The Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, (XIMB) community members are meeting in major cities across the country this summer. Sanidhya - the annual alumni meet conducted by the alumni committee of XIMB is celebrating its legacy in a grand way.

Sanidhya will provide the alumni an opportunity to meet old friends and reminisce their memories. This year, Sanidhya kick-started in Hyderabad and Chennai on April 25. The Bhubaneswar chapter of Sanidhya will be organised later in August. The faculty members and current students of XIMB also attended the event . The current students will also get an opportunity to understand the industry expectations. Such meets play an important role in the alignment of the institute curriculum with the industry. As a unique initiative, aspirants who have been selected for admission in XIMB in the next academic session are also invited to the event. This meeting will help in building and strengthening the bond between the different batches.

Annual function

The annual function of the students' union of Abhin Chandra Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital was organised on Wednesday at the Amar Singh Auditorium of the college in Kharavela Nagar. The event began with the distribution of fruits to indoor patients and was followed by garlanding the statue of Samuel Hahnemann on the campus. The function was inaugurated at 10am. The health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak attended the event. He motivated the students and highlighted the growing popularity of homeopathic treatment in the state. He mentioned about the contribution of the college towards creating better doctors and helping in providing good treatment facilities. Students who had performed well in their academics as well as extra-curricular activities were awarded. A large numbers of former students and faculties also gathered at the event. In the evening, many cultural programmes were held. Veteran Odia actor and sitting MP of Berhampur, Siddhant Mohapatra was the cynosure of the event.

Accreditation

A team of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) visited the Ispat Autonomous College in Rourkela earlier this month.

The three-day visit of the team concluded on Wednesday. The team comprised Mohammad Akbar Ali Khan, chairman of the team, who is also the former vice-chancellor of Telangana University. The other members of the NAAC team were A.K. Dixit from Allahabad University and Anil S. Dinge from Goa University. The three-member team undertook a tour of the college and got a first-hand impression of the infrastructure. The team especially interacted with the parents and students and took stock of the situation and their expectations. The students presented a colourful performance for the team. The visit was co-ordinated by Prabhat Mallick from the department of history. The visit came to an end with an exit meeting with the entire staff members.

UGC pay scale

The Ravenshaw University Teachers' Association (RUTA) will wear black badges from May 1 to protest against non-implementation of the UGC pay scale and other disparities by the state government.

The decision was taken in support of the Federation of Odisha University Teachers' Association (FOUTA) to press for various demands, including revision of the pay scale. RUTA officials said despite UGC revising pay guidelines, the state government was in no mood to implement it. As a result, the teachers have not been promoted under the career advancement scheme as the pay rules are yet to be notified.

The teachers though said they would not restrain from teaching, sources indicated that the symbolic protest might affect the work of the university.

Campus jobs

Students of Berhampur-based National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) have achieved outstanding placements in core companies during the recruitment drive for the year 2014-15. Over 35 companies visited the campus. Out of these firms, more than 20 companies are from core sectors . Core companies are more engineering oriented and are preferred by the students who want to make their careers in non-IT set-ups. This is in addition to the IT companies who have hired a large number of students from NIST. Infosys hired 160 students while Wipro Technologies took 130 students. The NIST placement board has achieved 82 per cent success for the graduating batch of 2015.

Grand farewell

The school of professional studies of Dhaneswar Rao Institute of Engineering and Management Studies (DRIEMS) organised a grand farewell - Amantrya 2015 - on April 20. The first and second year students of BBA and other management streams and other departments such as bachelor in computer application bid farewell to their seniors. A number of cultural programmess such as group and dance and Oriya comedy drama were performed by the students. The juniors put in their best performance to entertain their seniors while the outgoing students also joined in to make it more colourful.

Energy conference

A national conference on 'Recent Advances in Renewable Energy Control' was organised at the Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Burla, last week. It was organised by the department of electrical engineering and electrical and electronics engineering. The two-day conference brought together scholars, researchers, leading professionals and industry experts and provided them with the platform to exchange and share their experiences and research activities. Researcher and scientists from NIT, Rourkela, IIT, Bhubaneswar, NIT, Raipur participated in it. Around 32 papers were presented. Representatives from the government and public owned firms such as OPTCL, GRIDCO, OPGC, SAIL, MCL, and private firms such as L&T, Shyam Metalics, Jindal Steel and Power Limited and Hindalco also took part in the conference.