Shimla, September 30
Governor Urmila Singh today stressed the need for maintaining a high standard of education so that students could undertake their academic pursuits in a congenial atmosphere.

Speaking at the inaugural function of a two-day north zone vice-chancellors’ conference here today, she urged the VCs to play a pro-active role in ensuring imparting of quality education at all seats of learning. She also urged them to focus on research activities for enriching higher education.

Urmila Singh said education played an important role in ensuring balanced growth of students and added that the aim of education should not be merely seeking employment but also equipping students with technical expertise so that they could set up self-employment ventures. “Education should ensure the holistic development of students so that they can excel not just in studies but in every aspect of life,” she said.

The Governor urged the youth to take up self-employment ventures and added that higher education should ensure employment opportunities to students. She said the youth were playing a constructive role in nation-building by becoming entrepreneurs, leading to their economic empowerment.

She said development of rural areas was a must to ensure the overall progress of the country. The Governor released HPU Newsletter, the Tourism Development Journal and the Indian Journal of Dental Science on the occasion.

Chandigarh, September 30
As the mammoth exercise for enrolment of the unique identification number gets under way across North India, two districts in Himachal Pradesh have taken a lead in covering over 90 per cent of their population for Aadhar - the national identity number.

However, the highest enrolment in the region has been recorded in Chandigarh, with almost 44 per cent of the population having been covered under the programme. In Punjab, over 43 lakh people have been covered, which is equal to almost 16 per cent of the state’s population. However, the enrolment has been slow in Haryana, mainly because the UID number has been linked to the smart ration cards that will be issued in the state.

While almost 93 per cent of the 5.20 lakh population in Una has been covered, over 90 per cent of the 4.50 lakh population of Hamirpur, too, has been enrolled by the Unique Identification Authority of India. In spite of the difficult terrain and the rough weather, enrolment has already begun in Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti.

Talking to The Tribune here, Rajneesh Kumar, Director, IT, Himachal Pradesh, said one of the big challenges faced by the UIDAI in Himachal was that there were only three agencies that were working on enrolling the population. “So far, only Wipro, IL and FS and I-Grande have been entrusted with the work. However, with the NSDL now joining in as a partner in the programme, we hope to achieve more success soon. We have already achieved the 19.50 lakh enrolment mark,” he said.

Meanwhile, Keshni Anand Arora, Deputy Director-General, regional office of the UIDAI, said they had undertaken a special campaign to cover the marginalised and socially diasadvantaged sections in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh. “We are enlisting slum-dwellers, the differently abled, residents of old-age homes, and orphanages with the help of NGOs, which are acting as introducers,” she said.

She added that four banks were now partnering with them in enrolling people, while the State Bank of Patiala had just joined in. “We will also be partnering with Syndicate Bank to help in the UID enrolment in Mewat district of Haryana, where the process will begin on October 2,” she said.

Shimla, September 30
The mental toughness of riders and endurance of bicycles will be put to a severe test as one of the world’s toughest and longest mountain biking rallies, Hercules MTB-2011, takes off from here tomorrow.

The eight-day event will see 120 bikers, including 12 foreigners, negotiate steep climbs and sharp descents in the treacherous rocky terrain with tough hike-and-bike sections, covering a distance of 511 km.

The highest point of the rally will be the 3,130-m Hatu peak and on an average the participants will traverse about 72 km. There will, of course, be straight stretches and also fast-paced gravel roads, providing varied experience to the bikers.

However, the adventurous but gruelling journey on the wheels will not be without reward as the top bikers will share the prize money of Rs 6 lakh. The biggest prize of Rs 1 lakh will go to the winner of the event.

Top-seeded riders, including last year’s winner Ajay Chhetri, who recently won the Tran-Wales Challenge in Wales, and Nirjla Tamarkar, who bagged the top position in the international rally in the UK, are among the top competitors. They will face stiff challenge from the riders of the Indian Army Adventure Wing. “Peddle Yatra”, a 22-member strong team from Gurgaon, is also participating to promote and popularise biking. The foreign bikers are from Nepal, Austria, the UK, France, Australia and South Africa.

Mohit Sood, president of the Himalayan Adventure Sports and Tourism Promotion Association (HASTPA), which has been organising the race to promote environment-friendly adventure tourism, said foreign participation would go up once the United Cyclae Internationale (UCI) granted recognition to the event.

A Shimla-based NGO, Ashadeep, is collaborating in the event for spreading awareness about environment protection and promoting biking as an eco-friendly mode of transportation in the hills.

Shimla, September 30
Faced with the stupendous task of compiling of over one crore ancient manuscripts in the country, the Manuscripts Commission of India has been able to prepare a digital database of only 30 lakh with the interpretation of many of these documents yet to be undertaken to unravel the mysteries contained in them.

These views were expressed by Dipti Tripathi, Director-General of the Manuscript Commission of India, while speaking on the “Discovering Knowledge Through Manuscripts” at the North Zone Vice-Chancellors’ Conference, here today.

“The ancient manuscripts are not only a storehouse of knowledge about the earlier times, but also have vital information about the modern day concepts right from water management system to making an aircraft,” she stated.

Dr Tripathi said seven manuscripts in Kohlapur, estimated to be about 1,500-year-old, contain valuable information about “viman shastra”.

“As such, we can safely conclude that these manuscripts have information about most of the modern day concepts, which, we think, have been coined in the modern times,” she opined.

She said a digital database of 30 lakh manuscripts had been prepared by the commission so far.

Dr Tripathi stressed the need for making references from these manuscripts while writing about the Indian history as these manuscripts contain vital information.

“I urge Vice-Chancellors of all the universities to generate interest among the youth about this repository of knowledge, which can be relevant even in the modern times,” she remarked.

Dr Tripathi said: “We are facing a huge shortage of people who are well conversant in dealing with manuscripts and can interpret it so we would be happy to encourage youth to undertake research and get into the field of ancient manuscripts.”

She also advocated the need for popularising ayurveda as these manuscripts also had vital information about the traditional medicine system.

“I am in no way opposed to allopathy, but the fact remains that these were developed for the people who live in a completely different environment, have dietary habits unlike us and are genetically different,” she said.

Dr Tripathi added that ayurveda would be better suited for Indians as it was developed here.

An old document has to be at least 75-year-old and hand written to qualify as a manuscript. Often, there is reluctance on the part of owners to get the manuscript in their possession complied and interpreted for fear of losing its value.

In the process, several important manuscripts are being lost for want of proper conservation and upkeep.

Shimla, September 30
Accusing the superintendent of Kanda Central Jail here of allegedly thrashing them, two police personnel have approached the Chief Minister and their senior officers to take action against him and revoke their suspension.

Baldev Singh and Jitender Kumar, the two warders, in a representation addressed to the CM, today alleged that they had been beaten up with a hockey stick by jail superintendent Arvind Sharma on the night of September 21. “While we were on duty, he called us at about 1.30 am and thrashed us with a hockey and abused us, threatening us with dire consequences,” they alleged. They alleged that he even falsely accused them of being asleep while on duty, on the basis of which they have been suspended. They demanded that action should be taken against him and their suspension should be revoked. — TNS