The digital mapping program was undertaken by the college’s “Enabling Society – Lakshita”. The society also carries out a program, “Samdrishti” under which student volunteers guide the visually challenged around the campus, to metro stations, or to bus stops. The initiative of installing digital signages is an extension to the program which adds to making the college’s campus more accessible to disabled students.

By taking such an initiative, the college has taken a big leap towards making Delhi University’s campus more disabled-friendly. The technology may prove to be a boon for students as well as volunteers during the admission season, enabling students to move around in the campus independently.

 

Feature Image Credits: The Indian Express

Priyal Mahtta
[email protected]

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Campus Central

Off-Campus Colleges’ Highlights – 2016-17

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The University of Delhi (DU) has always been recognised by its top league colleges, such as St. Stephens, Hindu, and SRCC. But of late, even its off-campus colleges have been garnering attention. What with their exceptional performance in both the academics and fine arts, these colleges have become just as worthy of a shoutout as any other college in DU.

Here’s a brief timeline about the highlights of the off-campus colleges in the last academic year:

Feature Image Credits: Lakshya, Kamala Nehru College

Deepannita Misra
[email protected]

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DUB News

A Beautiful Journey at DU Beat – Aditya Rathore, Design Head (2016-17)

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I still remember the day when I was called for my DU Beat interview. After 3 continuous rejections, it actually happened. But why did I so badly want to get into DUB? Because I used to think that this organisation has rockstars in its team and damn, I was right!
Had it not been for DU Beat it might have taken me a lot more time to discover what I love doing. Thank you DUB for making my college life a beautiful journey and giving me a bunch of amazing people as friends who are passionate about what they do. Each moment spent here will be missed :’)

Signing off

Aditya Rathore
Design Head 2016-17

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DUB News

Delhi School of Social Work’s hostel puts up notice for students to “dress up properly”

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According to a notice put up at Delhi School of Social Work on April 27th, 2017, the residents of the hostel are advised to “dress up properly”, while leaving the definition of “proper” open ended and undefined.

The notice has, however, not been received very well by the students, calling the ruling “patriarchal” and the advice “disgraceful”. In response to which, another notice was put up on April 29th, 2017 by DSW hostel’s warden explaining the context of the complaint. The notice read, “The advice regarding dress was made in context of complaint from some female residents of the hostel with regard to certain male residents sleeping in common room in inappropriate night dress, which was curbing their use of common room.” The hostel, providing accommodation to both female and male students separately while making the common room available to all students, allegedly, led to the ruling by the hostel warden.

As per Professor Neera Agnimitra, the head of DSW and provost of the hostel the notice had been put up in response to certain complaints by some girl students about some male students making use of the common study room while being improperly dressed, making it uncomfortable for them to study or watch television in the room. The professor also told that the notice was temporary and would have been removed after discussion with the students on the matter. A general body meeting regarding this had already been conducted on Thursday. Additionally, the notice also prohibited eating, sleeping, bullying or any other indecent behaviour in the common room, and warned of disciplinary action against those violating the rules.

 

Feature Image Credits: DSSW Post

Priyal Mahtta
[email protected]

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DUB News

Saying Goodbye to DU Beat – KS Radhika, Marketing Head (2016-17)

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On one hand where it is extremely heartbreaking to get myself acquainted to the fact that I’d never be a part of the Sunday brain storming sessions with the brightest minds from across the university or single-handedly going for meetings with top notch executives from brilliantly huge firms, it also makes me hugely satisfied to see a set of immensely talented juniors who have put in all their effort to make DUB reach new heights this year. My college life, in a nutshell, has been DU Beat. As I sign off as the Marketing Head, I look back in retrospection, at the two year amazing stint that I’ve had at this organisation with the most lovely people that I can, now, proudly proclaim as family.

Thank you, DUB. You’re one college memory I’ll cherish forever.

K.S. Radhika
Marketing Head 2016-17

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News

Delhi University’s Ad-hoc teachers go on a hunger strike to earn a permanent status

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Over 200 ad-hoc faculty members of University of Delhi observed a day-long hunger strike on Friday, April, 28th, 2017. The strike was observed in order to press their demand to be absorbed as permanent faculty by the University.

The hunger-strike was organised at the Delhi University Arts’ Faculty premises where the ad-hoc faculty members from across the University discussed the problems and irregularities they are subject to by the University. According to Himanshu Singh, an Assistant Professor (ad-hoc) at Satyawati College (Evening),  these teachers are not being made permanent for a long time, and are forced to enjoy a sub-par status, which does not allow them to enjoy the privileges/facilities the permanent members get. He also added while in conversation with IANS, “Some of us have been teaching us for more than ten years, some even more. Why are we not good enough for permanent status, when the university can trust us with teaching students, their evaluation, and their careers?”

The Assistant Professor also told that the ad-hoc teachers are hired through the same selection process as permanent teachers.

According to another ad-hoc teacher from Satyawati College, they will also march to the Vice-Chancellor’s office and present him with a charter on their demands. The Delhi University Teachers’ Association extended its complete support to the protesting teachers in their bid to earn a permanent faculty status in the University.

 

Feature Image Credits: indianexpress.com

 

Priyal Mahtta

[email protected]

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Uncategorized

Innovation Project by Ramanujan College on distributional channel strategy

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A research was conducted by the Innovation Project team of Ramanujan College, titled “Designing Distribution Channel Strategy: Forging Consumer and Product Synchrony” under the Project code “RNC- 302”.

The research conducted by the Innovation Project team of Ramanujan College, University of Delhi, titled “Designing Distribution Channel Strategy: Forging Consumer and Product Synchrony” under the Project code “RNC- 302” dealt with drawing a relationship between consumer preferences and distribution channel preferred (local kirana, malls or online) for a particular type of commodity for a given city, under various parameters. The 3 principal operators of this project were Dr. K. Latha, Ms. Isha Gupta and Mr. Rakesh Singh, accompanied by Mr. Pulkit Garg (Country Head of Operations) Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd.) as mentor. The student members were Aakar Mangla, Akshit Kakkar, Aditya Sharma, Bharat Anand, Jamaaluddin, Jyoti Tyagi, Kanak Bohra, Pragya Parashar, Ranjeeta Sharma and Saurabh Singh. The team compiled 4 research papers, out of which 3 were focused on individual cities and the 4th one was a joint study of all the cities.

The study aimed to understand the quantitative and qualitative horizons of consumer behavior in different tiers of Indian cities like, Delhi- a metropolitan, Panipat- a developing business hub and Mussoorie- a tourist destination. The results of the study were based on primary data collected by conducting a survey of 600 individuals (200 in each city) of diverse ages, in the selected cities. The sample in each city was stratified and random, and components of study considered only Groceries (oil, grains, confectionery, etc.) and Electronics (Mobile handsets, refrigerators, computers, etc.), which were judged on following parameters-seller’s goodwill, price, product quality, availability, convenience, discount, packaging, timely delivery and payment security.

The outcome of the study showed that even with the recent expansion of online portals and malls, local kirana stores remain to be a prominent feature of Indian shopping experience in most cities. The reasons being: convenient, ready availability, product quality, and seller’s goodwill. However, offering discounts, attractive prices, and providing honest reviews proves to be a setback for local kiranas. The outcome was reached upon after an extensive and comprehensive study of these cities. Various innovations and business ideas are given in the research papers compiled by the team which would prove to be of enormous help to new entrepreneurs trying to step into this arena. With online portals growing at this pace, local kiranas and malls are required to undergo a makeover to recapture the customer base they have been losing. Hence, any innovation which could bring this revolution would be more than welcomed.

For more information, watch the short film about their project here.

 

Feature Image Credits: rediff.com

 

 Joyee Bhattacharya

([email protected])

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Admissions 2017

Admission Deadline for Foreign Students Extended

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The University of Delhi (DU), which sees students from all across the world enrol into various courses, has decided to extend the deadline for the admission of foreign applicants. Every year, hundreds of aspirants from countries such as Afghanistan, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka apply to DU for courses such as Economics (Hons.), B.Com (Hons.) etc. in the undergraduate programme. This year, the University saw their number rise to a record 3,300. Thus, a conscious measure taken to extend the application deadline was required, in order to ease up the document submission and screening process.

Ashutosh Bhardwaj, a senior official of the admission committee, verified the news to MAIL TODAY. He said that while the deadline for admission to undergraduate courses for non-Indian students has been shifted to 4th May, the deadline for Ph.D. applications has also been extended to 31st May 2017. Earlier, the deadline for online applications for the upcoming academic session was 20th April 2017 for the undergraduate students. The new deadlines, as Bhardwaj confirmed, give students more time to submit their documents for verification. This step does, indeed, create an opportunity for both the students and the University to participate in the admission process and to make it a smooth and hassle-free affair.

 

Feature Image Credits: CryBytes

Deepannita Misra
[email protected]

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Uncategorized

100 Years of Powerplay

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As completes a century of US intervention in the first world war, a step foundation-stone to the century of its global dominance, the current global politics indices signal that the hourglass has reversed. With Uncle Sam’s hegemony finally dwindling, the process only hastened in this 100th year after the loss of the president-subject amity, it isn’t hard to imagine where the world goes from here, stuck amid two nations ardent efforts to claim the throne in spite of the third’s vehement refusal to relinquish.

The world keeps on teaching refined lessons. Belittling St. George’s who quit after killing one dragon, the United States of America successfully played the hero in both the world wars. The turn of events ended the ad infinitum era of European dominance consolidating US as the new bully in the block. The states singularly dominated the world diplomatically and economically throughout the 20th century.

At the advent of this century started the phase of decentralisation of power with China and Russia challenging this unipolar nature of world politics. Countries started identifying their self sufficiency in the age of  globalisation. This triggered the imperceptible loss of US supremacy although strong leadership ensured the delayed effects of the inevitable, making the americans believe, at the same time, that all was well.

With the departure of Barack Obama and the advent of the era of Trumpism deepening these writings on the wall, on the face of which, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Xi Jinping couldn’t have asked for a better U.S. premier. Both the national leaders capitalised on the subsequent  friction between the ruler and the ruled in America. Just in a matter of few months, it is clearly evident that Donald Trump’s nugatory ambitions of taming Russia and China diplomatically and hence making America great again had been a massive disillusionment.

Consequently he has resorted to other frantic measures of flexing muscles, with the spectacle of serious bombings in Afghanistan and foolery of locking horns with Russia over the Syrian crisis. Not quite unlike to Donald Trump’s decisions and policies, any sustainable result from these antics is unimaginable.

As secretary of state Rex Tillerson arrives at Moscow on Tuesday in a scheduled meeting with Sergei Lavrov, expecting a massive diplomatic dialogue would be too far fetched. As a third party, the most we should  hope is a mutual understanding of the global causes and a better understanding on the futility of powerplay on already war-torn nations.

 

Image Credits- pintrest.com

 

Nikhil Kumar

[email protected]

 

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