Round Square Conference at Pathways World School, Aravali
The Fourth Senior Students Round Square Conference (spread over four days) at Pathways World School Aravali, which provided an inspirational platform to the collective talents of more than 120 children from 15 participating schools, kicked off with pomp and joy on February 12th, 2015. The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Translate-Transform-Transfer’. The participating schools were Vidya Devi Jindal School, Hissar; Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls’ School, Jaipur; Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior; The Assam Valley School, Assam; Singapore International School, Mumbai; Punjab Public School, Nabha; The Sanskaar Valley School, Bhopal; Sarala Birla Academy, Bengaluru; The Emerald Heights International School, Indore; Yadavindra Public School, Patiala; Genesis Global School, Noida; The British School, Delhi; Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai; Rajmata Kanya Kumari Girls Public School, Jodhpur and the hosting school Pathways World School, Aravali
It all began with a night out at Camp Tikkling to break the ice with a series of exciting activities for the delegates before the Opening Ceremony the next day. The inauguration ceremony began with Sangathan Sukta (last Sukta of Rigveda) tempering the bussing excitement in the air and causing an air of silence to settle upon the crowd. On the Cultural Night, each school put up a performance. It was magnetic, ranging from a Rajasthani dance by the Maharani Gayatri Devi girls, to Assam Valley’s rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine. During the closing ceremony, the Conference Statement reiterated on the need to persevere and strive for change in our lives. The range and depth/variety of performances spanned genres of performing arts and brought fore the amazing diversity of this beautiful nation and mesmerised the audience with a wonderful event that eventually became even more unforgettable.
Apart from the key note addresses, three workshops were also held. The Drama Workshop focused on the ability to come up with something unique and interesting on an impromptu topic. The Art Workshop had each students copy down a shape onto paper, all sheets of which eventually came together to form a big picture, while the Design Technology Workshop focused on the process of translating ideas into tangible objects.
‘Art Week’ at Mount Litera School International, Bandra
Mount Litera School International (MLSI) celebrated ‘Art Week’ wherein students of various grades gathered within the campus to design creative paintings and other unique forms of art. The school proposed this innovative concept to promote the art-based learning along with their academics which is an integral principle of the IB program. A total of 64 students from Grade 1 to Grade 5 participated in this Art week. “Art is a useful form of learning a subject. When you engage hands-on with certain topics through art, you are creating your own learning and are deepening your level of understanding about a certain topic,” said. Clive Rogers, Head of School.
As part of week-long program which ended on March 4, each grade was given a different painter or a technique, further to which students were inspired to make art-work based on the style given to them. Children created their art works, where they learnt about the styles of various globally acclaimed artists like Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Rubbing, dabbing and aboriginal art were the styles used by the students expressing their imagination on canvas and paper. Every day the students had an hourly slot where they did some form of art and craft. The art week culminated with an exhibition in the main atrium at MLSI, where all the work done by the students was on display. The parents of all the students gathered at the campus to witness exhibition of the paintings. The exhibition was open for all between 12pm and 5pm. Visitors were spellbound by the extraordinary talent of the children who were younger than 10 years of age.
Karishma Kapoor Cheers ‘Bright Start Fellowship International School’ Kids
Bollywood actress, Karishma Kapoor came to support Bright Start Fellowship International School children who were celebrating the diverse cultures of India and patriotism. She cheered the acts children put together and also presented prizes to children who had excelled in various fields of sports, academics and other activities. She was also seen dancing with the beautiful little Kids. School invited Actress Karishma Kapoor to come and be a part of their event so that school kids can develop great love for the Indian Culture – theme for this annual year. Mumbai-based Bright Start Fellowship International School follows an integrated CIE (Cambridge International Examinations) program-me from Grades I to XII.
Back-to-Earth’ initiative workshops for school children
Recognizing the multi-dimensional potential of young minds in overcoming the issues arising out of growing waste, TERI in collaboration with SBH organized many interactive workshops, themed around ‘Recycle More and Waste Less’. More than 3,000 children participated in the workshops. The schools which took part in this initiative include Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Shalimar Bagh, Sarvodaya Co-ed Sr. Secondary School, Air Force Bal Bharati, Govt. Co-ed Sr. Secondary School, and Shyama Prasad Vidyalaya. During the workshops, senior officials from SBH addressed the children to motivate them and help them inculcate habits towards the effective use of resources and to generate minimal waste.
The workshop featured exhaustive, yet focused discussions on waste its various types and constituents; waste management segregation, dumping, incineration; environmental, health and social problems caused by waste; and the ‘Concept of 4Rs’ (Refuse, Reuse, Reduce and Recycle), which helped understand the linkages between aspirations, consumerism and waste generation and the behavioral changes required to minimize the effects of waste. During the workshops, group activities and presentations were also organized to facilitate exchange of views among the participants. All participants received free educational kits on waste management and RO purifiers and water coolers were installed in the schools for the children.
9th edition of Genesis Conversations: ‘Humour: Nice part of character’
Genesis Global School a day-cum-residential school in Noida, organized the 9th edition of “Genesis Conversations” themed around ‘Humour: Nice part of character’for its students on February 19. Renowned comedian, actor & broadcaster Sanjeev Bhaskar addressed the students and encouraged them to develop a strong personality. Sanjeev Bhaskar is best known for his comedy series Goodness Gracious Me and as host of The Kumars at No. 42 on BBC and has also been listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest actors in British comedy in 2003.
Bhaskar had an extensive three-hour interactive session with the students, where he talked about the importance of learning to laugh at oneself and how humour plays an important role in shaping one’s personality. He also stressed on how effective a good sense of humor can be in overcoming several difficulties in life and enthralled the audience with several anecdotes from his own childhood.
Speaking at the occasion, Pramod Sharma, Principal said, “This initiative is part of our philosophy to develop in our scholars’ optimism, confidence, enthusiasm, concern for justice and an idealism, which will metamorphose into growth, and a global perspective that they should carry as young adults.”
Nobel Laureate Prof. Dr. Jean-Marie Lehn at BITS Pilani, Goa Campus: ‘Chemistry bridge between the molecules of inanimate matter and the highly complex molecular architectures and systems’
A lecture and interactive session by Prof. Jean-Marie Lehn, Institute of Supramolecular Science and Engineering, University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg, who together with Charles J. Pedersen and Donald J. Cram, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1987 for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity, recently visited BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus and also delivered an inspiring lecture. He spoke about the evolution of the universe leading to more and more complex matter through self-organization, up to living and thinking matter. Animate as well as inanimate matter, living organisms as well as materials, are formed of molecules and of the organized entities resulting from the interaction of molecules with each other. He said that it is Chemistry that provides the bridge between the molecules of inanimate matter and the highly complex molecular architectures and systems which make up living organisms. Molecular chemistry has developed a very powerful set of methods for constructing ever more complex molecules. Supramolecular chemistry seeks to control the formation of molecular assemblies by means of the interactions between the partners.
Arena animation Festival held in Delhi: Animation training provider, Arena Animation, organized Kalakari Festival in Delhi on February 26, which gives a platform to artists and creative minds to showcase their skills and learn from senior artists who have left a mark on the international art scene. More than 1500 students from Delhi and its neighbouring cities participated in the event. The event witnessed the presence of several industry bigwigs. “It is important to take the students out of the classrooms and make them learn through observation, communication, and inspiration from other artists and from the nature itself. At Kalakari, students get the perfect platform to experience art and learn from experienced professionals,” said Mr. Anuj Kacker, Executive Director, Aptech Ltd. The festival has plans of going to four more cities- Jaipur, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Bangalore, in 2015-2016 next season
Annual Fest Tatva’15 held at LBSIM: B-school Lal Bahadur Shastri Instituite of Management (LBSIM) hosted its two days Annual National Level Inter-College Management, Technical and Cultural fest TATVA ’15 along with its 20th Foundations at its Dwarka campus in New Delhi. The event was inaugurated by Ghazal Maestro Pankaj Udhas, who sang from his melodious Ghazals to delight of all. The theme for Tatva 2015 was “Panchtatva: Celebrating the elements of Life”.
The festival included over 50 events hosted by various academic clubs of the institute encompassing diverse topics like politics, marketing; HR, finance and IT with over 1000 students from various institutes across India competed for prizes worth Rs 1.25 million. Indian Rapper Raftaar along with BIG Dhillon performed at the Star Night.
The Chief Guest at the 20th Foundations Day, General (Retd.) V.P Malik, Former Army Chief delivered lecture on ‘Leadership in Challenging Times’. General Malik said, “Challenges can be dealt with global leadership, good talent accompanied with dedication.” On the occasion Anil Shastri said, “Credibility, right attitude quotient, high risk taking ability allows you to succeed and one cannot venture out without these.”
Distinguished Jindal Global Lecture delivered by Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Chief Executive Islamic Republic of Afghanistan: O.P. Jindal Global University, which also been doing institutional mentoring of the Nokhbagan Private Institute, Mazar-e-Sharif, and of the Afghanistan Institute of Higher Education, Kabul hosted Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Chief Executive Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on March 15, who had come to deliver Distinguished Jindal Global Lecture. Dr. Abdullah Abdullah said, ““There is no limit on what India can do for Afghanistan, strategically India is welcome to contribute in all areas, including education, human capacity building and in the security sector.” Speaking on the relationship between the role of educational institutions and nation building, Dr. Abdullah said that “Afghanistan had been deprived for more than three decades and educational initiatives were disrupted by the war and terrorism.” He emphasized on the need for Indian assistance in the field of education in Afghanistan and thanked the Chancellor Naveen Jindal and Vice Chancellor Prof. Raj Kumar for their contributions toward the same. The Lecture was attended by Diplomats, Scholars, Faculty members, Media and Students as well as an Afghan delegation including Shaida Mohammad Abdali, Ambassador of Afghanistan to India; Said Tayeb Jawad, Political and Foreign Policy Advisor to the Chief Executive of Afghanistan.
C Raj Kumar Vice Chancellor said, “We have been committed to significant institution building initiatives in Afghanistan for the last five years. Trainings of Afghan civil servants of various ministries on Human Resource Management, Good Governance and Public Administration under the Capacity Building for Results (CBR) Facility of the Ministry of Finance as well as capacity building for Ministry of Justice & capacity building for Ministry of Commerce and Industries, government of Afghanistan.” Speaking on this occasion, Professor Sreeram Chaulia, Dean of the Jindal School of International Affairs, said that “India has unique endowments to help raise the human capital of Afghanistan in subjects such as agriculture, mining, governance reform, public administration, laws and justice. Our University is deeply involved with the Afghan government to fill the gaps in all these areas.”
MDI Gurgaon hosts 5th Global Conference: Gurgaon-based B-school MDI organizied the 5th in the series of conferences on the theme “Managing in Recovering Markets” from 11-13 March. The inauguration day opened up the discussion on causes and consequences of the evolving environment, the challenges emanating from there and the strategic responses to them. Malay Mukherjee, Chairman MDI emphasized on the need for research in framing policies as this will enable the firms to face the challenges in turbulent times. He underlined the relevance of action oriented research in b-schools and highlighted importance to understand different perspective of the eco system mainly in public policy sector. This conference aimed to strengthen the symbiotic relationship between industry and academia and included presentation of research papers from India and Abroad to be followed by a research symposium and a CXO panel discussion on the following days. Key Note speaker, Prof. Jagdeep Chhokar presented his views on ‘Role of management knowledge and research in democratic societies’. While addressing the researchers and practitioners, he said “The primary purpose of education is to make better human beings and the secondary purpose is to make more active and responsible citizens. The sessions provided opportunity to delegates and researchers to indulge in interactions and networking and understand the quest to question. Designed in sync with the need of the hour, the conference served as a lucrative opportunity to identify new research ideas and potential researchers.
KPIT and COEP’s Innovation Competition Sparkle 2015: Pune-based KPIT, a technology company specializing in product engineering and IT consulting, has announced the winners of the first round of Sparkle 2015 – a national design and development innovation contest, in association with College of Engineering, Pune (CoEP). 60 ideas have been selected for the second round of the competition. Some of the ideas selected include generating electricity from road traffic; self-healing roads; developing a handheld printer with limitless print area and low power consumption amongst others This contest was for engineering, technology and science students and they were invited to submit their innovative ideas around the theme ‘Towards Better Mobility and Energy’. 1100 tudents spread across in 17 states from more than 114 science and engineering colleges submitted over 400 innovative ideas. . Students from the qualifying teams have now started working on their Proof of Concepts (POC) to get their idea shortlisted for the final round.
Projects making good progress will qualify for the final round of Sparkle 2015. This will be held on 22nd of March, 2015 on the grounds of College of Engineering, Pune. Eminent judges will evaluate the projects and announce the winners of Sparkle 2015 who will win prizes worth INR 20 Lakhs and nationwide recognition. The event will be open to public.
49,000 college teams from across the world compete in TCS CodeVita coding challenge: Tata Consultancy Services, (TCS), (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS) a leading IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced on February 26 that more than 49,000 college teams from all across the world actively competed in its global coding challenge for students, CodeVita. In a hard-fought, marathon finale which lasted over six hours, the fifteen teams solved coding problems and algorithms in a highly gamified environment which tested the competitors’ technical knowledge, their ability to execute and implement computer code in a structured setting as well as their speed, agility and creativity. The team comprising Marijonas Petrauskas and Karolis Greblikas from University of Edinburgh, UK bagged CodeVita’s 1st prize of $10,000. The team from IIT Hyderabad – Vinay Guthal and Pushkar Singh walked away with the 2nd prize of $7,000, while Jonathan Anthony and Luis Alberto from Universidad Nacional from Peru bagged the third prize of $3,000.
“As world goes Digital and technology increases its impact on our lives, it is important for young students to learn the art of coding, the ability to leverage technology and building application and solutions. It is a vehicle to unleash their creativity to make new things and have an impact on those around them,” said N Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD. “Global Competitions like TCS CodeVita help us engage with young students from across the world in a very inter-active and engaging manner.
All the 30 finalists also won Internship Offers from TCS in their respective country subject to the local rules and regulations.
This is the third year that TCS CodeVita has taken place. The coding challenge is now considered among the largest competitions of its kind for students anywhere in the world. In the 2014 edition, more than 130,000 students from across the world registered for the event.
Chennai school wins the Texas Instruments Science & Technology Quiz 2015
Maharishi Vidya Mandir Chetpet, Chennai represented by G Pranav Hari and S Pranav Kamesh, emerged national winners of the Texas Instruments Science & Technology Quiz 2015 held in Bangalore on February 21 The winning team overcame stiff competition from the other finalists (one each from the other four regional teams – Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore) to lift the coveted trophy presented to them by Santhosh Kumar, President & Managing Director, Texas Instruments India. DPS Noida (Delhi) and The Heritage School (Kolkata) finished second and third respectively in the national finals. The event drew an enthusiastic response from school students from Bangalore and other regions who massed the venue and passionately cheered the winners and the finalists. Members of the team that won the national finals were awarded attractive prizes like Macbook Air notebooks and TI calculators while their school was awarded a trophy.
Hitherto known as the ‘Jack Kilby Quiz’, the TI Science & Technology quiz is an annual national event for high school students of class 8, 9 and 10 and has been providing a platform for bright young students to test their skills of inquiry and scientific thinking. “TI understands the value of a well-informed future workforce. With the objective of encouraging the adoption of a multi-disciplinary approach to learning, the students through this quiz, are assessed on their knowledge of the various dimensions of science and technology. Students are critical to creating innovative solutions for the world’s biggest challenges and by instilling a passion for science and technology into the minds of these future innovators, we hope to accelerate their interest in this direction.” said Santhosh Kumar, President and Managing Director, Texas Instruments India.
Vodafone Derek’s Faster, Smarter, Better Challenge’: A national inter-school skills fest, conceptualized by Vodafone India, came to a grand closure in New Delhi on February 20 with Devika M Narayanan, Mathews Boban, Gokul S from Saraswathi Vidyaniketan, Kochi being declared the Champion of Vodafone Derek’s Faster, Smarter, Better Challenge. Six finalistswere selected from amongst 1100 schools across 40 cities clashed in a battle of wits and intelligence in this unique contest conducted by Derek O’Brien. Felicitating the winners in the city, Apoorva Mehrotra, Business Head- Delhi, Vodafone India said, “By supporting this quiz contest, we want to propagate the skills of being faster, smarter, better which also resonates with the proposition of Vodafone’s 3G network. We are confident that the inquisitive youth of today find this platform both engrossing and a rewarding experience in their continuing journey for knowledge of business with out-of-box thinking.”
Vodafone, through the ‘Faster, Smarter, Better Challenge’ initiative, began a movement focused at developing school children’s all round personality, engaging them in activities that encouraged them to think logically, speak confidently, improve memory skills and be more aware of what’s happening around them. In short, it helps students be ‘Faster. Smarter. Better.’ The program was open to students of Standard 8th to 12th
Since 2012, Vodafone has been conducting the Derek’s Faster Smarter Better Challenge, in association with quiz company Derek O’Brien & Associates
‘The Arts of the Possible: Here, There and Everywhere with the Humanities: Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, on March 13 organized a discourse on ‘The Arts of the Possible: Here, There and Everywhere with the Humanities. 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.”
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 were among those who spoke.
