Members of the Eco Task Force check out the apiary at Patna Women’s College. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

The Eco Task Force group of Patna Women’s College set up an apiary on campus on April 22.

An apiary is a space where hives of honeybees are kept by apiarists or traditional beekeepers. College principal Doris D’Souza said: “It was my dream to set up an apiary at my college. I’m happy that the dream has been fulfilled.”

The Khadi Gram Udyog, Sheikhpura, helped the college set up the apiary.

D’Souza said Khadi Gram Udyog chairman Shankar Prasad had trained two college employees in honeybee farming last year. “We want our students to also learn about honeybee farming. These projects bring students closer to nature,” she added.

The students also learned about Karl Von Frisch, who got the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1973 for cracking the language code of honeybees — the waggle dance. According to Frisch’s theory, “foragers” in a colony of honeybees perform this dance to communicate to others the direction and distance of patches of flowers from which they can extract nectar.

The Eco Task Force members are students of the college who spread awareness about various environment issues by organising different programmes throughout the year.

Rape protest

Student of JD Women’s College formed a human chain on April 22 to protest against the incident of the rape of a five-year-old girl in Delhi.

As they stood outside their institution, each student held placards with messages like “Don’t kill the innocence of a child” and “Let buds bloom”.

“I think both the state and the Union governments are answerable for being unable to prevent such incidents from occurring,” said Pooja Kumari, a BA first-year student. “Why have the law-enforcement agencies not been able to prevent such incidents?”

Culture curry

On April 25, MEd and BEd students of St Xavier’s College of Education put up a cultural programme for the batch passing out.

A documentary on the batch, Golden Memories, set the nostalgic tone for the show, which began with a prayer service. The farewell song — “Nagme hain, shikwe hain…” — was the main attraction of the show; the farewell dance was also very popular.

Principal Father Thomas Perumalil, SJ, told the students to deliver their best after they graduate. “You should try to understand the emotion of every student in your class. Stick to your values and work towards creating a just society.”

Best essay writer

Sunny Kumar, a third-year student of Chanakya National Law University, on April 29 received the first prize in an essay competition conducted by the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment.

The ministry conducted the competition in September last year on the contribution of BR Ambedkar in the making of the Constitution. Students from various schools and colleges across the country had participated in the competition.

Sunny was adjudged the winner on April 25 and received Rs 1 lakh from the minister of state for social justice and empowerment, Porika Balram Naik, in New Delhi. The student said: “It is a great moment for me and my institute. The students from Bihar have once again proved that they are no less than their counterparts from other parts of the country.” Son of a farmer, Rajendra Prasad, Sunny studied at a government school in Gopalganj district.

New tech course

National Institute of Technology (NIT), Patna, is planning to introduce an MTech course in nano technology from the next academic session.

NIT-Patna director Ashok De said: “The institute is going to offer MTech course in nano science and technology from the next academic session and we are also planning to modernise the laboratory.”

The laboratory would have more computers. The institute also has plans to introduce MTech courses in chemistry and mathematics. The director said the new courses are being offered as they are in high demand.

The institute will revise the syllabus for a number of undergraduate courses from the next academic session. The syllabus will be revised after a gap of six years and will focus on industry inputs, communicative English, personality development and studies of new technological innovations.