Professor Sandeep Sancheti assumes office as President of AIU

The Vice Chancellor of SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST), Prof. Sandeep Sancheti has assumed the office of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) as the 97th President, according to an official statement.

Established in 1925 and initially known as the Inter-University Board of India, the AIU has at present in excess of 720 members represented by Vice Chancellors. Seen as the representative of all Universities of India, the AIU facilitates coordination and mutual consultation among Universities as well as acting as a liaison with Central and State governments. The AIU, besides promoting academic excellence nationally and internationally is also a body that is very much involved in cultural and sporting activities in higher education domain.

Prof. Sancheti, known as an institution builder, before joining SRMIST as its Vice Chancellor, served as President Manipal University Jaipur, Founder Director National Institute of Technology Delhi, Director NITK Surathkal and Director In-charge of NIT Tiruchirapally, NIT Calicut, School of Planning & Architecture (SPA) Delhi and also Mentor Director of newly established NIT Goa, NIT Puducherry and NIT Sikkim.

Youth4work makes use of Digital India Campaign helping students and Institutes

India holds a unique positioning on the global map for Education Sector. The country is estimated to have more than 1.4 million schools, with over 227 million students. More than 36,000 graduation and post-graduation institutes offering professional and non professional courses await students passing out from these schools every year. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, Youth4work is a unique skill and talent assessment platform that helps the students to choose the college or institute that could offer a boost to their careers, a company statement said.

“Admission seekers, while making decisions consider many aspects about the institutes. In fact parents, family and friends of the aspirants also play an important role in influencing the decision,” Rachit Jain, CEO & Founder, Youth4work said. While short-listing the institute things like fees, learning environment, faculty, campus placements, are of major considerations.

Higher education, with 59.7 % of the total market size, is becoming the focus of the US$ 100 billion worth Indian education economy. With their digital footprints, institutes can attract and guide the aspirants. However, there exists a communication gap between the aspirants and the institutes – probably an Education Networking platform that empowers both entities to interact with each other. The youth are eager to connect with their probable future alma mater!

Jain further added that students look for moving to different and bigger cities to pursue their dream course. Youth4work is a platform where students can log in to study and analyze the various colleges. Queries regarding important aspects of Admission process, Curriculum, Placements etc. are being answered by the alumni as well as institute officials on Youth4work.

Digital India campaign envisions to enable everyone online. Youth4work is one such startup catering to the aforementioned needs. “With profiles of 7300+ institutes generated by over 8 lakh users, Youth4work’s intelligent platform technology is solving the networking problem. It is letting the users connect and communicate with the existing students and administrative officials from the institutes,” he added.

Moreover, Youth4work is empowering the students and faculty members of the institute to share their study materials online, one of its kinds in India. Institutes are finding it easier to interact with their prospective students using such technology. By communicating the details about the curriculum with the aspirants, admission cells are attracting the interested students.

With the increasing internet penetration and smart phone usage in India, there’s a need for more platforms like Youth4work that benefit both Students and Institutes, by addressing their current needs and aiding them in making smart decisions for their education.

Youth4work is an exciting and innovative talent ecosystem with a vision – To be the one & only preferred Personal Space for each and every youngster to introspect and self actualize his/her own skills. The primary focus being – to prepare and aid Youth in their career journey, i.e. from the start of their graduation till 5-6 years of work experience. Our core offering is varied and active Talent Communities of users. These user communities span across the domains – IT & Non-IT engineering, Sales & Marketing, Finance, Retail, HR, Design & Creativity and many more. Intelligent assessment and global ranking algorithms help users to ‘Identify and Showcase’ their talents, whereas a variety of skill courses and competitive practice materials help Youth to learn and improve their talents.

Youth4work aims to be the leader of a billion dollar burgeoning talent marketplace. With over .8 Million user base (growing exponentially) tested and ranked on their perceived talents, 7300+ educational institute profiles, 10,000+ employers advertising more than 30000 jobs, practice tests for 210+ competitive exams, 500+ skill certification courses, veritably speaking, Youth4work promises to positively impact the talent ecosystem in the contemporary world – including talent development, talent assessment and talent sourcing. For details, visit kb.youth4work.com/about-youth4work-817f5dba554e#.xk97mo6mw.

BNI in India is all set to impact more entrepreneurs with networking platform

Sunil Sethia, Executive Director, CBD B Region of BNI India announced the celebration of International Networking Week in Chennai from February 4-28, 2016. Through this initiative BNI CBD B region is aimed at creating positive impact among the business owners and entrepreneurs through the world famous BNI networking platform. This way CBD B region in BNI India will be contributing in helping and encouraging healthy business environment towards the India’s Entrepreneur year 2016, according to a statement issued by BNI.

Sethia said: “Through International Networking Week, the CBD B region will recognize the need of the hour and importance of networking in the development and growth of the business and development of our country.”

The BNI CBD B region members meet weekly in India. Members are encouraged to introduce local members to their chapter during this International Networking Week. This initiative is expected to bring positive impact in the lives of entrepreneurs and business owners who are looking for solutions to get business support in today’s dynamic business environment.

The CBD B region will also be sharing International Networking Week video presented by BNI Founder and Chairman, Dr. Ivan Misner among the members. This video captures the value and power of networking among business community.

BNI CBD B Region, headquartered in Chennai emerged as one of the top 3 regions in the world by BNI in 2014 – 2015. This proves that BNI CBD B region has collectively emerged as the winner as the largest business networking organization in the world, competing with 60 countries across the globe. BNI is being a global networking platform consists of 60 member countries having 7,300 chapters comprising of 1, 80,000+ members with overall business done amounted to $ 9.3 billion. In India BNI is present in 22 cities, comprising of 222 chapters with 10,000+ members.

BNI Contact: H.Ajeeth @ +91 8754445068, ajeeth.ssaa@gmail.com
9 Halls Road, 2nd flr, Egmore, Chennai 600008
Media Contact: Ranjne @ Info@fcfu.co, 98410 13359

JNU organises discussion on Maithili and Mithila

In continuance of the highly acclaimed tradition of debate and discussion in the university campus, JNU Mithila Manch (JMM) organised a talk on the topic of “Growth and Development of Maithili and Mithila and its contribution to the world”. it was held at Mahi-Mandavi hostel mess in the intervening night of November 20-21, 2015. The esteemed speakers included prof. Ramnath Jha, professor, special centre for sanskrit studies, JNU; Prof. Sushant Mishra, Associate professor, School of language, literature and cultural studies, JNU; Dr. Gautam Jha, Assistant professor, school of language, literature and cultural studies, JNU. The purpose of this talk was to introduce the rich intellectual, philosophical and cultural heritage of Mithila to the students of the JNU.

Initiating the discussion prof Ramnath Jha, a vedic scholar, traced the lineage of the dominant traditions of our ancient philosophy including nyaya, samkhya, mimansa and all to the soil of Mithila region. “The intellectual precursors of the basic traditions of famous ‘khada-darshana’ like yagnvalkya, gautam, vachaspati, mandan, pakshdar, kumaril bhatt and all were born in this pious region. How deeply rabindranath tagore was influenced with mahakavi vidyapati which also turned into debate that to where-Bengal or mithila-vidyapati belongs to.”

This debate, he argued, is settled now consensually that vidyapati was from mithila. While discussing contemporary influence of Maithil vedic philosophy he argued that almost all the global concerns like terrorism, environmentalism, feminism etc can be solved with the wisdom given by maithil vedic scholars. Shri Sushant Mihsra enlightened the audience with the interesting notion of existence of different cultural forms prevailing across the mithila region. He also mentioned that how subal tern discourse- which is still emerging in the world-was already flourishing in mithila region in the form of different folklores of Dina-Bhadari, Raja Salhesh, valour stories of Alha-Udal and many others. besides, he also put forth a detailed discussion on a highly advance form of feminist writing prevalent in local tradition of Madhushravani katha and many other forms of textual writings.

Dr Gautam Jha, the last speaker, added another flavour in the discussion by comparing the cultural landscape of Indonesia and mithila. He showed resemblance with many of the local folk traditions of mithila and that of the islands of Bali, Java, Sumatra and Borneo. He told that many of our grand mother or nani-maa stories have the same plot and the protagonists as their Indonesian counterparts have.

According to him, Ramayana and kathputli (puppet) dance is the most recurrent theme in both the cultural traditions. However, he expressed his concern with the declining trend of both this art forms in mithila region and India as well. The event was attended by 70-80 students who hailed from different states of India, though the majority was that of maithili speakers and sympathisers. The enthusiastic audiences kept asking relevant questions while willing speakers quenched their intellectual curiosity till midnight. Apart from this, the issue of how maithili language and culture should be promoted was also raised by concerned students. The participant students seemed contended with the responses once it was over.

The thanking note was given by Jay Chandra Akela, President, JNU Mithila Manch. He along with the speakers committed with resolve that such type of indispensable events should be organized with large scale and on regular intervals.

IIT Madras celebrates first ever AlumNite

IIT Madras celebrated its first-ever ‘AlumNite’, a variant of the traditional ‘Alumni Day’, intended to welcome the newest graduates into the alumni fold. This year’s program was designed like an Awards Show with a focus on, awards, prizes, Chairs and cultural performances by the outgoing graduate students, according to a media statement.

As Prof. Nagarajan, Dean, International & Alumni Relations sees it, “There is a need to continuously innovate in the way we reach out to our alumni, and connect them with our students and faculty. Given the tremendous advances in our alumni outreach activities, this is also an occasion to step back and celebrate”.

The evening commenced with IIT Madras’ alum and Infosys co-Founder, Kris Gopalakrishnan announcing the launch of the 3rd ‘Distinguished Chair in Computational Brain Research’, the last of the three Chairs sponsored by him at IIT Madras with an endowment of Rs. 10 crores each.  The 3rd Chair endowed during “AlumNite” has Prof. Anand Raghunathan (Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA) as the fist occupant. Prof. Raghunathan will spend a year at IIT Madras on sabbatical leave from Purdue University. These Chairs have been created for the institute to focus on computing aspects, architecture & model of the brain including the memory/ processor relationship and neuromorphic computing. The first Chair was endowed in December 2014 as the “Prof. Mahabala Distinguished Chair in Computational Brain Research” and has since been occupied by Dr. Partha Mitra (Cold Spring Harbor Lab, New York, USA). The 2nd Chair was endowed in April 2015 as the “NR Narayana Murthy Distinguished Chair in Computational Brain Research” and has since been occupied by Prof. Mriganka Sur (MIT, Cambridge, USA).

This was followed by the conferral of “Distinguished Alumnus Award 2015” to Prof. R. Srikant, Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois, USA (B.Tech, Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras – 1985). The award was conferred in recognition of Prof. Srikant’s fundamental and sustained contributions to a broad swathe of topical problems in networking. He was elected a Fellow of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) in 2006, and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE/ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Transactions in Networking.

Next came the announcements by last year’s reunion batches (64-65, 70, 74, 84, 89) and this year’s (66, 75, 90, 95) regarding their organisational and fund-raising status and outlook. Interspersed by a string of delightful and heartwarming performances by the graduating batch, the evening ended with various alumni-funded prizes being distributed to IIT-M faculty and students, including two awards conferred by the IIT Madras Alumni Association- for Outstanding Service to the Institute (Prof. A Veeraragavan), and for Outstanding Service to Alumni (Prof. LS Ganesh)

Global Academy of Automotive Retail Excellence focuses on bridging gap between trained manpower requirement

The Global Academy of Automotive Retail Excellence (GAARE) has pioneered its highly industry specific skills development programme in automotive retail focused at bridging the gap between trained manpower requirement and exponential growth that the automobile industry will witness in future.

Skill development

With high emphasis on employability, GAARE gives utmost importance to promoting ‘Skills Development’. It also promises a 100% job placement to all the enrolled candidates with big names in automobile dealerships. The state of the art institute set up in Pune, Maharashtra is equipped with modern classrooms and a full-fledged library to provide students with all the knowledge they need. The students are trained in fundamental automotive technology including the latest features to ensure proficient product knowledge. The institute comprises of a team of passionate, highly competent and experienced faculty with more than 20 years of experience.

Atul Bapat, Chairman, GAARE said: “The automobile sector is experiencing a huge gap in the need of trained manpower and the growth of the sector. At GAARE, we aim to fulfil the expectations of both the automotive dealers as well as our students. We have state-of-the-art facilities and an innovative and pedagogic approach, like role plays, case studies, highly interactive sessions, and videos to ensure a proper mix of theory and practical training. I am confident that this program will induct highly skilled and specialised manpower from within the country that will deliver customer services at international standards.”

The first batch of the six months Advanced Diploma in Automotive Retail Sales will commence from mid-July 2015. The curriculum comprises of subjects that ensure overall development of job ready professional sales consultants, ready to be placed at reputed automobile dealerships in India and abroad.

The six subjects are:

• Automotive Technology
• Persuasive Communication
• The Art of Selling
• Personality Development
• Customer Relationship Management
• Sales Business Management

“Customer satisfaction is becoming the focal point of every organisation. Hence more and more dealerships consistently strive to engage expert, knowledgeable, motivated, and professional sales staff. GAARE provides an excellent learning environment to enrich the students to understand the intricacies of automobile selling through structured methodologies and extensive role-plays”, added Bapat.
About Global Academy of Automotive Retail Excellence -GAARE:
The Global Academy of Automotive Retail Excellence (GAARE) is a pioneering institute offering highly focused skills development program in the automotive retail industry. The academy aims to bridge the gap between trained manpower requirement and exponential growth of the automobile industry in the future.
Backed by experts with extensive automotive industry experience, GAARE gives utmost importance to promoting skill development. The course offered at GAARE has been designed keeping in mind the conceptual clarity as well as the practical know-how required in the automotive retail environment.

Ahvaz International Science Film Festival: Aruna Vasudev wins Life Time Achievement Award

The first Ahvaz International Science Film Festival conferred its first Life Time Achievement Award to Aruna Vasudev for her untiring efforts on promotion of Asian cinema through Network for Promotion of Asian (NETPAC) since 1990.

Aruna is a renowned figure among Iranian film industry insiders as well as film lovers in Iran, who is known as Mother of Asian Cinema. Aruna acted as the President of International Jury of Ahvaz Festival and her award, including Festival Trophy and a piece of gold necklace, made by internationally-known goldsmiths of Ahvaz, was handed over by international star of Iranian cinema, Simin (Fatemeh) Motamed Aria, at closing ceremony on February 27, 2015.

The first Ahvaz International Science Film Festival, organised by Shahid Chamran University, took place from February 22-27 in Khouzestan, south-west of Iran and the programme included more than 200 films from around the world at 15 movie theaters in city of Ahvaz. All the Festival Awards were named after Iranian ancient science and literature celebrities like ‘Rumi’, ‘Al-Razi’, ‘Al-Farabi’ and ‘Kharazmi’.

Aruna Vasudevis also the founder and Editor of Cinemaya, and of Cinefan Festival of Asian cinema, continues to be the President of NETPAC International as well as of NETPAC India and is the Director of The Inner Path Festival.

JSLH organise discourse on potentialities of Liberal Arts Education in Delhi

Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities (JSLH), under the aegis of OP Jindal Global University on March 13 organised a discourse on ‘The Arts of the Possible: Here, There and Everywhere with Humanities’ in new Delhi.

Distinguished speakers shared thier life and work experiences at a panel discussion, and confabulated on the freewheeling nature of their ventures. The assemblage of speakers included Ashutosh, Aam Aadmi Party politician and former journalist, Shefali Misra, Aam Aadmi Party leader, Jaishree Misra, popular author, Karthika V.K., Chief Editor, HarperCollins Publishers India, Sakhshi Mahajan, Art Curator, Simi Srivastava, famous Storyteller and Sachin Sahani, radio jockey, sculptor and photographer.
Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities (JSLH) Dean, Kathleen Modrowski, said, “The university aspires to be a place open to new ideas where students and the community in general are exposed to diverse ways of being in the world. The time an individual spends learning is an act of self-realization. Exploring the Arts of the Possible has the ambition of creating a forum where people- each successful in their own right and passionate about what they do – can share their experiences with young people who are on their own paths of discovery.”
The vibrant evening dedicated to the idea of liberal arts and humanities brought together activists, politicians, writers, journalists, editors, designers, corporate entrepreneurs, storytellers, musicians, restaurateurs, culinary artists, art gallerists and professionals from various walks of life. The speakers introduced audiences to the larger vision of contributing to society through one’s work while maintaining a sustainable life with creative passions. The event was organized on the campus of OP Jindal Global University and was open to all students from the university.
Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities (JSLH) is India’s first transnational humanities school. JSLH’s mission is to establish a center for interdisciplinary learning in India that will create world-class thinkers, leaders, creative entrepreneurs and innovators. The four-year undergraduate degree programme offered by JSLH in liberal arts and humanities in collaboration with Rollins College, Florida, is a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary course which provides students an opportunity to study at one of the leading colleges in USA. The world-class faculties at JSLH include distinguished scholars educated or trained at universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Columbia and Chicago. JSLH is led by the dean of the school and eminent educator, Kathleen Modrowski. OP Jindal Global University (JGU) is a non-profit global university established by the Haryana Private Universities (Second Amendment) Act, 2009. A philanthropic initiative of Mr. Naveen Jindal, Founding Chancellor, JGU envisions to promote world-class education in India. Located on an 80-acre state-of-the art residential campus in the National Capital Region of Delhi, JGU is one of the few universities in Asia that maintains a 1:15 faculty-student ratio and appoints faculty members from across the world with outstanding academic qualifications and experience. JGU has established five schools: Jindal Global Law School, Jindal Global Business School, Jindal School of International Affairs, Jindal School of Government and Public Policy and Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities.

Aero India 2015: HAL to create Chair at IIT Madras

The Indian Institute of Madras (IITM) and the Bangalore-based public sector undertaking, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) this morning at the latter’s stall in Aero India 2015.

The aim of the alliance is to create an HAL Chair at IIT Madras in order to facilitate a long-term, mutually-beneficial relationship for academic and research based interations, a media statement issued by the Chennai-based institution said.

The MoU was signed on behalf of IIT Madras by Prof. Nagarajan, Dean of International & Alumni Relations, and on behalf of HAL by the Chairman, Shri T Suvarna Raju. The Head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Madras, Prof. K Bhaskar, was also present at the ceremony.

HAL will fund the Chair by contributing a one-time payment of Rs.1.5 crores to the Corpus of IITM. The expenses towards the Chair are to be met from a part of the interest earned on this endowment. The remaining part of the interest shall be used to enhance the Corpus amount gradually over the years so that the Chair can be maintained in perpetuity.

The Director of IIT Madras, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, welcomed the signing of the MoU, as it “marked the maturing of an already-strong collaboration that can now be shaped into a model of purposeful engagement between academia and industry”.

The Chair Professor at IIT Madras is expected to provide technical consultancy to HAL; Facilitate development of training programs & training modules, mentoring/coaching for capacity building of HAL personnel; Conceptualise and facilitate conferences of defence-related industries that may be organised at least once in a year to provide a platform to air new ideas and to showcase innovations, new technologies, etc.; Visit divisions of HAL at least once in six months to understand first-hand HAL’s requirements and possible areas of assistance from IITM; and Coordinate with various Departments at IIT Madras to identify research work of potential use to HAL. Under the auspices of the Chair, M.Tech.and Ph.D. programmes may be organized through external registration, and all subjects taught through online method. Specialized short-term courses may also be conducted for HAL officers through the Chair.

This engagement is expected to lead to promotion and development of new and breakthrough technologies in several areas including: stress, Thermal & Fatigue analysis using Finite Element Method (FEM); CFD analysis for Fixed Wing, Rotary Wing and Aero-engines; Optimization of weight & size of aerospace equipment; Advanced aircraft and engine system technology and application areas; Indigenization of Aircraft, Helicopter and Engine Rotables; Nano-technology development; Smart materials development related to Aircraft, Helicopter and Aero engine development; Special coatings and their application technology; Special electronic equipment and their software such as AESA Radars, airborne special computers, etc.; High Strength Aluminium Alloy Investment Castings; Modern welding technology for Aerospace – Laser, Electron-beam, Friction weld, etc.; Integrated particle separator development; and other technology related to Aircraft, Helicopter and Aero-engine development.

Amitabh Bachchan is our inspiration, says RC Dalal of JDIFT

“We have taken Amitabh Bachchan as our inspiration as he is one of the purest and finest actors of the world”, RC Dalal, Executive Director of JD Institute of Fashion Technology said. Bachchan was in New Delhi at Le Meridian for promoting his upcoming movie Shamitabh with Dhanush and Akshara Hassan. The whole movie cast gave their best wishes to Dalal and Rupal Dalal, Director of Institute of Fashion Technology for the forthcoming 25th JD Annual Design Annual Awards.

From (L-R): Rupal Dalal, Dhanush, Akshara Hassan and RC Dalal.
JD Annual Design Awards is the perfect platform for the students to showcase their inherent talent .The institute with an expertise of 26 years is renowned in the industry for its quality of education and training and has proved its worth time and again. The theme for this year’s Awards is ‘Pure’.

Wishing all the JEDIIANS, bachchan said: “PURE is registering the first thought in your mind and following that first thought fearlessly and curiously. Not diluting it with history or approval of others. Pure is being faithful to your vision. Our best wishes to all graduating designers at JD Annual Design Awards 2015.”

Dalal added: “Like every year the theme sets the mood and shows a direction in which a student not only thinks about a design but creates a whole new explanation about the collection the student will present in that particular year. We have taken Amitabh Bachchan as our inspiration as he is one of the purest and finest actors of the world.”