Volunteers of the Rourkela Students’ Association undertake a Mobile Mini School campaign to educate slum children. (Above) Students of NIT, Rourkela, present a play during a theatre workshop organised at their institute. Pictures by Uttam Kumar Pal

Busy outside classrooms

Students of the personnel management and industrial relations department of Utkal University in Bhubaneswar carried out a campus cleaning drive last week by trimming overgrown grass and weeds on the university premises. “The dense bushes serve as hiding place for poisonous insects and reptiles and the unclean campus has also become a mosquito-breeding zone. It is our duty to keep the campus clean,” said Ranjan Kumar Sahoo, a student. The Telegraph had carried a report on October 13 on how the shabby campus made students feel unsafe. A similar cleaning drive was organised by Charu Karu Kala Mahavidyalaya, an art college in Balasore, as part of an NSS camp activity on October 30. The students spread the message of a clean and hygienic environment by cleaning roads and stressed on planting more trees to check global warming. “This is an initiative by our college to spread awareness about healthy, hygienic living by involving students in group activities,” said principal Nikunja Bihari Das. Another NSS camp-cum-workshop had been organised at Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College, Balasore, last week where the students cleaned their campus.

Debating skills

The 36th edition of the Borasambar-Senapati debate competition at Ravenshaw University in Cuttack was held on October 24. Aditi Bhattacharya, a B.Com final year student bagged the first prize and won Rs 5,000, in cash while Satyanarayan Parida, a postgraduate student of sociology was the runners-up and received Rs 3,000. The third position was shared by Rajeev Choudhury, a first year M.Com student and Srabani Nath, a Plus Three economics student. The duo won cash prizes of Rs 2,000 each. The topic for this year’s debate competition was “Rapid economic development is the best way to ensure amelioration of poverty”. The winner of the Borasambar-Senapati Debate is also awarded the Chancellor’s Cup, said Ravenshaw vice-chancellor Devdas Chhotray. On November 1, the university had organised a sitar recital session by Pandit Pushparaj Kohli, an eminent sitar and surbahar player, who is a leading exponent of the dhrupad style.

Students of the personnel management and industrial relations department of Utkal University undertake a campus cleaning drive in Bhubaneswar. (Above) Participants at the ongoing spoken English course at BJB (Autonomous) College, Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Uttam Kumar Pal and Telegraph picture

Theatre and more

A week-long theatre workshop was organised by the literary and cultural society of National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, to educate students about the intricacies of theatre such as acting, expressions, dialogue delivery, stage utilisation, production and direction. Here, three groups with 10 students in each enacted plays on social issues. The resource person for the workshop was Sarat Das, actor-cum-director of a local theatre group, Pratidhwani. In another event, joint secretary of the state higher education department Anirudha Rout visited S.G. Women (Junior) College, Rourkela, on October 29 and interacted with the students and the teachers. He urged the students to pursue higher studies and brush up their English speaking and writing skills. The Rourkela Students’ Association had organised a “Mobile Mini School” campaign at various slums of the Steel City to encourage children to study and enrol themselves in schools.

Quiz time

Dharohar-2011, a national-level quiz contest for engineering students on the country’s art, culture and heritage was held on October 30. The team from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, emerged champions. Jointly organised by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach), Bhubaneswar chapter, and the Siksha 'O' Anusandhan University in Bhubaneswar, the contest saw 158 teams participating from engineering colleges across the country. Six qualified for the finals. The champion duo, Debjit Roy and Pranshuman Singh scored 165 points while Abinash Sahu and Ankit Patnaik of Institute of Technical Education and Research, Bhubaneswar, finished second with 130 points. The team of Amit Bikram Kanungo and Satyajit Gahana from Synergy Institute of Engineering and Technology, Dhenkanal, won the third spot with 108 points. The winners took away a cash prize of Rs 50,000 while the first runner-up and second runner-up received Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000 respectively. Former Indian diplomat Abasar Beuria gave away the prizes.

Spoken English

The District Employment Exchange, Khurda, in collaboration with BJB (Autonomous) College in Bhubaneswar has organised a spoken English course for undergraduate students that began last week. Initiated by Shine Group, a private organisation in Cuttack, the course will continue for four months. Around 30 students of the college are attending hour-long classes once a week. The participants have been divided into groups of five, each under a resource person from Shine Group. They are asked to speak about themselves, write two articles daily and play various games to improve their flexibility and concentration levels.

Web designing

Final year students of Institute of Technical Education and Research, Bhubaneswar, conducted a workshop on web designing for their juniors and classmates on October 23. The event was organised by the institute’s art and craft club, Srishti. The resource person for this workshop was Sidhant Rath of the electrical branch. The participants were introduced to a web browser called Opera by the college’s ‘Opera Street Team’, a part of the Opera Software ASA’s (Norway) educational programme. The team was led by students Abhradita Sen, Sujit Kumar Hota and Pratyush Rath. Later, a quiz competition on web awareness was also conducted.

Banking notes

The Institute of Management and Information Science, Bhubaneswar, is conducting a series of lectures on banking, which will continue till November 16. Leading bankers from various public and private sector banks as well as foreign banks are visiting the campus to address the students on several issues related to banking. Director of the institute, K.C. Padhy said the “Banking Lecture Series-2011” was inaugurated by Praveen Gupta, chief general manager of the State Bank of India — Orissa circle, who answered queries of students aspiring to take up banking as a career. “Our students are mostly recruited by banks and the lectures would provide a lot of information to them about the current events and the challenges in the banking sector in India,” said H.K. Pattnaik, director-general of the institute.

SHILPI SAMPAD AND SIBDAS KUNDU