IIT-Bhubaneswar celebrated its eighth edition of Alma Fiesta, a three-day annual socio-cultural festival, recently. The social welfare society of IIT, Bhubaneswar, Souls for Solace, organised a children’s festival on Janaury 13. About 27 children with disabilities and about 100 children from government schools took part in art, music and solo and group dance competitions held during the festival. Social activist Sruti Mohapatra was the chief guest. Manisha Priyadarshini, who danced on a wheelchair and Sarthak Diwedi, an autistic performer, were conferred special awards.
Service to nation
The Bhubaneswar chapter of Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, organised a youth interaction programme called “Love India Serve India” recently. National vice-president of Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, Kumari Nivedita Bhide, shared her thoughts on the subject. An interactive session followed where students from various departments of the university took part. Woollen garments were distributed among the street dwellers during the night.
Food for thought
A three-day literature festival, Advaita, was held on the IIIT-Bhubaneswar campus for the first time from January 13 to 15. The festival aimed to promote book reading, debates, essay writing, poetry and games amongst students. Head of English department of BJB College Sailendra NarayanTripathy and author of fiction novel Breaking Free Neha Nayak interacted with the students during the event.
Innovative ideas
A national management conclave called "Business, Innovation and Sustainability" was conducted at National Institute of Technology, Rourkela recently. Srinivas Subbarao of Sri Sri University shared his experience as an entrepreneur and educator.
He said there could be no invention without innovation. He said industries and entrepreneurs have to either innovate or perish. The two-day conclave was organised by the school of management at the NIT where industry leaders, businessmen and academia spoke on the topic.
Hindi day
Hindi Divas was celebrated in the postgraduate department of Hindi in the Sambalpur University. A meeting was organised during the occasion, which was attended by all varsity students. Vice-chancellor of the university C.R. Tripathy and registrar of the Odisha State Open University Jayanta Sharma spoke about the relevance and importance of Hindi literature on the occasion.
Youth power
Director of Integrated Test Range, B.K. Das, while addressing students on the 8th convocation ceremony at the Fakir Mohan University, said India had vast strength of youth power that could take the country to new heights. The vice-chancellor of the university, Siba Prasad Adhikary, while mentioning about the activities of various departments, said more departments would be opened in the varsity. Director of higher education department Nihar Ranjan Pattnaik and registrar of the university Gananath Dash also addressed the students. Around 68 research scholars were conferred PhD degrees and 56 students were felicitated with gold medals.
Students’ meet
Students of communication and management unit of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Calcutta, visited Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal, along with their principal Subir Ghosh. They attended lectures and took part in practical exercises. A monograph, History of PR, written by Ghosh was released on the occasion. He also presented the photocopy of New Zealand's first newspaper to the media museum of the institute. Kaushik Roy, a faculty member of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, also presented a copy of his book on Odissi dancer Sharmila Biswas to the institute's library.
Sports event
The annual sports event of Ispat Autonomous College, Rourkela, concluded recently. The two-day event had multidisciplinary events, such as athletics, games and fun competitions. Anil Ram, a faculty of English department, won the hundred-metre race and Bijayini Subhadarshini, a lecturer in physics, won the hundred-metre speed walk.
Protest called off
Students of College of Fisheries in Berhampur have withdrawn their agitation after nine days. They alleged that their practical examination was not evaluated properly and demanded action against the faculty members.
They suspended their agitation because of the upcoming semester examination but have threatened that they might resort to agitation again and move the court if the authorities remained silent.
The students have discussed the issue with the registrar and the vice-chancellor of the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar. But, college director Shyama Kumari Mishra remained tight-lipped on the issue.
