The women’s volleyball team of XIMB that participated in the institute’s annual sports meet. Telegraph picture

Tech-savvy minds from across the country congregated at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela, during the three-day annual fest, Nitrutsav’13, which concluded on Sunday. Though the fest featured a variety of events, the one that garnered a lot of attention was the fashion show. Participants from different colleges strutted the ramp with poise, donning cool avatars that were accentuated by thematic costumes and props. Team “Envogue You” of Institute of Technical Education and Research, Bhubaneswar, was declared winner followed by “Shutter Souls” of Silicon Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar. NIT-Rourkela’s Fusion bagged the third spot. There was more fun in store at Pronite on the final day. Stand-up comedian Rajkumar Javkar aka Raja put up a rib-tickling ventriloquism show with his puppet monkey, Rancho. The night ended with a performance by Guwahati-based music band, M-Sonic.

Vroom ahead

A team of 23 students of KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, have designed an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) that would be seen scorching the racing circuit during the Mahindra and Mahindra Baja SAE-India 2013, a national-level competition for mechanical engineering students, in Madhya Pradesh. The four-day racing event being organised by the Society of Automotive Engineers, India, will be held at National Automotive Test Tracks in Pithampur of Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh, from February 14. While KIIT provided manufacturing facilities and funds to fashion the ATV, the students assembled, designed and analysed the project entirely on the basis of what they learnt in classes. Team KIIT got selected for theprestigious competition out of 300 Teams from engineering colleges all over India.

Creative explosion

International Management Institute, Bhubaneswar, celebrated its annual festival, Phronesis, with a host of academic and cultural events in which students from various institutes of Bhubaneswar took part. Dance, music and fashion shows occupied centrestage with dignitaries like Japanese-Odissi dancer, Masaka Ono, Odissi dance guru Gauri Shankar Dash, fashion designer Dolly Parekh, dancer Sunita Brown, Nalco executive director (HR), P.C. Panigrahi and e-Kutir CEO, K.C. Mishra attending various sessions. Rock band Vighnaaz performed on the concluding day.

Sports fest

Athlos, the annual sporting extravaganza of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB), ended on a note of success for the hosts as they emerged champions. Institute of Management Technology, Nagpur, besides winning the runners-up title, bagged top honours in volleyball, badminton, table tennis and women’s basketball. The three-day event also saw an exhibition contest in badminton between the best shuttler from the winning team Lakshay, and the crowd’s favourite Raunak Sarkar from Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management. The games culminated with a prize-giving ceremony, where XIMB dean (administration) Father P.D. Thomas gave away the trophies and other prizes.

Bowled out

Delhi University beat KIIT University of Bhubaneswar by five wickets to win the KIIT Premier League-2013, an inter-university T20 cricket extravaganza, which concluded on February 10. The hosts, who won the toss and elected to bat, put up 118 runs which the Delhi team chased in 15 overs with five wickets to spare. They walked away with a Rs 2-lakh cash award. Ankit Dabas of the winning side won the man of the match as well as man of the series titles. KIIT’s Jigni Singde and Debi Prasad Acharya won the best fielder and best wicket keeper awards, respectively. The hosts got Rs 1.5 lakh as prize money. While Andhra University bagged the second runners-up position and Rs 25,000, SRM University, Chennai, finished fourth to win Rs 10,000. Many other awards were also given.

IT skills

A five-day national workshop on mobile web application was organised at the College of Engineering and Technology (CET), Bhubaneswar, from February 5 to 9 to train teaching faculty and research scholars in improving their knowledge in current practice in IT and communication technology. The programme was sponsored by the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme of Government of India, which has provided World Bank assistance to only this college of Odisha for quality teaching.

Business talk

The Asian School of Business Management (ASBM), Bhubaneswar, recently conducted a seminar on “Inclusive Growth: Need to Rethink the Business Models” as part of its International Management Convention-’13. The convention included four technical sessions in which around 40 research scholars presented their papers on various themes. Director of IIM-Ranchi, Prof M. J. Xavier, who was the chief guest, said: “Management education in India is an exclusive model but not an inclusive one. Management students should show more urge and take part in social responsibility issues.” ASBM director Biswajeet Pattanayak said India’s growth is pegged at only 4.5 per cent in 2012, which indicates that it is set to cede the moniker of the world’s second fastest growing major economy. Hence, sustainable business models are required to achieve inclusive growth.

Agri potential

A national seminar on “Agri Business Potential in Odisha” was held at Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, on February 9, which was organised by the Centre for Agri Management under the business administration department. The seminar also witnessed participation of a host of academicians, policy makers, researchers and industry leaders, who shared their thoughts on how the face of agriculture is changing in Odisha. The speakers emphasised on the role of agriculture in Odisha’s economic development. The seminar was organised as part of the series of activities that the Centre for Agri-Management is undertaking under the umbrella “Agri4Odisha”.