The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

EDUCATION

Focus on advances in manufacturing technology
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 9
A three-day national conference on “Advances in manufacturing technology” organised by the Mechanical Engineering Department of the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research, Sector- 26, was inaugurated by Dr Baljeet Kapoor, Director of Chandigarh College of Engineering and Technology, at the institute today.

He emphasised the importance of material science in development of new materials. Dr S.C. Laroiya, chairman of the conference, welcomed the delegates. Sixtyfive papers will be presented during conference.

Dr O.P. Bajpai, Director, NITTTR, Chandigarh, and patron of the conference, stressed the need for development of electronics hardware in India. He added that aircraft were being manufactured in China at competitive costs and that India had to perfect the aircraft manufacturing technology at global cost.

He also highlighted the importance of manufacturing technology where metal, alloy and composite surfaces could be machined atom by atom.

Dr V.K Jain, Professor, Mechanical Engineering, IIT, Kanpur, in his keynote address highlighted modern machining processes.

These processes included electro- chemical machining, photo-chemical machining, chemo-mechanical machining and electron beam Machining, laser beam machining and ion beam machining.

Professor Jain said water jet cutting and machining process were in use nowadays, with water jet velocity of 800-900 metres per second.

The afternoon session on “Manufacturing Technology” was chaired by Dr S.K Sharma, Head, Mechanical Engineering, NIT, Kurukshetra.

Eighteen papers were presented by various faculty members and researchers from various institutes of India.

The highlight of the session was drilling of composite materials, design and analysis of track lever shaft of a wrapping machine, flow forming for hollow metal components, cutting parameter optimisation in rotational components, parametric control to prevent zinc die casting defects, health and safety in welding, recovery manufacturing systems.

US-tilt in foreign policy flayed
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 9
The Department of Sociology today held a panel discussion on the issue of recent shift in India’s foreign policy. Initiating the discussion, Prof. Bhupinder Singh Brar, Department of Political Science, said that Indian foreign policy needed to be understood before it should be condemned or lauded.

There was a mistaken view that, until the ‘recent shifts’, Indian foreign policy was guided solely by normative concerns whereas it had now fallen purely to pragmatic concerns. The fact was that it was always a combination of the two. Non-alignment was as pragmatic as now going by the American wish to vote against Iran in IAEA.

The new foreign policy reflected these domestic structural changes. The dominant Left view that America was leading a camp against the interests of some specific nations, deserved a review, said Professor Brar.

Expressing his dissatisfaction with the above-mentioned argument Prof H.S. Mehta, Professor of English, said that it was not in the interest of the Indian bourgeoisie in general, and Indian masses, in particular, to toe the line of the American super-power. Indian policy makers should not forget that what they wanted from America by casting vote against Iran was only a wishful thinking on their part.

Prof. Dina Nath Jauhar, Department of Laws, too favoured reviewing Indian foreign policy to suit the new conditions within the country as also all over the globe. Prof Rabinder Nath Sharma, Fellow, Panjab University, and Dr Prem Singh, former editor of Desh Sewak, expressed their reservations on the stand taken by the Indian government against Iran. It tantamounted to accepting American hegemony at the cost of our own strength, they claimed. The American attack on Iraq clearly showed, the American interest in this region that had nothing to do with the expansion of democracy or meting out social justice.

	5 more schools under skill training programme Geetanjali Gayatri Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 9 Alive to the need of arming students with more than just plain bookish knowledge and making education market compatible, the UT Education Department has decided to extend its skill-based training programme to five more government schools. Enthused by its success in Government Model High School, Sector 25, and Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 45, the department now plans to set up Alternative and Innovative Education (AIE) centres at five more government schools in Sectors 7, 24 and 32, and Raipur Khurd and Karsan. The entire project of skill-based training is aimed at empowering students coming in from surrounding colonies and villages with a vocation that will help them earn money once they are out of school. The actual ground reality in terms of market requirements of the particular area has been kept in mind while allocating the skills. These will be taught both during and after school hours absolutely free of cost to the students. With a lot of brick-kilns situated around Raipur Khurd, Government High School in the area will train students in brick laying, cycle repair, book binding and hand embroidery. Since all orchestra units are concentrated in Sector 24 and some students are already managing light and sound arrangements with them, training in music and theatre has been specially included at GHS-24 in addition to designing of cushions and pillows and waste paper art. Then, with GHS-7 getting a lot of demand for jams and pickles, a programme for the same will be introduced for students of this school, besides soft-toy making. Other training capsules include basic beauty care, hair cutting and repair of electrical items. The UT Education Department will provide the seed money for running these courses which will be run for 100 hours and the faculty will be hired for the same. The department will also provide equipment and raw material for the training. “We have this programme running successfully in some government schools. The idea is to provide initial support and pull back gradually once they are in a position to stand on their own feet. The schools in Sectors 25 and 45 have done a great job by putting up stalls and organising fests. We expect the others to follow suit so that we can move on to other schools,” says the DPI (Schools), Mr D.S. Mangat. With all ground work for the courses complete and raw material and funds being distributed to the respective schools, the training programme is all set to take off in these schools.
	500 take part in Tribune music, dance contests Tribune News Service Mohali, November 9 Students from over 50 schools, associated with the Tribune in Education (TIE) programme, gave scintillating performances at TIE-FIESTA 2005, an inter-school music and dance competition, organised by The Tribune here today. The semifinal rounds of the singing and dance competitions were held at Gian Jyoti Public School, Phase 2, here with over 500 students participating in various categories. Competitions were held in the junior and senior categories and students participated in solo-song and group-dance contests. Six or eight winners from each of these categories were chosen by a host of experts. While the dance contest for junior group was a colorful blend of innocence and vibrancy, senior students chose to keep with the times and danced to the tunes of the latest numbers. The performances in the senior category were judged by Mr A.P.S Noorpuri and Mr Pramod Ganglani while Ms Vardhan and Mr Sanam Kaura were judges for the junior category. Mr Rajesh Ahuja and Parminder Kaur compered the senior dance show. Solo-singing competition was equally tough with students putting their best foot forward. The judges for junior category were Mr Rajinder Parwar and Mr Gulzar Sandhu while the songs sung by senior students were judged by Mr Vivek Sahney and Mr Subhash Ghosh. Students from schools of Kurali, Morinda, Kharar, Derabassi and Rajpura also got an opportunity to compete with students from schools of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula. The team of TIE advisers, including Ms Anupama Chopra, Ms Lily Banerjee, Ms Anita Sharma and Ms Shanta Nayyar, was led by its in charge, Mr Somnath Bhatia. They thanked the Principal of Gian Jyoti Public School, Ms Ranjeet Bedi, and her staff and students for their cooperation in making the show a big success. The following are the results of the competitions held today. Group dance (junior): Teams from Shishu Niketan Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 22, Chandigarh, Navjyoti Model School, Mohali, Gian Jyoti Public School, Mohali, Atma Devi Public School, Morinda, Saint Xavier’s High School, Mohali, and DAV Model School, Sector 15, Chandigarh, were selected for the finals. Group dance (senior): Teams from Dev Samaj Girls Senior School, Sector 21, Chandigarh, Ajit Karam Singh International Public School, Sector 41, Chandigarh, Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Kharar, Ryan International School, Sector 49, Chandigarh, Moti Ram Arya Senior Secondary School, Sector 27, Chandigarh, Mount Carmel School, Sector 47, S.D. Model Senior Secondary School, Rajpura, Sukhmani International School, Derabassi, were chosen for the final competitions. Solo song (junior): Ekshabad of Ajit Karam Singh International Public School, Sector 41, Chandigarh, Nurpoor of Manav Mangal High School, Sector 21, Karthik of Government Model High School, Sector 43, Himani of Atma Devi Public School, Moinda, Yaman of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, and Anchal Bhalla of DAV School, Phase 10, Mohali, have entered the finals. Solo song (senior): Shamandeep Singh of Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Kharar, Sangeeta Das of Shivalik Public School, Ropar, Satinder of BNL Khalsa Public School, Morinda, Karan of Navjyoti Public School, Mohali, and Sukhna Singh of Saint Xavier’s High School, Mohali, and Amandeep Kaur of SD Senior Secondary School, Rajpura, have been chosen for the final competitions. “These teams would compete for the top positions in the final rounds which would be held at Tagore Theatre on November 16,” said Mr B.M. Kalia, coordinator, TIE.
	Professional training programmes launched Our Correspondent Mohali, November 9 Professional training programmes in the hi-tech areas were formally launched at Panjab Communications Ltd by the Chairman Mr Sukhdev Wadhera, here today. He also released the training brochure. Mrs Ravneet Kaur, Vice-Chairperson and Managing Director, Puncom, said professional training was one business area which was being aggressively targeted for business growth by the company. These professional training programmes were being offered to students as well as professionals in disciplines like engineering, MCA, management, etc. The training was being provided in areas like embedded systems, DSP and microcontroller programming, RTOS, biometics, RFID, mobile applications, network application, web portal, etc using the latest platforms and technologies. She said at later stage more courses like Cisco and Microsoft courses like CCNA, MCSE, etc would be added. As part of the training, students would be exposed to professional industrial environment, state-of-the-art design test equipment/tools. Technology workshops would be organised for students who would also be provided professional guidance by experts from the industry.
	Wire up your bulb to Aloe vera! Chitleen K. Sethi Tribune News Service Mohali, November 9 The next time you want to light up the garden hedge for a family function without bothering about the electricity bill, here is one way to do it. A single Aloe vera plant can “produce” enough electricity to light up a 1.5 watt bulb and a group of such plants is enough to light up a whole row of such bulbs. This fact about the wonder plant may raise many eyebrows but students of Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Kurali, have shown just how it happens. These days, zinc and copper electrodes inserted into the leaves of this succulent cactus connected to two wires are running a wall clock at Paragon School here. As Ramandeep and Amanpreet, who are here to participate in the district-level science exhibition, explain the chemical reaction that causes an electric current to be produced, a host of ideas start coming to the mind. Can it run a toy? Yes, pat comes the answer. “It can run a calculator also. Other than producing electric current, the plant has medicinal qualities too,” explain the two. The two are not the only ones explaining science of village life. Over a hundred science models on science that can be used in village are on display at the school. Students of Government Senior Secondary School, Ghanoli, have prepared a model of their school building in the village. “We have started rainwater harvesting in the school building. The school runs on solar cell lighting and what better way to start than from the school building itself. Every student of the school knows how to conserve electricity and water,” Neelam Verma, school’s science teacher, who along with her colleague Bimla is accompanying students Niharika and Himanshu to the exhibition.