Chandigarh March 24, 2022

Products made by participants sell like hot cakes

Panjab University’s workshop based on the research project “Transforming India’s Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable Food Supplies (TIGR2ESS)” ended here today. More than 20 Indian and UK institutions have been involved in the project. Many faculty members from several teaching departments of PU are members of this project under the overall leadership of Prof Ramanjit Johal of the Public Administration department.

As part of the program today, an exhibition was held by the trainees from these villages at the Student Centre displaying the items made by them under this project which sold like hot cakes. In addition, a policy dissemination workshop was held at the Golden Jubilee Hall. The first session chaired by ex-IAS Suresh Kumar was on sustainable farming wherein Prof Suveera Gill assessed sustainable farming practices in Punjab.

Prof Suveera Gill started the first technical session by informing about her work on sustainable farming. She enlightened the audience about various facets on farming in Punjab with various comparisons from 1966-67 to 2019-20. These include the area under each crop, the MSP, and terrestrial water and how they’ve changed over time. Data was collected from 71 villages across 6 districts in Punjab via field visits, interviews and the use of secondary data as well. The session included a presentation on malnutrition in villages and how it can be tackled.

Discussion on problems related to farming in Punjab

Ex IAS Suresh Kumar, who was a panelist in the first technical session stressed that there has to be a policy to shift farmers from paddy. He added that Punjab’s groundwater is rapidly decreasing and without an intervention in near future, it will be a major issue. For example, Punjab can increase its maize production by incentivising the same which is not being done by the policymakers. Mr Kumar said, “5000 years ago, Punjab had 38 crops, today we have just 4 left.” He also said that policy needs to be changes as per needs on the ground. Farmers in the audience questioned why policymakers were not doing enough to mitigate the side-effects of the green revolution. Some wanted to know why MSP was not being introduced for more crops along with market incentives. To this, Mr Kumar said, “Farmers are willing to and waiting for change but system needs to facilitate it”.

For nutrition and well being, the session was chaired by Dr R Padmaja & Prof Shumone Ray. The presenters in the session included Dr Amanjot Kaur, Chef Jaswinder Singh, Ms Bharati Goel and Dr Bharati Garg. The next session on Skill and Entrepreneurship was chaired by Prof K Narayanan & Prof Srijit Mishra. Prof Monika Aggarwal analysed the skill gap in Fatehgarh Sahib and Amritsar and also informed of the entrepreneurial intervention in two villages. The presentation on soft skills training that was imparted to the youth was presented by Dr Bhawana Gupta.

Finally, Prof Shailaja Fennel from University of Cambridge joined the discussion virtually and  spoke about the way forward in adopting a systems approach towards sustainability. Closing remarks were presented by Prof Shumone Ray and Prof Ramanjit K Johal.

A brief description of the various activities and studies undertaken for this project are as under:

• To study sustainable farming, a qualitative analysis of 125 farmers was carried out and gave insight into their experiences and challenges as well as their suggestions on factors aiding the scaling up of sustainable agricultural practices. The viability of farmer producer companies and the costing of nutritionally balanced north-Indian thali was worked out to capture the institutional and dietary facets of farming and food.
• An action-oriented study was conducted in village Pandwala, Mohali and Bagh Sikander, Fatehgarh Sahib with an intention to impart sewing training to rural women, to foster entrepreneurship among select rural women and to establish microenterprises. With sustained efforts and interventions, a significant change in mindset was noticed in terms of becoming more creative, self-sufficient and taking up entrepreneurship as source of sustainable living. Finally, two SHGs were created and became operational.
• An online 6-week Soft Skill Development Workshop notably improved tangible and technical skills such as resume-writing, official documentation and communication, use of ICT and social media, video-making, personal grooming and interview skills at the end of the programme. A total of 34 participants (volunteers, employees and students from the international NGO- Youth Football Club, Rurka Kalan, rural Jalandhar) attended the programme. The objective was enhancing the ‘employability’ of rural and peri-urban youth, with special focus on women, by improving their skill levels.
• Under the Nutrition intervention, nutrition curriculum was developed for rural women and in partnership with MBCT, Bassi Pathana, and PSDM, Ludhiana Centre three were held. In both male and female trainees, consciousness of being healthy eaters and enhanced knowledge about basic nutrition food groups, the food platter etc. was noted. Notable changes in their daily eating habits – eating at the right time, appropriate water consumption, including different food sources in diet etc. were observed. Yet another set of workshops focused on helping budding chefs from various places in Punjab.
• Nutritious Kitchen Garden (setting up PoshanVatikas) intervention has been carried out in two villages – Pandwala (SAS Nagar) and Bagh Sikander (Fatehgarh Sahib). The target group was school students and rural women. The intervention was carried out using various knowledge sharing practises such as lectures, demonstrations, participatory activities revolving around three aspects – nutritional, operational, and commercial.

Chandigarh March 22, 2022

“Any criminal offence is created by three factors- Victim, crime scene and criminal. All these factors constitutes to form the crime triangle”- as stated by a renowned forensic scientist, Dr Ikramul Haque, who is currently working as the Director at CFSL (MHA), Chandigarh. Dr. I. Haque delivered a special lecture on “Role of Forensic Science in justice delivery system with special reference to sexual assault case examination” as a part of National Lecture Series being organized at the Institute of Forensic Science &Criminology, Panjab University, Chandigarh. The Chairperson, Dr. Vishal Sharma hosted the webinar and welcomed the guests by giving a brief introduction regarding the topic of webinar. He said that the importance of Forensics in India cannot be overstated. The recent years have witness a sharp rise in number of sexual assault cases with extremely low conviction rates. In order to improve the conviction rates we need to bridge the gap between Investigating agencies and the Forensic examination laboratories. He also added that more sensitive techniques needs to be used in the evidence examinations, creation of trained human resource in Forensic Science and above all the full potential of forensic science needs to be utilized  in all crimes cases as forensic science plays an eminent role in providing valuable evidence from crime scene.

The Chief Guest of the National lecture Prof. Renu Vig, Dean University instructions, Panjab University in her inaugural address explained the use of artificial intelligence in Forensic Science. She explained the use of Artificial Neural Networks ANN in automatic number plate reading of automobiles and in automated handwriting identification system. She further added that a design incubation centre has been established in Panjab University where students are working on various new ideas.

Dr. Haque, discussed the legal aspects of Forensic Evidence India in reference to the various sections stated under CrPC and the amendments that have been made over the years. He mentioned that there are four key players in solving any criminal case- Police officials, Medical officer, Forensic expert and judicial system. The involvement of these four players is crucial in solving any case. He even said that the rate of conviction for sexual assault cases is very low in India i.e. around 30% which needs to be addressed immediately. The main aim of his talk was to bring all the stakeholders on the same page in order to contribute to enhanced rate of conviction and to better understanding of limitations of Forensic Examinations and impediment in analysis. The lecture was made more interesting and knowledgeable with the discussion of real time cases solved at CFSL, Chandigarh. He even enlightened the audience with new technologies being used in DNA fingerprinting involving STR analysis. The entire lecture proved to be very informative as it welcomed the queries of young minds from various departments and institutions.

The vote of thanks was given by Dr. Jagdish Rai, faculty at the Institute of Forensic Science & Criminology.  The lecture was attended by about 100 participants including faculty members, scientists and students from all over India.Dr. Vishal Sharma, concluded the webinar by  saying that the web lecture was planned to aptly fulfil the need of such programs so that awareness can be spread across the general public, students and the officials to become aware of the modus operandi and type of crimes prevailing in the country.

Chandigarh March 22, 2022

• Fostering the Boundaries of Fashion Design and Technology Course for Enhanced Employability
• A 7-Days Online Faculty Development Programme was organised from 15-21st March 2022. Valedictory of the Faculty Development Programme was held on 21st March, 2022.  

THEME: Fostering the Boundaries of Fashion Design and Technology Course For Enhanced Employability

UGC-Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC), Panjab University, Chandigarh (under the aegis of RUSA) and University Institute of Fashion Technology & Vocational Development conducted this programme where participants from different places in India – Patiala, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Jalandhar, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Noida, Delhi, Gurugram and different disciplines such as Fashion, Textile, Leather, Home Science, Anthropology, Literature etc. joined.

Dr. Anu H. Gupta, the FDP Co-ordinator and Chairperson of UIFT, elaborated on the uniqueness of this FDP, which had an inter- and multidisciplinary approach and the focus was to impart skill sets to students of fashion, design, and technology courses to make them employable. Many interesting topics related to the theme were dealt with in the programme, like: Evolving Designers for the Industry, Textile Crafts of India-Sustaining a World of Tomorrow, Leadership and Entrepreneurship as a Designer, Experiential Marketing, Industry Academia Partnership for Enhancing Student Employability, Technology-An Opportunity for Apparel Export Organizations to Improve Supply Competitiveness, Image Building and Branding, Secret Life of Products, Innovation and Start-Ups, Merging Art & Science: Trending Technology Uses in Fashion Industry etc. Every session of FDP was engaging where the latest technology, techniques, processes, innovations, and research in the fields of fashion, apparel, textiles, design technology, education, start-ups, and entrepreneurship were deliberated.

At the valedictory function, Prof. Sanjay Kaushik, Director, ICSSR NSWC, was the chief guest. He stressed that the apparel, textile, and design industries are contributing in a big way to our lives and the economy, but they can contribute even more. The need of the day is to make our youth employable. The skill gap between industry and academia can be bridged by organising such programmes where teachers are sensitised so that they can contribute back to the organisations and students.

Prof. Jayanti Dutta, Deputy Director, UGC-HRDC, congratulated the Coordinator of FDP, Dr Anu H. Gupta, and the Co-coordinators, Dr Rita Kant and Dr Avanish Kumar, from UIFT, for the success of the programme. She remarked that teachers can transform the personalities of learners if they are updated and deliver teachings, experiences, research, etc. and she emphasised the role of UGC-HRDC in updating teachers. She said that the programme is only successful if the learning from it is taken back to the final beneficiaries, i.e., the students.

Two participants presented the review of the complete FDP programme: All sessions were highly engaging, interesting, and very relevant to the area of study. Some of the eminent resource people who gave input were:

Ms. Taran Ahuja, Coordinator of Capstone and Project Subject, University of Technology, Sydney, reflected on how to make technical graduates more employable. She described how the University of Technology collaborates with students and industry on several initiatives to bridge the gap and prepare them for their future profession. During the workshop, she provided an overview of a capstone project that their university is working on so that students can be involved in a variety of projects/startups begun at different levels.

Prof. Ramakrishnan G, Head of Fashion Technology at Kumara Guru College of Technology in Coimbatore, elaborated on the skills needed for future employment in fashion and industry 4.0.

Ms. Meeta Kumar, Head of Design, Womenswear, Style Union Mumbai, spoke on the topic “Evolving Designers for the Industry: Academia-Industry Collaboration.” She stated that with more and more people buying and using products, physical and digital companies are looking for skilled designers to create beautiful and user friendly designer outfits. She said that it is not just about designing products, but designing complete experiences with elaborate and complicated systems.

Nita Thakore, a textile artist and design educator from Ahmedabad, elaborated on the impact of COVID on people’s ideas, ideologies, and shifts in adopting slow fashion and purchasing from zero-waste enterprises. She spoke about several efforts that are being attempted to help craftspeople. She talked about the concept of ‘Paritran,’ how she experimented with bringing craft to school, and the steps that could help inculcate sensitization among children through the medium of cloth books.

Prof. Sushil Raturi, Department of Fashion Management Studies at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Mumbai, explained how the experiential marketing idea may be implemented in retail businesses to increase consumer satisfaction.

Ms. Anupama Singal, Co-Founder of SLICeR, Singapore, explained the importance of learning digital technologies and virtual applications like online-campaigning, 3D fashion, digital fashion, etc. that can give an edge to the skill set of the students.

Mr. Apaar Gupta, Founder, Designcart.com Ecommerce Service, Pitam Pura, Delhi, explained the requisites, process, channels, and challenges for starting a start-up. He mentioned that a long-term vision, continuous research and exploration, persistence, and passion are required for a start-up.

Prof. Archana Gandhi, Academic Head of the NIFT New Delhi campus, spoke on technology as a means for clothing export firms to boost supply competitiveness.

Rasika, an entrepreneur, the founder of Studio Rudraksh, and a stylist, provided valuable insight into how to educate students for a career in fashion in the new normal world. She contributed her understanding of business in fashion to researching retail trends and comprehending e-commerce, as well as the importance of technologies such as AR, VR, and 3D printing. She discussed new-age textiles such as banana fibre, lotus fibre, and bamboo.

Aparna Rampal, Technical Program Manager, WITEKIO, USA, elaborated on the phases involved in developing a product, including ideation (concept), product definition (discovery), prototyping and design, validation and testing (customer acceptance), launch (commercialization), and what should be done to ensure one product’s success in the market.

Dr. Rana Mukherji of the ICFAI University, Jaipur, emphasised the essentials of a start-up and mentioned that in order for a start-up to be successful, one should work on the idea’s stability and scalability. He also emphasised the role of incubation centres at various organizations.

Prof. Nandita Shukla Singh of Panjab University, Chandigarh, highlighted how Gandhiji’s philosophy of self-reliance is mirrored in NEP 2020 and what academia is supposed to do to educate students for vocational education, skill-based education, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary education/approaches, and train students to be self-reliant.

Prof. Sunil Dutt from NITTTR, Chandigarh explained the various dimensions of blended learning and flipped classrooms and how technology can be used most effectively for students.

Mr. Gurmeet Singh, CEO, GS International, Ludhiana, gave an insight on how the students can be prepared for the industry. He explained the functional areas of business and how each functional area is designed to produce results.

The key take away from all the sessions was that “it is important to design for experience and for a cause.” It is important to impart skills as well as refresh the skills of the students with respect to the latest in fashion, design and technology, where they can participate and collaborate with industry and other partners for enhanced employability.

The FDP was well received and much appreciated by all participants.