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The Delhi School of Journalism (DSJ) kicked off its journey with an orientation programme in seminar hall of Cluster Innovation Centre on 26th September. The event which marked the beginning of DSJ saw Prof. Yogesh Tyagi, Vice-Chancellor of the University; Prof. Devesh Kumar Sinha, Dean of Colleges; Prof J.P Dubey, Dean of Faculty of Social Science as the guests of the occasion.
The celebration began with a customary welcome song which was followed by the ceremonial lighting of the lamp. Dr.Manaswani Tyagi, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of DSJ paid her tributes to the Chairman of Syllabus Committee, Dr Savita Dutta. This was followed by the address of Prof. J.P Dubey who said, “Resources and the potential available in and around Delhi will be sufficient to nourish the students” and encouraged students to work hard and reach the zenith of their careers. His address was followed by the address of Prof. Devesh Sinha who in his speech urged students to put efforts to achieve their goals. Stating a popular Sanskrit quote he said, “No deer enters the mouth of the Lion who is sleeping”.

This was followed by a speech by Prof. Tarun Das, the registrar of the University who congratulated and welcomed the students and parents to the University of Delhi. Highlighting the auspiciousness of the occasion, he said that it is a holy coincidence that the opening of the occasion is on the same day as Durgasthami.
This was followed by an address of Dr M.K. Pandit, the chairman of the admissions committee who spoke about the  power of the pen and said, “ I wish that students at DSJ write stories that would inspire generations to come.”

This was followed by the much awaited inaugural lecture by Prof. Yogesh Tyagi who started his lecture by paying homage to Dr Savita Dutta.  He said, “ Students sitting here today are making history”. Speaking about his dream project he said that he believes that the new school is going to revolutionize the education of Journalism in the country. ” I want the Delhi School of Journalism to become even a better centre than the famous Columbia School of Journalism” and urged the students to resolute to be best human beings and the best journalists in the world.

The program drew its curtain with everyone singing the National Anthem and distribution of refreshment packets later.

Image Credits: Sandeep Samal and Srivedant Kar for DU Beat
Sandeep Samal
[email protected]

Imtiaz Ali, an alumnus of Hindu College, was seen interacting with the students of the English department on Monday, 20th September. He was there to talk about his life and career, his passions, film-making, and theatre.

The event, which was named Tale Talk with Imtiaz Ali was organised by the English department, Hindu College, where one of the senior-most professors, Mrs. Swaroopa Mukherjee, who also happened to have known Ali from his college days, took the role of the speaker. This event was able to draw out from Ali a lot of his adventures during his college days, some of which even led to inspirations for the plot of his films such as Rockstar. When asked about the sources of ideas for his films, Imtiaz said, ‘Stories have just been in side me. For the ones like Highway, I didn’t have to think out of the box. It is the story of a simple girl in the most ordinary situations that anyone can be caught in. For the ones like Rockstar, I never needed to have an idea. I guess I’ve had enough idea about Hindu and Stephen’s during my time here!’

What was interesting was the fact that he revealed how he never really liked most of the titles of his movies. ‘I never wanted Jab We Met to be Jab We Met’, he said. ‘As a matter of fact, Jab Harry met Sejal was suggested by Ranbir to Anushka and neither Shahrukh nor I liked it. But I still approved these titles because I want to keep myself away from the naming business. I feel I’m not great at it.’

He was also very excited to meet Ibtida, the Dramatics Society of Hindu College, of which he happens to be the founder. He narrated tales of how even before coming to college he had planned on joining the Dramatics Society. The dilemma after coming was that there wasn’t any such society in Hindu at that time. ‘It was time that Ibtiba needed to come into being. And it did.’, he said.

The students seemed really delighted to meet him. One of the third years said, ‘He is so relatable. He is still as clueless about what he is going to do next as we are!’

The Women’s Development Cell (WDC) of Shivaji College, in its efforts to generate awareness about gender equality, organized a workshop entitled ‘Gender and Media: From Margins to Mainstream ‘ on September 19, 2017, in collaboration with Breakthrough and Alliance India. 
Ms. Simran Sheikh representing  Alliance India, a not-for-profit Indian organisation with expertise in a range of disciplines including HIV, sexual & reproductive health, human rights, resource mobilisation, and advocacy to name a few, enlightened the students with her words. She engrossed the audience in her interactive session, starting with a question – “Who am I?”
Pointing towards the society and their acceptance of the ‘other gender’, she said that they can call her ‘A woman with a Man’s voice’, and also said, “Just because I am wearing a sari does not mean I am a woman.” She continued with the idea that in their community, their identity is expressed by their claps or plating. “Meri pehchan tali hai,” she said. She pondered over the idea of this identity in a society. She also elaborated how culture,  traditions, family, and neighbours bind us in some specific roles, admitting “although it’s  not bad to follow them,” their imposition certainly becomes a problem. She reinforced the fact that one must not be judgmental on seeing another person’s appearance. Her community, she believes, is “visible yet invisible”. In the end, she concluded with a trio vision of “Inclusion, Humanity, and Justice”.
The other guests, Mr. Pavel Sagolsem and Ms. Priyanka Sinha from Breakthrough, enlightened the students about the role of media in gender discrimination in India. They explained how a non-profit organisation challenges the status quo and takes bold action for the dignity, equality, and justice of all. The interactive session also included a bunch of videos explaining the audience how advertisements can bring a change in the outlook of the society towards many orthodox norms. Ring the bell, Titan Raga, and many other ad campaigns which have been seen on television over the years, were shown. In this session, the speakers also took inputs from the audience about their thoughts on these videos, and how they felt about the ads. Few volunteers from the audience weredivided into groups and were asked to prepare an advertisement on gender equality. The volunteers took up the task with great enthusiasm and witnessed great work from young creative minds. The speakers ended their session with a hope thatwould help the young minds change to a path of equality and justice to all.
The interactive session brought a change in the vision of the students,inclining them to mull over the mainstream norms.
Image credits: Team WDC, Shivaji College
Team WDC, Shivaji College

With the internals’ season here, we present to you the various sources to gather in-depth, reliable information related to your papers.

It’s the internals’ season! I must point out that the exclamation mark is sarcastic because this season comes with non-stop projects, assignments, tests, and presentations, thereby creating a very big Yang to the week-long Yin of the mid-semester relaxation. Still, certain resources can help you get through this period with minimum amount of cursing and frustration. Often, readings and course material aren’t enough to form a detailed project or presentation and gain information for that class which you only attended thrice. So, here are some sources that will help you get the extra information you require:

  1. Current Affairs

Gone are the days when you were in 7th grade and ripped off of Wikipedia without any shame. Researching topics is tough not only because of the depth of material available online and elsewhere, but also because it’s difficult to find accurate sources. When looking for news items, it is preferable to look for renowned sites like the BBC and Al-Jazeera for international news, and The Hindu and India Today for Indian news, as they boast of well-researched information.

  1. Researching Facts

In the realm of subjects like History and Political Science, there often arises a need to find the compact history of a particular country or area. The BBC website has a timeline feature that does exactly that. CIA’s World Factbook also provides the economic, social, geographical and other kinds of data for countries, in a brief manner. Britannica, too, is a good source and a trustworthy online encyclopaedia which gives information on most topics.

  1. Multi-Media Sources

YouTube has a treasure trove of videos on various topics. The problem with these, however, is that their quantity doesn’t translate to quality – especially when there’s no authority verifying these videos. Certain channels, however, have large fan-bases due to their high quality content. ASAPScience, HowStuffWorks, and VSauce make easily understandable videos on Science, while Vox, School of Life, and Crash Course have videos explaining various facets of the social sciences, including Philosophy and Psychology.

  1. Previous Years’ Question Papers

For tests, there is always a set pattern of achieving high scores. It can also depend on the grading style of your particular professor (Yay for the Humanities!). The best way to navigate through their tests is to pester your seniors for their question papers and answer scripts. Resurrect the confidence of your 7th-grade-Wikipedia-thief self while doing so. Additionally, old question papers are available in college libraries and in the School of Open Learning’s  (SOL) web archives.

 

 

Feature image credits: DU Beat

 

Rishika Singh

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‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) was introduced in DUSU elections last year. Since then, it has gained popularity as represented by the number of voters opting for it. Here is a look at why this is happening.                                          

Three years and four rounds of national assembly elections ago, the ‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) option was inducted into the Indian electoral system. It was only in 2016 that the Delhi University Student’s Union (DUSU) election followed this trend. The concept of NOTA is democratic, as it gives the voter an option to reject an electoral candidate. It represents dissent and showcases that the voters are not satisfied with the particular candidates representing a specific manifesto in an election.

However, the question then arises: Is NOTA really influential practically? In our electoral system, NOTA in status quo, has no electoral value. Even if the situation emerges where NOTA gets more votes than any candidate in the elections, the candidate who has secured the highest number of votes after NOTA will still hold office. This expression of rejection through casting your vote guarantees no accountability, since it does not constitute a re-election or change in candidacy. The very fact that NOTA is emblematic is the dreadful reason why it cannot be successful in an illiterate and puerile democracy like ours, where charisma and ascendancy are given more significance than one’s ability to introduce and implement affirmative policies.

The foundation year for NOTA in the University of Delhi (DU) saw more than 16,000 votes being cast in its favour. This year, the number skyrocketed to a total of more than 29,000 votes. Even though NOTA is heavily symbolic, the fact that it is gaining traction within the university means that the students are getting tired of the aggressive and “rowdy” behaviour of the supporters of DUSU candidates. The students have finally been given a platform to express their dissent through the same. Across the university, students have often complained about their classes getting disrupted during campaigning, bribes in terms of free movies, trips and meals being offered to students living in Paying-Guest accommodations and so on. Political parties, allegedly, go as far as to distribute alcohol and chocolates to students one day before the elections. Many female students have come up and voiced their opinion about feeling unsafe in the campus during the time of elections, despite the tag of ‘women empowerment’ being included in every party’s manifesto. Repeated promises, no implementation and the ongoing tiff between the two leading parties (ABVP and NSUI) often create chaos in the university. It has affected the peaceful functioning of the University, and these thoughts of the students are very well resonated with the rise in the popularity of NOTA. Despite its shortcomings, NOTA, in theory, is imperative in terms of facilitating and allowing an expression of dissent; however, it still requires severe changes in its actual implementation.

 

Feature Image Credits: Anagha Rakta for DU Beat

Bhavya Banerjee
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With the election season finally having come to an end, here is a look at some of the key highlights from the DUSU elections of 2017.

The elections for this year’s Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) came to an end on the 13th of September, with the declaration of results. As this year was as eventful as the election season gets, here are some key highlights from this season’s elections:

  • 21 AUGUST- University of Delhi notifies the dates for the election of the office bearers of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) and members of the Central Council, the most awaited students’ election in the country. The election is to be held on 12 September, 2017, for the 2017-18 academic session.
  • 23 AUGUST- The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) organises an event in the Arts Faculty, North Campus, on 23rd August. It comprises a protest march from the Arts Faculty towards Ramjas College, Kirori Mal College, and back. The protest is for the scarcity of hostels and instillation of sanitary pad facilities for women.
  • 24 AUGUST- The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), organises a press briefing where it proposes a set of electoral reforms for the upcoming elections scheduled on 12th of September.
  • 1 SEPTEMBER- A referendum titled “Should Aryabhatta College be affiliated to Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU)?” is held. The students of Aryabhatta College vote in favour of the motion.
  • 4 SEPTEMBER- The University of Delhi, in a press release confirms this date as the last day for receipt of nomination papers and security and publication of the duly nominated candidates, for both DUSU and the Central Council.
  • 6 SEPTEMBER- The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Indian National Congress (INC), gets a shock when it discovers that its presidential candidate for DUSU elections, Rocky Tuseed, is missing from the final list of candidates released by the Chief Election Office (CEO).
  • 8 SEPTEMBER Court has allowed Rocky Tuseed to fight elections and he will be representing  with the potential to win the election this year.
  • 12 SEPTEMBER- The polls for the DUSU elections are held for the morning and evening college respectively.
  • 13 SEPTEMBER- The results of the elections are declared. Rocky Tuseed of NSUI wins the post for DUSU President with 16,299 votes. Kunal Sehrawat of NSUI became the Vice President with 16,431 votes. Mahamedha Nagar of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) wins the post for Secretary with 17,156 votes. Uma Shankar of ABVP becomes the Joint Secretary after bagging 16,691 votes.

 

Feature Image Credits: University of Delhi

Sandeep Samal
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Karan Singhania
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Union Home Ministry has cancelled the FCRA-2010 (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) licenses of various acclaimed higher education institutions, including Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), University of Delhi, IIT-Delhi, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Punjab University, Gargi College (Delhi), Lady Irwin College (Delhi), Mumbai University, Pune University and others after they reportedly failed to file their annual income and expenditure statements, for the period 2010-11 to 2014-15, to the government. A FCRA licence is mandatory for any organisation which wants to receive funding from abroad.
The list consists of 18,871 names of several top-notch universities, educational institutions and noteworthy non-governmental organisations (NGOs) whose FCRA registrations are cancelled. Prominent associations, trusts and societies are also affected by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) order like Supreme Court Bar Association, Kamala Nehru Education Society, Kasturba Peace Centre, Gandhi Peace Foundation, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, School Of Planning & Architecture-Delhi, FICCI Socio-Economic Development Foundation, Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital, Escorts Heart Institute, Cancer Educational Society and People for Animals. Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, Armed Forces Flag Day Fund, Doon School Old Boys Association, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College (Delhi), Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia International Trust, Coordinating Voluntary Adoption Resource Agency, Bombay Diocesan Society, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (Karnataka), Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (Bengaluru), Shri Mahatma Gandhi Charitable Trust (Gujarat) and Sri Satya Sai Trust also feature on the list.
The organisations were asked to submit their replies by July 23, failing which action would be taken against them. The MHA also directed 1,222 NGOs – including Sri Ramakrishna Math, Ramakrishna Mission, Indore Cancer Foundation Charitable Trust and the Coimbatore Christian Charitable Trust – to authorise their bank accounts and provide relevant details to the government. The move comes after the government found that the organisations – all registered under the FCRA – had not validated the bank accounts through which they receive foreign funds. In a circular issued on September 8, the ministry had asked all NGOs to take rectifying steps to avoid punitive action. A similar request was earlier made to 2,025 NGOs on June 7. Ministry officials said non-validation of such accounts had been halting efforts made by banks to comply with FCRA provisions.
The BJP government has already revoked the registration of over 10,000 NGOs in the last three years for allegedly failing to file annual returns as prescribed by the FCRA. Furthermore, violation of regulations was cited to disallow more than 1,300 NGOs from renewing their registration in the recent past. The NGOs, however, allegedly claim that the government has been selectively targeting them. “It is not a level playing field,” Ravi Chellam, the executive director at Greenpeace India, told Hindustan Times. “When political parties need funding from foreign donors, they amend the law retrospectively. That is a problem – the law should be applied fairly to everyone”, he said.
Promila Kumar, the acting principal of Gargi College, told the Indian Express, “We have filed our returns. In fact, we got a reminder about filing returns recently and we informed the government that we have already complied. I’m not sure why this has happened.”

Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

 

Oorja Tapan

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Now that the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections are finally over and you’ve voted to elect your leaders who claimed to transform your college into one that resembled an institution of the west, it’s time to rest. The ‘rest’ doesn’t refer to you relaxing, but rather to the Union.

Every year, the same sequence of events plays out. It has been running for so long that this silence which suddenly appears everywhere after this hullabullah of elections seems normal. The storyline is obvious; the passion and vigour of the student leaders to work for the welfare of the students is so short-lived that even the graffiti which carries their names and is used to deface the city during the elections lasts longer.

How does so much energy suddenly fade into oblivion at the end of the day?

“The leaders are, after all, students and are lazy just like you and me.” Even if one decides to buy this logic, the argument that follows fails to be convincing on any level. There is no reason for any sort of leader to ignore his or her responsibilities one he or she has come to power on the back of people’s votes. Accountability is key. Another reason might be that this vigour doesn’t actually belong to the students of the University but is, in fact, artificially created by the outsiders who are mostly the caste-based supporters brought into the varsity by these candidates. Hence, this ‘outsourced’ vigour doesn’t survive even a day after it has served its purpose. Out of both of these reasons, the latter portrays the reality.

If one digs deeper in search of the reason behind this inactivity, the story becomes clear. A simple look into the manifestoes floated by parties before the election uncovers the entire picture. This year, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) promised to start U-special buses and increase the number of hostels for students of the varsity. This is an unreasonable promise as out of these, one comes under the onus of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) which is a body of the Delhi government, while the latter entirely rests upon the university administration and governing bodies of the colleges. In both cases, the Union has no real power to do anything except for protesting and writing letters. Similar pictures emerge with the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and other parties. These tall promises by candidates and parties are akin to showing students the dream of reaching the moon when in reality, they don’t even have the technology of building a rocket. This is precisely why the same issues are raised every year, with absolutely no success.

In the condition of having promised the moon, and with no promises of the things that they can actually do within their power, these leaders embark upon the slippery slope of being absent for major parts of the year. They only make their presence known until something controversial pops up, such as the Ramjas College issue which can offer them another chance of greater media visibility.

In a scenario where our leaders are absent for the majority of the year, it’s we, the students, who suffer the most. It’s high time these elections stop referring to things that the Union cannot do, and instead start becoming a fight about what the Union can, and should, do.

 

Srivedant Kar

[email protected]

Newly out of the sheltered and cocooned environment of a school, falling into the uneven and harsh terrain of a college, often we find ourselves drawing outlandish parallels between the two institutions.

While the first to twelfth grades are even steps of a progressively heightening ladder, college is the tight rope that one is expected to walk on immediately thereafter. And the latter is a tough nut to crack. As students conditioned into adherence of the stringent school norms, the liberal atmosphere of a college can be both restrictive and intimidating for many of us, depending on how sensitive we are to the changing environs around us. As with any other species, adaptation is key for college newbies too.

Students step into the University with almost bizarre pre-conceived notions, picked up from either word-of-mouth or unintended dialogue, which is usually only unproductive blabber. Well, college is hardly the illusion it is made out to be. While there are some facts that do hold true, there are quite a few which are completely irrational.

From waking up at 6:00 AM to getting dressed for school at 8:00 AM, five days a week, to contemplating attendance for the first lecture thrice a week and deciding against it, finally giving up and going back to bed every single time, college life is a complete U-turn. The massive change which comes with some flexibility, though necessary for students engaged in other activities besides their core academics, can also be exploited. Unfortunately, as soon as a leeway if given in terms of attendance, everyone is content with not showing up for classes as and when convenient. But the contentment usually backfires by the time the semester examinations approach. By then, the ritualistic practice of running after professors for notes and internal marks begins automatically.

College allows for a certain degree of independence, both emotionally and physically, that a school restricts in many ways. Quite a lot of people move out for pursuing degrees in undergraduate courses, some even going abroad, which requires prior preparation on various levels. From finding an accommodation and evaluating comparative benefits of the same to managing finances and holding oneself responsible for one’s own safety, college requires a person to brave against all odds. And as daunting as it may sound, it is the only thing that can probably set a person free from the habit of overindulgence.

While school is a great breeding ground for the simulation of ideas, there is a lot of ‘spoon-feeding’ involved. Pre-formulated notions are fed to the students without inculcating in them a thirst for questioning those notions. College, in this regard, guarantees severe mental exercise on an individual level, on a daily basis. With myriad incidents occurring in campuses on a routine basis, a person is compelled to take notice and address the problems responsibly. It coerces you into thinking about these issues with a latent sense of detachment. With ongoing campus debates and protest rallies for everything from LGBTQ rights to indiscriminate hostel curfew, youngsters attempts to pose questions and challenge the diktat of the authorities.

A college, as mentioned above, instills in us a plethora of good dispositions. When in school, a student generally aims to strike the right balance between academics and extra curriculars and in many cases, the latter ceases to exist. But when in college, it is the world that you are competing with and the competition is relentless. Owing to the rat race that we all unintentionally enlist ourselves in, we pave way for ruthlessness. It is not so much the consideration of the grade point average in isolation as much as the cumulative assessment of an individual’s personality in various arenas of prominence that set him/her apart from a crowd.

With both having their fair share of importance, a school nurtures you into its cocoon, long enough for you to build yourself up from scratch. And a college acquaints you with everything that you need to have, to be well equipped in life.

 

Feature image credits: Team Fuccha

 

Lakshita Arora

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Graduating from University of Delhi (DU) is still considered prestigious, but why do the same students with all the merit, never want to return as teachers to their own University?

 

In a few months, a prestigious University of Delhi (DU) degree in hand, the real world with its blankness and stiff competition will begin to look curiously topsy-turvy for most third-year students. Those rose-tinted glasses, which made life in college appear idyllic for two years, will have to be inevitably chucked aside in favour of the grittier, ‘realistic’, adult perspectives which only point to one of these two scenarios, in case you are a third-year student: either you have zeroed in on an employment/higher education opportunity which you feel reasonably confident about cinching, or, you have your feet pointing in multiple directions and in no particular direction at the same time. Either way, your ultimate goal is viable employment. But what if your feet took a U-turn and chose to come back to the University, looking for employment? In fact, how do students in DU truly feel about coming back and teaching at the University one day?

“I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of becoming a university lecturer. It’s highly unstable [as an employment opportunity]… Look at the state of our universities today; there is no freedom of speech and the way our ad-hoc teachers are treated is inhumane. My teachers themselves tell me not to become a lecturer. What more do I need as a proof?” says a Botany student from the North Campus.

Delhi University Teachers' Association strike
Delhi University Teachers’ Association strike

I remember one of my teachers in the English department attesting to something similar: the foundations of higher education in India are so shaky that the next generation dare not step on it, from fear that the existing plane may collapse too. Over the last one year itself, numerous national dailies have covered the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) protests for pay-rise and against the lack of permanent positions for lecturers, the overwhelming despair and suicides of PhD research scholars when they stared at their bleak future, shutting down of centres for the Humanities in several colleges, protests against the teaching of liberal ideas and values in universities such as Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and many other related events. If a severe lack of funding plagues the Arts departments across India, the treatment meted out to lab assistants and ad-hoc lecturers in the Sciences fares no better. Teaching in a university, in short, comes with more perils than advantages.

“It’s sad, but the truth is that even I would not recommend any student to become a lecturer these days,” I recall overhearing a teacher telling another in the corridors of my college once. One after the other, as attacks mount upon the state of university education in our country from all sides, it becomes viable to look for alternatives. There are private-sector jobs and the ever desired civil services exams eyed by more and more students as the pool of competition widens further and further. Some even question what the point of an M.A. degree is, if the road to research scholarship and teaching appears this murky.  And if things are bad today, how much worse can they get tomorrow? It seems as if one door will shut forever for most of us, by the time we leave DU with our degrees next year.

 

Feature image credits: YourStory

Image credits: DU Beat

 

Deepannita Misra

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