Total 96 candidates from the Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribe community in Bihar visualised their dream coming true on being inducted in to the seventh batch of Students' Guidance Centre, a social initiative of the Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna working for the uplift of weaker sections in society, coaching the candidates for admission in management institutions.

The guidance centre selects bright students from the SC/ST communities who aspire to admission in IIMs and other management institutes, and provides necessary coaching, counselling and personality development inputs, group discussions and inter-views for Common Admission Test and other management entrance examinations.

The inaugural programme, attended by all members of the CIMP community, was held in the auditorium at the institution on Wednesday. Delivering the inaugural address CIMP director V. Mukunda Das said: "Education is the biggest enabler and for a state like Bihar the key to progress lies in reaping its rich demographic dividend (of its people)."

Exhorting the new batch to be the agents of societal change, Das gave them the mantra of "Each One Teach One".

Emphasising that there is no dearth of merit among SC/ST youths in Bihar, he added that what was needed was identifying talent and lending the candidate the right exposure and the desired push.

A commerce graduate who was inducted into the Students' Guidance Centre said on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media: "After taking admission in the Students' Guidance Centre, I can think of clearing CAT and other management entrance tests."

In the past six batches, the guidance centre has trained 348 students from across the state. Of them, 50 students have received interview calls from IIMs, the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, CIMP, Indian Institute of Forest Management, etc, while another 81 got interview calls for various officer cadre positions such as bank probationary officer and senior LIC officer.

Population boom

On World Population Day on Tuesday, Patna Women's College held a panel discussion on "The consequence of population explosion by 2050 in India".

The geology department organised the panel discussion in which students put forth their presentations and were awarded, and head of department Shahla Yasmin moderated it.

Geology student Vaishali Gupta came first followed by Smriti Mishra and Pallavi Kumari in the second and third positions, respectively

Radhika, one of the students at the panel discussion, said: "The panel discussion was interesting as we come to know the views of the participants on population explosion - one of the biggest problems the country is going to face in the coming days."

The college, which is celebrating its platinum jubilee, has also set up scholarship fund for economically deprived but meritorious students in the institution.

The scholarship form for BA, BCom, BSc, vocational courses and MCA is out from July 10 and will be available till July 22 at the college's vocational office. Principal Sister Marie Jessie said: "Candidates must score above 60 per cent in the first and second year without failing in any paper and their family income should be less than Rs 2 lakh to win the scholarship."

Debate round

AN College on Tuesday organised the Satyendra Narayan Singh inter-college debate competition for students of different colleges under Patna University and Magadh University.

Participants had to debate on "Effect of social media on society" and "Can development of rural areas solve poverty problem in the hinterlands".

Anjani Kumar, who secured third prize in the social media topic, said: The government should be strict on social media spreading false news which disturbs the social harmony. In the past few years social media has also become a tool for attacking and tarnishing the image of an individual."

On the development topic, the students focused on strengthening rural areas so as to check the urban-rural divide. AN College principal S.P. Shahi inaugurated the debate and the participants were adjudged by social activist Prabhakar Kumar and AN College former faculty member Shailendra Mishra.

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