Monthly Archives: December 2014

IIT-Kharagpur conclave a stepping stone for budding entrepreneurs

Business & Economy, Education, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Kolkata :

Students of IIT-Kharagpur will get the opportunity of rubbing shoulders with renowned academics, new-age entrepreneurs, eminent business personalities and successful venture capitalists over three days in January when the premier B-school organizes the sixth edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES 2015).

Companies like Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Flipkart, Amazon Web Services, BSE, Deloitte and other corporate giants will hold workshops between January 16 and 18, focusing on the entrepreneurial acumen of participants. IIT-Kharagpur’s entrepreneurship cell, which is organizing the event, has already undertaken various activities on the same lines, including the pan-India entrepreneurship awareness drive. Following the successful culmination of the drive, which saw close to 25,000 applicants participating from 24 cities last year, the e-cell is now moving on to the flagship event.

The previous edition of GES has seen people like India TV founder Rajat Sharma, Aakash tablet founder Suneet Singh, serial entrepreneur Dominique Trempont, Forbes columnist and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Srimana Mitra, renowned social entrepreneur Harish Hande, former ICICI Bank deputy manager Nachiket Mor and naukri.com founder Sanjeev Bhickchandani participating. Even this year, the organizers are trying to rope in a star-studded panel.

GES is the only such conference of entrepreneurship that will serve as a conclave for discussion of opportunities and programmes aimed towards promoting entrepreneurship in various universities across the world. It will host a global business model competition, Empresario, powered by Viligro, which saw entries from around the country at the preliminary round in October. The finals of the competition will be part of GES where the winners will get a direct entry into the semi-finals of the International Business Model Competition.

The other important event is the start-up camp that will involve interaction of entrepreneurs and students where start-ups will recruit the finest talent for internships or jobs while giving them an opportunity to meet to meet the CEOs in campus.

Unlike previous years, GES 2015 will be an invite-only summit where only specific colleges will be able to send their delegations.

“IIT’s entrepreneurship cell aims at supporting budding entrepreneurs. GES will prove to be the ultimate stage for propagating the cause,” said Deepak Kumar Jha, a member of the e-cell, IIT.

GES 2015 has Flipkart as its title sponsor along with sponsors like IBM, Villgro, VMware, Fedena, Haier, Air India and the WBIDC.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / December 12th, 2014

It’s time to celebrate for Calcutta Diocese

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All

Kolkata :

The Diocese of Calcutta turns 200 this year and a year-long programme has been planned to celebrate the occasion, it was announced at the Bishop’s House on Wednesday. The Bishop, Diocese of Calcutta, Rt Reverend Ashoke
Biswas said a plot has been earmarked near St Thomas College, Kidderpore, for a human resource centre. A shelter
home will also be built.

“In past 200 years, through its 25 institutions, the Diocese has imparted education to millions of students in Kolkata and the suburbs. Our institutions boast of having Swami Vivekananda, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Mrinal Sen and Manna Dey, along with many other luminaries, as our alumni,” Rt Revd Biswas said. “The Diocesan Board of Social Service covers 51 villages in South 24-Parganas and the primary focus is to mobilize women and youth by forming organizations to address food rights and livelihood issues. Youths are engaged in the entrepreneurship development and are also given vocational training,” he added while going on to list more programmes undertaken by the Diocese.

The announcement of the year-long celebrations came in presence of Revd Abir Adhikary, secretary and joint convener of the bicentenary celebrations, Revd Nigel Pope, the vicar of St Paul’s Cathedral church and celebrations convener and St James school principal T H Ireland.

The inaugural programme starts with worship service at St Paul’s in the afternoon, followed by a ceremony and cultural programme on Sunday. On February 7, a marathon for peace will be organized. March 7-8 will witness an inter-church cricket tournament. March 28 will see a women’s meet, where issues of empowerment and relevant topics will be discussed. Events will take place every month for exactly one year, when President Pranab Mukherjee is likely to be present for the closing ceremony.

Teachers and children will also enjoy their events, like an inter-school and pastorate basketball tournament in May, a children’s summer camp in June, inter-school football tournament in end-July, a Teacher’s Day celebration in September and a children’s fair on November 14.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / December 11th, 2014

Birla High teacher in Top 50 list for $1million education award

Education, Records, All

Kolkata :

Scared of Maths? Try synchronized dance and ludo, or even origami. Thanks to the idea, Hira Prasad, a city teacher, is in the fray for a mind-boggling $1 million global education award for marrying art and craft with mathematics.

Prasad, the assistant headmistress at Birla School for Boys junior section, is the only one from Kolkata and among three teachers in India to be shortlisted in the top 50 contenders for the big-ticket Varkey GEMS Foundation Global Teacher Prize. The final list was drawn from 5000-odd applicants from 120+ countries.

“Whenever I introduce a new concept, I’m tapping a weak part of the brain. Creative elements are of paramount importance when facing something that might seem difficult at first. So in Class IV, while learning factors and multiples, students — a group of six — are asked to dance to peppy music. They have to dance but maintain one line. So they learn that one is a factor of six and six is a multiple of one,” Prasad explained. Next, the students are asked to form two rows, then three, and they understand two and three too are factors of six.

Principal Mukta Nain said it’s not only a motivation for students but also for teachers. “She is a wonderful teacher, tech-savvy and full of innovation,” she said. “With the innovative methods, students are learning even while making a fruit salad,” added Loveleen Saigal, the headmistress of the junior section.

Prasad’s former students give full credit to her efforts. CA aspirant Nami Patni, 22, told TOI: “Initially, I wasn’t strong in Maths. But the novel method of teaching in our school was a turning point. In the CBSE Boards, I got 95 in Maths.”

Class VII student Naman Bhutoria said: “I used to be confused about addition-subtraction but when Ma’am used her unique teaching methods, it became clear. We were first introduced to lines and angles through yoga asanas. In my Class-VI annual exams I got 90%.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Shounak Ghosal, TNN / December 10th, 2014

Fiat in the race for replacing Ambassador cabs in Kolkata

Business & Economy

Fiat is the latest automobile manufacturer after Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki to join the race in taxi race in Kolkata. Incidentally, the taxi segment in the City of joy was run by Hindustan Motors’ Ambassador. However, the production of this legendary car was stopped sometime back, making it necessary to find a replacement for the taxi battalion in Kolkata. Maruti was the first one to offer a replacement followed by Tata Motors. Now, a third contender has emerged in the form of Fiat.

Hindustan Motors, which used to produce the Ambassador at the Uttarpara facility in the district of Hooghly in West Bengal, has suspended the process. This has brought the curtains on the monopoly of Ambassadors in the taxi segments, which was prevalent for several decades. In the meantime, automobile companies like Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki have started running their exclusive models for grabbing a hold of the taxi market.

Fiat is planning to launch an especially stripped-down version of its mid-sized sedan, Linea for this purpose. Nagesh Basavanhalli, the president and managing director of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles India was present in Kolkata on the occasion of the launch of its MUV Avventura. He said, “We hope to get the approval for this from West Bengal soon. We have already started to sell the model in the taxi market of Mumbai and Delhi.” Sanjay Patodia, the managing director of Austin, a leading car dealership company in the city that now deals Fiat cars, said, “Maruti’s Dzire and Tata Motors’ Indigo has already started to take advantage of Ambassador’s absence. The state transport department recently announced to give permit to 3,000 new taxis. I think, Fiat Linea, would also be potential replacement in this segment.”

Fiat in the race for replacing Ambassador cabs in Kolkata
Fiat in the race for replacing Ambassador cabs in Kolkata

Linea has a price tag of seven lakhs INR, while the stripped-down model will be of the price range of 6.22 lakhs INR, whereas Ambassador was priced at 5.6 lakhs INR. Tata Motors had launched a non-power steering, non-AC, Euro-IV Tata Indigo model at 5 lakhs INR price range last year. Also, Maruti had launched a stripped-down Dzire sometime further back. Fiat will definitely increase the competition of filling in the void created by the suspension of the production of Ambassador.

source: http://www.cartrade.com / CarTrade.com / Car Trade Home> Car News> Fiat / by Roger D’Souza / November 24th, 2014

World’s first mangrove zoo in Sunderbans: Mamata

Uncategorized
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with singer Abhijit during the inuaguration of several government aided projects at Sunderbans in South 24 Parganas district on Monday. / PTI
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with singer Abhijit during the inuaguration of several government aided projects at Sunderbans in South 24 Parganas district on Monday. / PTI

Addressing a gathering at Jharkhali in Sunderbans, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday that the industrialists accompanying her on the trip would invest in the tourism industry, which would result in employment generation for the local youths.

Describing proposed tourism projects in Sunderbans as pro-people and pro-environment, Ms. Banerjee announced that land had been identified for the world’s first mangrove zoo which will house rare and endangered animals of the Sunderbans.

“The project will be completed in five years,” she said. It will cost Rs. 25 crore.

Ms Banerjee also said that she would ‘do whatever it takes’ to make Sunderbans the primary destination for tourists.

Ms. Banerjee also inaugurated a Tiger Rescue Centre, which will have capacity to look after six injured tigers.

“We have given about Rs. 2 crore for the project,” she said. Ms. Banerjee laid the foundation stone of the Rs. 400 crore eco-tourism project that will come up under public-private partnership.

She also inaugurated a bridge that will connect Mathurapur and Patharpratima in South 24 Parganas.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Staff Reporter / Kolkata – December 09th, 2014

Maidan battle tank shifts to new location, Mig-27 to be part of display

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence

Kolkata :

The battle tank that was kept on the maidan close to the east gate of Fort William (facing Park Street) has been shifted to a new location on St George’s Gate Road. The tank, a war trophy from the 1971 Indo-Pak War, has been placed on an ‘island’ between the two flanks of the road close to the head office of the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC).

“We plan to create a tri-services exhibit on the island. We have asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) for the shell of a Mig-27 aircraft and the Navy for an anchor. The tank, aircraft and anchor will be part of an exhibit at the spot. The HRBC has done a wonderful job at developing the island. The aircraft is expected to arrive in the next 10 days,”said Maj Gen Harsh Kakkar, chief of staff, Bengal Area.

The Army wants to put up more exhibits around the city to create awareness about India’s military history. Till now, there were two battle tanks in the Maidan area. One is the Chaffee tank that was shifted to St George’s Gate Road and the other one is a Vijayanta Tank close to Babughat. The Army has also made plans for proper upkeep of the trophies.

Chaffee tanks were made in the US and used by the Pakistan Army in the 1971 War. At that time, these were considered one of the best light battle tanks in the world. India pitted the indigenous Vijayanta tanks against the Chaffees. The Vijayantas were India’s first indigenous tanks built under licence from Vickers, UK.

“The 1971 War was fought from Kolkata but this is a city that doesnat have sufficient war trophies on display. Other cities have a large number of them. There is need to exhibit more of them in the city. There is sufficient space in the Maidan which is anyways under the control of the Army. This will be the first time that a Mig-27 aircraft will be on display in Kolkata. There are a couple of Mig-21s, one of them inside Nicco Park. The Mig-21s were used in the 1971 War but the Mig-27s came in later and were India’s first ground attack aircraft. They will be phased out soon,” an officer said.

Officers feel that government offices, educational institutions and even private establishments that have sufficient space should ask for these trophies from the Army and IAF to put up on display.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Jayanta Gupta, TNN / December 04th, 2014

One stop, three starts

Business & Economy, Education, Science & Technology

ApolloKOLKATA04dec2014

The Apollo Hospitals group will set up a medical college in the city with 150 MBBS and 50 postgraduate seats and a 1,000-bed hospital.

The state government has given a 14-acre plot at Calcutta Riverside in Maheshtala, on the southern fringe, to the group for setting up the medical college. The institution will be the fourth private medical college in Bengal.

The township is coming up on 262 acres on the banks of the Hooghly, about 20km from the city. Apart from residential apartments, Calcutta Riverside includes a medical college, a film city and a sports academy.

“With the Apollo Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Calcutta will become one of the health hubs. We’ll bring faculties and new technology,” Prathap C. Reddy, the chairman of the Apollo Hospitals group, said at a programme where chief minister Mamata Banerjee laid the foundation stone for three facilities at Calcutta Riverside.

He said the medical college would be part of a bigger project by the Apollo group, which will have 17 other colleges, including ones related to paramedics, nursing and allied health services.

Mamata said she had formed a group of ministers to get the project cleared. “In the coming days a lot of doctors will be produced from here,” the chief minister said in her speech at the programme.

Apollo officials said the Rs 300-crore project would be completed in five years and in two phases. In the first phase, there will be 100 MBBS seats and a 500-bed hospital.

“We are planning to bring faculty from abroad,” said Rupali Basu, the chief executive officer of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Calcutta. Once the building that will house the medical college is ready, the group will apply for a no-objection certificate from the health department. After getting the certificate, the group can apply for an inspection by the Medical Council of India.

Bengal has 2,450 MBBS seats, nearly half of which were scrapped by the medical council earlier this year because of lack of adequate infrastructure at the colleges.

The council later restored the seats after the colleges promised to set up the required facilities.

Along with the medical project, the chief minister laid the foundation stone for Kolkata Studios and Sourav Ganguly’s school and sports academy. The former Team India skipper was present on the occasion.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by The Telegraph Special Correspondent / Tuesday – December 02nd, 2014

UK scholar on indigo trail

Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, World Opinion

Kolkata :

UK museum officer Helen Bradley’s quest for truth has landed her not just in Kolkata, but given invaluable insight into the atrocities committed by her British forefathers on Indian peasants in the 18th century. What began as a causal interest in the founder of Bradley’s workplace and his birthplace could well turn out to be one of the most candid versions of the Indigo Revolt (1859-61).

Bradley is the development officer, Llandudno Museum, Wales. She is on a research assignment not only on early life of Francis Chardon, son of an indigo planter, or the momentous event in history but to especially explore the potential of the indigo dye. Bradley has got a British Council grant for coming to Kolkata, seeking collaborations between her museum and the Indian Museum and the Victoria Memorial Hall (VMH).

“We want to learn more about Francis Chardon and his family, and to understand our collections better with help from colleagues in India. We are carrying out some initial research into the Chardons in India and the plantations that they managed throughout Bengal,” Bradley said, ahead of her meeting with Jayanta Sengupta, curator, VMH, on bringing Welsh and Indian museums together. She has spent hours at the National Library, the Indian Museum, Neelhat House and the VMH, compiling records on the Indigo Revolt.

Llandudno Museum was established in 1926, and Chardon was born in (then) Calcutta in 1865, to Maria and Edouard. His father, Benjamin, cousins and uncles were all indigo planters in lower Bengal, Bihar and Bangladesh between 1830 and 1890.

Chardon was born at Gallis Hotel, Dharamtala, his mother, Maria, was born on Mangoe Lane, and his father, Eduoard, lived at 5 Dacres lane. Bradley, whose week-long trip (her first to India) ends on Thursday, has clicked photographs of all these places that will figure in an exhibition on indigo in 2016, as part of project “Indigo Trail”.

The exhibition will begin at Llandudno and travel to several locations. A landscape survey and research which will include the location and layout of indigo houses and plantations will complement the exhibition. “The idea is to tell the true story of indigo – with the tales of oppression and also its significance as a time when national consciousness was growing in Bengal. We want to examine the Indigo Revolt not just from the Chardon family’s perspective, but from the ryot’s point of view — to view the picture of exploitation,” Bradley said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Ajanta Chakraborty, TNN / December 02nd, 2014

Tapan Raychaudhari, the renaissance man

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Leaders, NRI's / PIO's, Records, All

Calcutta University V-C remembers the historian

Historians and students in Kolkata remembered Tapan Raychaudhari as a man who had all the qualities of a ‘Renaissance man’. The eminent economic and social historian Tapan Raychaudhari breathed his last on Wednesday in Oxford. He was 90 and had not fully recovered from a stroke he suffered last year.

Professor Raychaudhuri was a Reader in Modern South Asian History at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, from 1973 to 1992. An alumni of Presidency University, he completed his second D. Phil. in Oxford University in the late 1950s, and was the Emeritus Fellow of St. Antony’s College until his death. The winner of a Padma Bhushan in 2007 for his contribution to the study of history, Professor Raychaudhari authored several books on colonial India.

Among his many publications are Bengal Under Akbar and Jahangir, Jan Company in Coromandel, Europe Reconsidered: Perceptions of the West in Nineteenth Century Bengal, and The Cambridge Economic History of India (co-edited with Irfan Habib). He had also penned two autobiographies — Bangal Nama in Bengali and The World in Our Time in English.

Remembering his teacher at Oxford University, Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University Suranjan Das said Professor Raychaudhuri took equal interest in both academic as well as personal concerns of the student, a quality which is rarely found in a teacher.

Recalling an incident when his foodie professor personally accompanied him and another student to the dining hall to help shed their inhibitions in a new environment, Professor Das told The Hindu: “Professor Raychaudhuri never imposed his ideologies on us. Even if he differed with our arguments, he would think from our point of view and accordingly assist us to arrive at a logical decision. He treated criticism for his own work in an intellectual way.”

Although Professor Raychaudhuri migrated to the U.K. in 1970’s, he was passionate about research on Indian studies and helped establish the Centre for Indian Studies at Oxford University to encourage research on Indian studies to help dispel commonly-held stereotypes about India and Indian pluralism. Instead of focusing purely on research and analysis, the Centre would take a cultural approach on Indian studies to help understand Indian culture.

Professor Raychaudhuri was a strong critic of post-modernism and believed in empirical studies, the Vice-Chancellor said adding that his wife Pratima Raychaudhuri had played a critical role in supporting him in the domestic front.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Staff Reporter / Kolkata – December 01st, 2014