Book Reading session in Dehradun
World Integrity Center (WIC) India recently held a book reading and interaction session for teachers and principals by Prof. Debashis Chatterjee author & leadership speaker on his recently launched book ‘Can you teach a Zebra some Algebra’ at Dehradun. The activity based session was enjoyed by all and focused on new age teaching techniques. Dr. Debashis emphasized on the importance of concentration. He explained several learning sutras. He highlighted on three types of focus areas i.e. outer, inner and other. He added that it is important to add life to content for students to learn better.
Professor Chatterjee is an eminent author who has been taking Leadership classes at Harvard University and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, Lucknow, and Khozhikode for nearly two decades.
Nazia Izuddin, President, WIC India says, “WIC Dehradun team has taken an initiative to organize this Book Reading Workshop to help people learn and understand in a more creative way. ”
The seminar was attended by staff from Welham Boys, RIMC, Summer Valley School, Little Flower School, John Martyn Memorial School, Grace Academy, Sai Grace School, Rajeev Gandhi Navodaya Vidyalaya, Him Jyoti, Olympus High School and St Xaviers’ amongst others.
Shradha Shreya & Shivam Ahuja win ‘i-genius Young Singing Stars’ Grand Finale
Max Life Insurance and leading music label Universal Music India on December 18 concluded ‘i-genius Young Singing Stars’ event in Mumbai. The grand finale witnessed outstanding performances by the 10 finalists. The 10 were chosen from 1.26 lakhs participants. The day turned out to be mesmerizing with a star studded jury including, Salim Merchant & Shraddha Sharma. The two winner’s Shrada Shreya, amongst the seniors & Shivam Ahuja amongst the juniors won an album contract whilst the 8 finalists won ‘single song’ contract with Universal Music Group.
Max Life Insurance ‘i-genius Young Singing Stars’ programme was launched as a nationwide search for young singing talent. This unique competition provided exciting platform for aspiring and talented young singing stars, giving children aged between 8- 15 years the opportunity to have their songs heard by industry professionals and a chance to have their own music album.
IIT Delhi wins GE Edison Challenge 2014 and the prize money of Rs. 10 lakhs!
The seventh edition of the ‘GE Edison Challenge’ held at the GE India Technology Centre, Bangalore on December 19 (2014) saw IIT Delhi emerge as winners and awarded a prize of Rs. 10 lakhs. As a part of the Challenge, student teams were required to come up with an idea to make affordable power available 24X7 in India. The winning team’s solution proposed an integrated small scale biodiesel production unit to be deployed in restaurants, hotels etc for conversion of waste cooking oil into biodiesel and also in rural areas in combination with a seed crusher for conversion of oil seeds into biodiesel. The evaluation was on the basis of innovation and novelty, feasibility and potential impact of idea, customer value, commercialization of the idea and quality of compilation. Their presentation abilities were also tested to see if they could deliver their message clearly, bring clarity of data and solutions presented and showcase creativity and imagination in the tools used for presentation.
Knowledge Institute of Technology, Salem was chosen as the runner-up and won a prize of Rs. 5 lakhs for their solution Novel design of a high efficiency vertical axis wind turbine. This unique design is capable of generating power three times greater than the existing wind turbine designs. It maximizes the wind to electrical energy conversion ratio and overcomes the pressure imbalance on the existing blade designs.
Sukla Chandra, General Manager, GE Global Research Bangalore, said “Each year science and engineering students look forward to the GE Edison Challenge as a unique opportunity to compete and showcase their ideas. It’s fascinating to see these young innovators develop solutions to improve day-to-day life and seize an economic opportunity that stays untapped. We encourage young innovators to think big and leverage this Challenge to showcase their ideas and take them to the next level.”
‘Dharohar’ – Noida’s largest inter-school talent hunt festival
The Millennium School (TMS), Noida’s annual talent hunt festival spread over three days was held in the last week of December in which 20 schools of the area participated. A plethora of activities were organized to encourage the physical, mental, social, intellectual, aesthetic and emotional development of the children and gave them a platform to showcase their talents. Talking about Dharohar, Rita Kaul, Principal of the Millennium School Noida said, “Dharohar has now become one of the most looked-forward to school festivals in Delhi NCR. We are happy to see that our aim to provide our students and the students from other schools a platform to showcase their multifarious talents, has met with such success.”
Paul George Global School starts first batch admissions
The Muthoot Group promoted Paul George Global School, situated at Alaknanda (New Delhi), started admissions to its maiden batch from December 27, 2014. Newly constructed co-educational institution will admit from Nursery to Class II for the 2015-2016 academic session with a cap of 280 students.
INSEEC Wine and Spirits Institute at more locations
The INSEEC Wine and Spirits Institute spreads its wings to Beaune, London and Paris and an Executive Programme in Shanghai. To satisfy the expectations of the market INSEEC has also opened a specialized MBA in the spirits industry. “In 2015 we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of our programmes in Wines and Spirits, explains Catherine Lespine, president of the INSEEC group. “We welcome 300 students this year in this field. Half of them are coming from 15 different countries. This decade has taught us that the choice of specialized, international and professional programmes in trade and marketing answers the needs of this industry.”
3rd Convocation of Manav Rachna International University
Manav Rachna International University (MRIU) held its 3rd Convocation at the MRIU Campus on Dec 13-14 wherein around 2000 students were awarded degrees over a period of two days. Governor of Haryana, Kaptan Singh Solanki who was the chief guest on the occasion awarded degrees to 500 studentsboth Doctoral and Post Graduate. In his Convocation address, Shri Kaptan Singh Solanki recounted the inception of Manav Rachna and the zealous commitment of Founder Chairman Dr. O.P. Bhalla who, the Governor felt, transformed Faridabad from being an industrial town to an educational hub. He also lauded Manav Rachna International University for changing the educational landscape of the State and for its significant contribution in bringing many International and National Laurels, not just for the State of Haryana but also for the Country. Congratulating the students on this momentous occasion, he urged them to work towards the upliftment of the nation. “Once you seek out a purpose in life, nothing is impossible. For, with determination comes dedication, and equipped with discipline and dynamism, you are bound to achieve your desired goals,” the Governor said.
798 Students receive degrees at ITM University, Gurgaon
Among the students who were awarded degrees were 577 B Tech pass outs, 133 M Tech, 43 MBA, 2 LLM and 43 from BBA stream. The function was presided over by Hon’ble Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha). The ceremony was a spectacular show with students from all the three schools of the University participating in the degree-distribution ceremony. Of the total students, 58 passed with distinction. The toppers in each discipline were awarded medals and Certificates of Excellence.
Vibgyor Viva 6 Grand Finale held in Mumbai
‘Vibgyor Viva 6’ one of India’s largest interschool and junior college festivals organised by Vibgyor Group of International Schools successfully concluded in Mumbai on Dec 22. 81 finalists aged between 10-17 years selected from amongst 3,000 students from 500 schools across nine cities clashed in a cut throat competition against each other to covet titles in three Premier categories – Viva Nova (Personality Contest), Swing n Swirl (Solo/Group Dance) and Voice of Viva (Solo Singing). Various popular and talented faces of the entertainment industry graced the event, making it as one of the prominent ‘Star-Studded Evening’ in Mumbai. India’s young talent from Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Vadodara, Lucknow, Kolhapur, Guwahati and Calicut, was judged by industry experts in music, personality and dance segments. Yuvika Purushottam from Bengaluru Blizzards, Mt. Carmel College was declared the champion of ‘Viva Nova’ (Personality Contest Girls), Tanay Bhatia from Mumbai Meteors, Podar International School was declared the champion of ‘Viva Nova’ (Personality Contest Boys).
Winner of ‘Swing n Swirl’ (Solo Dance) was Krish Chauhan from Vadodara Volcanoes, Gujarat Public School. Winner of ‘Swing n Swirl’ (Group Dance) were Dev Dance Group from Lucknow Lancers. Joel Theckel from Bengaluru Blizzards, Legacy School Bangalore wonr Voice of Viva (Solo Singing) category . Winners of ‘Viva Nova’, ‘Swing and Swirl Solo Dance’ and ‘Voice of Viva’ won a cash prize of Rs. 25,000 each and the Victors of ‘Swing and Swirl Group Dance’ and the ‘U16 Basketball Championship’ walked away with Rs. 50,000 of cash prize.
Through a lucky draw at the event, Bengaluru city is selected as the hosting city for ‘Vibgyor Viva 7’ in the year 2015.
‘Mad About Science 2014’ at The Shriram Millennium School, Faridabad
The Shriram Millennium School Faridabad, celebrated Science in a new avatar the ‘Mad About Science ‘, in a bustling event on the school premises on Dec 23. Science came to life, scientific concepts seemed easy to grasp with an array of activities on display in this unique parent driven initiative. JODOGYAN, Tender Hearts and other Non Profit Organizations too were invited to be a part of this event.
The past three months had been full of Science learning through Quizzes, Model Making, Art competitions Animation and Robotics workshops and a host of inter and intra school events. Along with the class stalls a host of other attractions were Robotics fun organized by Building blocks, Segway Yatra by the BIRD group, 3D printer, Animation films, and Khana Khazana hosted by Dominos and Shri Ratnam. Ajoy Ghatak, a renowned author of Physics text books and popularly known as Optic Ghatak addressed the children and showed them an interesting and motivating presentation to enhance their interest in the field of Science.
‘Oorja Samvardhan Divas’ across India
Club Enerji, Tata Power’s nationwide energy conservation movement, celebrated ‘Oorja Samvardhan Divas’ across twelve locations to mark the commencement of National Energy Conservation Week on Dec 17. Family members and spouses of the Company’s employees became the torch-bearers of Club Enerji’s efforts towards conservation, and educated students across Mundra, Jojobera, Kalinganagar, Naraj Marthapur, Tiruldih, Khopoli, Bhira, Bhivpuri, Lonavala and Mumbai on valuable practices to conserve energy. The programme will be conducted at Maithon and Haldia on December 18, covering more than 500 students across 4 schools. The objective of the programme was to continue with its mission of reaching out to the young minds and creating awareness on the need to save our planet for a sustainable tomorrow. The event in each school was concluded on a green note by the participating students who planted saplings in the premises of their schools. The importance of green cover and protecting our life givers was imparted to the children and close to 1,000 trees were planted by the students.
Kids Fair at Hyderabad
4thEdition of Hyderabad Kids’ Fair 2014, considered as the India’s biggest Carnival was inaugurated by R.P. Patnaik, Singer and Music Director; Film Actress Sana; Sambit Mund of Hitex on Dec 25. Speaking on the occasion Patnaik and Sana said expos like these are important as kids will have firsthand knowledge of various products at one place. Over 100 exhibitors showcased their products such as Toys & Games, Gaming Devices, Arts & Crafts; Party Accessories. School Zone is featuring Early Learning & Play Schools; Coaching Centers; Talent and Training Institutes; Sports Training Centers, Counseling Organisations, Education Aids, School Furniture, Laboratory Equipment etc. The exhibition has play zones, gaming arcades, sporting arenas, adventure sports, Jokers, Jugglers, Magicians, fine artists, stuntmen and others. We have introduced Science Exhibits to make science interesting and fun for children. We have anti gravity mirror, Square Wheel, Shadow Kalaedoscope etc in the Kids Fair informed Niranjan Vasireddy, Founder and MD and exhibitor in the Kids Fair.
Pluss Polymers spreads awareness on e-waste
Pluss Polymers, a material research and manufacturing company, in association with Advit Foundation organized an education drive on electronic waste (commonly known as e-waste) management to spread awareness about its impact on our health and environment while underlining the need for its safe disposal. The session was held on December 19, 2014, in Mount Abu School, Rohini, New Delhi. The intent of the session was to instill the importance of understanding waste management in students from class 6th to 9th and encourage them to participate in a collective drive to deal with e-waste.
11 Indian Schools in Basketball action at Pathways School
Basketball action bounced off when Pathways School Gurgaon hosted its first Pathways All India Basketball Tournament at the school campus from 15 to 18 December, 2014 with 11 school teams from the under-19 age group participating. The participating schools were Bansi Vidya Niketan School; Amity International School Noida; G D Goenka Public School, Vasant Kunj; The Shri Ram School Aravali; Delhi Public School Maruti Kunj; Shalom Hills International School Gurgaon; Delhi Public School Panipat; Manav Rachna International School Faridabad; SD Adarsh Vidyalaya Sohna Road; Pathways World School, Aravali and the hosting school Pathways School, Gurgaon.
The winner of the tournament in Boys Under 19 category was given to GD Goenka Pubic School Vasant Kunj and Runners up was Manav Rachna School Faridabad. Winner for the Girls Under 19 category was The Shri Ram School, and Runners up was Pathways School Gurgaon. Best sportsmanship team trophy was given to Pathways School Noida.
Mr T J Sahi, International Basketball Player; Capt Rohit Sen Bajaj, Director, Pathways School Gurgaon and Mr Prabhat Jain, Director, Pathways Schools gave away the prizes to the winning athletes.
SOIL hosts the Dr. V. Kurien Memorial Inspired Leadership Conference
The School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL) hosted the 6th edition Inspired Leadership Conference (ILC 2014) in Gurgaon on 12th-13th December. The conference was dedicated in the memory of Dr. V Kurien, the father of “White Revolution “in India who worked endlessly towards development in the agriculture sector. The theme for the conference was ‘Is goodness the key to disruptive innovation’. Thinkers, business leaders and entrepreneurs such as Harsh Mariwala, Chairman -Marico Industries; RS Sodhi, MD, GCMMF (Amul) Ltd. Anand; Naveen Narayanan, Global Head Talent Acquisition- HCL Technologies; Rachna Mukherjee, Country Partner- VP HR, Schneider Electric , participated in the Conference. The two days saw enriching discussions and deliberations on the thought provoking idea of leveraging goodness to create disruptive innovation.
The SOIL students did a social experiment, Karma Rasoi , to understand whether Goodness can help create an innovative experience. The event saw participation of teams from the NGO, Saksham and IMS Gurgaon. Speaking on the occasion, Anil Sachdev, Founder of SOIL, said, “The Inspired Leadership Conference was an attempt to get diverse minds together to discuss critical areas of creating t leaders who can serve as social change agents. ”
International Symposium on Mental Health
Rajagiri College of Social Sciences hosted an International Symposium on Evidences in Global Mental Health, called Dyuti 2015 from the 7th of January 2015 to 9th January 2015. DYUTI, the annual conference of the School of Social Work of Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, is a forum for discussions on vital issues of development from a rights perspective. The conference looked at WHO’s “Call if for action” from a social works point of view and deliberated on the Global Mental Health scenario, mental health and Social Work, interventions for specific conditions, mental health programs, mental health research and mental health policies across the globe.
Symphonious 2015 at SGT University
SGT University welcomed internationally renowned Punjabi folk singer Malkit Singh on the occasion of SYMPHONIOUS 2015- Musical Invasion, which filled the New Year with crooning music, cultural celebrations and band performances by SGT students.
The musical skills of students were high in spirit s breaking the mythical illusion that medical students are considered only studious to their core. The extravaganza was a fine fusion of arts and sciences as students from Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, Allied Health Sciences, Physiotherapy, Nursing, Dental Sciences, and Engineering played harmoniously with so called western Guitar and Indian Tabla. Students had a fully organized band group fluently mixing music from low tunes to high tempo in a way to reach directly to the hearts of the audience.
AACEG’s 2nd Global Alumni Meet ‘CEGAM-2015’
Alumni Association of College of Engineering, Gunidy, an oldest alumni association in the country, organized its second CEGAM-2015 (College of Engineering, Guindy Global Alumni Meet) at CEG campus, Chennai on January 4. The event encompasses various knowledge sharing sessions and panel discussions with eminent panelist for the whole day with 900+ alumni registrations from across the globe. The alumni present interacted with the current batch students and exchanged some in-depth knowledge and experience with the students which were insightful and encouraging.
From its humble beginning in 2011 and with its strong objective, CEGAM has set a mark in alumni meet arena. B Ashok, Chairman, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Dr. S. Ramakrishnan, Vikram Sarabhai Distinguished Professor, ISRO, and N Krishnakumar, CEO and Managing Director, Mindtree graced the occasion with their respective presence.
With an objective to create a platform for the alumni of CEG and encourage collaboration among them, CEGAM also brought in global expertise knowledge of its alumni to the state and inspired the students more into entrepreneurial venture. A new job portal for CEGAM was formally announced at the occasion. The CEGAM portal keeps the alumni up-to-date with developments and promotes exchange of knowledge and information among alumni.
Hemanth Utsav at Hyderabad school
Hemanth Utsav, the Annual Cultural Night of Abhyasa International Residential School held on Jan 12. Anurag Sharma, Director General of Police, Telangana state was the chief guest. The Theme of the Hemanth Utsav was 6 ValuesSix Stories. These values include: Integrity, Discipline, Empathy, Open Mindedness, Effectiveness and Team Work. The highlight of the program is the skits & dances on Six Values of Abhyasa, wherein all the 450 students of Abhyasa hailing from all over India and abroad participated, as part of Abhyasa policy: ‘No Child Left Behind’. A hilarious Skit on Swach Bharat was staged, which has highlighted the loose ends of the initiatives. Students seen sweeping the streets funnily dancing, Kung Fu Sweeping etc.
The School is run by students, unlike many other schools. Students head committees Managers such as Sports Committee, Spirituality, Campus Management, Gramseva etc. Another very interesting thing is to have “Value CHAmapion”, who is chosen among the students after a strict scrutiny, written test, interview etc. His or her job is to ensure that students live by and strive to practice six values, which Abhayasa terms them as indispensable pillars of its edifice. Speaking on the occasion he said, “Normally I don’t attend school functions. This school I was told is different and when came here found it to be so. Our education sadly has become to churn out degrees by rote learning method. Because of this reason many students of Professional Courses such as MBBS, Engineering remain unemployable. They don’t have job skills. Ask them anything beyond their syllabus, they don’t know. They don’t have any social skills. “ More than 2000 guests, parents witnessed the cultural extravaganza.
B-school IMI ties up with Finnish varsity
International Management Institute (IMI) has entered into an agreement with JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Jyvaskyla, Finland, one of the top 500 universities in QS World University Rankings to promote and facilitate the exchange of students, faculty and researchers, wherein both universities will benefit immensely by sharing and participating in each other’s reciprocal educational exchange programs. IMI and JAMK have agreed to co-sponsor and participate in international conferences, seminars, symposia and workshops. They have even decided to commission joint research projects on topics with international flavour, through a joint research team, seeking financial support from funding agencies.
The inaugural Harvard US India Initiative Conference
The Harvard College US India Initiative (HUII), an undergraduate student organization, hosted the inaugural Harvard India Initiative Conference 2015 on January 12-13 in New Delhi. The two-day conference brought together 50+ thought leaders from across the globe to foster targeted dialogue and academic critique on India’s future. Starting with a thought-provoking keynote address from Jairam Ramesh, MP – Rajya Sabha and closing with an introspective and personal keynote address from Jayant Sinha, Union Minister of State for Finance, the conference presented fresh ideas across diverse themes such as education, politics, culture, society, economics and social entrepreneurship. Besides panels, the conference also organized an essay writing competition where applicants could write on a panel topic of their choice and a photo competition on the ‘Faces of India’. The team also initiated a Social Impact Challenge. The two-day conference will now become an annual event and will be hosted by the student representatives of HUII each year.. At the end of the conference, the current HUII President, Disha Verma introduced Udai Bothra, Finance Chair for the 2015 conference, as the next year’s President for the conference.
