Director general of National Cadet Corps, Lt. General P.S. Bhalla, with cadets of the 1 (Orissa) Air Squadron in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Honing skills, raising awareness

The director general of National Cadet Corps Lt, General P. S. Bhalla, was on a three-day visit to Bhubaneswar last week. He visited the state's only air squadron at Palaspalli and took stock of the training activities. He interacted with about 50 cadets of the 1 (Orissa) Air Squadron and associate NCC officers. He enquired about the problems of the cadets and promised to resolve them soon. Wing commander, Bikash Kanungo briefed him on the “role of NCC in grooming the leaders of tomorrow and generating interest in defence and aviation-related fields”. Later in the day, Bhalla addressed cadets and staff members of the army, navy and air wing units at the Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) auditorium. In an inspiring address, he appealed to the youth of the nation to take up a career in armed forces. Presently, only one per cent of over 15 lakh NCC cadets from all over the country join defence services. “I will have to look for the remaining 99 per cent. The youth of the country are responsible for the nation's future. I want them to take up a career in armed forces and give back the nation what it has given to them,” he said. Earlier, he met chief minister Naveen Patnaik and governor M.C. Bhandare and announced the setting up of five more units in the Kalahandi-Balangir-Kendrapara region of the state. He also discussed about incentives and job opportunities for the cadets.

Trainees of Vidya Construction Skill Training Institute after the felicitation ceremony. (Right) A painting by Pradeepta Kishor Das, an ex-student of Balasore Art College Telegraph pictures

Seminar on AIDS

A seminar on AIDS awareness was organised by Youth Hostel Association of India, Rourkela unit, at Civic Centre, Rourkela, on June 25. More than 740 students from various schools and colleges across the state and Jharkhand participated in the seminar. Members of the medical and health services, Rourkela Steel Plant, addressed the gathering. In the introductory session, they spoke about the disease, symptoms, causes, diagnosis, prevention and myths associated with AIDS. This was followed by an interactive session where students put forth questions regarding AIDS.

Land resources

The Jagannath Institute of Technology and Management (JITM) +2 Science College, Balangir, in collaboration with Bharatiya Jgnyana Vignyana Samiti (BJGVS), hosted a regional workshop of district and regional coordinators of the National Children Science Congress (NCSC) recently. The theme was “Land resources used for prosperity: Save for posterity”. Around 100 participants from 12 districts of western Orissa took part in the event. Chairman of NCSC network, R.N. Ray inaugurated the workshop and emphasised on instilling a scientific temper among students. “This is an ideal platform to promote scientific temper among youngsters. It will help the regional and district coordinators to prepare students for science projects. The topic of use and abuse of land resources is very relevant in the present context,” Ray said. Noted soil chemist, Somanath Sahu, one of the resource persons of the workshop, said conservation of land, will lead to conservation of water. “The two are complementary to each other,” he said. Sahu cited several cases from Gujarat and Maharastra where people had taken up conservation of soil and had successfully conserved the water sources. It was a programme of the National Council of Science and Technology Communication of the department of science and technology, Government of India.

Art exhibition

An art exhibition was organised at the India Habitat Centre art gallery in Balasore from June 15 to 20 where Balasore Art College principal, Nikunja Behari Das, and ex-student, Pradeepta Kishor Das, showcased their talent on the theme 'Contrasting Expression'. Through acrylic on canvas, Nikunja Das displayed his creations on folk art, relationship of Radha and Krishna with a modern touch while Pradeepta Das presented surrealistic art based on abstract ideas. Of the nearly 30 collections in the gallery, 10 of both artists were exhibited and six, auctioned. Besides the two, other artists who took part here were Rohit Sharma from Delhi and George Martin from Goa. The exhibition was organised by the gallery curator, Kiran Mohan and Art Value. Kiran Walia, minister of health and family welfare, Delhi, inaugurated the event.

Felicitation

The second batch of trainees of Vidya-Construction Skill Training Institute was felicitated on June 22 upon completion of a three-month vocational training course in bar bending and masonry trade. They were presented with certificates of merit and placement offers. Aged between 18 and 35 years, the 32 trainees hail from various districts of the state. They are all school dropouts and were enrolled into the institute, which is a joint venture between Sri Sri University and a private company.

Canada visit

An educational summit recently held at Charleston University, Canada, initiated a roadmap for better cooperation, collaboration and exchange programme between universities, higher educational institutions and research organisations of India and Canada. “It was virtually a bilateral discussion between the executive heads of different universities of India and Canada who suggested unanimously forming a small committee to identify some areas of concern and give suggestion to work it out,” said Prof. Jayant Kumar Mohapatra, vice-chancellor of Berhampur University, who attended the four-day summit held at Charleston University in Canada from June 15 to 18. The main theme of discussion was mutual recognition of degrees of universities of Canada and India, along with student and teacher exchange programmes, fee structure and possibilities of subsidies, joint research and collaboration. Shilpi Sampad, Sibdas Kundu, Sunil Patnaik and Sudeep Guru