A unit of the government recently awarded British Lingua, a coaching institute in Patna, in recognition of its efforts to equip Dalit and Mahadalit youths with spoken English skills.

The training institute, which works in collaboration with the state government, set a goal to improve English communication skills and lifestyle of its target audience. The results are showing slowly.

Somesh Bahadur Mathur, the sub-divisional officer of Vaishali, handed the Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Service Award to the institute on behalf of Vikas Mitra Sangh.

The organisation is a union of the government’s vikas mitras who work for development schemes meant for Dalits and Mahadalits.

Receiving the award for British Lingua, Ranjan Pathak said it was a privilege for them to work towards improving the lifestyle of the people alongside the state government.

Managing director of British Lingua Birbal Jha — pivotal in advancing the cause of spoken English skills in the state —also thanked the Mahadalit Vikas Mission at the ceremony.

The mission had entrusted British Lingua with the spoken English skills training programme for Mahadalits and Scheduled Caste youths in different districts of Bihar three years ago.

Vaishali sub-divisional officer Mathur said: “British Lingua deserves all the accolades for its noble service to this marginalised section of society. Without bringing the Mahadalit and Scheduled Caste youths into the mainstream of society, the community’s all-round development cannot be possible.”

Results out

Central University of Bihar released results of the second- and fourth-semester examinations last week. Controller of examinations C.L. Prabhavathi said the results of integrated undergraduate, postgraduate and integrated MPhil-PhD programmes have been published on www.cub.ac.in, the university’s website.

The examinations were conducted between May 9 and 15.

Among the other activities keeping the students busy are summer internships. Public relations officer of the university Mohammad Mudassir Alam said the second-semester students are right now engaged in their summer internships and would be till July 13.

Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Banaras Hindu University, Jamia Hamdard, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Defence Research and Development Organisation, and Doordarshan are among the institutes where the students are involved.

Academic high

Nine students from Central University of Bihar’s Centre for Biological Sciences have been awarded the CSIR-Junior Research Fellowship (CSIR-JRF) and qualified for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE).

The head of Centre for Biological Sciences, Rizwanul Haque, said seven students — Anumeha, Riddhi Prabha and Jayvardhan Kumar from the department of life science and Parmajeet Prabhakar, Vandana Kumari, Pritam Kumar and Shikha from the department of biotechnology have qualified for GATE.

Swati Gupta and Puja Mourya from the biotechnology department have cleared the CSIR-JRF.

Fun with maths

Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, organised a mini mathematics and training search programme on June 9 at campus. It will continue for two weeks.

IIT-Patna director A.K. Bhowmick said at the inauguration the programme, a summer training event, has been running in different IITs since 1993.

“The programme is aimed at promoting mathematical thinking among young minds and making mathematics exciting,” he said.

Also present at the event were vice-chancellor of Veer Kunwar Singh University Mohammad Azhar Hussain.

“Teachers from IIT-Kanpur, the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, Shiv Nadar University (in Uttar Pradesh) and University of Gour Banga (Malda) are deliberating on topics in basic mathematics. The participants are first being given problems related to basic mathematics to solve and then asked to develop a theorem based on the questions given to them,” said Om Prakash, faculty member, IIT-Patna.

Prakash, also the programme co-ordinator of Bihar-Jharkhand, added: “This is the first time that the programme has been organised for two weeks. Usually it goes on for a month. Ten students from Bihar, five from Jharkhand, four each from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, three each from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, two from Uttarakhand and one each from Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Kerala, are participating in the event.”

Korean tongue

A three-member team from King Sejong Institute, South Korea, came visiting to the National Institute of Technology, Patna, on June 9.

The institute was launched in 2005 to provide Korean learners and teachers an integrated study and information service. It is named after Sejong, the fourth king of the Joseon dynasty who created the Hangul, the Korean alphabet, in 1446.

The team visited NIT-Patna to see the facilities at the Korean language centre developed in collaboration with the institution.

NIT-Patna director said: “The Korean language centre is running at the institute for the past seven years. It has been doing very well. The team from King Sejong Institute spoke to the students at the centre. Students are not only taught Korean at the centre but also acquainted with the culture. At present, 102 Korean language centres are running in 50 countries. All of them work under the King Sejong Institute. It aims to produce many masters of the Korean language through their centre.”

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