The station director of SOA community radio station Rusi Patnaik receives the award from Bimal Julka, information and broadcasting secretary, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi and (above) dignitaries at the two-day state consultation on Prevention of Child Marriage in Odisha at XIMB. Telegraph pictures

The Voice of SOA Community, the community radio station run by SOA University, won the top award for promoting local culture at the 4th Community Radio Sammelan held in New Delhi on March 14. Station director of the community radio station Rusi Pattnaik received the first prize for this category from Bimal Julka, information and broadcasting secretary, at an event held at the Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

The secretary and other dignitaries present on the occasion appreciated Voice of SOA Community’s venture in promoting the disappearing art of puppetry broadcast by the station. Pattnaik explained to the audience how the particular programme had been planned and executed. He dedicated the award to the resource person Suresh Balabantaray, who died recently. The Voice of SOA Community has been broadcasting programmes for creating awareness in a plethora of areas, including education, health care and moral values.

Law and logic

Growth and development should not be detrimental to our constitutional goals, rather they should be within our constitutional framework, said Justice A.K. Patnaik, a Supreme Court judge. Delivering a lecture on The Meaning of Growth and Development in Constitution at School of Law, KIIT University, on March 18, he emphasised on inclusive development.

Care should be taken not to overlook the Constitution in the name of growth and development, whether following capitalistic or socialistic models. “As a result rich people are becoming richer, while the poor are becoming even poorer. Further, our resources are also used only by a particular section of people for accumulation of wealth. Today, big corporate houses are influencing our economy, policy and decision making,” Patnaik said, adding that the law students could play an important role by convincing people that only fulfilment of the constitutional goals could lead to true growth and development.

Child and women rights

The Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights in collaboration with Unicef, Odisha organised a two-day state consultation on “Prevention of Child Marriage in Odisha” on March 13 and 14 at XIMB. The consultation saw participation from government departments, district child protection officers from areas with high incidence of child marriages, NGOs and CSO networks. Arti Ahuja, commissioner-cum-secretary of the state’s department of women and child development inaugurated the consultation. Commission chairperson Sruti Mohapatra, programme manager of Unicef Odisha Padmavathi Yedla, D.P. Chowdhary from the State Judicial Academy, Odisha and XIMB dean (administration) Father Augustine Vattamattam were present at the event.

The postgraduate department of Fakir Mohan University on the Balasore Law College campus organised a seminar on the laws for protection of women and children against sexual offences act last week. Several legal experts took part in the discussions, shared their knowledge and experiences with the participants.

Students of Hi-Tech Group of Educational Institutes, Bhubaneswar, pray for the missing MH 370 aircraft and (above) Ranjan Kumar Pradhan, former Odisha state basketball player and present sports officer of the SOA University, being awarded the FIBA-BFI Level-I Coaching Certificate with FIBA instructor Belson Isley. Telegraph pictures

Natural resources

Though natural resources are important for the progress of a nation and it is the human intelligence factor that greatly contributes for its development, said Suresh Chandra Mantri, a former bureaucrat, on March 13. He was speaking at the inauguration of “Convergence-2014”, a two-day annual extravaganza organised by the Institute of Business and Computer Studies, the B-School run by SOA University. Students from several other B-Schools and universities took part in the event. Song and dance performances, antakshari and business quiz also took place on the occasion.

A 14-day management development programme at International Management Institute, Bhubaneswar for senior executives of National Thermal Power Corporation Limited concluded on its campus last week.

In his inaugural speech, director-general of IMI Pritam Singh emphasised on acceleration of development of the people. He explained that excellence in any field was an endless journey. Institute director Ramesh Behl gave his welcome address and talked on the objectives of the programme exclusively designed for the senior executives of NTPC Ltd.

Internal security

A national seminar was organised by the Centre for Canadian Studies, Berhampur University on the topic “Challenges to Internal Security: An Indo-Canadian Perspective”. The Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, New Delhi, sponsored it. Former chief secretary Sudhansu Bhusan Mishra inaugurated the event.

Mishra, in his address, highlighted various dimensions of internal security challenges in India and suggested the way out to these challenges. Swadhinananda Patnaik, director of the Institute of Mathematics, Bhubaneswar, spoke on various interpretations of the concept of security from its historical perspective with general reference to India. Manipur home department’s special secretary Ratnakar Baral, who graced the function as the guest of honour, in his address, dealt with the security challenges in India with special reference to the northeastern states.

Berhampur University VC Deepak Kumar Behera, in his presidential address, analysed the problems of the indigenous community and laid emphasis on looking at the development needs and aspirations of tribal people to promote peace in the tribal-dominated areas. Above 100 delegates took part in this seminar.

Fun fest

Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology organised a Techno-cultural festival, “Aavahan -2K14”. The three-day festival was organised on the fully functional new campus of the institute. The festival, organised for the first time on the new campus, concluded on March 14.

Sambalpur University VC B.C. Barik attended the occasion as the chief guest on the inaugural day. The technical events included “Raspberry pi” workshop, line following robot, C-Quiz, type racer, essay writing and many more. Similarly, the cultural events included rangoli, solo song, solo dance, group dance, fashion show, band wars and so on. Students from various technical institutions took part in the festival.

Game and glory

A new sports complex built on the Fakir Mohan University campus was inaugurated last week. The complex built at a cost of Rs 60 lakh out of the UGC grant also contains facilities for indoor games as well as gym equipment. Former director of the Regional Research Institute, Bhubaneswar, Prafulla Kumar Jena, inaugurated it.

Fakir Mohan University VC Kumarbar Das said the facility was a long-standing requirement and the students could now avail themselves of the facilities for the sports of their choice. Ranjan Kumar Pradhan, former Odisha state basketball player and presently sports officer of SOA University, has been awarded the FIBA-BFI Level-I coaching certificate.

Pradhan was awarded the certificate after completing the course at the FIBA Coaches Clinic held in Ranchi recently under FIBA instructor Belson Isley. Pradhan represented the state at the junior level in 1989 and followed it up by playing for the senior team in 1992. He also represented Utkal University in the All-India Inter-University Basketball Championship for four years.

Prayers for passengers

Students and faculty members of the Hi-Tech Group of Educational Institutes, Bhubaneswar observed a prayer ceremony last week for the missing MH 370 aircraft.

In a religious congregation, people from various religions prayed for the safe return of 239 passengers of the Malaysian flight.

Compiled by Pratyush Patra