SMVDU Katra, 23^rdNov. 2018. Dr. Sanjeev Jain, Vice Chancellor, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), Katra chaired the maiden meeting of Faculty Development Centre on Campus. The Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India, has recently approved the up-gradation of existing Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC) to Faculty Development Centre (FDC) at SMVDU under Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT) Scheme, informed Mr. Vora, Technical Officer, FDC, SMVDU. Notably, SMVDU is the only approved centre in the J&K State. The meeting was attended by coordinators and co-coordinators (FDC); Dr. Rakesh Jha, Associate Dean, R&D; Mr. Romesh Singh, Finance Officer; Mr. Vinod Sharma, Admn. Officer; Mr. Kamal Sharma, University Engineer, and others. The Vice-Chancellor congratulated the team on the up-gradation of HRDC to FDC at SMVDU and approved the activities to be taken up by the Faculty Development Centre (FDC) during the academic session 2018-19, while the emphasis was on delivering the maximum throughput to the intellectual fraternity including of neighbouring states, especially with a focus on benefitting the teachers of border/remote areas of J&K. The meeting concluded with a formal vote of thanks by Prof. D. Mukhopadhyay, Coordinator, FDC, SMVDU.

SMVDU Katra, 14^th Nov.18. The Directorate of Quality Assurance (DQA) at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), Katraorganised its 4th Meeting under the Chairmanship of Prof. Sanjeev Jain, Vice-Chancellor, SMVDU which was attended by Registrar, SMVDU; Additional CEO, Shrine Board; Finance Office; Administrative Officer; Deans and Head of various Schools and Section Heads, as reported by the Media Cell, SMVDU. The meeting commenced with the minutes confirmation of 3rd Meeting, and the Action Taken Report based upon them. Further, the agenda items of the present meeting were discussed, including facilitating the creation of a learning-centric environment; development and maintenance of institutional database through MIS; development of quality culture in the institution; initiatives taken up by the DQA for performance monitoring; review of question papers; student feedback on teaching learning; among others. Notably, the faculty members and administration of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University is committed to make SMVDU a world-class university, and in this direction positive steps has already been taken. Significantly, the university has been listed in the NIRF ranking, MHRD under top 100 Indian universities and found mention in Times Ranking List. The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks presented by Prof. Garg, Director, DQA, SMVDU.

SMVDU Katra, DrArifBillah Dar, Assistant Professor, School of Economics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), Katra, delivered an invited talk at School of Social Sciences & Humanities, BITS,Pilani Dubai Campus. The title of his talk was “Exchange Rate: Determination & Volatility in India”. The talk was attended by the students, research students and faculty members of BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus. Dr. ArifBillah thanked the administration and expressed his gratitude to dr. Sanjeev Jain, Vice Chancellor, SMVDU for giving him an opportunity to showcase his research.

SMVDU 13 Nov. 2018. Mr. Sumanta S. Sharma, Assistant Professor, School of Philosophy & Culture (SoPC), Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), Katra presented a research paper in World Congress on “Square of Opposition”, recently held in Orthodox Academy of Crete, Greece (01-05 November 2018) which was much appreciated by the researchers and academicians. This was the 6th World Congress organized on the square of opposition after very successful previous editions in Montreux, Switzerland 2007; Corté, Corsica 2010; Beirut, Lebanon 2012; Vatican, 2014; Easter Island, 2016, as reported by Mr. Sharma. During this interdisciplinary event gathering, Mr. Sharma got an opportunity to interact with logicians, philosophers, mathematicians, semioticians, theologians, cognitivists, artists and computer scientists. The faculty member thanked his research guides, namely Dr. Anil K. Tewari, Head, SoPC and Dr. Madhu Mangal Chaturvedi, Faculty, SoPC for their guidance and motivation, and further expressed his gratitude to Dr. Sanjeev Jain, Vice-Chancellor, SMVDU for providing him with this opportunity to discuss contemporary issues related to modern logic.

The square of opposition is a logical structure coming from Aristotelian logic. It has been continuously studied during two thousand years. Even Frege, one of the main founders of modern mathematical logic, used it. It can be applied to many fields, ranging from metalogic to highway code, through economics, music, physics, colour theory, theology. Mr. Sharma’s paper entitled, “The Incommensurability of Squares” was appreciated by scholars and researchers for its philosophical rigor and novelty.

SMVDU Katra, 22^stNov. 2018. Dr. Sharada M. Potukuchi, a Plant Scientist & Faculty, Biotechnology, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), Katra presented her research in the international conference organised in Paris, France. During her keynote address on “Medicinal Plant Biotechnology in India”, Dr. Potukuchi focused on the therapeutic compounds derived from herbs that are major part of medical prescriptions worldwide. The organisers, namely the Allied Academy, recognised the research potential of Dr. Potukuchi, and invited her for the event. The faculty member also presented results of her recent work, carried out along with her doctoral candidate, Ms. Savita Sharma, through an oral presentation on “Annual Variation in the Production of Boeravinone B in Different Plant Parts of BoerhaaviadiffusaL. - A Medicinally Important Herb". Notably, the conference was attended by plant researchers from leading universities and research institutionsworldwide, including US, Europe, Middle East, South Asia, and South America. Dr. Sanjeev Jain, Vice Chancellor, SMVDU believed that academicinteraction would help strengthen international collaborations and joint research projects so much so to elevate the research aptitude in SMVDU. Dr. Sharadaexpressed her gratitude to Dr. Sanjeev Jain for providing her with this opportunity to share her expertise with researchers from allied fields of plant sciences and natural medicine.

SMVDU Katra, Nov. 2018. Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University is famous for imparting out-of-the-box learning to its pupils, and in this context the School of Languages & Literature recently organised an educational tour to Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla where the students and research scholars of languages & literature visited the prestigious institute and got a chance to get acquainted with the glorious past of the country. Around 40 students and research scholars along with the faculty members, namely Dr. Amitabh V. Dwivedi, Dr. SimranPreet Kaur and Dr. Ranbir Kaur, who assisted the students to Lalit Kala Academy; State Library; State Museum; and other buildings of literary and cultural importance during their four-day visit. The students showed keen interest in the rich literary and cultural heritage of the region, and their conduct during the tour was well appreciated, as reported by Dr. Dwivedi, coordinator of the educational tour & head of the school. The students thanked the coordinator for organising such academic activities in the school, and hoped for such learning experiences in future as well. The tour was the part of extension learning activities, regularly held in the school each semester. All students submitted a report on their return, and awarded with a certificate. Dr. Amitabh V. Dwivedi expressed his gratitude to Dr. Sanjeev Jain, Vice-Chancellor (SMVDU), for providing the school with such opportunity for collaborative learning.

SMVDU Katra, 26^thNov. 2018. A TEQIP-III Sponsored one-week hands-on training on "Open Source Software Linux (Ubuntu) &LibreOffice" (26-30 November, 2018)started at ShriMata VaishnoDevi University (SMVDU), Katra. Thistraining program is organized in collaboration with IIT Bombay Spoken Tutorial, NMEICT, (MHRD). The key objective of the hands-on training is to encourage the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in academic and industry sector. In this context, in the first phase of this program, the non-teaching staffs of SMVD University would get trained. Mr. Vipin K.Gupta, Director, U-Net Solutions & U-Net LabsPrivate Ltd.,delivered the expert lectureonhands-on training during one-week program. Dr. Sachin K. Gupta, Assistant Professor, SoECE& Central Co-ordinator, Spoken Tutorial Project, SMVDU stressed that the conduction of this program is possible with the support of Ms. HajraBano, Training Coordinator (J&K), Spoken Tutorial Project, NMEICT, MHRD, IIT Bombay and Dr. SumeetGupta, Associate Dean (AcademicAffairs) &TEQIP-III Co-ordinator, SMVDU. Dr. Gupta thanked, Prof. Sanjeev Jain, Vice-Chancellor SMVDU for his constant motivation and valuable support.

SMVDU Katra, 06^thNov. 2018. One-week Faculty Development Programme (FDP) on ‘Academic Writing: Theory & Praxis’ (01-06 Nov. 2018), organised by School of Languages & Literature concluded at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), Katra. The programme received a huge number of participation across J&K region and from different Indian states. Also, the SMVDU students and research scholars participated and got benefited from the sessions on research & academic writing. Expert resource persons, including Prof. D. P. Kothari (IIT, Delhi); Prof. Sukhdev Singh (NIT, Patna); Dr. Miranda Das (TISS scholar); Prof. K. Chakravarti (Visiting Professor, Uni. of California); and in-house faculty members, including Dr. Amitabh V. Dwivedi; Dr. Anil Tewari and Dr. Anurag Kumar conducted various sessions on ‘abstract writing’; ‘formulation of hypothesis’; ‘plagiarism prevention’; ‘academic & non-academic writing’; ‘research and ethics’; and alike. During the valedictory session, Dr. Anil Tewari, Head, School of Philosophy & Culture, graced the occasion as a Chief Guest, and congratulated the School for organising successful FDP on such a relevant topic. Dr. Anurag Kumar, Convener, FDP, and Dr. SimranPreet Kaur, Treasurer, FDP, presented a vote of thanks, and expressed their gratitude to Dr. Sanjeev Jain, Vice-Chancellor (SMVDU) for encouraging the school to organise academic and research activities on regular basis. Ms. Isha Malhotra and Dr. Ranbir Kaur, faculty, School of Languages and Literature shared their views on the occasion.

SMVDU, Katra 26^thNov. 2018. The School of Philosophy & Culture (SoPC) of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), Katra, convened its Board of Studies meeting on 26^th Nov. 2018 in the Conference Room of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FoHSS) which was was chaired by Prof. (Dr.) D. Mukhopadhyay, Dean, FoHSS. The meeting was attended by Prof. (Dr.) Sanil V. from the Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Delhi, Dr. Sumeet Gupta, Associate Dean (Academic Affairs), SMVDU, Dr. Anil Kumar Tewari, Head, SoPC, Dr. MadhuMangalChaturvedi, Asst. Prof. and Mr. SumantaSarathi Sharma, Asst. Prof., SoPC. The Board discussed the matters pertaining to different courses offered by the School of UG and PG students of engineering and sciences. The School placed a proposal of the Project for Epistemic and Spiritual Empowerment of People (PESEC) before the members of the Board. Under this open project, the School envisages to launch different certificate courses useful for various working group in the society. The Board also discussed the possibility of offering a postgraduate program in Vedic Studies along with the existing Master of Philosophy and PhD programs. The proceeding was conducted by the Head of the School Dr. Tewari. The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to the chair.

SMVDU Katra, 05^th Nov. 2018. Dr. Rakesh Kumar of School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra delivered an invited talk on “Applications of Queuing Systems with Customers’ Impatience” in the 27th International Conference of Forum for Interdisciplinary Mathematics (FIM) in association with 3rd Convention of IARS on Interdisciplinary Mathematics, Statistics and Computational Techniques (IMSCT 2018 –FIM XXVII), held during Nov. 02-04, 2018in the Dept. of Statistics, Uni. of Jammu.Dr. Kumar discussed the important applications of queuing models with customers’ impatience in supply chains, perishable inventory systems, computer-computer-communication networks, order picking systems, and in hospitals. He highlighted the role of transient solutions for queuing models as the real life systems normally work under certain time frames-the time-dependent performance measures assume a great significance in analysing such systems. He also chaired asymposium on “Queuing Theory and its Applications” where a number of speakers shared their research work in the area of queuing theory. Dr. Kumar expressed his gratitude to the organisers of conference.

SMVDU Katra, 04^thNov. 2018. The School of Languages & Literature at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, organised expert lectures by Prof. D. P. Kothari, former Vice-Chancellor, VIT, Vellore and ex-Director, IIT, Delhi, on how to publish a book, research papers, and academic articles during one-week (01-06 Nov. ‘18) Faculty Development Programme (FDP) on ‘Academic Writing: Theory & Praxis’. The session was attended by participants, research scholars and faculty members, and they expressed their gratitude to the esteemed professor, as reported by Dr. Anurag Kumar, Convener, FDP. Notably, Prof. Kothari has published 50 books on prominent topics and 830 academic papers in national and international journals of good repute. Prof. Kothari, a multilingual in 10 languages, motivated and inspired the participants for publishing quality papers, articles and books for their academic growth as well as for the progress of their respective institutions. Dr. Amitabh V. Dwivedi, HoD, School of Languages & Literature, presented a vote of thanks to Prof. D. P. Kothari for his time and words of wisdom.

SMVDU Katra, 15^thNov. 2018. The School of Philosophy & Culture (SoPC) of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), Katra celebrated the World Philosophy Day on 15^th Nov. 2018. On this occasion, a special lecture on “Challenge to Reason and the Doctrine of Momentariness” was conducted where Prof. Kisor Kumar Chakrabarti, (retd.), Distinguished Professor & Chair of Philosophy and Religion, Dept. of Religion &Philosophy, Davis and Elkins College, USA and Adjunct Professor,SoPC, SMVDU, talked about the Greek philosopher Zeno’s paradox and 11^th century AD Nyaya philosopher Udayanacarya’spratibandha-asiddha argument against the Buddhist doctrine of momentariness. The lecture was attended by the faculty members, students and staff members of different schools and sections. The World Philosophy Day was proclaimed by UNESCO to be celebrated every 3^rd Thursday of November which is a speculative date of birth of the famous Greek philosopher Socrates. It was first celebrated on 21^st November 2002. Since then the Day is celebrated every year under the leadership of UNESCO. By celebrating the World Philosophy Day, the enduring value of philosophy for the development of human thought, for each culture and for each individual is highlighted. The celebration was concluded with a vote of thanks by Mr. Sumanta Sharma, Asst. Prof., SoPC. Vice-Chancellor, SMVDU, Prof. Sanjeev Jain, congratulated the philosophy fraternity on the Day.

3^rdNov. 2018. Dr. Amitabh V. Dwivedi, Head, School of Languages & Literature, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University delivered an invited talk at BanasthaliVidyapith in one-week National Workshop on ‘Academic Writings: Material, Method, Manner’ sponsored by PMMMNMTT-MHRD, GoI and organised by Dept. of English & Modern European Languages wef 28 Oct.-03 Nov. 2018. The faculty member dealt with issues related to how to publish research, drafting publishable content, abstract writing, formal and informal writing style and testing the readability test. Dr. Veerendra Mishra, Coordinator, showed his gratitude to Dr. Dwivedi for his invaluable contribution as resource person, and wished that he would visit BanasthaliVidyapith for such academic activities regularly. Dr. Dwivedi’s session was attended by the students, research scholars and faculty members, and the audience thanked Dr. Dwivedi for his time and words of wisdom.

SMVDU Katra. The research students of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) never miss a chance to bring laurels to the institution. Until recently, Ms. Verruchi Gupta, SRF, School of Biotechnology, presented a research paper entitled “Cloning & NGS analysis of gene encoding Asparaginase enzyme from a glacier in Northern Western Himalayas, J&K, India” in the 3^rd International Conference on Clinical Metagenomics 2018 (ICCMg3) at University of Geneva, Switzerland. This prestigious international conference was organized by La fondation privée des HUG, Geneva where more than 200 scientists and delegates from UK, USA, Japan and European countries attended and presented their researches. Notably, Ms. Verruchi was the only flag-bearer from India who has been pursuing her doctoral research under the supervision of Prof. V.Verma and Dr. Shafaq Rasool in the School of Biotechnology, SMVDU. The candidate thanked her supervisors for their support and guidance, and expressed her gratitude to Dr. Sanjeev Jain, Vice-Chancellor, for providing doctoral students with a conducive environment for research in the university.