Boarders of the Central University of Odisha’s boys’ hostel organised a Swachhata Abhiyan on cleanliness and sanitation drive as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

The drive was organised to make the campus clean, green and plastic free. The boys cleaned the entire surroundings of the hostel to create a positive ambience. The group removed grass and trimmed overgrown bushes in the open spaces around the hostels and the grounds. They also removed polythene bags from the surrounding areas.

Almost 200 boarders took part in the drive. Varsity vice-chancellor Sachidananda Mohanty inaugurated the programme and talked to the boarders and members of hostel staff about the significance of cleanliness and sanitation in daily life. In his address, the vice-chancellor highlighted the importance of the programme and said the Swachhata Abhiyan would continue throughout the year.

HR conclave

Sri Sri University’s Faculty of Management Studies recently hosted its annual HR conclave - “Manavdhan 2020: Future Demystified”. The conclave began with the lighting of the inaugural lamp in presence of several prominent industry leaders and the university. Partha Sarathi Mishra, Tata Steel’s vice-president, HR, SubhenduDash, OSCL’s vice-president, HR, took part in discussions about the emerging areas in human resources. The students presented papers on topics such as “Gamification and Psycholinguistics in HR” and “HR Analytics”. The presentation was followed by a panel discussion on “Redefining Culture of Talent Management” and “Millennial Workforce” by the guest speakers. The winners of the paper presentation were awarded cash prizes. Debrup Datta, Manan Sachdeva and Akash Vishwakarma were awarded the gold, silver and bronze medals respectively for their papers. The conclave concluded with a cultural programme.

Bio-tech centre

The health care technology has undergone a revolution in the past decade and the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan University here is focusing on the establishment of a Centre for Bio-mechanical Engineering. Vice-chancellor Amit Banerjee said: “We plan to set up this facility for intense research. The university already has an inter-disciplinary research council.” Banerjee was speaking at the inauguration of a two-day national seminar on “Advanced and Innovative echnology for Transforming Healthcare” at the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan University. The seminar, sponsored by the department of science and technology, attracted a galaxy of researchers and academics from across the country. The speakers said health care technology had been advancing over the past few years aiming to ensure cost-effective, accurate, less invasive and faster devices and the seminar would demonstrate the impact of integration of medical science and engineering for better health care.

Start-up tips

The entrepreneurship development cell of Asian School of Business Management organised a three-day Entrepreneurship Awareness Camp in collaboration with National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, the Union government’s ministry of science and technology and Ahmedabad’s Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India. The inaugural ceremony was  followed by interactive sessions and workshops targeting innovations in entrepreneurial venture. The workshops and discussions were attended by subject experts and entrepreneurs. Over 200 students from different B-schools took part in the event. The school’s director Biswajeet Pattanayak said an innovative idea was more important than money. Infoways president Jayashree Mohanty was the chief guest and he laid emphasis on the role of technology and communication in entrepreneurial ventures.  

Hindi Divas

The Dhenkanal centre of Indian Institute of Mass Communication recently celebrated Hindi Divas with great fervour and enthusiasm. Eminent Hindi voice artist, actor and writer Mohan Majithia graced the occasion as chief guest.  Majithia addressed the students and urged them to uphold the status of Hindi language and to work to widen its reach and increase its pervasiveness. He also talked about the major issues that Hindi language was facing and narrated tales about the different attitudes of people from different clusters of India towards the language.

Agri seminar

Ravenshaw University’s department of economics organised a seminar on agricultural risks faced by farmers in the state on September 20. The seminar highlighted the ground realities and issues in agriculture production relevant in the state’s present climatic conditions. Being an agriculture-dominated state, the farmers’ community in Odisha is now facing severe problems because of floods, drought and natural calamities. Addressing the students, Sasmita Patnaik stressed the need of agricultural or crop insurance to mitigate the risks. She said the existing schemes for crop insurance needed wider publicity and awareness among farmers so that they could get the benefits of such schemes in the wake of natural calamities.

Kalaripayattu

National Institute of Techology’s students activity centre organised a six-day dance workshop from September 6 to 12. During the first three days, the participants were introduced to Kalaripayattu, an ancient dance form of Kerala considered a precursor to martial arts. Kalaripayattu is said to have influenced many martial art forms, including kung fu.  Sumon Rudra, a self-taught dancer who later honed his skills, and is also the founder of Mavericks, an all-styles dance club at NIT, Rourkela, demonstrated the dance form. After graduating in 2012, he has been pursuing dance as a career in various countries.

At present, Rudra is settled in Greece where he works as a choreographer and teacher at Atkina Dance School, under the Greek ministry of culture. The entire space of the student activity centre was adequately furnished to suit the needs of the participants. There were several trained as well as aspiring dancers who attended the workshop.

The participants were introduced to the first level of Kalaripayattu, which included the basic warm-up routine, eight animal postures, leg swings and the salutation (Kalarivandanam).

Anwesha Ambaly