Across the globe scientists trying to beat Coronavirus. At present, there is no approved drug or vaccine available to treat this disease. Still, people are trying various pre-existing medicines that are known to have antiviral effects. Panjab University, Chandigarh contributed in fights against Covid-19. Dr. Ashok Kumar, Chairperson from Centre of Systems Biology and Bioinformatics, Panjab University studied the binding potential of approximately 50 phytochemicals present in multiple natural plant extracts that are capable of inhibiting virus replication. Phytochemicals are compounds that are produced by plants. They are found in fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, and other parts of plants. Some of these phytochemicals are believed to protect us from pathogenic attacks. Herbal extracts are full of phytochemicals. This Research published in Journal Phytomedicine having title “Identification of phytochemicals as potential therapeutic agents that binds to Nsp15 protein target of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that is capable of inhibiting virus replication”. This Reputed international Journal has an impact factor of 4.26. Dr. Ashok Kumar did this research in collaboration with Dr. Suresh Kumar from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi.
A Webinar on New Education Policy: A roadmap for Engineering Education was organized by UIET, Panjab University, Chandigarh ,today. The event commenced with an introductory message by Prof. Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor who has been associated with NEP since the beginning and also gave inputs in the framing of NEP. PU VC also gave some optimistic insight into the fact that although pandemic is a curse, it has certainly given the opportunity of development to domains like engineering and medicine.
Subsequently Prof. Dheeraj Sanghi,Director PEC spoke about the aspects of New Education Policy related to higher education. He cited the chapters from New Education Policy that are related to higher education. He talked about the aspect of multidisciplinary education. In the curriculum, there should be interdisciplinary courses. There should be more flexibility in the courses chosen by the students i.e. more elective courses should be offered to the students.
Prof.Sanghi pointed out that it is very natural that the minds of students, as well as faculties, will resist these changes that this policy demands but we need to overcome this resistance. The NEP caters to the major problem that the college students face about not knowing exactly what they want to study in college or what are their interests. The provision of Dual Major will be provided i.e. one person having computer science engineering shall be allowed to opt for psychology also. It was also discussed as to how important it is to make a robust lateral entry system if we want to implement the NEP in a good way.
Prof.Sanghi also pointed to the fact that the policy gives the flexibility to the universities to implement the changes recommended at a time they find appropriate i.e. either from this batch or from the next session. He also talked about Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) which will be established to digitally store the academic credits earned from various recognised higher educational institutes so that the credits earned in the previous years can be awarded after entering into the programme again. With this ABC, the fear of wastage of years is avoided.
Continuous evaluation will be there rather than having one major exam at the end of the semester which has almost 70 % of credit or marks. He also added that tenure track recruitment should be there for faculties in which the teaching ability of the teacher will be evaluated after every 5-6 years. He then talked about the use of technology through online and digital courses. He talked about a big caveat of NEP which states that the quality of the online courses should be as good as the best on-campus programme of the higher educational institution. He said that such a scenario is not possible in the present situation and can only be made possible after approximately 10 years from now. More than 40% of courses shall be offered online to reduce the teaching load that will also provide an ample amount of time to the faculty for research work. He also discussed Faculty development programmes that should be conducted more frequently. Employability will automatically improve if a good batch of students graduate as industry will be interested to recruit them.
https://news7world.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/s1.jpg160162News 7 Worldhttps://news7world.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Untitled.jpgNews 7 World2020-09-04 16:18:312020-09-04 16:18:35WEBINAR ON NEW EDUCATION POLICY: A ROADMAP FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
Panjab University Chandigarh, Vice Chancellor Prof Raj Kumar, in anticipation of approval of the Syndicate, has approved the 5% fee exemption across all courses to all the students of Panjab University Chandigarh and its Regional Centres for the current Semester, keeping in view the difficulties faced due to Covid 19 pandemic.
In order to facilitate the payment of fee , all students are allowed to deposit the course fee in 4 equal installments instead of two installments. The students who have paid full fee, will be adjusted in their next installment.
Also, 100% fee concession has been granted to physically challenged students whereas, EWS concession will be extended to the students of traditional courses also as a special measure.
The concessions offered are over and above the different kinds of concession/ scholarships/schemes(involving an amount of Rs 5 Crore) which is already being offered by the University.
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Central Placement Cell(CPC), Panjab University, Chandigarh organised a function to distribute scholarships of Rs. 299,300/- to 34 students by the “Sarbat Da Bhala charitable trust.
Sarbat da Bhala is a charitable trust was started by Sh. S.P. Singh Oberoi. This philanthropic body is dedicated to the cause of extending economic benefits to the underprivileged and hitherto neglected sections of the society and these scholarships are being distributed every year since 2016. Dr. Amandeep Singh Marwaha enlightened about the various activities of the trust and about the event to the beneficiary students and participants.
Prof Meena Sharma, Director Central Placement Cell, welcomed all the members and briefly enlightened the students about the help provided by the trust in past and how helpful it has been to students looking at the current state of economyand thanked Dr S P Singh Oberoi for his philanthropic endeavours. Vice Chancellor, Prof Raj Kumar, expressed gratitude towards trust and highlighted the contribution of these philanthropists in the development of great education institutions like Nalanda and Takshila in the past too. He also told how these scholarships help collaterally in connecting various people involved in the process and asked Central Placement Cell to expand its scope and connect to more people.
Mrs. Inderjit Kaur, Director of the trust wished good luck to all the students and assured help to students while explaining the mission of the trust.
Prof Ganga Ram Chaudhary, gave formal vote of thanks.
https://news7world.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/s1.jpg160162News 7 Worldhttps://news7world.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Untitled.jpgNews 7 World2020-09-02 18:19:102020-09-02 18:19:15PU CPC organises Distribution of Scholarships by Sarbat Da Bhala Charitable Trust
The Department of Library and Information Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh organised two webinars on National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 on 29th and 31st August 2020. Dr D. V. Singh, former University librarian, University of Delhi, Delhi and Dr. Dinesh Gupta, Professor, DLIS, Central University of Haryana, Mahendragarh, were the resource persons.
Dr. D.V. Singh talked about the history, need and importance of NEP. He highlighted the significant features of NEP, like education in mother tongue; skill based education and vocationalization of education. He also emphasised the requirement of infrastructure for implementation of NEP.
Dr. Gupta highlighted the key principles of NEP 2020. He also elaborated the technology application in education for implementation of NEP. He advocated the use of Open Education Resources (OERs) for teaching and learning. In the end of his talk,he discussed some challenges in implementation of NEP 2020.
Dr. Preeti Mahajan, Chairperson of the department moderated both the webinars which were attended by more than 100 participants.
University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET), Panjab University inaugurated TEQIP-III sponsored three days online international conference entitled “INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTEGRATED INTERDISCIPLINARY INNOVATIONS IN ENGINEERING” on 28th August 2020.
The conference scheduled from 28th to 30th August 2020 is being organized under twining activity of TEQIP-III in collaboration with Govt. college of Engineering and Technology Jammu under the guidance and patronage of Prof. Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor, Panjab University, Prof. Savita Gupta, Director UIET, Panjab University, Chandigarh and Dr. Sameru Sharma, Principal, Government College of Engineering and Technology, Jammu. The technical program is enriched with internationally reputed speakers scheduled to give ten plenary talks, twelve invited talks, eight short invited talks and 200 oral/poster presentations from participants from various institutes from India and abroad.
The Conference Chair Prof. R. K. Singla, Dean University Instruction, Panjab University delivered the welcome address. Prof. Singla emphasized on the application of various interdisciplinary innovations in our life. He also said that the conference will provide a valuable opportunity for the researchers, scientists, academicians, industry specialists and decision makers to share their experiences on a common platform.
Prof. V. R. Sinha, Dean Research, Guest of Honour, stated that the conference will serve as an effective platform to learn, share, supplement learning while keeping abreast with the latest developments in the respective areas. He also stated that in this pandemic era of COVID-19, the conference will definitely benefit the research students.
Prof. Savita Gupta, Director, UIET elucidated the theme of the conference. She also quoted the role of interdisciplinary research as the base of many great discoveries and cited examples of great scientists. She said that the objective of this conference is to bring active researchers and experts from various disciplines to showcase their state of art research results and to integrate interdisciplinary connections amongst them.
Chief guest Prof. P. M. Khodke, Central Project Advisor, NPIU, Govt. of India, delivered his inaugural address online. He stated that in past few decades engineering faculty are playing a major role in solving many societal and industrial problems and in future, the technical education will become boundaryless. He discussed about the MHRD ‘IMRINT’ program and its importance. He also discussed the role of World Bank assisted TEQIP in improving Engineering/Technical education. He also emphasized on collaborative research. He motivated the participants & set the tone of the conference.
Prof. Sukhwinder Singh, Conference Co-Chair & Coordinator, TEQIP-III extended vote of thanks by paying gratitude to Prof. Raj Kumar, Vice- Chancellor, PU and Chief Patron for inspiring and encouraging the UIET team to organize this international conference. He also thanked Chief guest, Prof. P. M. Khodke, Guest of Honour, Prof. V. R. Sinha, Conference Chair Prof. R. K. Singla, Prof. Savita Gupta, Director, UIET, Dr. Sameru Sharma, Principal, GCET, Jammu, Prof. Harmesh Kumar Kansal, Program Chair, Prof. Harish Kumar, Nodal Officer, TEQIP-III, Prof. Kapil Sharma, Chairman, Scientific Advisory Committee from South Asian University, New Delhi, Dr Minto Rattan, Coordinator and all the members of organizing team , technical staff. He also thanked sponsors of this conference, TEQIP-III & Indian National Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi, without their generous financial support, it would not have been possible to organize this conference.
Organising team consisting of Dr. Naresh Kumar, Prof. Naveen Aggarwal, Dr. Y P Verma, Dr. Deepak Kumar, Dr. Vivek Pahwa, Dr. Kalpana Dahiya, Dr. Suresh Kumar, Dr. Prabhjot Kaur were also present on this occasion.
https://news7world.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/s1.jpg160162News 7 Worldhttps://news7world.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Untitled.jpgNews 7 World2020-08-30 14:15:272020-08-30 14:15:30“INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTEGRATED INTERDISCIPLINARY INNOVATIONS IN ENGINEERING (ICIIIE 2020)”
On the occasion of National Sports Day today, the Hon’ble President of India Sh. Ram Nath Kovind in the presence of Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Sh. Kiren Rijiju and several other dignitaries virtually conferred various National Sports and Adventure Awards 2020 from a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi. The much coveted Maulana Abul Kalam Azad(MAKA) Trophy for overall top performing University in Inter-University Tournaments has been awarded to Panjab University, Chandigarh for the second time in a row.
Prof. Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor, PU attended the virtual ceremony from Chandigarh. Later, he addressed the employees of the Directorate of Sports, PU at the Gymnasium Hall. He appreciated the efforts of the Sports Authority of India for virtually organizing the ceremony despite all odds due to Covid 19 pandemic. PU VC lauded the commendable achievement of the PU sports persons, coaches and the entire team of Directorate of Sports under the leadership of Prof. Parminder Singh, Director and Dr. Rakesh Malik, Deputy Director and extended his heartiest congratulations. He assured of all necessary help and support to the Sports Department for taking the Sports in PU to further heights.
Dr. Parminder Singh assured that with all supports from PU VC, concerted efforts will be made for improvement in the coming year in order to make a hat-trick for MAKA Trophy.
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The Department of Life Long Learning and Extension, Panjab University, Chandigarh organized a Webinar on Training Program for Preschool Teachers. Dr. Parmjit Singh Kang, Chairperson, Department of Life Long Learning introduced the theme of the Training Program and welcomed the participants.
Teachers from Ankur School, Panjab University, Chandigarh and Sehjot Sr. Sec. Dhanas (UT) Chandigarh along with students of Department of LifeLong Learning participated.
Dr. Parminder K. Duggal, Principal, Ankur School, Panjab University and Prof. Prabha Vig were the Resource Persons for the webinar. In the end, Dr. Parmjit Singh Kang proposed the Vote of Thanks.
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Panjab University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Raj Kumar was today conferred with the Rank of ‘Honorary Colonel’ and appointment of ‘Colonel Commandant’ in the National Cadet Corps (NCC) which is granted by Government of India through a Gazette Notification and is an honour granted to distinguished persons who can motivate NCC cadets and contribute in furtherance of NCC activities.
The honorary rank and certificate issued by Lt. Gen. Rajeev Chopra, PVSM, AVSM, Director General NCC, New Delhi were presented by Major General Beji Mathews, ADG, NCC Directorate, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh and Brig. Harsh Chhibber, Group Commander, NCC Group Headquarters, Chandigarh at Group Headquarter, Chandigarh. 2nd Chandigarh Bn NCC is responsible for NCC activities in Panjab University and provides training and coordinates social service contribution by cadets.
Prof. Raj Kumar is the only officer to hold this coveted rank in Chandigarh.
Dy. Commandant, Amitesh Verma (NCC), Lt. Col. Surender Singh (NCC), Lt. and Dr. Kuldeep Singh, Chairperson, Centre for Police Administration, PU were also present on this occasion.
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Prof. Sanjay Chhibber, who is the senior most professor in the Department of Microbiology, Panjab University, Chandigarh has been appointed by Indian Council of Medical Research as ICMR Emeritus Scientist in its meeting held on 7th, August, 2020.He is the only one from Universities of India to find a place in the list of 11 selected scientists for this award.
The duration of appointment initially is for a period of three years in the first instance. Further extension upto a maximum period of two more years may be granted by the agency depending on the progress of research work.He shall be working on a project entitled “Alternative Roles for CRISPR- Cas System in Bacterial Virulence: Beyond Adaptive Immunity”.
Prof. Chhibber has been associated with teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students of Microbiology (Hons, School) at Panjab University for more than 42 years. During these years he has been actively engaged in research and many post graduate and doctoral students have completed their research projects under his guidance. He has published more than 250 research papers in scientific journals of repute in India and abroad.
His main work in recent years has been on finding alternative strategies to curb drug resistant bacterial infections. During the past more than one decade he has concentrated on bacteriophage therapy and anti-virulence approach to control antimicrobial resistant pathogens using in-vitro and animal models. In recent years bacteria have developed resistance towards commonly used antibiotics and as a result bacteria fail to respond to them. Many times clinicians find it difficult to treat such infections. Bacteriophages are viruses of bacteria that have the ability to kill bacteria. Recent studies have shown that they have the ability to lyse with antibiotic resistant bacteria. Therefore this approach is being explored to treat such infections as an alternate strategy. With more than 60 publications in this area, he is one of the Indian scientists who have made tremendous contributions in this field at the international platform.
At present he is the president of the Society for Bacteriophage Research and Therapy (SBRT). Bacteriophages which are viruses of bacteria are finding many applications in diverse areas and this society is a platform to promote these scientists.Last year, he was honoured by the Society of Microbiologists with “Life time Devotion Award” for his contribution in the field of Medical Microbiology. He is also a member of the central council of Association of Microbiologists of India.
