SMVDU Katra: The North India Student Parliament (NISP) – a non-political platform for sensitizing the youth for nation building, was inaugurated by Dr. Jitendra Singh, the Hon’ble Minister PMO, at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University on 26th March. The two-day event witnesses participation of more than 100 outstation participants, from as far North East as Dibrugarh. Dr. Jitendra highlighted in his speech the role of NISP as an internship of a responsible citizenship and values of democracy. The parliamentary model that our country adopted after independence is though in its infancy stage – if compared to the history of polity, yet it has proved its worth and acceptability for last 70 years. The success of the parliamentary model has compensated various pitfalls that one may point out. We often compare the success or failure of a governance type with the age of mortal human beings and find it easy to blame the government, but one must remember that in case of a country – a civilization, histories are written in centuries. The most remarkable feature of Indian democracy is that the common man in India has grown much wiser than the politicians. The old tricks of politicians – the politics of caste, creed, religion and the politics of disruption are failing now. A voter today does not approve of the politics of disruption, people are not going to forgive the politics of disruption. Growth and development is the main chord, not the opportunistic politics. In a country like India where the demography is dominated by youth, the guidelines of development should be youth-centric, rather the entire future rode-map should be youth-centric. It is important for all of us to understand that the young generation is at departure from the earlier age and outlook of political values.

Dr. Sanjeev Jain, the Vice Chancellor highlighted in his address the need to understand and strengthen the democratic values among the younger generation which is more techno-centric and he also emphasized the fact the SMVDU has already taken initiative in this regard by introducing a platform like NISP. Prof. V. K. Bhat Registrar, Dr. Yugal Khajuria Dean of Students, Dr. T. R. Raina, Guest of Honour shared the dais. Dr. V. K. Tripathi, President BCA presented welcome address and Mr. Chandan Maurya student coordinator presented the vote of thanks. Dr. T. R. Raina in his talk highlighted the benefits of yoga, particularly for a stress-free life for youth. Prof. S. K. Sharma, former State Information Commissioner elaborately presented to the students the history of Jammu and Kashmir and its Constitution. Dr. Ashutosh Vashishtha spoke on the present economic scenario of the country and the challenges for the youth.

Dr. Kakali Majumdar, from Department of Economics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University presented paper in Global Business and Social Science Research Conference at Melbourne, Australia during 23 – 24 February, 2017. Rendezvous Hotel Melbourne 328 Flinders St, VIC 3000 was the venue of the conference. Prof. Bob Clift Former Dean, University of Melbourne, Australia was the Conference Chair.

The title of the paper presented by Dr. Kakali was “Measurement of Growth and Trend Breaks of Pulse Production in India: An Empirical Study”. Besides the research explanation with regard to the prospect and problems of pulse production in India vis–a-vis World, the different measurement related advancement as well as the uses of various kinked models in growth estimation along with the trend breaks were discussed by Dr. Majumdar. She also got the opportunity to Chair a Session in the conference. Each and every session was very much interactive and informative.

Delegates from 14 countries namely Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, USA participated in the conference.

Dr. Kakali expresses thanks to the SMVDU authority for funding and encouraging her to avail the noble opportunity of attending such an enriching international conference at Melbourne Australia.

aaA Two-day International Conference on Renewable Energy for Sustainable Environment: Challenges and Remedies successfully concluded at SMVDU on 21st March 2017. The valedictory was presided over by Prof. V. K. Bhat, Dean of Sciences and the Registrar, SMVDU. The conference was organized by Dept. of Energy Management, the only institute in the State to offer such an interdisciplinary post graduate and doctoral studies in the Renewable Energy and Energy Management. The event was inaugurated by Mr. Chander Parkash Ganga, Hon'ble Minister for Industries and Commerce, J&K Govt with Prof. N. K. Bansal, Ex Vice Chancellor, SMVDU, Prof. D. Bhddhi, Vice Chancellor Suresh Gyan Vihar University in Jaipur, Prof. N. A. Rahim, UMPEDA Centre, University of Malaya, Malaysia being some of the prominent speakers. Dr. Sanjeev Anand, Convener of the conference briefed the participants about the conference. He apprised that the conference saw participation from around 150 participants from all across the state, country and abroad. The conference had 3 plenary speeches, 7 Keynote speeches and 14 Invited speeches by the speakers from within the country and abroad. There were many technical sessions for the oral and poster presentations.

Prof. V. K. Bhat in his valedictory address congratulated the organising team of the conference on its success. On the occasion, Prof. V.K. Bhat presented the awards for the best oral presentations in individual technical sessions to Miss. Samiksha Sikarwar, BBAU Lucknow, Mr. Satish K. Yadav, Lucknow Univ, Mr. Vinayak V Pathak, Gurukul Kangri, Haridwar and Mr. Sanjay Sharma, SMVDU. The awards for the best poster presentation in individual sessions were distributed to Miss. Vidya lakshmi, Central Univ. Rajasthan, Miss. Anita Verma, BBAU Lucknow, Miss. Mahak Gupta and Miss. Parushi Nagotra, Univ. of Jammu, Miss. Priyanka Chaudhary and Mr. Shakti Singh, BBAU Lucknow.

SMVDU Katra: Ms. Sheetal Bhat, a student of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, D/o Smt. Sweety and Mr. Pran Nath Bhat brought laurel to the University as she won First Prize in poster presentation in Health and Dentistry. She is perusing her M.Sc. in Biotechnology and is presently working under the supervision of Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Assistant Professor and Mr. Arvind Yadav for her dissertation work. She presented her poster on “Genetic characterization of human pulmonary neoplasm & its effect on human health” and her study laid stress on understanding the dynamics of lung cancer genetics and to target various biomarkers in respiratory secretions and tissue specimens, which hold promise for early, non-invasive diagnosis of lung cancer.

Dr. Rakesh Kumar is cancer biologist working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnology. All his major research projects focus on different cancers and presently his major research grants are on Breast and Lung Cancer funded by DST-Govt. of India and SERB-Govt. of India. He thanked DST-Govt. of India for sponsoring the recently funded research project on Non-Small cell lung carcinoma. The Vice Chancellor Dr. Sanjeev Jain congratulated the student and faculty for the award. He has been laying stress on quality work and encouraging the students for it. He laid emphasis on such studies and reiterated that these studies are commendable for their international standards, which will go a long way in patient care and data generation from Jammu and Kashmir. It is worth mentioning here that SMVDU has set benchmarks for the outgoing students of B. Tech. and M.Sc. for their dissertation work and such benchmarks will raise the standard of University. Ms. Sheetal Bhat thanked her supervisors and Head of the Department Prof. V. Verma for the guidance and support for study.

SMVDU, Katra: A Two-day International Conference on Renewable Energy for Sustainable Environment: Challenges and Remedies kick started in SMVDU on 20th March 2017, organized by Dept. of Energy Management. The event marked the presence of many dignitaries with Mr. Chander Parkash, Hon'ble Minister for Industries and Commerce, J&K Govt. being the Chief Guest on the occasion, Prof. N. K. Bansal, Ex Vice Chancellor, SMVDU, Dr. Sanjeev Jain, Vice Chancellor, SMVDU, Prof. D. Bhddhi, Vice Chancellor Suresh Gyan Vihar University in Jaipur, Prof. N. A. Rahim, UMPEDA Centre, University of Malaya, Malaysia.

The conference started with a welcome address by Dr. Sanjeev Anand, Convenor of the conference. He briefed the audience about the objective of holding such a conference and its interdisciplinary nature. He also apprised that the conference is having participation of around 150 participants all across the state, country and abroad. Giving focus on the theme of the conference he stated that there are extensive Plenary, Keynote and Invited Lectures and this would be followed by Technical Sessions (both Oral and Poster). Dr. Anand also informed the delegates that the Dept. of Energy Management is the only dept. in the State of Jammu and Kashmir to offer an interdisciplinary course on Energy Management.

Prof. N. K. Bansal, Sintex Chair Professor, CEPT University and Ex Vice Chancellor, SMVDU, deliberated on the need of energy conservation. He enlightened the audience about the role and position of the country in the global scenario and highlighted the role of oil storage and refinery in the country. He also deliberated upon the futuristic goals to develop the storage techniques, reduction in the oil usage and also insisted upon organising such conferences for making people more aware about the present issues. Prof. D. Buddhi stressed upon the extension of the research in the field of energy as the need of the present hour. Prof. N. A. Rahim stressed that it is the time to take appropriate action. He said the India being the oldest country on the map holds a greater responsibility for the initiative and should invest extensively in this direction. Dr. Sanjeev Jain, Vice Chancellor, SMVDU, stressed on the sustainability in the energy usage as an important factor. He insisted upon the rise in population and the ever changing life style as the factors for increased energy demands and also contributors towards energy wastage.

Sh. Chander Parkash, Hon'ble Minister for Industries and Commerce, J&K Govt., insisted upon the energy as the need of the hour and also stressed upon the all the necessary measures to be taken to ensure energy conservation in the state. He was also very particular that such events are essential for finding the remedies to the challenges faced in this sector and hence such conferences should be organised more often. Dr. Vineet Tyagi, Assistant Professor, Department of Energy Management, presented vote of thanks. The event was supported by many sponsors like Sterlite Power, Orkan Energy Pvt. Ltd. & Taylormade Solar Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

SMVDU Katra: Dr. V. K. Saraswat, an eminent scientist and former Director DRDO, visited Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University and delivered a special talk to all faculty members on 8th March. He highlighted the path for transforming science for the growth of the nation. He emphasized that without upgrading the education as per the need and challenges of the future, the education is not worthwhile. This can be done by providing skills, technical knowledge and creating sets of people to find solution to the problems. Without upgrading the education for the 3.0 G (generation), we can’t bring our country to the forefront. Education for 3.0 G means student-centric education, field-centric education instead of classroom-centric education, problem solving-centric education, and project based teaching-learning leading to creation of sets of capable people. The economic growth of the nation depends upon putting the science and technology to the right direction. We need to take the demographic advantage of the country by training the youth and that can only be possible by a spirited teaching. A good teacher must not confine himself just to imparting information, but must equip himself for training students to meet the challenges. We have to relate our education to the emerging demands of service-centricity and e-centricity of market, economy or even education. We can’t educate students the same way we have been doing so far.

The education must be in tune with the 6th wave of innovation. He quoted Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam who talked about a nano-mission for the nation. What we need is to be able to translate our research into innovation. People in India still lag behind in applying research to problem-solving of real life, real experimentation, design and manufacturing. Where we lack is the technology-readiness. In the present era of convergence of technology, our education must ensure technology-readiness; otherwise we shall not be able to take advantage of the demography. He also emphasized the sustainability question in terms of economy, society and environment and proposed that reuse and recycle technologies be invented and the motto of education should be “Education for Sustainability” which will in turn be sustainable education.

The talk was followed by extensive interaction and questionnaire session. Dr. Vandhana Sharma, Dr. Swarkar Sharma, Dr. Pabitra Jena, Dr. Ashutosh Vashishta engaged in dialogue with Dr. Saraswat. In answer to a question Dr. Saraswat emphasized the special ability of India, i.e., doing engineering in a frugal way, with less cost involvement as compared to some developed countries like USA. We need to recognize this strength. He substantiated his claim with examples of several missile projects, and India’s Mars Mission. He also emphasized on living in close communication with nature, a shastra-way of living that leads to sensitivity for protection and appreciation of nature. The Vice Chancellor felicitated him by presenting a memento. Prof. V. K. Bhat, Registrar, Prof. V. Verma, Prof. D. Mukhopadhyaya and all faculty members of the university were present. Dr. V. K. Tripathi presented vote of thanks

Ms. Sehar Shakeel Raina, Research Scholar, Department of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno University bagged 3rd Best Oral Paper Presentation Award in the category of Mathematical Sciences in 12th JK Science Congress held at University of Jammu during 2nd - 4th March, 2017. She presented a paper entitled Relative-Normal and Relative Quasi Normal Spaces.

In the past few years she has also achieved many prizes and awards including the prestigious Alka Memorial Award from Jammu Mathematical society, various prizes in One day Students Conferences and symposia organized by University of Jammu, Jammu Mathematical Society, Baba Ghulam Shah University and several other institutions. She has completed her master’s degree in Mathematics from SMVD U by securing Ist position. Presently she is perusing her PhD in Mathematics under the supervision of Dr. A. K. Das, Head Department of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra. Sehar expressed her heartfelt thanks to her parents and teachers for their guidance throughout her studies.

SMVDU Katra: Ashwani Nachappa, an accomplished former athlete and an Indian film actress from Karnataka, visited Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University on 3rd March 2017. She interacted with students in Matrika Auditorium; the hall was full of students. In her addressed she emphasized that everybody today wants to climb the ladder of success as fast as possible, but for every successful person the path has been the same and there have been challenges along the path of success, and one needs passion to meet the challenges. The difference is made not only by passion, but also by a deep interest in what one does – the interest makes the passion flow. What you do today should be different from what you did yesterday, with zeal and creativity. But remember, there are no shortcuts in life. You must feel lucky that your parents and this institution have given you everything you need. Now it is your task to shape your life. When you set your goals, you are the competitor of your own goals and the only way to succeed in such a competition is to excel not to compete. Excellence is not competition. The talk was followed by an extensive interaction session. Dr. Yugal Khajuria, Dean of Students, delivered a vote of thanks. Ms. Vedika Sumbli conducted the show.

It may be noted that Ms. Nachappa had won 2 silver medals in South Asian Federation games in 1984 hosted by Nepal. She had also won 2 silver medals, 3 gold medals in South Asian Federation Games in 1986 and 1988 hosted by Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively. She had also won Silver Medal in 4x100 m relay in Asian Games held in Beijing, China in 1990. During the interaction here, Mr. Ashok Sharma, Director Sports SMVDSB, Dr. V.K. Tripathi, President BCA, Mr. Rajeev Kumar, In-Charge Sports SMVDU, Cp. Sucha Singh Sports Coach. Mr. S. S. Sharma, Coordinator NSS, Dr. Pabitra Jena and Dr. Ajay Sharma were present. Ms. Nachappa also interacted with the Vice Chancellor Dr. Sanjeev Jain on promotion of sports and athletics at SMVDU. Dr. Jain also felicitated her.

Dr. Anil , Assistant Professor, Department of Biotechnology attended the 2nd European Organic Chemistry Congress on “Enhancing the New Innovations and Challenges in Organic Chemistry” held during March 02-03, 2017 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Dr. Anil delivered his talk entitled “Chiral Octahedral Complexes as Catalyst for enantioselective Organic Synthesis. In the present study unexplored family chiral hydrogen bond donor catalysts based on octahedral Cobalt (III) complexes have been synthesized and effectively applied for the enantioselective organic synthesis. The presented research work was conducted in Professor John A. Gladysz’s Lab, Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, USA and funded by Welch Foundation, USA and University Grant Commission, Govt. of India, under Raman Post Doctoral Fellowship. The work has been published in high impact factor Journals-Organic Letters-Inorganic Chemistry-published by American Chemical Society, USA.

The conference was organized to attract leading experts from academia and industries across the globe. The conference was attended by eminent experts from different countries which include USA, India, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, UK, Poland, Singapore, Mexico, Netherland, South Korea, Slovenia, Taiwan etc. Experts from industries such as Janssen Pharma R&D., USA, Merck and Co., USA, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., USA, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Singapore, Sun Pharma, India were also participated. Latest developments in the field of synthetic organic chemistry and Pharmaceuticals were deliberated and discussed during the conference. The visit was fully supported by SMVD University.