The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

EDUCATION

Bright prospects for students as MNCs come calling
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 10
The end of the academic session may still be eight months away in most professional institutes in the city, but the process of campus interviews and placements has already started.

From one engineering college in the city, a US-based multinational has picked up B.Tech and MCA students at a pay package of approximately Rs 2.22 lakh per annum.

Placement experts and corporate bosses active in the region assert the mushrooming of engineering and other professional institutes in and around the city notwithstanding, that the job scene in this part of the region has never been so lucrative.

“Also, the students here have initiative professional approach, are responsible and have an edge over the others as far as language profeciency is concerned,” says corporate honcho Anshu Kataria.

The Chairman of Chandigarh Engineering College at Landran near Mohali, Mr Satnam Singh Sandhu, said among the companies offering jobs this year are Syntel, Birla Soft, Persistent System, Hewitt Associates, Convergys, India Services, L&T and KMG InfoTech.

A US-based IT service provider “I-flex solutions” has offered a pay package of over Rs 2 lakh to students from his institute pursuing B.Tech and MCA degrees, even before the competition of the courses, he added.

The institute’s president, Mr Rashpal Singh Dhaliwal, said all eligible students of the 2006 batch had been placed in multinational companies and other leading organisations in India and abroad with a pay packages of up to Rs 14 lakh per annum. This year, the response was expected to be even better with more and more multinationals launching their operations in the region, he said.

Punjab Tractors Limited (PTL) and Second Foundation, a global software services company, are scheduled to come to the college for conducting campus interviews next week.

Young Yadavindrians set for a date with theatre
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 10
Young Yadavindrians are all set to stage a play ‘‘A Christmas Carol’’ by Charles Dickens at Tagore Theatre on October 12. The entire Class V, which will be passing out of the junior school in December this year, has been cast in the play.

Directed by the school’s theatre teacher Zubin Mehta, the play has kept over 120 students involved for the past one month. ‘‘The play was divided into various groups and only in the past 10 days have the children been brought together and the five groups were weaved into one single play,’’ explained Ms Komal Anand the school Headmistress.

Zubin said he had held a special theatre workshop with all students of Class V first and following the workshop as many as 50 children were picked up and trained further. ‘‘I don’t treat them like children. For me they are actors and actresses. And they have been trained accordingly. They all know the technicalities of acting and have a fair knowledge of the lighting, the music etc also,’’ said Zubin adding that a live choir will play during the performance. A separate group of students are being trained to sing live during the various scenes of the play.

‘‘A Christmas Carol’’ is the story of a rich and miserly man whose long dead friends come back as ghosts and tell him that real happiness does not lie in money but in being with the family, sharing and caring for one another.

‘‘I always wanted to direct this play and doing it with 10 year olds is a challenge, specially when even technically the play is a difficult one, said Zubin.

Zubin has been associated with almost every theatre group in the city and has been with YPS for the past three years. He had earlier directed the school students in performing ‘‘The Tinder Box’’ last year.

	PU sets up Students Grievance Cell Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 10 Panjab University has established a Students Grievance Cell. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof R.C. Sobti, told The Tribune that the cell would be headed by an officer, who would have two persons working under him, and work in a time-bound manner. All complaints received from students for various problems like examinations, results, rules, etc, would be routed through the cell. He added that the officer would himself be following the various complaints through various offices in the university rather than ask the students to do the running around. Mr Dinesh Chander had been deputed as the first students grievance officer of the university and the cell would be functional soon, he said. The cell would be different from the office of the Dean, Students’ Welfare, whose work is to ensure the welfare of the students on the campus. The cell would also take up complaints and requests send by students from affiliated colleges, private candidates and those pursing correspondence studies. The cell would be given a dedicated telephone. It would also have its presence on the university’s official website so that students from outside the campus could also write to the cell. The VC said the cell would also help in curbing incidents when small problems being faced by the university students flare up into strikes and protests. “Students should spend majority of their time pursuing studies and doing research. I believe that students should be given an atmosphere conducive to studies,” said the VC.
	PUSU activists protest in front of VC’s office Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 10 Members of the Panjab University Students Union (PUSU) today staged a protest in front of the Vice-Chancellor’s office here. The students led by PUSU president Abhishek Puri were protesting against the unnecessary delay in the declaration of result of B.Sc (Hons) by the examination branch. Mr Puri said B.Sc (Hons) had an internal system of examination where the departments concerned prepared the results and sent these to the examination branch for official declaration. But though the department had sent the results by August 31, the examination branch was yet to declare the results. The students also submitted a memorandum to the Vice-Chancellor. Mr Puri told him about the problems being faced by the science students. The VC assured the students that he would look into the matter and get results declared as soon as possible.
	Students hone skills at PEC programme Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 10 Students of Punjab Engineering College have organised “Techweek Delta 06”, a conglomeration of over 20 technical events, which entered its fifth day today. The two events, scheduled for today, were swift mechanix and sthapatya. In the former, the participants raced with their wireless remote vehicles on a dirt track. The latter saw the participants making designs of a building on the Auto CAD programme. The Director, PEC, Dr Vijay Gupta, said, “For students to become professionals it is imperative to update their knowledge, outside the scope of their curriculum and develop an inter-disciplinary approach”. These events have been designed to test the technical acumen of students in fields related to robotics, circuit design, programming and mechanical design. The programme kicked off with A’mon Avis, a debate on topics related to technology. In x-treme engineering, held on Friday, the participants got a chance to design and fabricate a specific model right from the scrap. A guest lecture by Dr H.K. Sardana, an eminent scientist and Director CSIO, was delivered on Saturday. Students also participated in a boomerang design contest. On Sunday, students got a chance to try their hands in the air balloon contest, which enthralled the audience. The euphoria increased further on next day with events like mechanix, technical poster presentation and sequence detector. In the coming two days, the focus will be on sub events like semantica (c programming), junkyard wars and sumo wrestling (using robots).
	Saluja is college Principal Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 10 Mr K.S. Saluja has been selected by the Union Public Service Commission as Principal of a government college in Chandigarh. Interviews for the post were held two months ago. His posting is yet to be decided. He teaches mathematics at Government College, Sector 11. The principals of the four government colleges in the city: the Government College for Girls, Sector 11, the Government College for Girls, Sector 42, Government College, Sector 11, and Government College, Sector 46, are officiating principals. This is the first direct appointment of a college Principal by the UPSC after four years. These four principals have been awaiting their promotions as regular principals through the Departmental Promotions Committee.
	Honour for Physics Dept Professor Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 10 Dr Suman Bala Beri, Department of Physics, Panjab University, has been selected for the Best Citizens of India Award, 2006, by International Publishing House for being the first woman to obtain Ph.D in 1976 from the Physics Department. A communication to this effect has been received from the Director, International Publishing House. After passing M.Sc. (Hons), Dr Beri joined research on the topic of cosmic ray. She is the first woman professor in the Physics Department, Panjab University, and also the first one to be in the faculty of physics. She actively participated in the exciting discovery of Top Quark and co-author of top discovery paper which was announced in 1995 worldwide by Dzero and CDF collaborations, Fermilab, USA. She has been honoured by the Rotary Club and has also received the NSCA Award on Science Day, 1996.

CULTURE

Programmes to promote art, culture
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 10
Competitive programmes will be organised by Chandigarh akademies to promote art and culture in UT. This decision was taken at the executive meeting of the Chandigarh Arts Council (CAC) held at the UT Secretariat under the chairmanship of the Adviser to the Administrator, Mr Lalit Sharma, here today.

The meeting reviewed the activities of the council and the three akademies and a decision was taken to further boost the programmes. The meeting also reviewed the financial position and discussed plans for organising cultural programmes.

The CAC will further upgrade the facilities for the akademies and artistes.

Mr Sharma asked for exploring the possibility of competitive programmes and annual awards for the artistes. He also stressed for increasing the level of understanding of classical music and classical dance among the masses. He said there was a need to demystify different forms of art and culture.

The Home Secretary, Mr Krishna Mohan, the Finance Secretary, Mr S.K.Sandhu, the Director, North Zone Cultural Centre, Mr R.T. Jindal, the Director, Public Relations, and Secretary, CAC, Mr Vivek Atray, the Chief Engineer, Mr V.K. Bhardwaj, the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi Chairman, Mr Aditya Prakash, and the Joint Secretary, CAC, Mr Vineet Punia, were present on the occasion.