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Saumya Kalia

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Looking beyond the plethora of cafes and restaurants which are tucked away in the sprawling streets of on-campus and off-campus colleges, peruse through the price-friendly places to visit for your own happy meal!

Of all the places that make the University of Delhi illuminating with energy and fascination, some of the most special ones are the comfort paradises of college canteens. These food havens end up becoming some of our favourite places to visit around campus. Explore our list of where to go when your stomach hurls for a delightful meal, without burning some appetising holes in your pocket!

Anna’s Canteen
This homely little nook located in PG Men’s hostel serves the best dosas in North Campus. This canteen is run by a man fondly called Anna, and you can get the best South Indian food, Lemon rice and fruit beer in this magical place. Bonus points for all the cats roaming around that you also get to pet!

Pandit Jee ki canteen/ Gwyer Hall Canteen
This place has been around for a long time. Legend has it that journalist Vinod Dua and politician Arun Jaitley frequented this place as students. This place is as known for its legacy as much as it is known for its sweet samosas and scrumptious Maggi.

Delhi School of Economics Canteen
D-school is not only home to its amazing canteen, but also to the legendary JP Tea stall. The mutton dosas and cutlets served in the canteen do not have a match. JP tea stall also offers amazing iced-tea, masala cokes, and chai at ridiculously low prices; making it one of the most popular places in north campus.

Delhi University Teachers’ Association Canteen
A palatable gem tucked away near the gate number 4 of the Conference Center, University Enclave is DUTA’s sprawling canteen. The food joint is said to offer a delicious variety of breakfast, lunch, and dinner at extremely reasonable prices. The Nescafé cafe is a visitor’s favourite in this bustling canteen in North Campus!

Mansarovar Hostel Canteen
For the habitants of North Campus, the entrance through Vishwavidyalaya metro station leads the way to the famous Mansoravar Hostel, and its bustling canteen. The place also has a photocopy shop within the premises; thus, students can be found sipping on a bottle of Coke or munching on snacks while their academic needs are met. Go and visit to try their delicious fried rice and chole bha?ure to warm your mouth!

NSD Canteen
The wonderland for theatre enthusiasts is also the abode for some delectable food. The canteen also boasts of a time when Shah Rukh Khan’s father ran the place with zest! The centre also takes care of three campus cats; feeding them and sheltering them. Visit the cozy canteen to delight on affordable samosas, paranthas, and other savoury pleasures!

VKRV Rao Hostel Canteen
The famous hostel canteen is a favourable place to satiate all hunger pangs, with its lip-smacking stuffed paranthas, Maggi, and steaming hot chai. The bustling food joint keeps its lights open till 1 in the night; allowing a plethora of hostellers and nearby residents to crash in for food at those wee hours for a satisfying meal!

Feature Image Credits: EatTreat

Kinjal Pandey
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Saumya Kalia
[email protected]

From the comfortable interiors of Jodhpur, Neerav Jain landed in the dynamic educational hub of the University of Delhi; where academics are kept at par with the extra-curricular caliber. The young entrepreneur takes us through his entrepreneurial adventure, CityFurnish, and the multi-faceted learning-opportunity the journey proffered after he graduated from Kirori Mal College back in 2013.

Starting a business is a mammoth task. Could you please delineate on the initial hurdles your start-up faced?

There were three major hurdles we faced initially. One thing was the age factor; I was starting very young and had just completed my undergraduate education. I had two years of work experience with my family and naturally it takes a little bit of time to understand things. Typically, if you see the breed of start-up coming in, they are filled by IITs and IIMs. When you are just coming up with a bachelor’s degree and scaling up, it’s challenging. It’s not just about funding, but about hiring too. When you are hiring someone who is smarter and more educated than you, you need to convince them to work for you. Secondly, having vision clarity. Furniture is nonstandard item. You can have categories in luxury, but in furniture this is a very difficult thing. We were clear that what we want to achieve as a company. We want CityFurnish to be known for furniture the way Uber is known for cab services in spite of the fact that they have started other services too.  Establishing oneself in a particular category is a challenge. In short, don’t go for small money; create your own domain no matter how tough it is.

The third difficulty faced was creating a brand with limited resources like budget. Creating a brand needs investment. I learnt about this while I was in college. I was the Placement Cell and Commerce Society head. In a society, you need to pull up an event with very few funds. I learnt how to create a network effect and create a buzz. We started targeting customers near Chanakyapuri who weren’t much price conscious. They were very generous with reviews and sharing contacts. They acted as leverage for giving us publicity. It is a mammoth task creating a brand with limited resources. We wanted people to talk about our company.

Is there any entrepreneurial story that has personally inspired you?

One of my early investor was Mr. Jitendra Gupta, founder of Citrus, the payment gateway. His story is very similar to mine. Essentially, I am from a non-tech background. Whereas, he is a finance guy, running one of the largest payment gateway companies in India. His was the only start-up which was able to give a successful exit last year. Naturally, I was very motivated and connected with him due to several reasons. He has started with lot of challenges as in hailing from a non-tech background and hiring a tech team. Building the founding team will decide the next 50 teams in the company. He inspired me to be meticulous about choosing founding members. I learnt how to drive my co-workers with motivation as we weren’t paying much being a budding company. I learnt the concept of frugality from him and how it was important to chase investors with business matrix rather than the vanity matrix.

You were the Placement Cell Head and Com Soc President. How effective do you think DU’s placement and incubation cells are in grooming one’s personality?

For me, definitely very helpful. Coming from Jodhpur, till 12th Pre-boards, my highest percentage was 69, so naturally, I was never a topper. DU itself came in as a little bit of surprise. The first thing I got to know was that a lot Delhites, typically, were doing multiple things at once; debate society, drama society, internships, article ship, and then they were good in studies also. That was something I was never doing in Jodhpur. When I came to DU, the only two things I could apply for were the Placement Cell and Commerce Society, where the requirements were management skills and aptitude. For me, the whole process was extremely intriguing. the complete grooming, the street smartness, the management of the teams; because the fundamental idea was that you’re not paying anything to the team. But still they are motivated to work, to stay till 3 in the night and then turning up next morning to again do all the work. From brining something, getting something from the canteen to managing work; and you’re not paying them anything and yet they are so motivated. Even when you’re starting your own company, though you’re not paying anything, you can still motivate your team if you have the vision theme clear. That’s an important learning I got; salary is not everything if you’re building up your company from scratch. My experience with Placement Cell and Com Soc, that frugality that spend very less, a lot of these things were imbibed from this.

It’s going to be the 2-year anniversary of CityFurnish. Looking back, what do you think could have been done differently or could have yielded better results?

That’s a very retrospective question! As an entrepreneur, there was a scope for improving each and everything. But for something which always bothers me, firstly is the hiring aspect of it. When I started up, I hired just for the role: I need a finance guy, a marketing guy, I hired just for the sake of hiring to conform to the role. That was a major point. Secondly, you need to stick to your gut feeling. Because you’ve thought this is the team structure, this is the vision, this is how we’re going to be different from the competitors, and this is how we’re going to be in the long run. We would always prefer to compete on service level, rather than the pricing level. If you’re fighting on the pricing, it’s always a downward spiral.

When did you make your first breakthrough? What was your first milestone?

The inception of CityFurnish has not been done in India. I was in Netherlands at the time and was handling an export order. During that time I got in touch with Mark, founder of the company called Just Eat which is equivalent Zomato in India but on a global scale. He was running a program called startup boot camp.  He asked me to be a part of it as I had nothing much to do after my work. We got incubated in the start-up boot camp and out of a 100 teams, our start-up was among the top 10. That was a huge validation. Then, I came back to India because Delhi-NCR, as it is itself a bigger market than Netherlands. On 20th September 2015, I got my first order, before we were officially incorporated. Receiving an order before officially launching a business is definitely something which pushes your morale.

You worked for your family business, Chandra Shekhar Exports. How did you decide to start your own venture and how supportive was your family about it?

My dad has been running his company for over 25 years now and naturally, he has his own set of rules and protocols to follow. I came from DU at that time, fresh of energy and innovation. I wanted to change everything about the business. At that time, I didn’t realize there is a thinking process working behind every protocol. My father was 58 at that time and I was 22 giving him suggestions like, “Aise nahin, aise karo.”  And he would dismiss my suggestions which did hurt my ego, but it’s an important learning process. It was difficult for me at that point to understand that behind every set process there is an experience behind it.

How has your personal life changed ever since you grew out the reigns of your business?

I don’t think that I have achieved success yet, but yes, personal life has changed a lot. In DU, you have an amazing lifestyle. But once you start getting busy, you have to start saying no to plans made by friends. A lot of relationship equations change. Social life gets restricted; and some people understand these changes and some don’t. You have to forego a lot of short term pleasures which is actually quite challenging at this age.

Being DU students we realize that our lives are full of experiences. We want you to go back in the memory lane and feel nostalgic. Can you share some of your experiences with us?

When I came to Delhi, I really didn’t like it.  Every two weeks, I used to go back to Jodhpur because of homesickness. I had made up my mind to discontinue studying in DU after a year; it was tough. But over time, it turned out to be different. It pushed me out of my comfort zone. Getting into DU was a slap in that mode. There was a cultural diversity, a vast set of people who won’t agree to your opinion just for the sake of it. The second thing that DU offered me was the human connect. I am still in touch with my placement cell juniors. I still know all the office bearers of my society. They still rope me in events they conduct, and thus, thereis a lot of connect still now.

I was involved in lot of extra-curricular activities and politics.  It gave me an experience for life time.  KMC and Ramjas are very famous for politics. Out batch was the first to churn out a President from B.Com after 35 years. That was the difference; politics has a notion of aggression around it. The violence is real. For DU, for first years, the gruesome violence is shit scary. Within college premises, hostel brawls, it is a whole issue altogether. At the exterior, it is a simple college election. Internally, a lot of things matter. Parties will come to societies and offer different services to garner votes. You obviously don’t want to get into their books but indulging in these unethical tactics is also not favourable. This is something which happens in the business world. The process of acquiring licenses and other procedures you will encounter people from influential backgrounds. If you’ve already experienced this in colleges, which DU offers, it gives you a wonderful understanding of self-confidence of your ability to handle it.

Had there been no DU, would there have been a CityFurnish?

Tough to say! I’ll quote an example from Amazon. When Amazon was started, it was an accumulation of events. The guys had to face challenges with regards to the products, social media changes. Similarly, DU has been an important part. So, I would say partly yes. Had I gone to Bombay, I would have landed in Chandra Shekhar Exports and would not have had the confidence to venture into new things with such aplomb. I would have been settled and devoid of the pressure. Everything under DU had a different role; commerce society, college politics, and so much more. A lot of insights and my actual experiences stem from my days at DU. How to run my team, how to build their morale, how to motivate them without giving them an adequate salary; it’s all there.

It’s a competitive world. How do you make sure that you stay at par with your competitors, especially with the advent of social media amongst other changing trends?

From the competitor’s perspective, we realized our strengths and weaknesses from an early stage which is very essential. Instead of having just one barrier to entry, our approach was to have multiple barriers. We divided it across spectrum. The prima facie was to build the brand. Out of our team of people dealing with customers, you will see our average response time and delivery time is 48-72 hours, versus our competitors which is 7-10 days. Wherever we could get the customer delight factor, we tried to focus on that; from the project and team level. Secondly, we realized from the technological point. My other two partners, Saurabh and Vineet, have an expansive work experience of 6-7 years, with education from IIM and DTU respectively. Earning highly, coming into a startup with no salaries for at least a year was a challenge itself. We have divided our roles, which has helped us build our own defenses. Saurabh is extremely proficient in the digital marketing field. At the end of the day, the customer knows us from the digital spectrum. Saurabh used the strategy of ensuring that CityFurnish was always amongst the top three searches. What Vineet brings on board is the financial and convenience aspect. He collaborated with important companies and adapted a payment model which suited our functioning method and was to our preference. Internally, the payment collection was happening on time and the team resources were handled. So, the customer delight, the online aspect of it, and customer convenience through the service and delivery is how we coped with the changes.

Any suggestion for the young minds ripe with the thoughts of venturing out into a business of their own?

In DU, there are lot of investors and mentors. People these days don’t share their ideas fearing plagiarism. I would say that in start-ups, idea is 2% and the rest is execution. I will suggest that talk to people, no matter how rubbish your idea sounds.  The second thing is, don’t over think your idea. Every idea has more cons than pros. How you deal with the cons and establishing a business is what that makes you stand out. There were a lot of cons while I was analysing the business plan of CityFurnish. However, we were able to deal with things tactfully. We made sure that our business is customer driven and not competitor or investor driven. Another important thing is identifying the trend. Make sure that your idea suits the trend!

What are some of your immediate goals in the pipeline?

We’ve tried to follow along the lines of Amazon’s business strategy: always think from the perspective of customers, which would allow your misses to turn into hits inevitably. Our idea is to launch wall beds; so the idea is to uplift the level of competition. It is an innovation at the product level. If in one item we are able to provide a multitude of utilities, it obviously helps us. The second target is to try to integrate the internet of things in the furniture sector. We are integrating the Bluetooth speaker, phone charger set-up into the sofa set itself. It’s not something revolutionary, however, the utilitarian aspect enhances the customer delight. These small things are now being targeted at a proto-type level. Beyond that, we are focusing on brand building. To establish CityFurnish for what it should be known for; something which will set the narrative for the company for the future years to come. There are a lot of things down the line, long-term visions which we want the company to achieve.

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CityFurnish is India’s third largest and a rapidly growing furniture, furnishings and appliances rental brand. Set upon the task to provide smarter lifestyle solutions, CityFurnish is revolutionizing the on-demand rental economy by making renting affordable and easy.

Neerav Jain is the founder and CEO at CityFurnish- India’s fastest growing furniture, furnishings and appliances rental brand. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Delhi University, and Business & Enterprise Management from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Neerav landed his first job as an Export Manager with Pepperfry. He later went on to attend the Lean Launchpad and Business Innovation course at Utrecht University.

 

Feature Image Credits: Facebook

 

Saumya Kalia

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Sandeep Samal

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On Saturday, more than 100 students from Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) decided to hold a sit-in protest against the inaction of the authorities. The contention was regarding the assault of a professor by a student of the same college, with the student getting support from the faculty and the alumni. The professor, Ashwani Kumar, was assaulted by a Global Business Operations student on July 14th, allegedly over the issue of low marks assigned to him by the professor. A FIR was lodged against the accused, Pradeep Phogat. What’s shocking is that the disciplinary committee of the college remained dormant and hasn’t taken any action relating to this matter as of yet.

Amol Singh Rasnal, one of the students in the protests quoted to the Times of India saying, “Professor Kumar is one of the most well-reputed faculty members of the college. He was attacked by a student during the course of discharge of his duties. Such incidents should not be tolerated and it is imperative for us to protest against them and force the college authorities into taking quicker actions.” The sit-in protest got approval from the college principal and had been publicized through the use of social media and classroom campaigns.

“The relationship between a student and a professor extends to questioning and challenging, but violent means are always condemnable,” quoted Anil Kumar, head of the department of Global Business Administration, to Times of India (TOI) while addressing the students. He further added, “What pains me is that the authorities could have taken immediate action against the accused, but failed to do so. It has been 15 days now. We need to force the disciplinary committee to take action sooner so that this incident acts as a deterrent. Such behavior is disruptive of the SRCC culture, and should not be perceived as a part of it.”

All present at the protest signed a letter demanding the expulsion of the student from Delhi University, along with a proper police investigation. This was signed and forwarded to the authorities.

 

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat

 

Rashim Bagga

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Dear Chester,

There’s a knot in the pit of my stomach; like the most tormenting blackout. My heart is thumping against my ribs, as I try to pour my emotions over the keyboard. The first inevitable action was to reach for the headphones, maximize the volume, and play the songs I’ve grown up with; which brought me one step closer to tunes and lyrics and art. The symphonies of the familiar Linkin Park songs are echoing in my ears, my mind, my heart; like a flock of blackbirds following me. A wave of immense pain is slowly pounding my insides, as I venture to fathom that the soulful, heart-wrenching, enamouring voice had lost a fatal battle of its own, in the end. You, the musical maestro, the legendary hero who had managed to define music for millions of souls, has let free of the grip of life; forever lost in the echo. 

I chanced upon you across YouTube’s vastness nine years ago; my first tryst with an English band. I remember how you were the cushion to every blow of emotion a middle-school child was capable of experiencing. I remember the boost of confidence my personality witnessed as I proudly boasted of listening to ‘Linkin Park.’ I remember sitting hours in front of the computer during the day, singing along every word of your melody. I remember resorting to your haven when the nights were sad and terribly dark. I remember falling in love for the first time while humming to your tune. I remember being heart-broken with your words proffering me an inextinguishable flame of comfort. I remember painting the world red with my angst with the burning passion in your music. I remember snippets of the timeline of my life through the bundle of your songs; each a rhapsody of my existence.

We’ve been left powerless buthaven’t we?

Over the years, you’ve churned out songs which struck the strings of my dishevelled heart. From Hybrid Theory, Meteora, Minutes to Midnight, A Thousand Suns, to Living Things, The Hunting Party, and One More Light; I’ve stuck by you till the shadow of the day. The floating and fiery sensation of being alive which your voice dispersed, the cocoon of dejection and disappointment and failures and frustration which you harnessed is a reminder of why countless hearts cry today in your remembrance. We knew that the great hits you churned out through the years were feeding on your devastation, your depression. Turns out, you were living every lyric and harmony of songs which weaves us a bed of comfort and compassion. Your death has caused a ripple through me; a thunderous storm, rolling in the deep. 

To all the Linkin Park fans out there, you’re not alone. The unnerving blow to the music world is a loss we will collectively mourn. As we rummage through our memories to reminisce and bleed out how every song pulled us through a fragment of phase in our lives, the iridescent path your songs took will be there to direct every ounce of our feeling. Turns out, the magic you conjured through your songs has found a way to cultivate the memoirs of every person reading this. Oddly, the songs feel sweeter, with a sea of desolation engulfing them as millions of your fans tune into reliving the bits and pieces of your soul. Almost as if, they were creeping in with a perpetual numbness, a light that will never come. 

You tried so hard, and got so far. I guess, in the end, it didn’t even matter. But, your loss matters to every soul slightly shattered today. We will remember how you stayed through it all; the good, the bad, and the terribly sad. Your grit and raw emotion echoed with every note and chord, and today as we cope with the grief of losing a legend we grew up with and would never grow out of, here’s the jewel of advice we will always remember:

When my time comes
Forget the wrong that I’ve done
Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed
And don’t resent me
And when you’re feeling empty
Keep me in your memory
Leave out all the rest.

Goodbye, friend.

 

Your fan, till the Final Masquerade 

 

 

Feature Image Credits: Rolling Stone

 

Saumya Kalia

[email protected]

 

July 15th marked the commencement of the fourth phase of University of Delhi’s merit-based undergraduate admissions. Filling up to 90% of the seats in various colleges, the candidates will be hard-pressed to secure a seat considering most courses have closed admissions.

The undergraduate admissions cycle branches out into merit-based and entrance-based mode of admissions every year; with 50,000 seats out of a total of 56,000 reserved for merit-based procedure, through the announcement of cut-off lists. Officials of the varsity have remarked that 3,500 seats were secured in this leg of admission cycle, with a marginal figure remaining to complete the process.

Eyeing individual colleges, Sri Venkateswara has hit the cap on the number of seats. The Hindustan Times quoted the Principal P Hemalatha Reddy, who delineated, “We have approximately 1,150 seats, and we have approved 1,198 admissions. Almost all the courses will be closed for admissions, especially under the general category, in the next list.” Following close behind, Kirori Mal College has a hundred seats remaining; but, have declared closed the admissions for popular courses. Moving to Daulat Ram College, Principal Savita Roy briefed, “Even in sought after courses such as B.Com, B.Com (Hons) and English (Hons), we have a few seats remaining.” Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College still has doors open, especially for Science students. “We have filled approximately 570 out of our 800 seats. Though most courses are going to be closed, we still have seats in the science courses,” said an associate professor.

Like the previous cut-off trends, this admission cycle too applicants had to endure technical snags and cut-off chaos which plagued their experience. The next, and anticipatedly the last cut-off list, is scheduled to be announced on the evening of July 17th. The new academic session of the University begins on July 20th.

 

 

Feature Image Credits: Hindustan Times

 

Saumya Kalia

[email protected]

 

When the glittering stars of the YouTube realm transcend barriers to splash the offline space, it’s bound to add to their awesomeness. The online sensation Lilly Singh, who with her YouTube alias of Superwoman has managed to garner millions of subscribers, was appointed as the UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador at a special event in the capital.

Source: Twitter
Source: @UNICEF_uk on Twitter

The Indian-origin Canadian Vlogger, comedian, and writer travelled with the organisation to rural Madhya Pradesh, where she had the opportunity to meet children and adolescents who were ravaged by the realities of poverty. But, her appearance was the flicker of hope to their grievances being recognised.

Owing to the online ripple this YouTube star has created with her channel, her campaign will aim to engage children and youth from different backgrounds and empower them to do what they’ve been striving for: to voice the struggles that have plagued all their lives. She visited the UNICEF supported ‘Youth4Change’ initiative, an avenue for young people to experience the clutches of leadership and supporting their communities against issues that affect them; including, violence, exploitation, health, hygiene, gender equality, and quality education.

The revered feat formed a source of inspiration and the spark to incite action. She says, “I am honoured to join UNICEF as a Goodwill Ambassador, and to use my voice to support its mission of reaching every child. It’s time to stand for what your kids want and not society.”

“The children I have met here are overcoming so many challenges — and they are living proof of what a child can achieve, if given a chance,” she added.

Her channel will showcase the efforts put in by the humanitarian organisation in different areas, with the aim of inspiring people to invest their passion to work for children rights. She has also conceptualised the #GirlLove initiative on social media, to nullify the traces of girl on girl hate. The engagement factor for children and youth hailing from every background would enter the scene by the usage of Hindi subtitles as well as the production of some videos entirely in Hindi.

UNICEF representative in India Yasmin Ali Haque said, “Lilly is a role model to so many young people, especially girls, and we look forward to the role she will play in generating greater discussion – and greater action – around the value of girls in India and everywhere.”

The Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth added, “Lilly Singh is already a Superwoman, helping empower girls around the world and we are delighted that she will lend her passion and her powerful voice to speak up on behalf of the most vulnerable children.”

The YouTube star has been thriving in other domains; with being ranked number one in Forbes Magazine’s Top Influencers List in the entertainment field, having acquired a whopping 11 million subscribers online, authoring a book, and recently being cast in an HBO adaption movie.

 

With inputs from IANS

 

Image Credits: Hindustan Times

 

Saumya Kalia

[email protected]

The fervour for postgraduate admissions under the University of Delhi is all set to hit full swing, with the varsity announcing the admissions schedule and process on its technical-snag prone website.

Under PG admissions, all departments have two modes of admission – merit and entrance. Students from the University of Delhi who have performed well at the undergraduate level will take up 50% of the seats. This mode of direct admission is not available to students of other universities. The other 50% of seats will be filled through entrance tests and interviews or group discussions.

The timeline for the admission process dates July 17th-19th for the release of the first admission list and the subsequent steps to secure a seat in the desired college. Entrance for a plethora of courses was conducted in the first week of July; with reports of an assortment of cheating tactics surfacing across different colleges. The varsity announced the results for these entrances over the last two days.

The schedule for admissions, as well as the list of documents required at the Reporting Centres, are as follows:

Graphic by Kartik Kakar for DU Beat
Graphic by Kartik Kakar for DU Beat

Here’s a rundown of the admissions process of the applicants:

  1. All the registered applicants should have successfully updated the details of their qualifying exams on the portals (which were reopened till July 14th).
  2. For the ‘merit category,’ it is mandatory for the candidates to upload the aforementioned marks on the portal to be considered for inclusion in the Admissions List. For the ‘entrance category,’ there is no such clause.
  3. Departments who announce the results will declare the First Admissions List on their websites on July 17th, 2017. The list will be comprehensive in terms of both the mode of admissions and for all categories. The allotment of the applicants has been calculated on the basis of the rank and availability of seats in the desired college. The applicant will have to visit the college to verify the documents and pay the fees to complete the admissions process.
  4. Having met the allotment list, the applicants is required to log on to the PG portal, and download and fill the Admission Form. The Form will distinctly mention the Reporting Centre (where the applicant will report) and the Place of Admission (where the applicant will be admitted).
  5. The applicant can then proceed to the Reporting Centre with the Admission Form and the required documents for the verification process. The applicant will then be marked ‘verified’ or ‘reported’ depending on whether he/she has the mark-sheet of the qualifying examination; with the former category possessing the said document. These applicants will then move to the Place of Admission for allotting the original documents, and certificates will be retained at these colleges.
  6. The applicants can then log on to their portals to make the online fee payment within the stipulated period, which would watermark their admission in a particular college.

You can peruse the detailed process here.

The list of centres marked for distinct departments can be looked up here.

 

 

Feature Image Credits: University of Delhi

 

Saumya Kalia

[email protected]

The fourth leg of undergraduate admissions at the University of Delhi was declared open by the uploading of the Fourth cut-off list on the DU website, and the portals of the varsity are once again bustling with hopeful candidates. However, a dampening trend witnessed over the last few cut-offs resumes to action as the technical snags experienced by candidates is continuing to hamper their admissions process.

The minor dip in percentages has set in motion the withdrawal and shifting process, eyed by several students. The first rung of the admissions procedure involves obtaining an acknowledgment slip from the UG portal; a task many students were unable to complete due to the non-compliance of the online system. “I have been waiting since the morning for the online portal to start working so that my admission slip can be generated. I even tried logging in from a cyber café, but the server was down,” The Hindu quoted Ananya, a Daulat Ram College aspirant.

Another grievance was brought to the table by Manpreet Kaur, who after several attempts was able to secure admission at Khalsa. She said, “As the server was down in the morning, the admission slip was not being generated. However, I managed to get it later on.”

As the wheel of cut-off lists keeps spinning, the input and output of applications is also running strong. Daulat Ram College saw 35 new applicants with a few withdrawal, Hindu College witnessed 50 admissions against 7 cancellations, Sri Venkateswara College noted 80 fresh applicants with 24 cancellations, and Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College saw 30 admissions against 80 withdrawals.

Being the official second last phase of undergraduate admissions, admissions for various courses in colleges had been declared closed. With 16,000 seats on offer in totality by the varsity, Hindu College has closed admissions for 15 out of 17 courses, Kirori Mal College has only 7 programmes up for grabs, and Motilal Nehru College (Evening) has ceased admissions in 6 courses. In Miranda House, admissions are only open for B.A. (Hons.) English, Sociology, B.A. (Programmne), and B.Sc. (Hons.) Botany. Sri Venkateswara College has closed admissions for eight out of a total of 20 courses.

The highest cut-off was announced by Lady Shri Ram College for B.A. (Hons.) Psychology, capped at 97.75%. Admissions under the fourth cut-off list are scheduled to be continued till Saturday, July 15th. The next list will be announced in the evening of June 17th, with admissions taking place over July 18th and 19th, 2017.

 

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

 

Saumya Kalia

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An undergraduate admissions guideline has once again been the source of confusion, disappointment, and despair amongst the aspiring students. The varsity is putting into effect a deduction of 2.5% for the inclusion of languages such as Nepali, Tamil, Malayalam, Odia, Kannada, and Marathi in the Best of Four percentage, as they are not counted as academic subjects.

A DU aspirant came to secure her seat in the University for Honours in Geography from Darjeeling and was able to successfully get her documents verified. She was told to check the online portal and pay the fees after 4 pm. However, she soon received a call from the college officials that she is not eligible for admission as the inclusion of Nepali in her Best of Four would attract a deduction of 10 marks; thus, leading her to wait for the fourth cut-off list.

Despite being listed in the Eight Schedule of the Constitution, an official explained that these regional languages are not counted under the Modern Indian Languages (MIL) list of the varsity. Thus, their inclusion would lead to a deduction of marks from the percentage.

The language imposition is also echoed in state boards, wherein students often opt for their native language as an elective subject. The Indian Express quoted a student from the Kerala Board who had to modify the permutations of his subjects in order to successfully secure admission in Hindi College in the second list. He said, “I scored above 90 in Malayalam but still faced a deduction. So I added English, History, Political Science and Economics instead.”

The varsity, however, rationalises this deduction policy as a lack of departments concerning the aforementioned languages. “The course admission committee of each department decides eligibility criteria on what can be included in the ‘best of four’. That is approved by the admission standing committee. I have nothing to do with this,” says Ashutosh Bhardwaj, OSD Admissions.

However, the need to update the MIL list has been recognised by the varsity’s faculty which is necessary to conform to the ‘central’ aspect of the University, and cater to the plethora of students who come from several backgrounds. “To maintain the central character of the university, DU can make these changes. Banaras Hindu University, also a central university, includes Nepali and has several other language departments,” said Saroj Giri, a political science teacher at DU.

Previously, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has also written to the University to allow the inclusion of Home Science, Legal Studies, and Informatics Practice in the best of four without any disadvantage. Sanam Khanna, an English lectures Kamala Nehru College, urges the boards to write to the varsity. She says, “The university just has to get an amendment in the executive council and say that languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution also need to be included in the university admission process. If not this, the state boards, CBSE and others should write to the university.”

The matter was further discussed in the executive council meeting of the varsity, which took place on July 3rd. Rakesh Jha, a member of the Council, remarked, “During zero hour, I had said it is important to allow students to include modern Indian languages in the ‘best of four’. Not allowing this will discourage students from opting for these languages during their Plus Two.”

Every academic year, the University of Delhi undertakes most applicants for sixty programmes through a merit-based mechanism. The admissions are conducted on the basis of the best of four percentage secured in the Class XII Board examinations. The criteria for calculating the Best of Four percentage varies across courses; the similarity being regarding the inclusion of one language in the said percentage. The permitted languages which can be included in the BoF are: Hindi, English, Persian, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Urdu, Bengali, and Arabic.

 

With inputs from The Indian Express

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat

 

Saumya Kalia

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After a tumultuous admission process in the first three windows of admission, the varsity is all set to announce the fourth cut-off list by midnight on its website. With 15,000 seats yet to be occupied, the fourth leg of admissions cycle has officially commenced from today evening, with individual colleges have begun releasing the list for the fourth cycle of admissions.

While most of the colleges have closed admissions for popular courses, students still have a chance to secure seats in select streams.

Currently, several colleges have already released their cut-offs, which can be accessed by clicking on the relevant Institute:

1. Shri Ram College of Commerce

2. Vivekanand College

3. Shivaji College

4. Maharaja Agrasen College

5. Zakir Husain Delhi College

6. Daulat Ram College

7. Kirori Mal College

8. Gargi College

The admissions to the fourth cut-off list will be conducted between July 13th and 15th at the respective colleges. For a rundown of the admission process and a list of the documents to be carried, you can read the full report here. If you wish to cancel your admission in the current college to make you eligible for admission in the fourth cut-off, read our report on the withdrawal procedure here.

Stay tuned to our page, for the list will be updated as and when the colleges announce their cut-offs.

 

 

Feature Image Credits: University of Delhi

 

Saumya Kalia

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