Education – Page 3 – Karnataka First

You have honoured all daughters of India: President tells Hubballi Dharwad

President of India Droupadi Murmu was accorded civic honour by Hubballi Dharwad Municipal Corporation(HDMC) on September 26

President of India Droupadi Murmu, who was accorded civic honour by Hubballi Dharwad Municipal Corporation(HDMC) on September 26, termed the honour as ‘an honour to all the daughters of the nation’.

The President said, “By honouring a person like me, who comes from a humble background, you have honoured all the daughters of the nation.” The audience responded with a huge round of applause.

Earlier, the President was accorded ‘poura sanmana’ (civic honour) by Hubballi Dharwad Mayor Iresh Anchatageri, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi in the presence of Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot, former chief minister Jagadish Shettar and other MLAs.

The President began her speech by recollecting the contribution of the twin cities of Hubballi Dharwad to the field of education and music. She said that she was very happy to be in Hubballi Dharwad, which had great cultural significance and are known as ‘Vidya Kashi’ (the Kashi of education).

Referring to the history of the region and contribution of Hubballi Dharwad to the field of art, culture, education and also the freedom struggle, she recalled the names of Kittur queen Chennamma and Baba Sahib of Naragund. She also cited legendary vocalists Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Basavaraj Rajguru and Gangubai Hangal, and their contribution to the field of music.

The President said that she would like to congratulate the people of Hubballi Dharwad as they were living in twin cities, which contribute immensely to Karnataka and the nation. She said the people of the twin cities had not forgotten their roots and culture while embracing technology. “You have not forgotten history while embracing science for development,” she said.

‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’

Recalling the contribution of freedom fighters from north Karnataka, she said that the country is celebrating ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, and by the time it celebrates 100 years of independence, it would be ‘developed’ and ‘Atmanirbhar’.

Earlier, welcoming the dignitaries, Mayor Iresh Anchatageri briefed them about the region and twin cities. Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi referred to the contribution of the region to music, literature and education. Of the eight Jnanpeeth award winners from Karnataka, five are from Dharwad, known as the land of literature and music, he said.

The Union Minister also briefed the audience about the life of President Droupadi Murmu and elaborated on how, coming from a humble tribal family, she became an elected representative and rose to the position of President of India.

Karnataka Ministers Halappa Achar and Shankar Patil Munenakoppa, MLAs Prasad Abbayya, Arvind Bellad and Amrut Desai were among those who attended the event.

Neev Literature Festival 2022: Roopa Pai, Anushka Ravishankar, and Paro Anand among the authors line-up

The festival will be held at the Neev Academy Campus, Bengaluru, on September 24 and 25

The annual Neev Literature Festival (NLF), which celebrates children’s books, will be back physically after being online for the last two years due to the pandemic. The festival in Bengaluru will be held at the Neev Academy Campus, Yemalur, on September 24 and 25.

The theme for this year’s festival, ‘Reading takes you places’, according to the organisers, focuses on the power of books to set one free to experience new places – real and imaginary – and explore various cultural perspectives.

The festival will host a myriad events with noted authors, librarians, award–winning filmmakers, and storytellers discussing and interacting with the audience on a plethora of topics. It features over 92 sessions with over 60 speakers enlightening young minds on topics ranging from climate change to writing from conflict zones.

Roopa Pai, Anushka Ravishankar, Paro Anand, Jane De Suza, Samina Mishra, Venita Coelho, Shabnam Minawalla, Sandhya Rao, Bijal Vaccharajani, Arundhati Venkatesh, and Menaka Raman are among the speakers

Attendees can also check out a curated marketplace of books for readers of all ages.

The festival also will release a report, ‘State of Indian Children’s Writing’, which talks about how the children’s book market is small and dominated by Western titles. “The profession of children’s writing must also become more financially sustainable in India,” says Kavita Gupta Sabharwal, co-founder and curator of the festival.

“The Neev Literature Festival in its sixth edition aims to evangelise the power of reading for lifelong learning, and the power of Indian stories for building identity,” she adds, “With changing family structures and constant digital invasion, children’s books are now the literary mirrors, and windows to the whole world of possibility. Indian books, meanwhile, focussed on personal chronology, mythology and folk tales are wonderful, but must also convey the Ideas of India@75 and the hopes of India@100.”

On the first day, the jury members of the Neev Book Award will announce the winners in all the four categories: Early Years (5-7 years), Emerging Readers (6-8 years), Junior Readers (9-12 years), and Young Adult (13-18 years).

Two-day meet on Ayurveda inaugurated

A two-day national conference on ‘Ayurveda Dhara’, inaugurated on Friday at The University of Transdisciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (TDU) in Bengaluru, stressed on the need to revitalise traditional health knowledge and its relevance. The TDU university Vice Chancellor Darshan Kumar said the aim of the conference is to strive for achieving ‘Ayurveda Vision 2047 ‘.

Calling it a complex domain, Kumar said that India can become a leader if there is successful integration of various sciences along with the traditional knowledge of Ayurveda. Prof Ganti Suryanarayana Murthy, National Coordinator, Ministry of Education, called for promoting Indian knowledge system from the primary school level to higher education.

Pramoda Devi, member of the erstwhile Mysore royal family and Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush were present. The conference is jointly organised by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture and TDU.

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Mangaluru girl Rudra Rajeev finishes 2nd in Karnataka State Under 11 Girls Fide Rated Chess Champion

Rudra Rajeev, a 11-year-old girl hailing from city finished runner-up at the Karnataka State Under 11 Girls Fide Rated Chess Championship 2022. Rudra has been selected for the National Championship at Gurugram, Haryana.

Rudra had an unbeaten run in 8 rounds scoring 6 wins and 2 draws and tied for the first place along with Sidhi Rao from Bangaluru. Rudra was adjudged second on tie-breaks.

Rudra is a class 6 student of Lourdes Central School, Bejai and daughter of Nisha and Rajeev residing at Kadri.

Mangaluru: SDM college student Samuel Simson wins silver in South India level shooting

Samuel Simson, a first year LLB student of SDM Law College here won the silver medal in shotgun trap shooting South India Zone level held in Hyderabad and also qualified for National level upcoming event soon. He is the only first shooter from Dakshina Kannada district to have won the silver medal in the state level as well as South India level age of only 19 years.

He is the son of Royprakash Simson and Cheryl Simson, owner of Simson Gun House Bajpe.

Samuel said, “Due to term exams, without practice I could manage to participate in the competition and win the medal, All the credit should go to my father because he supported me.”.

“It is very tough in Mangaluru for the shooters because we don’t have any firing ranges in our district. Hence I requested my father to open one shooting academy in here since he is a leading gun dealer in the country,” he added.

Chalshiksha, India’s first education film festival, in Bengaluru this weekend

The festival will see independent filmmakers telling stories of innovative education practices as well as educators using cinema as a medium to teach

Come weekend, Bengaluru will witness Chalshiksha, a first-of-its-kind three-day residential film festival that will celebrate education in all its forms through the medium of films.

More than 35 independent films and documentaries will be screened at the festival organised by SchoolScape Centre for Educators and Project Nomad in association with Abheek Lifeversity. It will be held from September 23 to 25.

With the Union government’s new education policy soon to be implemented, teacher-educators believe it is time for education to be reviewed. Chalshiksha is attempting to do that through films, as the visual medium offers a fresh avenue for a relook at education and schooling.

Amukta Mahapatra, Director of SchoolScape, was part of an innovative programme some years ago called “Neel Bagh”, run by educationist David Horsburgh. “When Neel Bagh completed 50 years, Sourav Dutta, who runs Project Nomad, documented it but failed to find good avenues to showcase his work. When he approached me, I suggested that we screen it as part of this film festival,” she says. Dutta’s film David and his Neel Bagh will be screened on the first day of the festival.

Coming together of films and education

Chalshiksha will see independent filmmakers telling stories of innovative education practices as well as educators using cinema as a medium to document the field. The line-up includes both fiction and documentary films, on topics such as child labour, autism and educational initiatives.

While films on education are not given due importance in India, Mahapatra says given the didactic nature of many films, educators are also unsure how to use them effectively.

According to organisers, the event will seek to explore how filmmaking and education can go hand in hand and encourage filmmakers to make films around education, especially in India.

Mahapatra says they have been overwhelmed by the number of films received for the very first edition. “There are enough films being made on this field and we have more than what we can screen for this edition. So, we are making a repository that will be made available to the public soon.”

Open to public

To make the event truly democratic and inter-generational, the organisers have thrown it open to the public. Children, parents, teachers, school heads, filmmakers as well as educationists are expected to come together, blurring the lines of hierarchy.

The event will be attended by well-known names from the worlds of education and filmmaking, including Arvind Gupta, Deepa Dhanraj and Vijay Padaki.

Apart from film screenings, Chalshiksha will also feature plays, talks and open discussions. To make it an interactive experience for young ones, activities like yoga, bird watching, storytelling workshops, theatre games have been organised.

The residential event is being held at the Ecumenical Christian Centre in Whitefield and will have facilities to host participants who wish to stay onsite for the festival. Spot registrations are available too.

For more details about the event and to register, visit http://chalshiksha.schoolscape.org.

NLSIU medal winners secure jobs at London law firms

Medal winners share their experiences at the institution, challenges and impact of COVID-19 on their college life

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) awarded gold medals to 48 graduates during the convocation across different programmes. Amongst them, three students from BA LLB (Honours) programme — Saurabh Gupta, Vrishank Singhania and Pallavi Khatri — received eight, seven and six gold medals respectively, the highest this year. Speaking to The Hindu after receiving their medals, the trio said that they were all going to London to work in law firms soon. They also shared their experiences at NLSIU, the challenges and the impact of COVID-19 on their college life.

Mr. Saurabh won the most number of medals, including the Basant Kumar Birla Medal for the II Rank Student. Hailing from Chandigarh, he described his experience at the top law school as “life changing”. “The journey has been full of ups and downs. It helped me grow as a person and helped me explore what I wanted to do in the future,” he said. After a Masters programme in University of Oxford and a two-year job at a law firm in London, he plans to practise law at the High Court in Chandigarh.

Good support system

The medal winners said that as much as the experience at NLSIU was enjoyable and highly academically beneficial, they underwent a lot of stress. “As we are a small, competitive college, it is quite stressful and is a high-pressure environment. It is a constant challenge as there are a lot of expectations, not just academically, but to perform in other areas as well. However, you learn to cope with it overtime and it gets better with a good support system”, said Mr. Vrishank from Hyderabad who was awarded the Indira Khaitan Medal for University First Rank and Sarala Birla Medal for the overall topper along with the Best Outgoing student medal.

He added that while he missed social interactions during the pandemic, academically, the virtual classes worked out well. “As there are a lot of activities like moot courts, debates and committees involved in law school, the COVID-19 period gave me the time to slow down and introspect and focus.,” he said. He is currently working with a Supreme Court Lawyer in Delhi and will work in London for two years after that. Upon his return to the country, he plans to have a career combination of litigation and academia in his future.

Ms. Pallavi from Chandigarh won the Kumari Devi Menon Memorial Medal for All-round Best Graduating Girl Student and Ms. Anuradha N. Memorial Medal for Best Outgoing Female Student along with four others. When asked about the challenges she faced as a woman in the University, she said “It was pretty similar to what women in face in the other areas of life. While NLSIU is a really open, progressive, liberal community, there are a few bad apples everywhere. From one or two people, you face a little bit of sexism and instances of unsavoury comments. But otherwise, professors and everyone else are very supportive. There are also many collectives in the university which work towards reducing prejudices in the college.”

She will soon be joining a magic circle firm in London where she will work as a commercial lawyer in the corporate department. She wants to have a business of her own in the future and is looking to build a safety net and get some exposure before that.

Legal aid trust

Ashwini O., who graduated from the LLM programme, secured the M/s. Sitaram Jindal Foundation Gold Medal for the Best Outgoing LL.M. Student hailing from marginalised background. In 2013, she graduated from the same law school in LLB and worked in the corporate sector thereafter.

A little while after that, she realised that her true interest lay in litigation and started her career in the field with Ravivarma Kumar, former Advocate General of the State. She practiced before the High Court of Karnataka. “I really enjoyed picking up causes, filing PILs and litigating. Then I felt the need to get back to academics and came back here”, she said.

Ms. Ashwini also runs her own legal aid trust — Dhwani Legal Trust where child rights and women’s rights are the main focus of work. “We work with domestic violence victims and also create legal awareness which providing legal aid.”

Open access digital repository of academic resources unveiled by Azim Premji University

It is the first-of-its-kind digital repository of academic resources translated from English to Indian languages

‘Anuvada Sampada,’ touted as a first-of-its-kind open access digital repository of academic resources translated from English to Indian languages, was unveiled by Azim Premji University here on Tuesday.

Aimed at making these resources freely and widely available to students, teachers, teacher educators, etc., across the country, the repository has close to 2,000 academic resources and growing and is currently available in Hindi and Kannada.

The translations repository was launched by the Vice Chancellor of Azim Premji University, Indu Prasad and seeks to address the paucity of high-quality academic resources in Indian languages at the graduate and post-graduate level. The initiative, said a release, will enable students, academics, and practitioners to mine, use and reuse academic resources in sciences, social sciences, humanities, and languages. The repository is also expected to help promote original writing, reading, deliberation and discourse in Hindi and Kannada.

“Non-availability of academic resources in Indian languages is a major constraint in expanding access to education and ensuring inclusion. We believe this initiative will help students engage more deeply with concepts and ideas currently available only in English, encourage nuanced debates, and develop perspectives in diverse contexts,” said Hriday Kant Dewan, who leads the initiative at Azim Premji University.

The repository includes select academic resources for postgraduate programmes in education and development, and undergraduate programmes in arts, sciences, and diploma courses. Besides these, there are select articles from journals, extracts or complete chapters from books, podcasts, short films, brief lectures, and panel discussions related to higher education.

Articles focused on various aspects of school education from different publications of Azim Premji University like Learning Curve, At Right Angles, I wonder.., and Pathshala, apart from books and research studies published by Azim Premji Foundation, form part of the collection, added the release.

The University is also in the process of seeking copyright permissions from various publishers to expand the number of open access academic readings on the site.

Anuvada Sampada is available at: https://anuvadasampada.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/.

IISc researchers fabricate pressure sensors that use paper as the medium

Paper-based electronic devices are gaining greater attention owing to their natural biodegradability, excellent flexibility, porous fibrous structure, light weight, and low cost

Several industrial, automotive, and healthcare applications rely on accurate and precise measurement of pressure. Flexible and wearable pressure sensors are typically fabricated using petroleum-based polymers, but the solid waste generated from using such non-biodegradable plastics is harmful for the environment. To avoid this issue, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) have now fabricated pressure sensors that use paper as the medium.

According to an IISc. release, a pressure sensor detects physical pressure and converts it into an electrical signal that is displayed in the form of a number indicative of its magnitude.

Nowadays, paper-based electronic devices are gaining greater attention owing to their natural biodegradability, excellent flexibility, porous fibrous structure, light weight, and low cost. However, paper-based sensors developed so far have certain disadvantages.

The team of Navakanta Bhat, professor at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE) and corresponding author of the paper published in the ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, has proposed a design for the paper sensor that, by virtue of its structure and multilayering, achieves high sensitivity and can detect a broad range of pressures (0-120 kPa) with a response time of 1 millisecond.

The sensor is made of plain and corrugated cellulose papers coated with tin-monosulfide (SnS) stacked alternatively to form a multi-layered architecture. SnS is a semiconductor that conducts electricity under specific conditions.

“Paper in itself is an insulator. The major challenge was choosing an appropriate 3D device structure and material to give conductive properties to paper,” says Neha Sakhuja, a former PhD student at CeNSE and the first author of the paper.

When pressure is applied on the sensor’s surface, the air gaps between the paper layers decrease, increasing the contact area between these layers. Higher contact area leads to better electrical conductivity. On releasing the pressure, the air gaps increase again, thus decreasing the electrical conduction. This modulation of the electrical conductivity drives the sensing mechanism of the paper sensor, explained the release. “Our key contribution is the simplicity of the device. It is like creating paper origami,” said Prof. Bhat.

“The sensor shows promise in being developed into a flexible and wearable electronic device, especially in the healthcare sector. For example, the research team mounted it onto a human cheek to investigate the motion involved in chewing, strapped it to an arm to monitor muscle contraction, and around fingers to track their tapping. The team even designed a numeric, foldable keypad constructed using the in-house paper-based pressure sensor to demonstrate the device’s usability,” added the release.

Mangaluru: Snehalaya, White Doves founders among AICU awardees

All India Catholic Union (AICU) is honoring two unique social activists, apart from an Everester, a national gold-medalist Karnataka athlete, an eminent jurist, the apex body of Catholic bishops, and two of its own past national presidents at its AGM in Old Goa on October 1.

A simple rickshaw driver who created a unique shelter home for the destitute takes pride of place in a galaxy of women and men found worthy of recognition by the 103-year-old All India Catholic Union. The AICU is in Goa for its first physical meeting after the Covid pandemic.

The awardees are Snehalaya, Shanti Dham founder Joseph Crasta; gold medalist high jumper Flavisha Velisha Monteiro and Arunachal Pradesh’s Tagit Sorang Abraham who has summited Mount Everest multiple times win special awards for their outstanding feats. Others awarded by the union are social activist Corrine Antoinette Rasquinha, and the noted jurist Justice John Michael D’Cunha.

While the Catholic Bishops Conferences of India has been cited for a special award for its stewardship of the church in India, the AICU has honoured for their lifetime services to the union and the church two of its past national presidents, Dr Maria Emelia Menezes, the eminent educationist and industrialist, and eminent writer and human rights activist.

Joseph Crasta’s is a journey rarely seen. On August 26, 2009, the birthday of St Teresa of Calcutta, Crasta, a poor rickshaw driver with a family to look after, started a shelter for the homeless under the banner of ‘Snehalaya’. In just 13 years, with his share of ancestral property and help from friends, he has seen Snehalaya now boast of separate Psycho-social Rehabilitation Centers for men and women, ‘Snehalaya Shanti Dham’, a home for the aged, and ‘Snehalaya Mannat’, which provides daily midday meals to over 700 caretakers of patients and runs a free ambulance emergency service.

AICU Community Award winner and White Doves founder Corrine Antoinette Rasquinha too has taken a leaf out of the Saint of Kolkata in caring for maggot invested sick, also rescuing since 1992. She started with her own funds, and in time had a home for disadvantaged and single parent children. Over 160 young people have benefited from her work.

For Justice John Michael D’ Çunha, many of the cases brought before him have been of high profile politicians. His honesty and integrity, especially while sitting as judge of the special court to deal with over 216 criminal cases against MPs and MLAs from Karnataka, are part of contemporary history.

Young national gold medalist high jumper Flavisha Monteiro has sports in her genes, but her career was honed under coaches Balakrishhna and Harshini Kumari. The daughter of Felix Monteiro and Flavia D’Souza, Flavisha is studying law at the SDM Law College, Mangaluru. She first participated in the National Junior Athletics Championship 2016 held at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

For Tagit Sorang Abraham, the only double mountaineer from the state of Arunachal, basic mountaineering training in 2013 from National Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports soon led to his first expedition to Mt Kungto in 2017, Mt Chiumo base exploration in 2018, Pre-Mt Everest Expedition in 2018 at a height of 6120 meters, and Mt Kang Yaste in 2019 at a height 6250 meters. He joined the First Indian Joint IMF & NIMAS Winter Bailey trial trekking expedition in 2021 and summited Everest South Expedition at a height of 8848.86 meters on May 31, 2021.

AICU’s lifetime achievement awards go to two national presidents, Dr Maria Emelia Menezes, 2000-2004, and Dr John Dayal, 2004-2008.

Dr Menezes is a prominent industrialist in Goa and is a prominent name in the India pharma sector. She is also a respected educationist and philanthropist. She broke the glass ceiling in the then 80-year-old All India Catholic Union becoming its first woman president elected in the two yearly elections in 2000 AD. She encouraged deep internal administrative reforms and fund generation in the Catholic union, making it near self sufficient in its work. Her leadership of AICU’s participation in the relief work of the Gujarat earthquake and the tsunami are specially remembered.

Dr John Dayal, who worked with Dr Menezes as her national vice president, was elected head of the AICU in 2004. A member of the National Integration Council and a well-known senior journalist of the country, Dr Dayal is equally well known for his work in human rights and civil liberties spanning five decades.