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Centre for harnessing ex-servicemen’s talent
Minister Pant has a date with history |
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TV actor Rakesh Bedi gives tips on acting
Beauty pageant, mehndi contest mark Teej celebrations
Experts discuss intellectual property rights
Seminar on biosensors conducted
Institute of professional studies opens in Doon
Festival Mindspree concludes
Varsity to help needy students
Principals dwell on challenges of IT education
Welham Boys clinch u-16 soccer title
Wynberg Allen, Tibetan Homes in final
Cox & Kings has plans to boost state tourism
Bureaucrats give success mantra to IAS aspirants
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Centre for harnessing ex-servicemen’s talent
Dehradun, August 12 “There is a need to utilise the services of 19.5 lakh ex-servicemen in the country and 1 lakh ex-servicemen in Uttarakhand as most of them are already trained, military training is quite comprehensive. Their experiences can be utilised for rendering services in the rural areas and for the first time we are taking up this kind of initiative in Uttarakhand,” said R Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India. He was speaking today at a workshop on “Enhancement of Rural Technology Delivery and Community Development” organised by the Himalayan Environment Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO) at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology. In his introductory address, Dr Anil Joshi, Patron of HESCO, said the state had been unable to utilise the experiences of ex-servicemen. “The workshop will explore the possibilities of utilising the potential of retired Army personnel in the development of Uttarakhand. We plan to come up with a development plan for selected valley utilising the services of jawans and officers for development of villages in Uttarakhand,” he said. While Major S Chatterjee, Scientific Adviser, Government of India, said rural technology centres needed to build in villages for bringing the villagers close to technology. Presiding over the workshop, Major-Gen Ranveer Singh Yadav, said the ex-servicemen should be imparted training in technical fields so that it could prove helpful once they retire. He complemented HESCO for taking up development activities in terrorist-affected areas of Jammu and Kashmir and North East. On the other hand, Lieut-Gen HV Kala (retd) said the government should take the services of ex-servicemen in disaster management. “I fail to understand why their services are not taken when they are trained to handle any eventuality,” he added.
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Minister Pant has a date with history
“Formal education in this border district, which was a tehsil of Almora district till 1960, began in Bajeti where the British opened the first middle school to cater to Pitthoragarh, Champawat and Bageshwar areas in 1902. “This was followed by middle school at Khetikhan in 1906, Gangolihat in 1924, Didihat and Berinag in 1926,” said PD Pant, a retired principal. According to the history of school education in the area, after the announcement that a degree college was to be opened in old combined district of Pitthoragarh and Champawat, the middle classes of the school were attached with the Government Inter College and this old building was handed over to conduct degree classes in 1967. “Bajeti has also seen degree classes. After the new building for a degree college was constructed, Bejeti was reconverted into a junior high school,” said Jivan Lal, a ward member from Bajeti in Pitthoragarh Nagar Palika Parishad. Jivan Lal said that at another instance, the school building was handed over to the government to open a hostel for tribal students there. “It was because of our struggle that this 108-year-old junior high school was restored which today has been upgraded to a high school,” said Jivan Lal. Bajeti was not just the starting point of school education in the area more than a 100 years ago, but was also the symbol of the British Raj as the first government ‘thana’, under the tehsil of Kali Kumaon, began functioning here in 1865. “Geographers of the Kumaon region like Tara Dutt Pant have mentioned that in 1865, a munshi and his peon lived in the government ‘thana’ here,” said PD Pant. He added that for almost a generation, Bajeti was only place where middle-level education for the three districts of Pitthoragarh, Champawat and Bageshwar was imparted. According to Prakash Pant, state Cabinet minister and local MLA who inaugurated the high school at this historic place, the classes of this session will start within 15 days.
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TV actor Rakesh Bedi gives tips on acting
Dehradun, August 12 Addressing mediapersons, Bedi said the journey to Mumbai was not easy and the students would have to work hard lot to make their dreams come true. He said during these three months, the acting students had not only honed their skills on performing art, but also had learnt to express their emotions well. Director of the school Rohit Chauhan said acting school aimed at promoting talented and budding actors to mould their future in the film or television industry. He also promised to conduct acting workshop and related programmes in the future.
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Beauty pageant, mehndi contest mark Teej celebrations
Haridwar, August 12 Dressed in traditional Indian attires, women participants with their confidence and presentation seemed to be giving their daughters a tough competition as they walked on the ramp, confidently gave answers to judge’s questions, belying their age at the pageant. After an intense competition of rounds, finally Geeta Goyal adorned the coveted “Teej Queen” crown. She attributed her success to her family and said she was inspired by married women achievers in varied fields. Closely following were Gauri Garg who was adjudged “Teej Sundari” while Kanchan Joshi claimed the second runner up title of “Teej Beauty”. All three winners revealed that they were a bit hesitant prior to the competition as it was for the first time they were taking part in such a competition. Their family members and friends motivated them to participate in this unique event, normally not associated with the Teej celebrations in this city where normal beauty contests are also not held. Organised by the Rotary Club, Kankhal, apart from the beauty pageant a mehndi display competition was also held. It was followed by shringar wherein participants dressed most beautifully and elegantly were chosen winners. Geeta Goyal, Gauri Garg and Shalu Sachdeva were adjudged “heena” achievers while Pooja Chawla, Kanchan Joshi, Shalini Gupta impressed the audience and judges with their beautiful make up and Indian outfits. “The way these married women participated is commendable and gives us more energy to host it better the next time. We thank the competitors as well as their family members for making this event a huge success,” said Sonal Garg, co-chairman of the organising committee of the event.
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Experts discuss intellectual property rights
Dehradun, August 12 Inaugurating the seminar, the chief guest, Prof AN Purohit, former Vice-Chancellor, HNB Garhwal University, asked young scientists to keep themselves update with all information linked to the intellectual property rights. He said timely patenting of the research works would also be a benefit for industrial purposes. Director UCOST Rajendra Dobhal announced the setting up of Intellectual Property Rights Centre in Uttarakhand. He said the centre had come at the initiative of the Science and Technology Ministry, UCOST and the Industries Ministry. Dr Dobhal said UCOST had been from time to time holding workshop and deliberating to promote science in the state. The young scientists too are being given adequate patronage by UCOST and said today’s seminar was another step in that direction. Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board’s member secretary Jairaj spoke of intellectual property rights. NRDC’s General Manager VK Jain said the researchers in quest to get their research papers published in international journals unknowingly get all their statistics published, which should have rather been patented. Apart from the issues of intellectual property rights, copyright design, trade mark registration among others also come up for discussion during the first day of the seminar. Dr Prashant Singh, District Coordinator of UCOST, and Dr DP Juyal accorded the vote of thanks. A total of 150 participants from eight districts of Uttarakhand attended the workshop.
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Seminar on biosensors conducted
Dehradun, August 12 In continuation with a lecture series in Faculty of Science and Technology, ICFAI University, Dehradun, Prof SK Verma from Biological Science Group, BITS, Pilani, delivered a talk on “Biosensors Development for Environmental Monitoring” on the university campus today. The talk focused on the use of biosensors in different fields of biotechnology, including agriculture, medicine, veterinary science. Professor Verma stressed the use of green fluorescent protein (GFP) for the land mine detection, use of modern analytical techniques such as ICP-MS, X-Ray, fluorescence and AAS for the detection of arsenic contents in groundwater. He elaborated that arsenic if present in concentration beyond 50 ppb might lead to diseases such as gangrene, tumours in humans. Professor Verma also interacted with students of BTech (biotechnology) and apprised them of the scope of biotechnology in various fields like nanotechnology, nanorobots for the detection of glucose in the blood and recombinant DNA technology, etc. The talk was attended by Dr RC Ramola, Dean, FST, Prof AK Dimri, Dr Sharad Pandey, Dr Meera Narsimha and other faculty members.
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Institute of professional studies opens in Doon
Dehradun, August 12 Campus Head Prashant Scott addressed mediapersons on the campus. He said the campus of Dehradun offered two-year postgraduate programmes in MBA, MBA Retail and three-year undergraduate BBA programme. The BBA programme provided an opportunity to the students to visit China and Brazil for the practical knowledge of their business culture. It also offered a one-year executive-MBA programme for working executives. The programmes were recognised under the University Grant Commission and approved by the Ministry of HRD, Government of India, for employment as well as pursuing higher studies, Scott added. Fees for general category in MBA would be Rs 2,50,000 while Rs 2,00,000 for defense personnel. MBA (Retail) would cost Rs 1,80,000 and Rs 1,50,000 for defense personnel. Fees for Executive-MBA would be Rs 1,75,000 and Rs 1,00,00 for defense personnel. While fess for BBA would be Rs 2,45,000 and Rs 2,00,000 for defense personnel. The fees include all other charges except service tax.
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Festival Mindspree concludes
Dehradun, August 12 The participating schools of the debate were Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), St Thomas College, Hopetown Girls School, Summer Valley School, Touchwood School, Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy, Kasiga School and St Jude’s School. Prominent educationist A Mayer was the chief guest of the event while Dr A Thakur, Principal of Doon Presidency School, was the guest of honour. The judges for the debate were Monica D’Souza, A Mayer and Rita Pandey. The preliminary round of the debate was held in the extempore format of debating with the participants speaking “for” and “against” the motion. The topic of today’s debated competition was “India is fast becoming one of the most developed countries”. The participants presented thought provoking expressions of argument. Participants highlighted sensible issue of concern and exhilarated the audience as well as the judges. The result of the debate was declared at the end of the event, where Yashashvee Raj from RIMC stood best speaker, while the runner’s up trophy for best speaker went to Shashank Shekhar from Touchwood School. The prize for best team was bagged by Touchwood School. St Jude’s was declared the runner’s up team and RIMC stood second runners up team.
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Varsity to help needy students
Dehradun, August 12 The move has been made so as to ensure that meritorious students should not be deprived of quality education because of lack of funds. With a fully technologically equipped campus, highly educated staff, novel ways and courses to educate students, well-driven placement team ensuring placements the year round, the LPU is truly working on its motto, “Transforming Education, Transforming India”. Ashok Mittal, Chancellor, LPU, said, “We want the students to get a global experience at the LPU, faculties from various countries are teaching at the campus. This shall help students adapt themselves in the different environments they are put in at work”. The university has also taken continuous initiatives to invite experts from various fields to provide domain-specific knowledge to its students so as to turn them into better professionals and become the first choice of the employers. “We are also hiring students for the software development and maintenance team on the campus to give our students a first-hand experience,” added Mittal.
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Principals dwell on challenges of IT education
Mussoorie, August 12
Principals from various schools around the city deliberated on the seminar titled, “IT in Education Changes and Challenges”. Educationists discussed the major challenges faced in keeping pace with the IT and incorporating them in schools accordingly. The principals in unison were of the view that the IT was changing rapidly which had created its own complexity in education. Dehradun-based Sunrise Academy Principal Sunil Taneja said awareness on the IT was not strong among parents and teachers alike. Parents still were living with the concept of books and it became difficult to make them understand the advantages of the IT education. The impact of any change was seen in the long run. So teachers should understand the limitation of this technology and use it with utmost care. Speaking on the issue of cyber morality, Taneja said the school and parents both had to work on it together. The schools could monitor the students using the IT in schools and assist in channelising their knowledge in such a way that they became habitual in only concentrating on the education-related material. Efforts should be made to create a habit where the student did not indulge in frivolous use of the cyber world and learnt moral behaviour on his own. TIMES World School Principal Lalit Saxena was of the view that schools should give way with the system of chalk and board and adopt the latest IT keeping the human element involved in education as priority. When questioned on a lack of interest towards reading books and writing, Dr Saxena was of the view that there was need to take all aspects of teaching in the classes, including the IT, to provide students quality education so that they could compete in the global world. St Georges Principal Brother Christopher said this new innovative IT education technology was the need of the hour for schools in Mussoorie. Most of schools in the town were deprived of the IT education facility in comparison to the schools of the plains due to the tradition-based education followed by them, but now the schools had to equip themselves to the latest IT technology in classes so that they competed with other education institutes. Brother Christopher said it was imperative for the teachers to be techno savvy and update themselves and handle the IT education as per the popular demand made by students. He further said smart classes were needed for the schools as the world was turning towards technology and these classes would integrate with traditional values and enhance the level of education which was good in a way. Headmistress of GNFC ND Sahney was of the view that one should be able to use technology like the IT in a positive way combining it with traditional method, and smart classes were a step in that direction. Rekha, another teacher from Waverly Convent, said in a subject like science students could learn better through IT graphic illustration. Blackboard and chalk would give way to electronic boards where recovering the erased portion would be easy, thus assist teachers and save them time. Mussoorie Public School Principal Mukesh Lal said the IT was an important issue which needed to be addressed on a priority. He said the introduction of the IT in education was a welcome step, but it should be done in a limited and controlled way. The education system was evolutionary in nature and had reached a great level in present times. The IT education had its advantages and disadvantages. Students were bound to misuse the technology for purposes, apart from education, which was a major concern. Hence, the IT education should act as a facilitator with teachers playing an important role. The other concern of the IT in education was that students were reading and writing less as every information now was a click away which was leading to loss of creativity in their formative years. Mukesh Lal was of the view that the IT education was not bad provided the interactive element was preserved. He was impressed with the modules shown in the slide show and said the IT could enhance learning and understanding and help in imparting global quality education to the students. Educomp’s Uttarakhand/UP Regional Head Sanjiv Meni said the objective of the seminar was to empower and inspire learning in schools through the latest technology using a software called Smart Class. He said the organisation was already imparting the IT education in more than 3,500 schools in the country. The objective of the Smart Class was to make teaching and learning process easy so that weak students were able to learn effectively and improve the basics through ready made modules in the form of CD. The basic cost of installing the modules in 10 classrooms was around Rs 90,000 that included knowledge centre in which the management would be done by Educomp. The Principals have welcomed the technology, but also feared that the human element from classes could vanish with increased use of technology, thus hindering the natural growth process of the student and they should be ready to deal with the challenges posed by it in near future.
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Welham Boys clinch u-16 soccer title
Dehradun, August 12 After the first half went barren, both sides put their best foot forward to score a goal in the second half. For Welham, Santhvya (63rd minute) opened the account while for Col Brown, Naveen (65th) netted the equaliser. The final was later decided through a tiebreaker which Welham Boys won 6-5.
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Wynberg Allen, Tibetan Homes in final
Dehradun, August 12 In the first semifinal played today, Wynberg Allen scored a 3-1 win over Hilton School (B). Anurag of Hilton School struck the first goal in the initial minutes of the match. Bharat of the rival team equalised soon after. For Wynberg Allen, Rajyavardhan and Abdul scored the second and the third goal respectively. Tibetan Homes had an easy win in the second semifinal as it trounced Doon International School 6-0. Pema and Dorje performed magnificently scoring three goals each.
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Cox & Kings has plans to boost state tourism
Dehradun, August 12 Bereft of healthy competition and quality services which are domain of renowned travel agencies, the tourism industry in the state had hitherto been solely dependent on state-run Travel Corporation which had not been able to do the needful to realise the dream of creating another success story of tapping tourism in a hill state like Himachal Pradesh did. Sameer Reddy, owner, says: “We are not local travel agency and have to live up to the credibility and brand name of the company by delivering good services. For this, we will have to tackle the infrastructural deficiencies which may pester our foreign clients. In a conversation with Secretary, Tourism, Rakesh Sharma, I raised such issues. I also discussed as to how the division of tourism management at the government level, which is operated through the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN), Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN) and Tourism Department, confuses tourists. He promised to devise a strategy to solve these complications at another round of talks”. A lack of good accommodation, good toilets on the way, smooth roads are some of the persistent obstacles which are required to be sorted out, he says. AK Jha, Manager, Franchise, Northern India, was upbeat about the future proposition, saying that the company keeps getting demand for package tours for Uttarakhand, which is what propelled the company to start off their franchise from Dehradun. The city which has the best boarding education in the country can offer cream clientele to woo for travel, he maintains. The tourists, especially high-end ones, who want all services under one roof can now avail themselves of the services provided by the company. “Our travel agency will provide one-stop shop for all travel and travel-related products which include leisure, business travel, trade fare, euro rail, cruise, air ticketing (domestic and international), online visa and passport services to all segments of travellers, which will work tremendously to boost tourism in the state,” says Varun Berry, co-owner. Besides tapping religious tourism, especially the Char Dham Yatra, adventure tourism, hill stations and customised package, the other designer packages such as Udaan and Yuva to cater to the groups of children and youngsters, respectively, will lure domestic as well as international tourists to opt for travelling in the state, says Rachna Beri, Director of the travel agency.
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Bureaucrats give success mantra to IAS aspirants
Haridwar, August 12 In the ongoing management seminar by the Association of Management Scholars at Dev Sanskriti University, the aspirants got an opportunity to interact with the eminent personalities from the respective fields. Citing positive thinking as the potent weapon with which one can come out of all adverse circumstances, former Agricultural Production Commissioner of Uttar Pradesh Rakesh Mittal addressed the students as well as faculty members and officers on the topic “How to develop positive thinking”? Remarking that positive thinking can’t be achieved in a day, but is inherited by sustained efforts for a considerable time when it itself becomes a part of one’s thought process and attitude, Mittal said one could achieve one’s goal by inculcating positive thinking and learning to fight the deficiencies and then nothing would be impossible. Giving tips to students who want to make administrative services their career, a special guidance class on the university campus was held wherein they were apprised of the ways to prepare, subjects to choose, methodology, right subject material, preparing oneself mentally and the opportunities lying ahead when one cracks the premier examination were dealt on by the experts. The aspirants also had a direct interaction-cum-questionnaire session seeking answers to their queries. Students were also urged to focus on the Indian values as it had varied traditions, customs, history and diversity.
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While in the line of duty they have proved their mettle over and over again. Retired but still active, the talent and enterprise of 1 lakh ex-servicemen will be harnessed for launching community initiatives in remote areas of
Uttarakhand.
Dehradun, August 12
Beauty lies in one’s mind and when coupled with confidence age seems to take a back seat. This was ably personified at a beauty queen contest held for married women as part of the Teej celebrations here today.
Dehradun, August 12
Wynberg Allen School, Mussoorie, and Tibetan Homes have registered berths in the final winning their respective semifinals here today during the 26th Carbery Memorial Sub-Junior Football Tournament. The final will be played on August 14 at 4 pm on St Jude School, Majra Ground.
Pitthoragarh, August 12
