Chief minister Naveen Patnaik attends the Golden Jubilee Celebration of Nayagarh Autonomous College. Telegraph picture

Time to rebuild

The public relation officer of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), Parameswar Bhagat, was in Balangir on January 2 to take stock of the outfit’s re-organisation in the district. He said: “Congress has began a drive to end the interference of non-students in campus politics. Henceforth, there will be no nominations. All district unit chiefs will be appointed through elections.” Bhagat said as per AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s order Students’ Congress was being re-organised in all the districts. “Preparation for the forthcoming elections of Students’ Congress is going on smoothly in all districts of Orissa. This will help capable and qualified students to lead others. The voter list will be prepared subject to verification. If the students are regular students, their voter identity card and college identity cards will be prepared by January 10. Thereafter, the date of election will be decided. Polls will be conducted after the final voter list is prepared. There will be separate representations at the college, university and district levels. Moreover four students will represent the state at the national level,” he said. Bhagat said such democratic reformation on the part of the Congress would leave no scope for the non-students to interfere in the campus politics.

Annual meet

Singing sensation Sniti Mishra is felicitated by legendary Oriya singer Prafulla Kar at Institute of Management and Information Science in Bhubaneswar and (above) Guests attend the 35th annual conference of Orissa Botanical Society at Christ College in Cuttack. Telegraph pictures

The 35th annual conference of Orissa Botanical Society was organised under the auspices of the Botany Department of Christ College on December 29 and 30. The Orissa Botanical Society, a premier association of botanists, was established in 1975. Since then, the organisation and its members have been actively engaged in research and teaching in various fields of plant science throughout the state. The conference provided a platform for scientists, researchers, academicians and students to share their ideas and findings for promotion of plant science and research. An UGC-sponsored national seminar was also held on “Plant resource assessment and conservation under changing environment” to highlight the rapid and erratic changes taking place in the environment and resultant threat to plants. Speakers at the seminar said there had been unprecedented changes in the climatic conditions due to deforestation, environmental pollution, illegal mining, construction and other anthropogenic activities in the last decade in the state. Recent assessment of plants by Foundation for Re-vitalisation of Local Health Tradition (FRLHT), Bangalore, revealed that 41 endemic medicinal plants found in the state had already found a place in the rare, endangered and threatened (RET) list. Hence, there was a need to develop new strategies for accurate assessment and conservation of plant resources at all levels, they said. Debi Prasad Ray, vice-chancellor of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), inaugurated the conference while Sudhendu Mandal of Viswa Bharati, Shantiniketan, was the chief speaker. About 500 eminent scientists, researchers, lecturers, delegates and students attended the conference in which a research journal recording the proceedings of the seminar and a souvenir was also released.

Student felicitated

The Institute of Management and Information Science (IMIS), Bhubaneswar, felicitated Sniti Mishra, one of the top seven contestants on Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Singing Super Star - 2010 on December 30 at the institute. Sniti, who hails from Balangir, is at present a student of IMIS and is pursuing her post-graduation diploma in management (finance and control). Sniti, who holds the degree of Sangeet Visharad in Hindustani vocals from Gandharva Institute in Pune won the hearts of many across the country with her melodious voice and had also bagged the Most Remarkable Voice award on the show. She was one of the members of singer Daler Mehndi’s team “Yaara Di Toli”. The chief guest at the function and legendary Oriya singer, Prafulla Kar, felicitated Sniti. The audience gave a huge round of applause as the confident and poised singer received the award. The host at the function gave an account of the memorable events of Sniti’s stint in the show. The host announced that Sniti had been felicitated by Bollywood heartthrob Hritik Roshan and was also congratulated by the maestro of Indian music A.R. Rahman for her uniqueness. Others present on the occasion were director general H.K. Pattnaik, advisor K.K. Beuria, and director K.C. Padhi (all from IMIS).

MoU signed

Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) University and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), Orissa agreed on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a Centre for Children’s Studies at KIIT. As per the agreement, both parties will work jointly to strengthen the existing systems to promote strategic knowledge management and build a knowledge base on issues related to children and women in the state with a focus on their social inclusion. Faculty members of various schools of KIIT University such as School of Rural Management, School of Bio- Technology, School of Law, School of Medicine and KISS will monitor the research work. To begin with, the project will focus on the 10,000-plus tribal students of Kalinga Institute of Social sciences (KISS). It will later percolate to other schools across the state. The agreement was signed by the founder of KIIT and KISS Achyuta Samanta and chief of the field office of Unicef, Orissa, Shairose Mawji, in the presence of KIIT vice-chancellor Ashok S. Kolaskar and registrar Sasmita Samanta.

New chancellor

Internationally reputed animal scientist Khageswar Pradhan took over as the chancellor of the Siksha O Anusandhan University, Bhubaneswar, on the first day of the New Year. Prof. Pradhan is a former vice-chancellor of the Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner and Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT). Well-known for his outstanding contribution in the field of animal nutrition and biochemistry, Pradhan has acquired academic excellence, scientific eminence and administrative competence in research and education for over four decades. He has also worked as the secretary of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences in New Delhi till 2002. Pradhan has published 188 original research papers in national and international journals so far and guided a large number of students for their Master and Doctoral degrees. His publications are often referred to by the US National Academy of Science and National Research Council in developing nutrient requirement standard of potassium for dairy animals. Pradhan was presented the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award, the highest research award instituted by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), Team Research Award of the ICAR, P Bhattacharya Memorial Award of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), Lifetime Achievement Award of the Animal Nutrition Society of India (ANSI) and Lifetime Achievement Award of the Indian Dairy Association (IDA). He was recently conferred with the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) by OUAT for his outstanding achievements in Science and Education.

Youth workshop

Bhanjabihar: A one-day workshop was organised by the post-graduate department of home science of Berhampur University in the Senate Hall of the Administrative Block on December 31. The workshop was conducted for the overall development of the youth. The inaugural session was presided over by Jayant Kumar Mohapatra, the vice-chancellor of the university. The chief guest for the session was David K Carson, department of psychology, Palm Beach Atlantic University, USA. Aparajita Chowdhury made introductory remarks and Puspanjali Samantary, head, department of home science, introduced the theme of discussion. Arundhati Rath presented the vote of thanks. In the inaugural session, Carson presented his views regarding the economic systems prevailing in the global arena. He emphasised the role of India and China as emerging economic powerhouses. Carson spoke about the challenges that the youths faced due to human behavioural changes. His presentation also dealt with adolescence and early adulthood. He drew a comparison between identity crisis and role confusion among the youth. The afternoon session was followed by a panel discussion where students and faculty members had an interactive participation.