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EDUCATION

Summer hues dominate fashion show
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 8
Quirky, fresh and sprightly, the collections of four designers on show at Fashion Knowledge Forum, held on the sparking lawns of the Mountview hotel here today, reflected the bright summers gone by, the hues vibrant and cheerful.

The hotel brimmed with capacity as the city’s glitterati came forward to grace the chilly evening glitzy fare.

Showcasing their collections were designers Ranna Gill, Anshu Arora Sen, Sunita Shankar and Suneet Verma, who through their handful of designs created a happy stir in the audience.

Ranna, having completed her associate degree from NIFT, New Delhi, went on to get her bachelor’s degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. Starting out with Rohit Khosla she went on to do a stint with Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren-Women’s wear division no less! 1996 saw her coming into her own as a designer in India.

Her collection is cheerful and effervescent, bubbling with colours with a lot of skirts in symmetrical and asymmetrical lines, flowing with ease supplemented with lots of chunky accessories.

Anshu Arora Sen's classic clean lines were in complete contrast to the earlier vibrancy of Ranna though it only served to enhance each designer’s appeal. Shades of pink, lilac, orange, green glowed in simple yet interesting cuts.

After finishing a course in fashion designing from NIFT in 1997, Anshu went on to launch her label “A Small Shop” in December, 1998.

Sunita Shankar’s collection in chanderi and silk charmed for the treatment to the fabric and its festive seasonal colours going into winter shades with the use of black. Based in Delhi and also a graduate from NIFT in 1990, Sunita derives a lot of her creativity from motifs by artisans and craftsmen doing traditional work.

The last collection modelled with aplomb was from the high-profile Suneet Verma who has a penchant for creating outfits that cause a stir! Animal prints, variety of materials, chunky boots — the work stood out for its different style and treatment.

For a show that started almost an hour behind schedule, it made up for it with its crisp vibrancy produced and choreographed impeccably by Harmeet Bajaj.

	Fashion Tech Park comes into being Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 8 Fashion gurus J.J Valaya, Ranna Gill and Sunita Shankar will soon have addresses in Mohali at the Fashion Technology Park. The park, which was formally inaugurated at a function held at Hotel Mountview today, will also have business process outsourcing (BPO) units for international fashion designers catering to the Indian market. Park’s CEO Jagjit Singh Kochar said there was a large potential for fashion design outsourcing from international fashion houses based in Paris, Italy, London, Brazil and New York. The infrastructure available at the park will help India become the future design destination of the world with most companies outsourcing apparel designs to India. The park, he explained, would go a long way in providing information support for sustaining and developing garment industry in Punjab, creating professionals in the field of garment manufacturing and generating an international market for fashion technocrats. “The fashion industry in the country today needs a support base to enter mainstream wherein trade needs to be organised, facilities accessible and resources centralised regionally, nationally and globally,” said vice-president, Business School of Fashion, Nitin Gupta. The school will be a nucleus for creating designs, business models, forecasting research, creation of knowledge school, product innovation, marketing and management. The biggest concern faced by the Indian fashion business is the mindset of the players involved. “The underdeveloped knowledge economy with respect to mainstream fashion and the lack of consistent innovation has handicapped the industry. With no investment in terms of research and development and no government policies sustaining it, Indian fashion has been a follower of global trends instead of being a leader,” he said. Head (Marketing), Welspun, Srinath Sridharan, said the Indian domestic fashion market had a high demand with diverse tastes and trends. Designers, he pointed out, had not been able to address the rising middle market through their existing production and fabrication units. Retail Head, Liberty, Ramesh Sadhu talked about retail getting organised and opening in a big way. “We as part of our expansion drive are opening more retail outlets in the malls at Gurgaon and Delhi, besides focussing on teenage collections, particularly designs and colours,” he said, adding that north had a great potential as the propensity to spend was greater here. “But we do need to target the great Indian mid-segment market,” he added. “I make what you can wear and afford,” quipped Joint Managing Director, Khadder, Arup Dutta. “India was capable of having a haute couture market with an inherent understanding and appreciation of design due to its rich and vibrant heritage. We focus on providing a lifestyle basket for various categories of buyers, particularly the ethnic wear and the ‘kurtas’.” Principal Secretary (Industries), Punjab, presided over the function, and lauded the setting up of the park.
	To have ultra-modern setup Tribune News Service Mohali, November 8 It’s not just Information Technology (IT) all the way into the future for Mohali. The township is all poised to nestle the country’s first Fashion Technology (FT) Park. Being promoted by Chandigarh Overseas Limited, the FT Park is a $ 1.2 million project approved by the Punjab Government and will facilitate the Indian fashion industry by creating a common ground for its diverse ingredients. Spread over 14 acres in Sector 90 here the park campus designed by Hafeez Contractor will house state of the art infrastructure with world class facilities. Out of the 14 acres, 8,50,000 square feet of the land will be leased out, of which 5,70,000 square feet will account for industrial space. “The Knowledge Park will be the main component of the park and comprises of a shopping mall, office and manufacturing spaces, knowledge centre warehouse and residential blocks. The residential zone is part of creating an interactive socio cultural ambience that cuts across national and professional boundaries thus providing for holistic and integrated working environment,” pointed out Mr Jagjit Singh Kochar. The park will be constructed in accordance with the eco-industrial parks. Prof A.K. Maitre, ex-Director – Environmental Studies at the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, is the environmental consultant for Environment Impact Assessment (EIA).
	Plan child-friendly cities: expert Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 8 “Children’s preferences are normally not taken into consideration while designing cities”, said Prof Cherie Enns, while delivering a lecture on “Planning communities with and for children: perceptions of children around the world”. The seminar was jointly organised by the Canadian Studies Centre, Panjab University and the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research (ICSSR), North-Western Regional Centre. Prof Cherie Enns is a professor of geography at the University College of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada. She said that the children’s voice should be heard effectively for designing child-friendly cities. The child-friendly cities are able to fulfill the right of every child and also enable children to influence the decisions about their cities. The cities also provide environment for children to express their opinion on the kind of city they want and participate in the social life, receive basic services like education and health, be protected from exploitation, violence and abuse, walk safely in the streets and live in unpolluted environment, etc. According to her, children do not like at all cities having characteristics such as slum expansion, schools without facilities like infrastructure, without space to play and teachers, unregulated traffic, high-infant mortality rate, lack of security and polluted environment. Considering the rate of growth of population and the demographic changes, more than half of the world’s children will soon live in cities. In such a scenario, it becomes important for the planners to involve children in reshaping and redesigning their societies. Thus, according to her, the need is to plan cities “with them” and “for them”. Prof K.N. Pathak, Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University, was also present.
	Modelling contest held Tribune News Service Mohali, November 8 The Swami Vivekanand Group of Institutes, Banur, organised a modelling competition on the college campus. According to a press note issued by the college today, engineering, pharmacy and B.Ed students of the group participated in the competition. Speaking after the event, Mr Manmohan Garg, CEO, Swami Vivekanand Group of Institutes, said personality development was an important part of education. “With professional education one must learn various personality traits including good communication skills, dressing sense and positive attitude,” he said. Dr C.S. Rao, Director-Principal, and Dr I.K. Kataria, Dean, Academics, while addressing the students, laid stress on good lifestyle. Mr Ashwani Garg, Mr Ashok Garg and Mr Desh Raj Thakral also spoke on the occasion. Ten teams from B.Tech, B.Pharma and B.Ed courses participated in the competition. Abhiniti and Kaustabh from the Swami Vivekanand College of Pharmacy, Savita and Vivek from Swami Vivekanand College of Education and Heena and Sayeed Kalbe Haider from the Swami Vivekanand Institute of Engineering and Technology were given best personality awards.

	PU extends last date for submitting forms Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 8 The Panjab University authorities today extended the last date for submitting admission forms for the private candidates from November 10 to November 18. Meanwhile, chaos prevailed even for a second day today as hundreds of students thronged the varsity to submit their forms and deposit fees. Every year the university had been facing problems like shortage of forms, heavy rush, etc. However, this year the university has taken a number of corrective measures, like the provision of downloading forms from its website, submitting fee at any SBI ATM and also the provision of submitting a demand draft of any bank along with the form. The university authorities have also set up a few centres across its campus to collect the forms along with demand drafts. Students coming to the campus are, however, unaware of these changes, while those who are aware are not ready to believe it. Book sellers, selling the forms after downloading them from the PU website for a nominal cost, said the students were visiting the university to purchase the forms as the forms downloaded from the website looked different from those sold on the campus and also cost less. Though the authorities have put up a notice at the basement of the administration block, hundreds of students coming there don’t pay heed to it. The students, who are aware of the changes, argue that how is it possible to have two types of a form? To be on the safe side they are coming to the campus to purchase the forms, they add.
	Orientation course on disaster management Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 8 The Centre for Adult, Continuing Education & Extension, Panjab University, organised an orientation course on “Disaster management & preparedness” at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 23, today. Dr Parmjit Singh Kang spoke to the students about the steps to be taken during the natural or man-made disasters, like earthquakes, flash-floods, cloudbursting, landslides, land slipping, volcanic eruptions, etc. He said the Government of India had taken a decision to set up a National Disaster Management Authority to deal with such eventualities. He further said the process of micro-zoning had already been planned for 38 districts of the country. For the preparedness, he advised the students to learn basic skills like swimming and giving first aid etc . Mr Shiv Kumar Sharma, Principal of the school, also spoke.
	Students display models Tribune News Service Mohali, November 8 A three-day district-level science exhibition started at the Paragon Senior Secondary School, Sector 71, here today. The exhibition was inaugurated by the District Education Officer, Mr Piara Singh. As many as 250 students from Ropar, Anandpur Sahib, Kharar and Mohali are participating in the exhibition. As many as 175 teachers and 50 principals from 100 schools are on duty at the exhibition. The Paragon School Principal, Mr B.S. Shergill, said over 125 science models were on exhibition on the main theme of ‘Science and technology for rural development’. These models are from those students who have already won top positions at the tehsil level competition. Besides the science exhibition the students will participate in a science quiz, poster making, chart making, teacher training aids etc. The prize winners of these competitions and the science exhibition will take part in the state level competition.
	Jobless ETT teachers hold protest Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 8 Following the arrest of Punjab’s unemployed ETT teachers, the Unemployed Elementary Teachers’ Union today staged a dharna at Matka Chowk, here today. A spokesman of the union said that since November 4, the members of their union where staging dharnas during visits by various Punjab ministers all over the state, to express their resentment. They have demanded a reply from the government on the recruitment of ETT teachers. The dharna will continue till the Punjab Government gives in to their demands.