Innholdsfortegnelse for July 6, 2020 i India Today

Last week, we just completed three months of what is arguably the most significant event of our collective lifetime—an unprecedented nationwide lockdown meant to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. These twin developments will have consequences far beyond the already evident economic downturn. A June 2020 UNICEF report warns that the lives and futures of children across South Asia are being torn apart by the COVID-19 crisis. Young adults may be less susceptible to the virus itself, but they could be profoundly affected by its fallout. Nowhere is this more evident than in education. Teaching and examination schedules have been disrupted, and the academic calendar will now begin in September. Cities like Mumbai and Delhi, which account for the largest concentration of our educational institutions, are the most affected…

With nearly 50,000 institutes for higher education, this 24th annual edition of India Today Group’s ranking of colleges in India intends to make critical career decisions easier for aspirants, based on rich information and data. This ranking has come to be known as the gold standard for other stakeholders such as recruiters, parents, alumni, policy-makers, the general public and institutions. This year’s survey was conducted in association with reputed Delhi-based market research agency Marketing & Development Research Associates (MDRA) between November 2019 and June 2020. Colleges were ranked across 14 streams—arts, science, commerce, medical, dental, engineering, architecture, law, mass communication, hotel management, BBA, BCA, social work and fashion design. During objective ranking, MDRA carefully attuned 112-plus performance indicators in each stream to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons of…

Three new things done in the past three years ✪ We have upgraded the infrastructure through self-financing mode, with contributions from philanthropists and alumni ✪ The projects include a state-of-the-art girls’ hostel, expansion of the new academic block and a dedicated centre for interdisciplinary research ✪ The fully air-conditioned college auditorium has also been renovated Three things the college plans to do in the future ✪ We aim to promote a culture of research among our undergraduate students, start value-added courses in applied areas and go for more international collaborations What Hindu College does differently ✪ Hindu College has a liberal academic environment that encourages healthy academic debates and helps students develop their analytical and critical thinking skills ✪ We have invested in innovative interdisciplinary research projects wherein students are…

Three new things done in the past three years ✪ Value-added courses since August 2018 such as ‘Business Analytics using R (a programming language for statistical analysis and data mining)’ in collaboration with BSE Institute Limited, ‘Data Analytics using R’ in collaboration with Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in 2019 and ‘Accountancy Star (A-Star) Programme’ in collaboration with CIMA-AICPA in 2020. These short-term courses were launched in collaboration with specialised industry partners to fill in curriculum gaps ✪ Signed MoU with Indian Corporate Law Service Academy, Manesar, under which faculty members of SRCC will design and administer training modules for new recruits of Indian Corporate Law Service. A similar MoU has been signed between SRCC and RBI under which our faculty members will conduct a training programme for Grade…

Three things you have done in the past three years ✪ Development of the accessibility guidelines for Indian Railways ✪ Establishing a dedicated lab infrastructure with labs focusing on inclusive design, civic design, industrial design, spatial planning, virtual reality, energy in buildings and urban dynamics ✪ Organising the 53rd annual global conference of the Architectural Science Association, held for the first time in India in 2019 New initiatives planned for the future ✪ Advancing universal accessibility and inclusion for Indian cities at the national level in partnership with the National Institute of Urban Affairs ✪ Reframing the department’s ecosystem to meet future academic and research needs by considering both national and global priorities ✪ Targeted research focused on rural, periurban and small towns for their independent growth, particularly after the…

"WE ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO EXPLORE AND INNOVATE IN WHATEVER THEY WISH TO DO" Three changes made in the past three years ✪ The university migrated to online learning in Oct 2019 ✪ The process of shortlisting PhD candidates has been streamlined; now, we offer eight spots but everyone gets a fellowship and personalised mentoring ✪ Distance-learning programmes have been revamped. These are no longer mere pen and paper programmes but have been expanded to include alumni lectures and hybrid learning methods (between reading and taught classes) Three new initiatives planned for the future  ✪ We hope to increase our undergraduate seats from 80 to 120 if the executive council approves of it this year ✪ Early discussions are on with partner universities in Bengaluru for collaborative academic programmes ✪ There…

Three things done in the past three years ✪ We have improved the infrastructure with facilities such as an in-house ERP (enterprise resource planning) system and networked IT ✪ Revised the curriculum; added short-term courses on Data Analytics for Business, Fintech and Digital Marketing; SSCBS became the first Delhi University college to offer an industry-linked PG Diploma in Cyber Security and Law ✪ Strengthened industry interface Three things planned for the future ✪ There will be new specialisations at the undergraduate and master’s levels, including a five-year integrated programme in management ✪ These programmes would see collaborations with foreign universities ✪ Will engage our faculty members with corporates through linkages and consulting services Three emerging trends in BBA education ✪ Innovative learning: Flipped classrooms have got us more opportunities to…

Bengali filmmaker Aneek Chaudhuri is a fan of the ingenious narratives emerging out of Malayalam cinema. “They have discovered a way to integrate mainstream and parallel cinema,” says Chaudhuri, citing films like Premam (2015), Kumbalangi Nights (2019), Jallikattu(2019),Android Kunjappan Version 5.25 (2019), Chola (2019) and Trance (2020). Describing the craft of actors like Fahadh Faasil, Nivin Pauly and Soubin Shahir, he adds, “Greatness is an understatement.” When it came to making his first spoken word feature after three silent ones, Chaudhuri picked Malayalam over his mother tongue. He wrote the story in English and got it translated to Malayalam. Set in Kerala but shot entirely in Kolkata, Katti Nrittam (Knife Dance) was part of the Cannes Film Market, held virtually for the first time, from June 22 to 26. Inspiration…

Q. Bulbbul marks your original streaming debut... I have been offered around 80 OTT projects. Of them, only 10 made it to the scripting stage. I dismissed 50 after hearing the log line. You can smell a shoddy project from a mile away. I have only said yes to another series and have a generous guest appearance in another one. Q. So what convinced you to do Bulbbul? I have always used five parameters to decide if I do a film or not—the story, the character I’m playing, if the character drives the story, who my co-actors are, and who the director is. With a first-time director you can’t be sure, so I look for vision and passion. Anvita Dutt had both. Q. You may come across as a snob…

The spread of COVID-19 has perhaps been the single-most disruptive development in the history of mankind since World War II. The impact has been disastrous in many ways, particularly in the way people learn, work and socialise. From the world coming together to become a global village, people are now pulling away, both literally and otherwise. The fear of proximity is what is forcing parents and boards to argue in the courts whether there should be a board examination—the make-or-break score for which is the ticket for a student to find admission in a reputed college. The disruption is evident. By this time, the 10+2 board results should have been out. Colleges should have released their cut-off lists. Instead, the academic calendar is in limbo. Colleges are now expected to…

DR SHRUTI GOEL Founder and principal dentist, Veda Dentistry and Cosmetology; BDS (2011), MDS (2015), senior residency (2018), from MAIDS “The amount of clinical exposure, mentorship, materials and equipment we got at MAIDS was incredible. My core values of providing excellent care to patients, life-long learning and adopting current technology and materials is based on what I learnt at MAIDS. I'm proud of my alma mater and grateful to it for everything” ₹ 1,56,012 Average course fee of top 10 government colleges ₹ 2,002,679 Average course fee of top 10 private colleges…

Three new things done in the institute in the past three years One of our student surveys noted that everyone wants to be an entrepreneur at IIT Delhi. In the past three years, over 16 unicorns have come from the campus. An immersion programme has started under which students are sent to villages and hospitals to see and understand real-world problems and connect with society. This is optional for them and they get non-graded units (NGUs) for this. We have modified our minor degree programme in entrepreneurship. Last year, in 2019, for the faculty, two research-based programmes were started and they get funding from the institute. For PhD students and faculty, research solutions for multidisciplinary initiatives and major initiatives include FIDP (Faculty Induction & Development Programme) where two faculty members…

Three new things done in the past three years ✪ Added short-term courses, like multi-cuisine cooking ✪ Undertaken initiatives, like ‘Think Responsible Act, Sustainable Project’, for sustainability practices ✪ Won appreciation for ‘Feed the Planet Programme’ for reducing plate waste Three new things planned for the future ✪ A tourism awareness programme for rickshaw-pullers and people working as coolies and taxi-drivers near Delhi’s Red Fort area. ✪ A webinar series on getting to know the ingredients and cuisines of Delhi and Sikkim ✪ Plans to take learning content online to prepare for any other eventuality like Covid Three emerging trends in hotel management education ✪ Student-teacher interaction for classes—especially theoretical, conceptual and on management—on virtual platforms ✪ Incorporating the use of emerging technique of ‘computational gastronomy’ to make blueprints of…

PAROMITA GOSWAMI MSW, 1995 Founder and President, Community Organisation, Shramik Elgar; member, AAP’s Maharashtra committee “TISS gave me a set of values which pushed me to think of the vulnerable and disadvantaged, as well as the faculty of critical enquiry and the confidence to ask questions and seek solutions. At TISS, I learned that it’s not enough to be theoretical in our approach—we must also be committed to field work and seek out meaningful ways in which to make a change. The two-year course makes students look deeper within themselves, at our own privileges and biases, especially while working in the field”…

Three things done in the past three years ✪ Keeping in view the shift in industry and technology, we revamped the curriculum in 2017. Students get to study majors and minors in subjects such as management and technology. Now, artificial intelligence, block chain technology, machine learning and data learning are also taught. Moreover, undergraduate students of fashion design can now study couture design. They can, in fact, choose to become a fashion designer, costume designer or a stylist. ✪ The institute has also introduced courses such as mind management, personality development, understanding food as an inspiration for fashion, and ceramics ✪ Last year, we signed a memorandum of understanding with Shahi Exports to set up a research chair in our department of fashion technology in the area of apparel industry…

KCR’s Rao Revival Beginning June 28, Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is pulling out all the stops to celebrate the birth centenary year of former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. The Congress has all but forgotten the tallest leader to emerge from the region. KCR has constituted a committee led by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi secretary-general and Rajya Sabha member Dr K. Keshava Rao, and including a son and daughter of PVN. Doing so “for a man with such extraordinary qualities who was also a freedom fighter, educationist and a literary figure”, KCR said, “is an honour for the entire state”. Events are to be held through the centennial year in 2021. Bouncing Back Defence secretary Ajay Kumar tested positive for COVID-19 on June 4 and was home…

ARTS (1998-2020) LOYOLA COLLEGE, Chennai ST STEPHEN’S COLLEGE, Delhi SCIENCE (1998-2020) ST STEPHEN’S COLLEGE, Delhi COMMERCE (1998-2020) SHRI RAM COLLEGE OF COMMERCE, Delhi MEDICINE (1999-2020) ALL INDIA INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES, New Delhi CHRISTIAN MEDICAL COLLEGE, Vellore ARMED FORCES MEDICAL COLLEGE, Pune ENGINEERING (1998-2020) INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Kanpur INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Kharagpur LAW (2000-2020) NATIONAL LAW SCHOOL OF INDIA UNIVERSITY, Bengaluru ILS LAW COLLEGE, Pune *St Stephen’s College did not participate in 2017…

HARDEEP S. PURI Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Housing & Urban Affairs and Civil Aviation BA (Hons) & MA in History (1968-1973) “I cherish my time at the college where I participated in debating and served as the ‘prime minister’ of the ‘Hindu College parliament’. Hindu College’s focus on knowledge is backed by opportunities that help students gain real-world application experience. The institution prepared me for my career as a teacher, civil servant and, now, a public servant” DR APARNA MATHUR Senior Economist, Council of Economic Advisers, The White House BA (Hons) in Economics (1993-96) “I remember the hard work put in by our dedicated faculty. The economics I learned then laid the foundation for my career. I also recall the fun days as a ‘fresher’, the afternoons spent…

Three changes made in the past three years ✪ In 2019, we initiated skill training as a part of the undergraduate curriculum. The faculty identified and developed training modules for skills considered essential for MBBS students. This was undertaken in the SET (Skills, e-learning and Telemedicine) facility at the institute, which aims to modernise medical education. ✪ AIIMS has identified various specialities for new academic programmes (DM/MCh/ Fellowship)—infectious diseases, bone marrow transplant, minimal access surgery, paediatric oncology, paediatric gastroenterology, paediatric pulmonology, rheumatology, arthroplasty, arthroscopy, foetal medicine, reproductive medicine and urogynaecology, to name a few. ✪ As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, starting in March 2020, physical classes for undergraduate students were suspended and online teaching using the SARAL platform and web-streaming became widely used. Till date, 2,189 users have…

Three new things done in the past three years ✪ Added four PG seats this year and 10 undergraduate seats last year ✪ Since March 25, all classes for undergraduate and postgraduate students and all examinations have been conducted online ✪ Last year, the college started a tissue bank, the only one of its kind in a dental institute in India. We procure tissues and bones from the orthopaedic department and then provide grafts to various streams of medical sciences. Three new things for the future ✪ We want to start a centre for differently-abled patients. Students will be trained on how to conduct certain dental procedures on those with disabilities, particularly for those with mental health issues. ✪ Opening of a 12-storey new building with more facilities for practical…

“My time at NLSIU Bengaluru was truly extraordinary, above all for the peer group that one encountered. The institution, like all great institutions, captured what it meant to learn from one’s friends and classmates, how one could grow amid a brilliant and special student community. With the peers that one had, one not only learned to think like a lawyer, but more fundamentally, how to think”…

Three things done in the past three years ✪ On November 15, 2018, the ministry of human resource development issued a letter of intent for the conversion of IIMC into ‘Deemed to be University’, subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions within a period of three years. Work is on towards fulfilling those conditions. ✪ Three master’s programmes in health communications, new media communication and media and communication governance in IIMC Delhi; a master’s programme in folk media communication in IIMC Dhenkanal; and a master’s programme in community media in IIMC Kottayam, are set to be launched. Five departments have been notified, and the syllabuses for three of the five courses have been finalised. ✪ The institute is in the process of filling up vacancies for professors, associate professors and…

Three things done in the past three years ✪ Global etiquette modules, leadership development and self-esteem modules have been introduced in all programmes ✪ Machine learning and python programming language are now being taught at the undergraduate level ✪ Students have access to an advanced online education tools to enhance their knowledge and excel in academics. Students even have the option of writing their examinations remotely. Three things planned for the future ✪ Enhance research-related work and encourage students to publish reports in journals indexed by Scopus and Web of Science Indexes ✪ Increase scope for PhD research ✪ A fast-track programme for BCA students—placement offered in the sixth semester to enable them to take up a major industry project through stipend model while they study through remote access. This…

“THE CORONAVIRUS HAS CAUSED A REORGANISATION OF FIELDWORK AND RESEARCH AND LED TO AN ENGAGEMENT WITH RELATED SOCIOECONOMIC ISSUES” Three changes made in the past three years ✪ A global partnership was established with the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, Stockholm, which makes School of Social Work one of the 11 Right Livelihood Colleges RLCs) across the globe. RLCs are an interactive link between academia and civil society organisations and activists. An RLC institution also has affiliate membership status with the UNESCObased International Association of Universities (IAU). ✪ The overall programme credits were reduced from 83 to 78. This was done to address overlaps in the curriculum and give students more time to engage in curricular and co-curricular pursuits outside the classroom ✪ In the wake of COVID -19, end-of-semester assessments…

Most serious film buffs know something special has been happening in Malayalam cinema in recent years. The wave has been driven by the auteurist visions of directors and producers like Lijo Jose Pellissery and Aashiq Abu, and stories that provide charming, ground-level views of a milieu without sacrificing big-picture commentary. Here are some favourites from the past five years. Ottaal (2014, Netflix) This visually stunning, heart-breaking work is an adaptation of the Chekhov short story Vanka, about an unhappy little boy writing a letter. However, the source text is almost incidental, because this film’s beating heart is the terrain in which it unfolds: the Kuttanad backwaters where an eight-year-old minds ducks with his grandfather. The many beautiful images—a boat rowing across a breath-taking network of canals, a “nameless dog” running…

In Reena Mohan’s 1992 documentary about Kamlabai Gokhale, there’s a moment when the remarkably lively nonagenarian actor remembers Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema, whose 1913 mythological Mohini Bhasmasur made Gokhale one of the first Indian women to appear on screen. Her gaze settles contentedly on an image she has clearly held in her mind for nearly 80 years. “Black sherwani, pagri on his head, spectacles,” she says. “He was like someone in a Ravi Varma painting. It made you happy to see him.” Raja Ravi Varma may well be the only Indian artist to have achieved such instant recall, and retained it for a century and a half. Born in 1848 into a family close to the Travancore royals, he was already a household name in Gokhale’s turn-of-the-century…

Women in India: Unheard Stories This is a marvellously thoughtful response to the skewed coverage of women in the media. Online exhibits range from “Inspirational Firsts’ like Dr Rakhmabai, the first practising woman doctor in India, to present-day women scientists; from depictions of the female body in Indian temple art, to stories about women artists. Crafted in India Created in collaboration with the Dastkari Haat Samiti and others, ‘Crafted in India’ is a rare virtual engagement with the variety of artisanal skills that still survive in India. With videos that take you from a wood-carving town in Uttar Pradesh to an Assamese organisation making paper from rhino and elephant dung, this is the best kind of travel, and not just in Covid times. Indian Railways The brilliant Indian Railways exhibit…

After hunkering down for three months, the major football leagues around Europe have emerged blinking into the sunlight, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes to find that everyone’s disappeared. The stadiums are empty, but we, outside Europe, watch the games as we always did—on TV, knowing that we’re both part of the problem and the solution. The marketing behemoth of European football is the English Premier League, which returned on June 17 and will be showing a game every single day for several weeks. The Premier League commands the biggest global TV audiences and its teams are supported, often fanatically, from as far afield as Lagos and Bengaluru, Bangkok and Riyadh. Only Real Madrid and Barcelona, in Spain, enjoy the global fame of even teams such Arsenal, Chelsea and…

In the post-Covid finish to the Premier League season, expect to see a match on TV every night for the next several weeks. And, if you’re still not sated, UEFA has announced that the Champions League will be concluded in a made-for-TV special. All the quarterfinals, semifinals and final will be played in Lisbon, in a World Cup-style tournament, beginning August 12, starring eight of Europe’s best teams. No doubt the ratings bonanza will make a virtue out of a necessity. And given that travel restrictions will likely persist well into the new season, could this format become the new normal?…