SMVDU Katra 30 Jan. The MA English students, namely Ayushi Sharma, Pooja; Pallavi Thakur, Sonali Sharma, Shiwali Sharma, Priya Pawar, and Jasdeep Singh of the School of Languages & Literature at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University presented papers in a two-day National Conference on “Multidisciplinary Approach to Gender Studies”, organized by Dept. of English at Govt. College for Women, Udhampur. The presented papers were on the themes, such as Indian Chick Lit; Ecology and Eco-feminism; Gender and Literature; Feminist Texts. The HoD of the School, Dr. Amitabh V. Dwivedi, reported that such presentations would be immensely helpful for the students as they are writing their Master’s Dissertation this semester. Further, he thanked the organizers for conduction a National Conference on such a relevant topic.

SMVDU Katra: Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University Technology Business Incubation Centre (SMVDU-TBIC), Startup Cell SMVDU under TEQIP-III and IP Management Standing Committee (IPMSC) SMVDU has conducted a free workshop on know-how of IPR and patent filing procedures on January 23, 2017. The workshop was conducted by Dr. Sachindra Pandey and Mr. Anupam Trivedi of K&S Partners, New Delhi, a TIFAC Govt. of India approved firm. The firm deals with all aspects of Intellectual Property rights including patents, designs, trademarks, copyright, geographical indications trade secrets and related matters. The main objective of this workshop was to increase the awareness of patent filing and its various aspects like how to search, draft including filing and prosecution procedure etc. Huge response for it has been received and more than 160 participants have registered for the workshop. Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University has recently revised its IPR policy and an IP Management Standing Committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Vice Chancellor Dr. Sanjeev Jain and Dr. Swarkar Sharma, Interim-CEO SMVDU-TBIC as nodal officer.

The purpose of the committee is to promote IPR in university and facilitation and management of Intellectual property in the institution.To begin with, IPMSC SMVDU will be seeking support of the K&S Partners to facilitate IP filing and signed an agreement with the firm for the purpose. SMVDU-TBIC also provides support to inventors from the State, to incubate their idea at SMVDU with financial support as well as exploitation of the IP support facility to seek patenting of their ideas. In continuation, SMVDU-TBIC is constantly supporting the Startups and potential entrepreneurs in the state keeping in view, the enormous capabilities especially in sectors of Engineering (Electronics, Robotics, E-commerce, GSM/GPRS based Technology, Alternative Energy Management, Biosensors), Information Technology, Architecture, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Agriculture, Horticulture, Handicrafts Hospitality & Tourism etc. TBIC Manager Ms. Nikita Jain and Secretary Mr. Vickey Kaw facilitate Incubatees. The focus of the team is on fostering entrepreneurial environment in the State of J&K. For the facilitation of all, SMVDU-TBIC has kept its online application portal open 24x7 at www.smvdutbic.org inviting the preliminary applications throughout the year.

SMVDU Katra 29 Jan.: “Choices made whether good or bad follow you forever and affect everyone in their path one way or another,” is the aim of one-week training program on “Effective Decision Making” for Indian Forests Services (IFS) officers at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, inaugurated on 29 Jan. The programme is being organized by School of Business, Faculty of Management, with the financial support from Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India. Describing the resources and scenic beauty of University, Prof. D. Mukhopadhyay, Dean, Faculty of Management, welcomed the participants and mentioned the relevance of theme of training program.

Program Coordinator Dr. Jyoti Sharma extended warm welcome to the participating IFS officers nominated by MoEF for the program. She appraised the participants about the event. While introducing with the aim of the program, she underlined that the program will provide a helping hand to the participants to get an understanding about the different aspects of problems, generation of creative solutions, and deciding of which solution most closely matched their needs. Vice Chancellor Prof. Sanjeev Jain also conveyed his best wishes for the program. Registrar Prof. V.K. Bhat congratulated the organizing team for regular conduction of such kind of programs at SMVDU. The training programme will comprise of various interactive sessions which will be conducted by eminent resource persons to highlight a variety of creative problem-solving and decision-making tools and techniques and to develop successful and effective solutions. One day field visit will also be the part of the program. The IFS officers participating in this program belong to 19 different States of India including Gujrat, Karnataka, Madhya Pardesh, Assam, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and J&K etc.

SMVDU Katra: With the emergence and growth rate of Technology in today's world it is advantageous to know the tit-bits of the various fields of the IT industry and have an exposure to it at student life itself. To make sure of the same, Members of FOSS@SMVDU organized "Linux Week", a peer teaching-learning event which focused on to make the students of B.Tech. comfortable with the Linux Environment and aware about the world of Free and Open Source Software(FOSS) which we use in our daily lives in some or the other way.

The event continued for a week, starting from the basics advancing each day, students were taught about the various technologies related to Linux and FOSS relevant today. The event was attended by around 60 B.Tech. Students. They also witnessed a Special Guest Session in which they got to interact with 3 experts working in IT industry, who also empower Women in Tech by running Indian Chapters of Various International Groups like PyLadies, LinuxChix etc. Pushplata Ranjan, Senior Software Engineer at Essentia SoftServ & Leader of PyLadies Delhi, Shivani Bhardwaj, Software Engineer at Essentia & Organizer of LinuxChix India and also an alumnus of SMVDU, and Priyal Trivedi, Full Stack Developer at Analytics Vidhya & Organizer of LinuxChix India were the Guest Speakers. They motivated the students to actively begin in the world of Tech, guided them on how to contribute to Linux and gave them tips and real exposure of the IT industry for securing internships and jobs easily.

The organizing team included the Students of 2nd & 3rd Year of School of Computer Science & Engineering who have knowledge and experience of Linux & FOSS. The event was a great success and gave the students hands on experience on Linux Environment along with the utmost needed industry exposure. More events are promised to be organized by the FOSS@SMVDU & Code-Club team.

SMVDU: Students of the School of Languages & Literature, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Aaradhana Bandral and Akshay Rayna attended the Jaipur Literary Festival, the largest Free Literature Festival in the world held at Jaipur from 24th-29th January, 2018. During the 5 Day Event, students got a chance to interact with world’s renowned Nobel laureates, Man Booker Prize winners and prominent literary figures like Shashi Tharoor, Homi Bhabha, Dipanker Gupta, Anurag Kashyap and Amish Tripathi. These writers had sessions on “Banned in India”, “Whose Interpretation is it Anyway?”, “Manto: The Man and the Legend”, “Republic of Rhetoric: Free Speech in India”, “Prisoners of Conscience”, “Why I am a Hindu”, etc. It is pertinent to mention that Jaipur Literary festival brings together some of the renowned academicians from and across the South East Asia and the world. It was an enriching and vibrant experience for the students.

SMVDU 22nd August, 2018: A Five-Day National Workshop on “Research Methodology & Current Research Trends” (22-26 January 2018) being organized by School of Languages and Literature was inaugurated in the auspicious premises of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra. Dean Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Dr. Varun K. Tripathi was the Chief Guest of the inaugural session. Also, Prof. Sudhir Pandey from Ahmedabad University, Gujarat and Prof. Hemanga Dutta, Post-Doc. (MIT, Cambridge US) from Department of Linguistics and Contemporary English, EFLU, Hyderabad were the eminent dignitaries present on the occasion. There are sixty participants, including local participants and delegates from different States. Dr. Anurag Kumar, Assistant Professor, School of Languages and Literature, convener of the National Workshop, presented the welcome address. Dr. Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi, Head, School of Languages and Literature and the coordinator of the event presented the inaugural address in which he informed that during the Workshop, the professors and experts from the IIT Kanpur, IIT Roorkee, JNU, New Delhi, Banasthali Vidyapeeth, University of Kashmir, and in-house expert members will deliver expert lectures. Further, he highlighted how this national workshop will provide an exclusive platform for intensive discussions on a variety of facets of research methodology. Dr. Varun Kumar Tripathi, Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences presented the formal address and highlighted the significance of such workshops on research. In his address he also congratulated Dr. Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi and his entire team for enthusiastically organizing such valuable events. Further, Ms. Isha Malhotra, Assistant Professor, School of Languages and Literature concluded the session by proposing the vote of thanks.

SMVDU Katra: The 69th Republic Day was celebrated at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University with fanfare and gaiety. Vice Chancellor Prof. Sanjeev Jain took the guard of honour given by the security staff and unfurled the National Flag at 10am at the inaugural plaza. In his public address, he highlighted that the present day education system has a great onus as it has to enrich and equip the upcoming generation with adequate skills and acumen for self-employment. Knowledge has to be translated into services; it has to be directed towards solving the problems of our society. He also congratulated the faculty and staff of the University for showing a missionary temper for taking the University to the heights it deserves. He also briefed about the new projects for infrastructure development, new academic programs, and new facilities which are rapidly coming up. He also expressed satisfaction over the NBA accreditation achieved by the School of Business this year.

The students presented a cultural program on the occasion, in which Palak Sharma and group presented a song; Theater Club presented a mime directed by Raghav Thakur, Anurag Sharma presented a bhajan, Ipsila Verma and group presented a musical performance. The kids of faculty and staff and the kids of Vikalp program also presented cultural performances. Certificates were given to the various winners of in-house events and to the participants of the 7 Day Workshop on Indian Constitution organized by the School of Philosophy & Culture, which was coordinated by Dr. Anil K. Tewari. On the occasion, Prof. D. Mukhopadhyay Dean Faculty of Management, Registrar Prof. V.K. Bhat, Dean of Students Dr. Yugal Khajuria, Deans of various faculties and Heads of Schools, faculty, staff and members of families were present. Dr. V.K. Tripathi, President BCA welcomes all guests and Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Vice President BCA presented vote of thanks. The cultural session was conducted by Kushboo Julfi and Paras Dubey.

SMVDU Katra: Students of School of Economics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University won the RBI Policy Challenge-2017 regional round competition. The team comprises of Mr. Vimarsh Padha, Mr. Snehin Gupta, Ms. Manvi Gupta and Ms. Suphal Sharma under the guidance of Dr. Pabitra Kumar Jena, Assistant Professor, School of Economics. The team has qualified for the Zonal round of the competition to be held at New Delhi on 2nd February, 2018. The above team would get Rs. 10, 000 as cash prize for qualifying in Regional round.

The contest is organized annually by The Reserve Bank of India in order to spread awareness regarding financial matters and promotion of better understanding of monetary and economic issues. This is a national level competition for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Vice Chancellor Prof. Sanjeev Jain, Head of the School of the Economics Prof. B. Kamiah and all faculty members of the school congratulates students.

SMVDU 26 Jan. 18, Katra. A Five-Day National Workshop on Research Methodology and Current Research Trends (22-26 Jan. 2018), organized by the School of Languages & Literature, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, concludes on 26 January 2018. The last day session starts with the National Anthem, thereafter lectures and presentations by Prof. T. Ravichandran, IIT Kanpur on Cybercriticism. Prof. Varun K. Tripathi, Dean (FoHSS), graced the Valedictory Session as the Chief Guest of the event. Dr. Amitabh V. Dwivedi briefed that the Workshop had insightful conglomeration of thoughts by Prof. Rajnish Mishra and Prof. Gopal Ram Parihar from JNU, New Delhi, Prof. Hemanga Dutta from EFLU, Hyderabad, Prof. Sudhir K. Pandey from Uni. of Ahemdabad, Prof. Veerendra Mishra from Bansathali Vidyapeeth, Prof. Sheikh, Uni. of Kashmir, and also there were sessions by the in-house Faculty members, including Prof. Varun K. Tripathi, Prof. Anil K. Tewari, Prof. Madhu Mangal Chaturvedi, Dr. Anurag Kumar and Dr. Amitabh V. Dwivedi. The organizing committee members, Dr. Ranbir Kaur and Ms. Simran Preet Kaur, informed that there were 60 participants, including local and outstation. In order to maintain seriousness of the event compulsory attendance and feedback from the participants were also collected. The Report of the Workshop was presented by Ms. Isha Malhotra.

SMVDU Katra: Prof. Devdas Bikulal Latta joined as Head of the School of Mechanical Engineering, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University. Prof. Latta has a vast teaching and research experience of around 30 years. He has previously served in BIT Mesra, Ranchi. Prof. Latta is specialized in Thermal and Internal Combustion Engines. Apart from one book, he has published around 25 research papers both in international and national journals of high repute. Prof. Latta has completed 04 sponsored projects. He is also serving editorial board member and reviewer of various international journals. The faculty members of School of Mechanical Engineering, SMVDU welcomed Prof. Latta in the School.

SMVDU Katra: The School of Philosophy & Culture, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, organized a Ten-Day “Workshop on Indian Constitution” from 16th – 25th Jan. 2018 to create awareness among the students regarding the principles and provisions of Indian Constitution and Indian Political System. This is in pursuit of preparing an informed and responsible citizenry for a better future of our Nation. Total 20 students from various streams registered for the workshop. The main topics covered were the Historical Background of Indian Constitution, Preamble, Union and its Territory, Citizenship, Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles of State Policy, Fundamental Duties, Executive, Legislature and Business of the Union and also a survey of the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir State. The resource persons of the workshop included Dr. Varun Kumar Tripathi, Assoc. Prof., Dr. Anil Kumar Tewari and Mr. Sumanta Sarathi Sharma, Asst. Profs., SoPC along with two students, Mr. Ratandeep Sharma (15BEC017) and Mr. Abhinav Shukla (14BEC004), who were the winner and runner of the last year’s workshop. The workshop concluded with a quiz to assess the level of learning of the students. The prizes were given in recognition to their excellent performance in the quiz. Mr. Akshit Gupta (15BME005) secured First Prize and Mr. Sandeep Kumar Tiwari (16DSE002) won Second Prize. Mr. Kumar Vaibhav (14BME023) and Mr. Abhishek Kumar (14BME003) shared Third Prize. Two students Mr. K.V. Harishankar (17BME015) and Ms. Palak Magal (16BCS032) were given Consolation Prizes. The prizes were distributed by Prof. D. Mokhopadhyay, Dean, Faculty of Management, in the presence of Dr. Yugal Khajuria, Dean of Students, Dr. Varun Kumar Tripathi, President, Board of Cultural Activities (BCA) and the workshop coordinator Dr. Anil Tewari. The prize distribution concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Vice-President of BCA. Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor Prof. Sanjeev Jain congratulated the students for their success and lauded the efforts of the students and the faculty members for conducting such workshops.

The School of Philosophy & Culture, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, organized an interactive session on “Exchanging Ideas for Transforming India” to celebrate 155th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the sage and visionary of modern India, on 12th January 2018. The session was moderated by Dr. Anil Tewari, Asst. Prof., SoPC. He began by saying that the event is organized to encourage the students to learn about the life, ideals and philosophy of Swami Vivekananda and apply them in their lives so as to become a valuable and harmonious part of not only the Indian society but also of the whole world. Students and faculty members of different Schools of the University participated in the event and exchanged their ideas. The interaction was followed by a meditation session.

SMVDU Katra: Dr. Sushil Kumar, Head, Geophysics Division and a noted Geologist, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, an autonomous institute of Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, delivered an invited talk on Active Tectonics and Himalayan Fault System and large earthquake generation to the students, Research Scholars and Faculty members of School of Physics. He introduced to the audience the phenomenon of earthquake generation viz a viz various earth processes. He discussed the fault types, source characteristics, foreshocks, aftershocks etc. He informed the students that only four great earthquakes have occurred in past 100 to 150 years and no great earthquake has occurred in past 68 years which becomes a reason for us to be prepared and focus on increasing awareness so that people are encouraged to build only earthquake safe structures. He encouraged and that more and more students particularly from physics background should work on understanding earthquake processes. He also briefly introduced some of the techniques such broadband seismology, GPS, tools for geomorphology etc. to understand the earthquake sources and the structure of the earth. Towards the discussed in detail the opportunities that are available at WIHG for pursing research work in various areas including Geophysics. In the end a question answer session was also held. Dr. Yugal Khajuria, Head School of Physics, thanked the speaker for sparing time to interact with the students of the School of Physics.

The Hindi Cell of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra organized the celebration of World Hindi Day (Vishva Hindi Diwas) on 10th January 2018. The celebration began with the invocation of Dr. Anil K. Tewari, Nodal Officer of the Cell, regarding the need of celebrating this Day. He informed that it is meant for popularizing Hindi language in the world and above all enabling the language to be adopted in the study of science and technology. To showcase the possibility, a presentation on the relevance of solar energy was made by Vibushit Gupta, Rudraksh S. Gupta and Nipun, M. Tech students of School of Energy Management. They informed that the Central Government provides 70% subsidy for the installation of solar panels for household purposes. In the end, Nikhil Khajuria, B. Tech student of School of Mechanical Engineering cited his Hindi poem titled “Behan”. The event concluded with a vote of thanks by Mr. Vivek Kumar, student Coordinator of the event.

24 January 2018 Katra: The School of Languages & Literature at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University organizes Extension Lecture Series for MA and PhD (English) Students on 23-24 January 2018 by the eminent professors. Prof. Rajnish Mishra and Prof. Gopal Ram Parihar of JNU, New Delhi gave a talk on “Philosophical Approaches to Literature” and “Writing Dissertation: Dos & Donts” respectively, Prof. Hemanga Dutta of EFLU, Hyderabad discussed “Basic Issues in Phonetics & Phonology” and “Issues in Sociolinguistics”, Prof. Sudhir Pandey of University of Ahemdabad, talked about “How to Write Dissertation”, and Prof. T. Ravichandran enlightened the audience with his lecture on “Anthropocene in Post Modernism”. Dr. Amitabh V. Dwivedi, Head, School of Languages & Literature informed that all the distinguished professors also participated and gave a talk in a Five-Day National Workshop on Research Methodology & Current Research Trends (22-26 January 2018).