VC KU lays foundation stone of Library

As a part of its program of providing all round development to the satellite campuses of the Valley, Vice Chancellor University of Kashmir Prof Talat Ahmad laid the foundation stone of Central Library cum Auditorium at South Campus (Fatehgarh) here today.

The foundation stone laying ceremony was held in presence of several senior officers of the University and district administration and the said Library cum Auditorium would come at a cost of Rs 316 lakh.

While speaking, Prof Talat Ahmad said that these are the two important things in todays world in any educational institution

Prof Talat urged the students to become more active and avail the benefits of several centrally sponsored schemes like UDAAN which provides skilled education to unemployed youth so that they could meet the requirements of the job market and find viable placement for themselves in the corporate world.

Earlier, in his welcome address Director South Campus Prof Khursheed Ahmad Bhat said that despite facing many difficulties in terms of human resource the campus has registered a phenomenal growth, which is reflected in the number of student enrolments and the number of streams/courses introduced at the campus in the last two years.

Among others, who spoke were District Development Commissioner Kifayat Hussain Rizvi, Registrar Kashmir University Prof S Fayaz, Dean Academic Affairs Prof AM Shah and Dean College Development Council Prof Mushtaq Ahmad Kaw.

Earlier, Prof Talat laid foundation stone of examination block at Boys Degree College Anantnag, which would come at a cost of 44.6 lakh out of which University would bear an expenditure of Rs 22.3 lakh.

Sahitya Akademi Award for 2 J&K writers

Farooq takes over as Secy School Education

Farooq Ahmed Factoo today took over as Secretary School Education.

A simple but impressive function was organized by the officers and staff of School Education Department in Civil Secretariat to accord heartiest welcome to the new incumbent Farooq Ahmed Factoo and accord touching farewell to the outgoing Commissioner Secretary Naseem Lanker.

Naseem Lankar completed the graduation/post-graduation from the University of Kashmir and worked as Lecturer in Kashmir University, Department of English for nearly two years. She was the first Muslim lady from the state to enter the Kashmir Administrative Service in 1977 batch.

She worked in Education, Planning, Finance, Tourism, Housing and Urban Development Department, Social Welfare, Handicrafts at different levels from Under Secretary to Commissioner Secretary.

She worked as Nodal officer for the 11th Finance Commission and State Government got highest award from the 11th Finance Commission. She was the first Managing Director of Women Corporation, in fact she established Women Development Corporation.

She also worked as Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir and was the first lady to hold the post. Apart from attending to the public problems took keen interest in the development works. She put a long tenure in Housing and Urban Development Sector as VC SDA and Comm./Secretary Housing and Development Department.

Among others Special Secretary School Education Arif Ullah, Director School Education Gulzar Qureshi, Additional Secretary School Education R. A. Inqlabi, Director SSA Yasha Mudgal, Director RAMSA Sarmad Hafiz, and other officers and staff of School Education Department were present and lauded the remarkable services of the retiring officer.

KU organises counseling for MAT and UGAT

In order to acquaint the candidates of the programmes about various dimensions of MAT/UGAT, the Centre for Career Planning and Counselling, University of Kashmir (KU) today organised day long sessions at its Convocation Complex here.

About 300 students from across the Valley participated in both sessions. Prof Musadiq Amin Sahaf, Director, Centre for Career Planning Counselling said the KU shall consider CAT/MAT and UGAT scores for admission to Master of Business Administration and Master of Finance and Control (MBA/MFC) and MBA (Integrated) Programmes respectively from the current academic session.

He added that students who want to pursue MBA or MFC through KU need to know about CAT and MAT thoroughly.

5000 scholarships for JK youth
Chhari Pooja Performed
Peerzadas son arrested

He informed that the next MAT examination will be held on May 6. Vijay and Rahul were the resource persons for various sessions.

Admissions in KU from Feb 15

The University of Kashmir is all set to begin the admission process for this year's academic session from February 15. The admission notice would be issued for all programmes except MBA, MFC, IMBA, B .Tech, BA.LLB, LLM, B Pharma and M. Pharma.

In a statement, the Public Relations Officer of the University said that the decision was taken during a meeting chaired by Prof A M Shah, Dean Academic Affairs. The spokesman said the admission process will be online and students can fill up their forms from anywhere. He said the fees can be deposited at any branch of Jammu and Kashmir Bank across the country.

"The issuance of prospectus of online forms will begin from February 15 and the last date for the submission of these forms would be February 24. The students applying under reserved categories have to deposit their hard copies of admission forms at the main or north and the south campuses," said the Public Relations Officer.

Prof Talat Delivers lecture to refresher course participants

In an unprecedented manner, Professor Talat Ahmad,Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kashmir today mesmerized the participants through his teaching skills and presentation content while delivering a talk on “Magnetism related to plate tectonics” to the 45 participants in the refresher course in sciences being organized by the Academic Staff College university of Kashmir.

Through his very beautiful presentation starting with the analysis of platetectonic settings, Professor Talat talked about lava types, rising plumes,magna eruptions, volcanoes, lava drainage tubes, continental drift, mass extinction through climate change and so on. Speaking on the occasion,

Professor Talat Ahmad, dispelled many myths about the processes going oninside our earth. In a reply to a question on the recent reports of amajor earthquake, Professor Talat made it clear that Kashmir cannot beseparated from the Himalayan belt and therefore the earthquake can occuranywhere in the Himalayas not specifically in Kashmir region.

To a question from a participant, Prof Talat announced that he will beestablishing study centers in Ladakh region of J&K to get the researchersfrom J&K interested in the study of rocks there.Dr. Farooq Fayaz, Director ASC , while speaking on the occasion expressed hisdeep felt gratitude for the voluntary offer of the Vice-Chancellor as aresource person. While it speaks volumes about his devotion and love forthe disciplines of pedagogy we get an insight into his priorities also asour Vice-Chancellor which encourages us to lead by example, said DrFarooq Fayaz.

“While the talk was inspiring and pregnant with scientific content,Professor Talat, as a master craftsman, unveiled the beauty of ourplanet-Earth.” said Dr. Manzoor A. Malik who coordinates the course. Manyparticipants interacted with the resource person where satisfied the way VC answered their queries. “ It was an exemplary teaching experience as atno point of time he gave us a feel that we are face to face with VC” “said a female participant from a Srinagar college. “ he is a great teacherand so humane , she added. Delivers talk on Plate tectonics to refresher course participants.

International day for disabled in ku

KU to observe international day of disabled today

Special Cell, Department of Students Welfare, University of Kashmir (KU) is going to observe international day of disabled and hold a seminar, a poster and painting competition on December 3, 2011. Theme for seminar will be “Creating Barrier Free Higher Educational Institutions” and theme for poster and painting competition will be “Means of Accessibility, A Way of Empowerment”. Students from various Degree Colleges and Teaching Departments of University of Kashmir will participate in the programme Shaheel Mohammad, coordinator special cell, said that objectives of the seminar are to identify the problems being faced by physically challenged persons, assess the working of various institutions established for the purpose of their help and care, and find out the gaps in redressed of their problems. He said that the seminar will recommend possible solutions in addressing their problems in an optimal way. Vice chancellor KU, Prof Talat Ahmad will preside over the valedictory event at 3.30 pm and Registrar Kashmir University Prof Syed Fayaz Ahmad will inaugurate the seminar and poster competition at 10 am.

World Aids day at Kashmir University

Department of Students

Welfare, University of Kashmir in collaboration with Times of India and Modern Hospital Srinagar organized a day - long seminar on “Know AIDS for No AIDS” as part of the commemoration of the World AIDS Day, celebrated today all over the globe. Speaking on the occasion Prof. M A Sofi, Acting Vice Chancellor of the Universitytalked about the various challenges including cultural taboos, poor cooperation between authorities and communitiesin handling HIV AIDS. He said that the problem involving the treatment of this deadly disease has been aggravated on account of a limited access to quality care as well as the limitations of financing illness care in general across the nations.

Prof Sofi said that against a background of fewer diagnoses among heterosexuals, infected abroad, the number of gay men diagnosed with HIV in the UK is on a continuous rise. He said that no therapist can ethically ignore the challenge that the AIDS virus has thrust upon us. Saying that a few stark statistics only hint at the tragic dimensions of this disease Prof Sofi informed that that half of all gay and bisexual men in the city of San Francisco are infected with the AIDS virus. The situation nearer homes is by no means significantly better and this brings up the moral dimensions of the issue which involves tinkering with or rebelling against nature, something that can and does unleash devastation of startling proportions to the humanity, He said . Prof Sofi said that this has already been seen to be the case, for example with the issue of global warming or climate change which has been a direct result of impunity with which man has sought to plunder an destroy natural resources to satisfy his insatiable greed for material wealth and well being.

Drawing similarities Prof. Sofi said that in a similar vein, the sheer magnitude of the problem involving HIV AIDS has its genesis in certain zany notion of individual freedom, pioneered chiefly by the modern west, which seeks to give complete legitimacy to such patently unnatural acts as same sex marriages, live-in relationships,homosexuality, lesbianism and more ominously, to incestuous relationships.He said that the fact is that the rapid spurt in the spread of this deadly disease is due, in no small measure, to the successful campaign seeking legitimate gay relationships/marriages as a natural relationship between individuals.

Guest of Honour on the occasion Prof. A R Yousuf, former Dean Academic Affairs linked HIV infections with the changes in the environment. When the environment gets polluted, our minds are also affected and we ultimately reap the returns of our own misdeeds, he opined . Prof Yousuf said that HIV infection in our regional perspective is caused due to waywardness and It will only spread if we digress from the path of righteousness.Earlier while welcome address the Associate Dean Students Welfare, Dr. Mushtaq

A Darzi said the aim of holdinf these awareness programmes is to make people understand how they can respond positively to this menace and how these patients can be cared about. “ We should not segregate

these patients rather handle them with love and care “ he said.

Showkat Shafi, Asstt. Dean Students Welfare who shared the dice with the dignitaries also spoke on the occasion and said that Kashmir university red ribbon club has several programmes regarding HIV/AIDS awareness in pipeline which will come up soon.

Coordinator Red ribbon club shahid Ali khan also spoke on the occasion and talked about the activities of his club. 2 technical sessions with Dr. Mushtaq Ali Siddiqqui, and Dr. Imtiyaz Ali were held who through power point presentation made the audience awareness about the HIV AIDS.

A poster making competition on the theme “ know AIDS for NO AIDS was held for children and college and university students. Dr Nahid Veda from Home sciences Nasir Mirza from MERC, Niyaz Ahmad from public relations centre, acted as judges for the poster competition the results for which will be declared on 3rd of this month and vice chancellor Kashmir University

Prof Talat Ahmad will be giving awards to the wining participants.

2 day conference in Kashmir University

Two day conference on Geomatics for G-Governance begins at KU

Minister

for Science and Information Technology, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, Tuesday stressed need for building the technical ingenuity of state to harness the benefits of Geo-IT for overall development of the state through good governance. This was stated by the minister while speaking at a 2-dayNational Conference on “Geomatics for G-Governance” organized by University of Kashmir, in collaboration with the Indian Society of Geomatics here today.Describing that geo-information technology and communication technology can play a significant role in development and planning, Aga Ruhullah said that use of geomatics for G. governance is only possible when the back end data is easily available. He said that geomatics is vital part of governance, adding that if the technology is made accessible the Panchayat Raj can be made more effective.

The Minister said that political will is already there for early implementation of Geomatics for G-Governance in J&K , the bureaucracy and the society at large need to gear up and embrace the technology. He called for coordinated and pragmatic approach for the collection, maintenance, updating and accessibility of the datasets at the state level to make use of geomatics possible. He said that Kashmir University initiative needs to be supplementedat all levels.About 100 professional delegates from various premier institutes across the country are attending the conference besides the officials from the state Government

.

Vice-Chancellor, Kashmir University, Prof. Talat Ahmad said that University of Kashmir has endeavoured itself to work together with the academicians, scientists and other technocrats from other Universities and national research institutes of the country for developing an overarching strategy for the use and promotion of Geo-information technology for good governance in the state. Prof Talat said that Geo-information Technology is a priority area of research at the University of Kashmir. I firmly believe that through our combined efforts, we can transfer the scientific knowledge and multi-disciplinary expertise in the field of Geomatics to the planners and decision makers to develop decision support systems for improved instruments of administration at the gross root level, VC added.Organizing Secretary of the Conference and Head, Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, University of Kashmir,Dr. Shakil A Romshoo said that “Various themes related to the use of cutting edge space and information technology for day-to-day governance for rural and urban development, resource planning, disaster management, public health, municipal administration, revenue records, land and water resources management are being deliberated upon during the Conference”. He said that more about 100 technical papers, including a dozen key note speeches on various themes related to the use of Geomatics for G-governance are being presented during the Conference.He said that the University of Kashmir has taken a number of initiatives aimed at generating geospatial information for use in various

sectors to support the development planning in the state and build technical ingenuity of the government for using technology for improving governance in the state. The organization of the Regional Conference on “Geomatics for Good Governance” at the University of Kashmir is an important step towards popularizing the use and application of Geomatics in day to day governance in the state. However, these initiatives can yield the desired results only, if the government agencies are receptive to the efforts of the scientific community in improving governance structure and service delivery in various sectors in the state., he added.

In his presidential address, Dr S K Pathan, Vice president India society of Geomatics said that today we need to focus of technologicaltrends and see how they can help in good governance. Dr Pathan said that accountability, responsiveness and rule of law are most important things in G – Governance. Dr Pattan assured all the help and support to Kashmir University in their endeavour to take benefits of Geomartics to the common man. Registrar Kashmir University, Prof Syed Fayaz, senior faculties of Kashmir University besides prominent members of the civil society attended the conference.