Yoga camp ends with
cultural programme
Haridwar, June 22
As part of a yoga camp, thousands of people, including 40 from Nepal, participated in Sahaj Yog, a national seminar on yoga, at Premnagar Ashram ,Haridwar, today.

‘In daughter Raksha, I see my dream coming true’
Dehradun, June 22
For 36-year-old Deepak Pawar, life revolves around football. Since childhood, he had nourished a single dream - to play for the Indian football team. But, as luck would have it, in spite of best efforts he could not make it.

Varsity-industry pact vital: Experts
Dehradun, June 22
Experts at the panel discussion on ‘University-Industry Interface: Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges’ organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Uttarakhand State Council, and Doon University at its campus here underlined the need to incorporate industry-specific elements into the curriculum of university education in the state.

Dehradun, June 22
With rains eluding Uttarakhand, the once power surplus hill-state is in the grip of the worst power crisis since its existence in 2000.

Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCL) is facing an acute shortage of power. The situation is so grim that it is now compelled to purchase power from outside at Rs 10 per unit.

A unit of power in Uttarakhand costs Rs 2, the lowest in the country, but the corporation is forced to purchase power at Rs 10 per unit. Senior officials say rainfall alone can bring relief.

On account of scanty rainfall/snowfall in the past few months, the water level in the rivers had plummeted. Since, Uttarakhand is primarily dependent on its hydro-power, the river water has receded, thereby reducing production.

Against the projected production of 18-19 million units power daily, the corporation is at least 5 millionj units short of target.

“On June 16, the demand for power in Uttarakhand was 25.5 million units, whereas the availability was 23 million units,” said corporation MD Jagmohan Lal. He said in order to meet the demand, they were overdrawing power from outside Uttarakhand.

“Varying from Rs 4.80 to Rs 10 per unit, we are purchasing power from outside. On June 17, 18 and 19, we had overdrawn 3.7 million units, 1.47 million units and 2.1 million units of power respectively,” he said, adding that there was a limit beyond which they could not overdraw.

Hitherto, every summer, Uttarakhand had been power surplus. In summers, the UPCL would supply power to other states and in winters, gets back the power.

Besides its share of 361 million units of power this summer, the power corporation had brought an additional 150 million units from Delhi last winters.

“What to talk of supplying power to other states this summer, we are not even able to return the additional power of 150 million units we took from Delhi last winter,” said Jagmohan Lal.

Out of 150 million units, so far Uttarakhand has been able to return only 30 million units to Delhi.

“There has been an increase of almost 25 per cent power in Uttarakhand. To meet the increasing demand is a difficult task in the present scenario but UPCL is making all efforts to ensure that there are minimum power cuts,” said the MD.

Earlier, hill stations like Nainital and Mussoorie were spared power cuts but this time cuts are being imposed in both towns.

Officials say there is a six-hour power cut for the furnace industry and a four-hour cut for the rest of the industry.

The officials say they are forced to resort to power cuts in the domestic sector but the duration of the cuts is very little.

Another worrisome fact is that in case Kalagarh power house is closed, the crisis will deepen. The power house is irrigation-based and is closed every year on June 15.

“But because of the irrigation needs, this year its closure was put off from June 15 to 22. If the closure is put off for another week, it will be fine or else the power crisis will aggravate,” said Jagmohan Lal. The Kalagarh power house generates 1.8 million units daily.

There are clouds of uncertainty over the continuance of power generation from the Tehri hydro-electric project.

On account of the dry spell, the water level in the Bhagirathi and Bhilangana rivers has gone down considerably. If here is no rainfall for another week, power generation may be affected.

The Tehri power project generates 3.5 million units daily and in case it is shut down, the generation will be hit, further increasing the worries of UPCL officials.

With weather experts seeing little possibility of rains lashing Uttarakhand in the coming few days, there is no hope of improvement in power generation.

Director, meteorological department, Dr Anand Sharma, ruled out rain in the next two-three days.

“Even after that, the situation may not be positive,” he warned, adding that the heat wave may become more severe in the coming days.

Dehradun, June 22
With Jim Corbett National Park formally closed for visitors on June 15, the authorities are now gearing up for ‘Operation Monsoon’ - an exercise to ensure safety of faunal wealth that become most vulnerable to poachers as most of surface communication links inside the park get disrupted during monsoon.

This year, the operation is set to begin from July 1 and continue till October 31. According to Park Warden DS Rawat, Corbett is all prepared to start ‘Operation Monsoon’ and the entire programme was being charted out.

The exercise would start with long distance patrolling in which as many as 400 employees, including forest guards, beat guards, fire-watchers and others, equipped with global positioning systems etc, would participate.

These long distance patrols would cover a distance of 80 to 90 kilometres, criss-crossing the park. The entire exercise would take five to six days and include brief halts at intermittent ranges.

The patrol party would have to brave heavy rains, possibility of insect bites and other hassles. Further, frequency of short distance patrolling would also be increased during this period.

Forest guards along with camp elephants would also maintain vigil in areas that fall in inhospitable terrain. Boats would be pressed into service in Ramanganga reservoir to make ‘Operation Monsoon’ a foolproof exercise.

This is apart from Tiger Protection Force members, who have been assigned territories to conduct patrols.

Known for highest density of tigers in Asia, Corbett Tiger Reserve gives maximum importance to their conservation.

Apart from 164 tigers, it has a rich faunal wealth, including elephants and leopards. However, incidents of poaching have increased in recent years and ‘Operation Monsoon’ aims at curbing the same.

Dehradun, June 22
Experts at the panel discussion on ‘University-Industry Interface: Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges’ organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Uttarakhand State Council, and Doon University at its campus here underlined the need to incorporate industry-specific elements into the curriculum of university education in the state.

Over 60 senior academicians and representatives of industry, who attended the session, highlighted the need for developing a strong mutually beneficial industry- university interface that could bring about a paradigm change in higher education.

They were of the view that time had come to give a practical shape to the idea of enhancing employment opportunities as well as to chart out a new path of development in the state.

It was suggested that representatives of industry must be included on the education boards of universities.

Prof Grijesh Pant, Vice Chancellor, Doon University, expressed keenness in starting courses to meet the requirements of industry.

“The country’s biggest asset is its young population. However, this demographic dividend can be leveraged only if we are able to give skills to our youth,” he said.

In order to make higher education in universities practically relevant to industrial and business applications, it is important for the two to interact, understand each other's requirements and evolve together, observed Rakesh Oberoi, chairman of CII State Council. He said that the CII had already constituted the University Industry Council (UIC) for the purpose.

Sharing the industry’s experience and perspective, Deepak Tikle, Assistant Vice-President, ABB Limited, Haridwar, said that most manufacturing companies require professionals from specialised fields like supply-chain management and logistics for which few professionals were available.

So, universities should run programmes relevant to the industry. Other areas of focus, he said, should be short-term courses for imparting skill sets along with regular university curricula.

Hemant Kochar, Director, Madhuban Academy of Hospitality Administration and Research, stressed on bridging the skill gap in the state by constant interaction with industry to identify new skills.

He added that universities should incorporate on-the-job training as mandatory for courses as this would enhance practicality in education and scope of employability.