The Hindu : New Delhi News : New Year begins on quiet note in academic circles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 04, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

New Year begins on quiet note in academic circles

The New Year began on a quiet note as usual in the Capital's academic circles. With colleges in Delhi University shut till the beginning of next week, the other universities also wore a holiday look.

While the colleges might give students a chance to sit back and relax at the end of the year, their academic session begins on a studious note from next week with internal examinations beginning in right earnest at Delhi University.

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It is a simple solution for higher education for many more. With Open and Distance Learning (ODL) offering advantages for students, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has managed to emerge as an international institution in this field.

Overcoming obstacles like lack of manpower and infrastructure, the Open Distance Learning system in the country has filled in the gap through focused training and capacity building.

And looking to find new ways to deal with the problem of higher education, IGNOU organised a brainstorming session on behalf of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development this past week. The session brought together various experts and stakeholders from different part of the country to discuss a paper on "National Mission on Education Through Distance Education'' and ***

Delhi University will remember one of its "own'' this week. The Developing Countries Research Centre of the University together with Cornell University has organised an international conference in memory of Sisir Kumar Das, eminent playwright and critic, who was the Tagore Professor at Delhi University.

The theme of the conference is "The Literary View from Below: Fakir Mohan Senapati's Six Acres and a Third and Radical Social Critique in South Asian Literature''. The conference is well-timed, especially with the publication of the new English translation of Senapati's classic novel recently.

Bringing in big names from the academic world together, the conference will be attended by U. R. Ananthamurthy, Indira Goswami and Amiya Dev among others.

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One of Delhi's most famous poets -- Mizra Ghalib -- was remembered his way at Jamia Millia Islamia this past week. The Outreach Programme for the Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia organised a "ghazal evening" to commemorate his birth anniversary.

"The objective of our programme was fulfilled as people from the Jamia `biradari' as well as far flung areas came over for the evening. We plan to make this a monthly meeting now and get poets, writers and singers to come to perform for a small audience,'' said Rakshanda Jalil, co-ordinator of the Outreach Programme for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies.

Mandira Nayar

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