Jalandhar, June 16
Positive cases of swine flu in eight students who returned from an educational trip to NASA in the US has not only led to panic among the parents and residents but also posed a question mark over the rising fad among the city schools of sending their students to NASA every year.

While a majority of the schools in the city has added this as an annual feature in their curriculum, the rest are following suit.

Though the trend of sending students to NASA has picked up fast in the past some time, it seems has little to do with their academics, as the ultimate aim is to procure the coveted US visa, which would in turn help their children later in their life.

In the case of local Guru Amar Dass Public School it was their first ever-educational trip where of a group of 31 students had gone to NASA. School principal Tarlochan Singh said students had gone on a 10-day educational trip to NASA along with three teachers.

Talking about the trip he said, “The tour was arranged by EF Company, a Switzerland-based tour operator, which has been arranging tours for almost every school in the city. The students attended a science and technology workshop apart from watching the satellite launching as well,” he added.

It is pertinent to mention here apart from the local Guru Amar Dass Public School, the students of Apeejay School, Police DAV Public School, DPS Jalandhar, Dayanand Model Public School, Kabir Nagar, DIPS, Kapurthala and many other local schools too paid visit to NASA through one competition or the other.

However, this poses a question as to how come every second school in the city has been reaching NASA through one competition or the other?

Even the students of the local Apeejay School too returned recently from the US after attending a NASA competition last week. The students of class IX to XII had gone there to participate in NASA AMES space settlement contest in the junior category. The contest was organised by NASA AMES research center California, US, in collaboration with National Space Society (NSS). It needs mention here Apeejay School was given a grant by the ruling SAD government last year for future trips of the students as well.

Talking about the success rate of their students in the NASA competitions in the past four years the principal of the school, Ranjana Sud, said they were the first ones in the city to enter into a competition at NASA. “It was later on that other schools too followed us in the same league. But we have been winners throughout. Though this became a fad in the past some time but we have been genuinely taking part in science and research related competitions at NASA”, she added.

Though academicians might relate this venture with that of an eye-opening educational tours but such tours had remained in news for wrong reasons as well. Last year the students of Dayanand Model Public School, Kabir Nagar and Dhilwan International Public School (DIPS), Kapurthala too went to NASA out of which some students fled from the trip and never returned back home.

Recently two teams of the local Police DAV Public School project Columbiat and Bellivistat too went for the space settlement design competition organised by NASA at Orlando, US. Meanwhile, the students of this school also participated in another space settlement design competition, which was organised by University of Toronto, Canada. When contacted, principal of the school Rashmi Vij said that the students are selected for NASA trips after examining their mental and academic aptitude.

“The students get certificates of excellence for their academic brilliance in these competitions and we are proud to be part of such global contests where students compete with scores of their counterparts from across the globe”, she maintained.

Jalandhar, June 16
Surjeet Singh, a Jalandhar-based boy and a student of Thapar University, Patiala, has bagged the first position in the national level Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) Golden Jubilee Student competition.

Surjeet and his team comprising four other students were awarded prize money of Rs 3 lakh for the innovative scientific project. The competition, held from 8-9 June at Kolar, 100 km from Bangalore, was organised by the Ministry of Defence.

A second year student of Masters in Engineering from the department of Electronics and Communications, Thapar University, he participated in the ‘development of low cost outdoor surveillance system’.

Surjeet and his team designed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which was aimed at smooth border surveillance, know how of a particular location, Video Processing System (VPS) which system helps in making the map of a location in real time and object detection. Talking to The Tribune over phone, the team leader said it took almost six months for us to design this low cost system. “The DRDO had given us a problem pertaining to the manufacturing of a low-cost surveillance system which we made within a time period of six months. We had rigorous brainstorm sessions where continuous testing was done,” he added.

The UAV amounted designed by the approximately Rs 70,000 out of which the team utilised traditional air plane structure for the project. “Rest of the equipments was introduced with little innovative techniques to improve its efficiency”, he added.

As many as 270 universities and colleges from across the country participated in the national-level competition.

It might be noted that the DRDO gave a problem pertaining to the manufacturing of low cost outdoor surveillance system. And the universities and colleges sent their proposals to the DRDO which were examined later on. The second position was bagged by IIT Chennai and the third position was achieved by MIT, Chennai. The team was supervised by Parminder Singh Reel a lecturer of Electronics and Communications at Thapar University, Patiala and four students of B.E-III year namely Gaurav Goyal, Gaurav Kumar, Anil Bains and Ashish Tanvar. It might be noted that the DRDO is already working on two UAVs namely ‘Lakshya’ and ‘Nishant’.

Jalandhar, June 16
The smooth functioning of the newly built trauma centre on the premises of the Civil Hospital could be delayed for some time more due to a shortage of staff and equipment.

Sources in the Health Department revealed that the hospital had already been functioning with a skeleton staff and to make the three-bed trauma centre fully functional, it required additional staff and adequate infrastructure.

There is an immediate requirement of experts, nurses, operation theatre assistants, radiographers and other technical staff who could operate the machines efficiently.

A majority of the equipment, including CT-scan, digital X-ray, ordinary X-ray, operation tables and other necessary machines could not be installed. The department had failed to get a proper power supply to the centre.

A visit by The Tribune revealed that staff of the engineering wing of the Punjab Health System Corporation (PHSC), Chandigarh, were busy in giving finishing touches to the rooms and trauma ward this afternoon.

All the lights, fans and air-conditioners in every room of the trauma centre were on since morning. Enquiries from the spot revealed that the electronic gazettes were on for testing as PHSC Director Dr S.K. Bansal was on a visit to the hospital. However, Medical Superintendent Dr Ashok Nayyar, when contacted, claimed that Dr Bansal inspected the trauma centre. Dr Nayyar, however, admitted the shortage of staff which may delay the inauguration of the trauma centre.

Jalandhar, June 16
The bariatric surgery, also known as obesity surgery, helps in significant and long-lasting weight loss in severely obese patients. It refers to the various surgical procedures performed to treat obesity by modification of the gastrointestinal tract to reduce nutrient intake and absorption, Dr Gurvinder Singh Jammu, Director of a city-based hospital, said.

As per the World Health Organisation (WHO) census, there were 171 million people suffering from diabetes worldwide in 2000 and by 2030 the number will increase to 366 million, that is almost double the number today.

Dr Jammu claims to have performed the new technique of the surgery on a large number of obese patients of the region in the past couple of years.

Obesity surgery also provide relief from backache, arthritis, heartburn, urinary incontinence, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma and venous disorders. One becomes obese on consistent consumption of excessive calories over a long period of time. Genetic and hereditary factors, in many cases, are another cause of the diseases. Genes play an important role in tendency to gain excess weight. Modern lifestyle and environment like fast food, long sitting at desk,etc, add to the problem, he added. Alarming number of people die prematurely due to obesity-related diseases every year.

Kapurthala, June 16
In its pursuit to achieve excellence in environment management, the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) has won the Golden Peacock Environment Management Award-2009 for the second consecutive year.

RCF General Manager Pradeep Kumar received the award from Dr Madhav Mehra, President of the World Council for Corporate Governance, UK, in the “Global convention of climate security” at Palampur from June 12 to 14.

The convention was organised by the World Environment Foundation. The award jury was chaired by Justice P.N. Bhagwati, former Chief Justice of India and member of UN Human Rights Commission.

About 1,000 organisations, including big corporate houses of the country, had filed their nominations for the Golden Peacock awards. A paper was presented by the RCF on the environmental measures being taken to save the natural resources and conservation of energy to make the RCF residential complex a model township.

Measures had been taken to improve the design of the RCF-built coaches to make them environmental friendly by using control discharge toilet system to eliminate filth from the station area as this system operated when the train picks up a speed of 30 kmph. Further to achieve zero discharge of toilet waste, eco-friendly biological toilets had been put on trial basis. To eliminate the environmentally hazardous painting process, paintless coaches had been developed, requiring no painting for the next 25 years.

Jalandhar, June 16
The Army Open Recruitment Rally which was kick started by Army Recruiting Office (HQ) on June 11, received an overwhelming response from Punjab’s youths. The rally was conducted under the aegis of Headquarters Recruiting Zone (Punjab and J and K), at Dogra Ground, Jalandhar cantonment. The event will go on till June 18.

Nearly 9,700 candidates reported in the rally and 3,149 tokens were issued to all the categories. Brig K.D. Malhotra, Deputy Director-General (Recruiting), Headquarters Recruiting Zone (Punjab and J&K), also joined the rally. He flagged off the race for Physical Fitness Test.

Physical Fitness Tests (PFT) and physical measurement tests (PMT) have been completed today, whereas medical tests for successful candidates would continue till June 18. A written examination of successful candidates would be held at the venue on July 26. This recruitment rally is meant for four districts of Punjab for soldier general duty category namely Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar.

In addition, this recruitment rally was also opened for all districts of Punjab for soldier technical and soldier clerk and store keeper clerk categories of all castes. The rally also gets a warm feedback from Hoshiarpur district. The reaction from Kapurthala, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Jalandhar has improved as compared to previous rallies particularly in clerks category.

The next recruitment rally in Punjab would be held at Patiala from July 1 to 10. DDG Brig K.D. Malhotra paid gratitude to the Punjab Government, Commissioner and DIG of Jalandhar Range and DCs and SSPs and departments of all these districts for providing an excellent support in terms of crowd control, traffic control, law and order and medical support for the Army Recruiting events.

Jalandhar, June 16
In a bid to promote Hockey, the local Lyallpur Khalsa College has tied up with the Punjab and Sind Bank Hockey Academy to promote the national game in the region. The college has established a Punjab and Sind Bank Academy sports cell in its college premises.

Aimed at nurturing budding Hockey players, the academy would provide them an edge in national and international events. The sports cell was earlier situated in Delhi and has recently been shifted to Jalandhar, owing to the city’s rich history of glorious Hockey stars.

Olympian Rajinder Singh (senior) has been appointed in charge of the Punjab and Sind Bank Hockey Academy sports cell which would impart training to Hockey players in the college.

The college administration would be providing free space, infrastructure, professional training and other facilities to Hockey players from across the region. Though at present the training sessions are being held on the college grounds, efforts to avail a training turf, in the near future, are on by the college authorities.

“It would be our top priority to provide an Astroturf for Hockey players and attract youths towards this game,” said Dr. Jaspal Singh Randhawa the principal of the college.

The academy has three categories for Hockey players which include school children, college students and the senior team.

The college would formally conduct Hockey trials on July 1, 2 and 3. “We have an excellent group of Hockey players from our college as well who would be a part of this trial camp,” added Dr. Randhawa.

Dean Sports of the college, Dr. Harjinder Singh Atwal said, “The primary aim behind establishing the academy sports cell is to tap Hockey talent in budding players at the grass root level. The Punjab and Sind Bank Hockey Academy, through this initiative, wants to provide an open platform for Hockey players in the region”.

The college boasts of a distinctive record for excellence in games and sports. It has a glorious list of renowned alumni who have excelled at the national and international levels. The college has to its credit Padma Shree Ajitpal Singh and Pargat Singh who is also the director sports Punjab.

Arjuna Awardees Surinder Singh Sodhi, Bagicha Singh, Jaipal Singh, Baljit Singh, Jagjit Singh and Dhyan Chand awardee Birender Singh besides scores of Olympians are also among the alumni of the college.

Jalandhar, June 16
Police DAV Public School has become the first Indian school to bag a prize in the University of Toronto space design competition which was held at University of Toronto, Canada. The school project Lakshita won the first prize in the junior category and project Matavaya won the second prize in the senior category.

Fourteen teams participated in the second phase of the competition. Experts

Jalandhar, June 16
With an aim to provide the youth a lesson in courtesy and etiquettes, a young woman of the city has come up with an institute - The Cynosure. The institute has recently been set up in Urban Estate Phase-II.

“Being presentable in a variety of environments and cultures is one of the concluding results of etiquette training,” claims Archie Sehgal, director of the Institute. A corporate trainer, Sehgal claimed that the institute is one of its kind in the state. The curriculum has been designed and fabricated to provide adequate training on the skills of protocol, corporate etiquette, language skills, dining etiquette, and overall personality metamorphosis, she added.

Jalandhar, June 16
The Union Ministry of Labour and Employment would be conducting free of cost special stenography (English) and computer classes for SC/ST students in the district from July 1 onwards.

Interested students should be above 27 years of age for both the courses. The students should be class X pass for the stenography course and class XII pass for the computer course. The ministry would provide a stipend of Rs 500 per month to the students of stenography.

The students can apply before June 27 for these courses. For more details they can contact on 0181-2232839 or office of SC/ST Welfare, District Administrative Complex, Jalandhar.

Jalandhar, June 16
Himalaya Opticals, one of the leading names in eyewear, unveiled its summer collection of Italian brands here today.

Branch head Dilip said the latest in Versace, Hugo-Boss, Roberto Cavalli, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Guess, Emporio Armani, Diesel, Gucci are now on display for city residents at their showroom in Model Town.

He said the designs are reminiscent of the 70s with big glasses and funky shades and have been worn by pop stars like Elvis Presley and superstars like Amitabh Bachchan.