Archive for category: Panchkula

Chandigarh

Assessors of the Zone of National Assessment Accreditation Council (NAAC)  conducted one day Assessors Orientation Programme, here today wherein the assessors neighboring states  across varied specialties were trained for the day long Workshop. On behalf of Panjab University, Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) hosted programme in collaboration with NAAC.  The programme was attended by the Vice-Chancellors, Deans, Senior Professors and Directors of the various Institutions.

The programme was inaugurated by Professor R.K. Singla, Dean Research 
Promotion Cell, Panjab University, Chandigarh. He welcomed the delegates and give brief view of the history and achievements of Panjab University.  He spoke about essence of quality of higher education institutions and emphasize that to stay globally competitive is a need in the quality enhancement in the processes and the stakeholders of higher education institutes.  

Professor B.S.Ghuman, Vice-Chancellor, Punjabi University, Patiala while 
addressing the gathering said that the time for change in the outlook and perspective education delivery should be there and only those institutes shall be able to survive institutes in the competitive world who will stay verse with the latest global challenges.  He said  to all the assessors that during the visit for accreditation of the institutes, they should stay not only visual but also consider for the local situations and challenges with the institutes’ faces.

Delivering the 1st Orientation Course lecture, Dr B.S.Madhukar, Former 
Advisor, NAAC gave an overview and work flow of revise accreditation framework that NAAC has recently introduced in an interactive session. He also cleared all the queries of the assessors.

Dr Pratibha Singh, Deputy Advisor, NAAC gave the overview of ICT enabled 
validation and verification of NAAC accreditation.  She emphasized that 70% NAAC accreditation is based on quantitative criteria and 30% are based on qualitative metrics.  She made aware the attendees about the online portal which NAAC has created for all the possible interfaces with respect to assessment and accreditation process. 

Dr Rajiv Parihar, Consultant to NAAC later explained the process of group 
activities wherein the attendees were divided into seven NAAC criteria groups and each of the group was given a specific  problem  to discuss , which was then presented by each team leader.  

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Chandigarh

5th workshop of Swachhata Action Plan (SAP), a high impact event, on the
theme, ‘Management of Biomass (Agri waste and Municipal waste) into Bioresources’, under the aegis of Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, was organized by DST-Centre for Policy Research, Panjab University, Chandigarh in association with Chandigarh Region Innovation and Knowledge Cluster (CRIKC), here today.

The proceedings of the event were kicked off by address of Prof Shankarji Jha, Dean of University Instructions, Panjab University, who insisted to look at the holistic development of agriculture with special focus on Agri-waste management, in terms of natural philosophy, taking examples from Upanishads.

The Chief Principal Secretary to CM (Punjab), Mr. Suresh Kumar, who graced the occasion as a chief guest, reiterated that Punjab Government was all set to tackle the problem of solid waste management and looked forward to support from Central Government. 

The Keynote address was delivered by Dr. M H Mehta, a Padma Shri awardee, who heads the Gujarat Life Sciences in Ahmedabad. Dr. Mehta highlighted the issue of 20 day window from paddy to wheat transition, which makes in situ remediation  of Paddy straw as a promising solution.  He demonstrated application of customized microbial consortium, which has been successfully practiced in Gujarat and Maharashtra. This was 
welcomed very enthusiastically by the farming community. 

A senior scientist, Dr. P Shanmugam, from CSIR-CLRI, Chennai, shared the successful setup of various Biogas plants through-out the world, with a specific community level low-economy model for countries like Peru. He has also set up a one of its kind horizontal digester in UK. The event also witnessed high-powered deliberations on Bio-refineries by Dr. R K Jain from UNIDO, Delhi and Waste valorization strategies by Dr. Sudesh Kumar from CIAB, Mohali; and Bio-Fuels.

The farming community, represented by Jang Bahadur Singh Sangha, Mr. Vikram Ahuja and Mr. Rashid Hassan, also laid out their challenges for the Industry and Academia to work upon and offered their fields and other facilities for trials of innovative technologies.  

The industry, represented by Mr. Anil Kumar, Executive Director, Shreyans 
Industries Ltd., also pitched in very enthusiastically during the panel discussion, sparking the idea of using Corporate Social Responsibility to its full potential to resolve the problem of Agri-waste management. Adding further to it, Mr. Rohit Khaitan from Kuantum Papers Ltd., suggested that revamping of state policies relating bio-fuel production, will aid in reducing the dependency of the country on import of crude oil.  

Dr. Anita Aggarwal, Scientist E, DST, GoI, introduced the theme of the 
workshop and stressed upon the need to bring all the stakeholders together for an inclusive and sustainable solution. Dr. Jatinder Kaur Arora, further urged the forum to brainstorm ideas in order to formulate viable recommendations to the government and briefed about the initiatives of Punjab State Council for Science and Technology in the theme area. 

Prof. S S Marwaha, Chairman, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), shared some of the initiatives of the PPCB such as door to door awareness programmes relating to harmful effects of stubble burning. He also urged the farming community to join hands with the regional institutes and the industry to execute the 3Rs(Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) strategy in this region. 

The event culminated with a panel discussion, led by Mr. K S Pannu, Secretary, Agriculture and Soil Conservation, Punjab and steered by Prof. Rupinder Tewari, Coordinator, DST-CPR at Panjab University. It was equally represented by both Industry 
and Academia and scrutinized the dynamics of managing agri-waste in the most sustainable manner. Mr. Pannu quoted the Gurbani, saying that ‘whatever comes from the soil, must go back to it’.

The event witnessed informal interactions between the government bodies, scientific community (scientists and research scholars), farming communities and Industries and served to set a strong foundation for an action oriented resolution.     

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