The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Anugoonj to reverberate on GGSIPU campus from Feb 1
Gaurav Choudhury

THE third Anugoonj Youth Festival of the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) is scheduled from February 1 to 3. Renowned Kuchipudi exponents, Raja and Radha Reddy, will be the chief guests at this year’s fest and will inaugurate it on February 1 at the university auditorium.

Also, Sukhbir, the upcoming Indipop singer, chiefly known for his Punjabi folk-based compositions, will be the star attraction at the specially organised musical evening (6-9 pm) to be held on February 3, the concluding day, at the campus grounds.

The three-day extravaganza, to be held at the university campus located at Kashmere Gate, will play host to nearly 7000 students representing about 50 colleges affiliated to the university.

File photo ( Anugoonj 2001)

Following their selections in the preliminary rounds, the participants will compete in more than two dozen events, including music, dance, theatre, fine arts and other literary categories taking place at different venues within the campus itself.

There will also be a keen contest for ‘Mr and Ms Anugoonj’, a popular event that usually attracts maximum entries. In fact, reports suggest that many aspirants have already sent in their names for the selection rounds and are busy preparing for the coming event.

However, everybody appears excited about Euphoria— the open-air dancing with some of the finest musical bands. It will be an opportunity for those who would like to test their dancing skills in the arms of their dear ones.

According to Prof K. K. Aggarwal, vice chancellor GGSIP University, “Anugoonj showcases not just the talent of our students but also provides a platform for friendly interaction amongst the students and faculty members of various affiliated colleges. Also, it encourages comradeship amongst the students which hopefully will lead to a better campus environment.”

IIPM’s Network

The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), New Delhi, was established in 1973 and is one of the leading management institutes in the country. It has attracted placement agencies not only from India but from many leading players from abroad. Major foreign companies like Price Water House Coopers, Electrolux, PepsicCo, A.T. Kearney, McKinsey, Ernst & Young, Nestle, Citicorp, American Express, Standard Chartered are supporting the MBA students through their campus interactions.

Under the much acclaimed Global Opportunity & Threat Analysis (GOTA) programme, many leading organisations of the world sponsor and support IIPM’s MBA students every year for undertaking projects and research assignments in European and American countries. The programme has received overwhelming response from well-known organisations across Europe such Nestle International, United Nations, World Bank and CreditSuisse.

As part of the European chapter of this programme, 30 sponsored MBA students are visiting Europe on educational trip in the first quarter of this year. These students would be visiting Switzerland in the first week of March (1st March to 7th March 2002). The students have been invited by companies like the Federation of Swiss Watch Industry, Sulzer Management Ltd, University of Neuchatel and Amas Bank.

Some of the leading organisations that have sponsored and supported the MBA students of IIPM in Europe, either academically or through corporate visits are: Insead (Dr Miles Dodd, Senior Advisor), Nestle International Headquarters (H. Oberhansli, Chief Economic Advisor to the Chief Executive, Nestle Vevey; Vice President, Nestle, Asia-Oceania-Africa, United Nation (Preeta Banerjee, Palais des Nations), World Bank (Sfeir Younis, Senior Manager-Marketing), Credit Suissee (Didier Wacker, Senior Manager-Marketing), IMD Lausanne (Dr Piero Morosini, Executive Management Programme, Geneva), I.L.O. (Dr J. Prokopenko, Head, Productivity & Management Program, Geneva), UNCTAD (Khalil A. Hamdani, Chief-National Innovation & Investment Policies), Geneva Financial Center (Marc Berthoud, Vice President, Geneva Financiere, Geneva Financial Center), International Management Institute, Belgium (Dr Freddy Kirschstein, Dean), and Webster University (Dr Robert Spencer, General Director, European Campuses).

AIFUCTO Concerned

The National Executive Committee of the All India Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (AIFUCTO) has expressed “deep anguish” at the functioning of the Ministry of Human Resource and the University Grants Commission (UGC). The AIFUCTO has opposed the alleged “communalisation” of education in general, “not to speak of changing the syllabi in an unilateral fashion, introducing unscientific courses like Jyotish Shastra and Kamarkanda and commercialisation of higher education”.

The AIFUCTO said in a statement that the UGC has violated its own commitment. It also accused the Centre of having violated its own commitment as it had failed to enforce the agreement between the HRD Ministry and AIFUCTO of September six, 1998. “The National Executive of AIFUCTO noted with shock that the HRD Minister, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi or other Minister has on three different occasions made statements in the Parliament, which are far from truth”, the statement said.

The AIFUCTO has decided to hold a massive demonstration by college and university teachers in all states on February six, 2002, against the Central Government and “UGC’s callous attitude towards university and college teachers”.

The teachers’ organisation will also hold a “massive march to Parliament” by university and college teachers from all over the country on March six. The organisation will approach the President of India to look into the matter so that the “democratic tradition of the country are restored”.

Khalsa Seminar

The Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce had organised a seminar on “Three Centuries of the Khalsa”. Former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Justice Rajindar Sachar, presided over the function. The keynote address was delivered by Prof Pritpal Singh Kapur. The other speakers were Dr Kirpal Singh, Dr J.C. Dua and Dr S. S. Narang. A cultural evening was also organised in the college on the same day, with renowned sufi and folk singer, Manpreet Akhtar, captivating the audience, both young and old.

Teachers threaten statewide stir
Our Correspondent

Rohtak, January 30
The Haryana Federation of University and College Teachers' Organisations (HFUCTO) has threatened to launch a statewide agitation if any attempt was made to tamper with the workload norms. The HFUCTO apprehended such tampering at a meeting of the Vice-chancellors of various universities in the state held here this afternoon.

The HUCTO Convener, Mr Vazir Nehra, urged the Vice-chancellors to keep in mind the UGC norms on workload and the need to discuss such issues in the meetings of academic bodies rather than becoming party to any extra-constitutional tampering with these norms. He said it was very unfortunate that despite the repeated requests made by the HFUCTO, no agenda of today's meeting was provided.

He said the federation came to know only through the newspapers that among other issues workload norms would be mainly discussed at today's meeting.

Mr Nehra said the federation also learnt that the criteria for membership of the Academic Councils and the Executive Councils of universities would also be talked over.

He suggested that the direction of thought in this connection should be towards making these bodies more inclusive, participatory and democratic. He warned that any anti-democratic and autocratic re-organisation of these bodies that might hurt higher education, would be unacceptable to the teaching community and it would vehemently oppose any such move.

Mr Nehra said that a large number of teachers' representatives today went to the venue of the meeting of the vice-chancellors and requested them to meet a delegation of teachers. However, he alleged the Vice-chancellors refused to meet the delegation for the reasons best known to them. The HFUCTO would register a complaint against the Vice-chancellor in this regard.