Psychedelic lights, catchy country melodies and energy-packed performance defined the star night at Kolosseum, the annual B-fest of KIIT School of Management, Bhubaneswar. Famed Bollywood singer Sona Mohapatra set the stage on fire with composer-husband Ram Sampath, who is best known for his music for Delhi Belly and Talaash. Belting out one popular number after another, the duo was in complete sync and mesmerised the crowd. Sona, dressed in a red gown, occasionally balanced the rich folk and Indie songs with a pinch of some funk and popular music.

This star-studded night was preceded by a host of business, cultural and literary events. A flash mob at a popular mall was organised in the build up to the fest, which had the theme “Rise from the Ashes”. More than 500 participants from over 30 colleges across the country attended the two-day event. A rock band show by Dhwani and Ingridientz, and a fashion show titled The Resurrections were the major draw.

An audio-visual B-Quiz was conducted by Avinash Mudaliar, co-founder and former head of Gaana.com, which has conducted more than 700 quizzes. Many other activities such as Re-animation (ad video making), LiTE (photography presentation), followed by the E-haat, a management version of a Sunday marketplace to test the managerial and entrepreneurial skills of students were held. A workshop on social entrepreneurship, followed by Back on Stage (choreography), and games such as Counter Strike and NFS also featured in the event.

Quiz champs

nA team from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, won the regional finals of the Mahindra Auto Quiz, billed as the country’s biggest automotive quiz for students, which was hosted by the SoA University on November 23. The champion team, which edged past NIT-Rourkela, qualified for the national finals in New Delhi on December 19.

Around 300 engineering students from the eastern states participated in the finals held at the Institute of Technical Education of Research, the faculty of engineering of the university. The contesting teams included those from the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, and the College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar. The XIMB team, comprising Debidutta Acharya and Sayed Mohammed Atif, won the regional title defeating Nishant Nihar and Sampad Mishra of NIT, Rourkela. The quizmaster was Sourav Mukherjee of Mumbai.

The winners of the national finals would get a free trip to the Geneva Motor Show and the first runner-up would be entitled to an all expense paid trip to the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix.

Material talk

nThe department of basic sciences at the Hi-Tech Institute of Technology, Khurda, recently organised a national seminar on advances in special materials. Speakers from leading educational and research institutes took part in the event and discussed fundamentals of new advances, explored new technologies being developed across the globe. Researchers, representatives from metallurgical industry, exporters and end users participated in the seminar.

Director (research and development) of the institute R.S. Rohella said special science engineering was an inter-disciplinary field with interesting application potential.

“With development of revolutionary technologies with plastics, semiconductors and bio-materials, the seminar threw lights on the recent development and make people aware on their importance,” he said. The seminar facilitated interaction between the research and development laboratories and industry experts together to identify potential opportunity areas for research. New-age technologies and new materials were on focus.

Survival key

nKIIT School of Rural Management, Bhubaneswar, organised its 7th foundation day lecture on November 20. Addressing the gathering, Parmesh Shah, lead rural development specialist of World Bank, Washington, highlighted emerging models of entrepreneurial agriculture, self-help groups in delivery of health services and small-scale enterprise model for delivery of rural energy through solar devices.

He said neither government organisations nor private sector had given enough attention to promote entrepreneurship in rural areas. He urged authorities to start an incubator and help students become social entrepreneurs to support small and marginal farmers and rural poor.

A research compendium, a collection of field research done by rural management students across India for various organisations working at the grass root level for sustainable rural development, as well as two working papers were released on the occasion.

Social justice

nThe National Law University of Odisha, Cuttack, organised the third Dinabandhu Memorial Lecture on November 24 titled “Challenges and Prospects of Legal Education in the 21st Century” in honour of the eminent legal personality. Former advocate general Jayant Das addressed students and faculty members and said getting a law degree from any law college recognised by the Bar Council should not be a sufficient criterion for legal practice. He said the real challenge was to reorient legal education by training law students in a multi-disciplinary approach “Legal education is yet to be socially engaged. Students of law should be sensitised to issues of social justice,” he said. Former high court judge P.K. Tripathy, university vice-chancellor V. Nagaraj and several other legal luminaries addressed the gathering.

Graduation day

nOn its ninth convocation ceremony on November 19, KIIT University conferred an honorary DLitt on the President of the Republic of Mauritius, Rajkeswur Purryag, who said the honour symbolised “unbreakable friendship” between India and the island nation.

“Our people have special attachment with and profound respect for India as it’s the land of our ancestors,” said Purryag, whose grandfather had migrated to Mauritius from a village in Bihar to work as indentured labourer around 150 years ago. He also heaped praises on KIIT founder Achyuta Samanta for setting up the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, a free residential institute for 20,000 tribal students from kindergarten to post-graduation. On the occasion, 2,769 students of the 2012-13 batch received their degrees. Sarbajit Paul (BTech), Kanad Bagchi (BBA), Priya Rahul (MTech) and Arnab Ray (BTech) won Founder's Gold Medals for their outstanding all-round and academic performance. Similarly, eight students were awarded Chancellor's Gold Medal, while 16 students got Vice-Chancellor’s Silver Medal. The P.K. Bal Memorial Gold Medal, PPL Gold Medal and Nanibala Memorial Gold Medal were also given away during the ceremony. Thirteen research scholars were awarded PhD degrees.

The university also conferred honorary DSc and DLitt degrees on geneticist Oliver Smithies, a Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine-2007) and Sweden-based artist Pradyumna Kumar Mahanandia, respectively. The artist’s wife Ann-Charlotte Mahanandia received the honour on his behalf.

Ominous signs

nThe Central University of Odisha, Koraput, organised a two-day national seminar on “Climate Change and Biodiversity” on November 23 and 24. Acting dean of the varsity’s School of biodiversity and conservation of natural resources Sharat Palita presented the theme paper while vice-chancellor Surabhi Banerjee said biodiversity was depleting everywhere and there was an urgent need to work out meaningful conclusions and suggestions for maintaining climatic balance as well as management of bio-resources for the future.

On the occasion, 15 invited speakers from various universities and scientific organisations were felicitated for their contribution to biodiversity conservation and climate science. Seventy-four papers were presented during the seminar apart from 28 poster presentations. Academics, environmentalists, research scholars attended the event.

Management tips

n Managers should perceive themselves as a part of the total system and adopt a rational systemic approach to maintenance for an organisation to flourish, said K.C. Sahoo, a former professor of IIT, Kharagpur.

He was addressing the inaugural session of a two-day management development programme on maintenance engineering and management organised by the Institute of Business and Computer Studies, Bhubaneswar, on November 26.

Sahoo, who is now a professor emeritus at the Siksha O Anusandhan University, said there was need to develop a culture where everybody thought the work at hand was his job. Around 40 executives and managers from 26 well-known corporate organisations took part in the workshop.

University vice-chancellor R.P. Mohanty, associate professor at Sweden’s Lulea University of Technology Aditya Parida, and former managing director of Nilachal Ispat Nigam Satya Prakash Patnaik were the other resource persons in the workshop.