Chandigarh, May 22
Long-dubbed as a backward area, the Banur-Rajpura belt is all set to find a prominent place on the IT map of India. Cashing in on the boom, the Swami Vivekanand Institute of Engineering and Technology (SVIET) yesterday unveiled an ambitious plan to set up Swami Vivekanand Technology Park (SVTP) at Ramnagar, near Banur.

Chandigarh, May 22
Nazuk Kumar, a 10th class student of Carmel Convent School, Sector 9, Chandigarh, has been awarded “National Bal Shree Award” in the field of creative scientific innovations for 2005 by the President, Dr A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi recently.

The “Bal Shree Awards” scheme has been initiated by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry. Under this scheme, children from all over the country were screened for their creative ingenuity and selection was made at district and zonal levels and finally at the national level.

At the national level, a seven-day camp was held and 12 sessions were conducted to test the children for their creative innovations in the field of science.

The main emphasis of the competition was on logical reasoning, rational thinking, creative use of limited materials and application of unique ideas.

Nazuk Kumar has also represented India at the seventh Asian Physics Olympiad held at Almaty in Kazakhstan last month.

Chandigarh, May 22
Leading British fashion house Marks and Spencer has set its eyes on Mohali for recruiting designers. Two students of the Northern India Institute of Fashion Technology (NIIFT) have been recruited for the Indian operations of Marks and Spencer at Delhi.

Also, leading buying houses of the country— Impulse, Cascade Enterprises, Ravels, Graffiti and Orient Crafts have come looking for talent and hired students from the institute. Punjab-based textile major Nahar Industries, too, has picked up students from the Mohali-based institute.

“There has been 100 per cent placement of students of fashion design, knitwear design and garment manufacturing technology courses. Though most of our students get a placement, this time, the pay packets offered are also very attractive — Rs 15,000 per month onwards,” said Ms Vijay Sharma, Director, NIIFT.

Talking to TNS, she said over the years the institute had carved a niche for itself in the fashion industry. “Having established ourselves in the courses offered as of now, NIIFT is now on the expansion mode. A grant of Rs 5 crore and five acre of land has been granted to NIIFT. We will soon add new courses in fashion retail management and designing of footwear and other fashion accessories. Because of the retail boom in the country, there is a demand for trained manpower in fashion retail management,” she said.

Also on the cards is a research and development centre, in association with Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), in the NIIFT campus for improvising khadi products in terms of design and quality. NIIFT had earlier provided extensive support to KVIC centres in the production of garments at Adampur and floor mats at Patti in Amritsar.

The students of NIIFT will be designing uniforms for the Punjab and Haryana High Court staff. Ms Vijay Sharma said they had approached the court authorities for designing the uniforms and the project would take off soon.

Chandigarh, May 22
During the trial of the Beant Singh assassination case in the Burail jail here today, high drama was witnessed.

Counsel for Jagtar Singh Hawara, the prime accused, and others, Mr A.S.Chahal and Mr Arvind Thakur alleged that the statement of Balwant Singh, one of other accused under Section 131 of the Cr PC was being recorded in the absence of the judge.

Counsel complained to the CBI Special Judge that the statement could not have been recorded in the absence of a judge. Counsel moved an application in the court stating that the CBI had connived with the jail authorities to keep away the defence counsel during the ongoing trial.