Reclaiming the field of liberal arts from the trouble zone – The path of Chanakya University
Author: Saiswaroopa Iyer Assistant Professor and Author School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Chanakya University If 80s and 90s were a part of your childhood, you can very well connect to this disproportionate emphasis that our parents laid on STEM education. Taking up Arts and Humanities and in some cases, even Commerce, was a
अपना विषय मै स्वयं चुनूंगा
॥ ॐ वक्रतुण्डाय नमः ॥ अपना विषय मै स्वयं चुनूंगा । विनायकरजतभट्ट सहाचार्य, चाणक्य विश्वविद्यालय “मैं अपने भविष्य का निर्माता हूँ । मैं विश्वविद्यालय में अपनी इच्छा के अनुसार विषय का चयन कर सकता हूँ । मैं अपने अभीष्ट विषय के साथ साथ अपनें भविष्य के लिये अपेक्षित या अपने अभिभावकों कि इच्छा के अनुसार
Blended Learning in Higher Education – The need
Author: Suresh Raju K.A. Department of Value Edit Programs Chanakya University The pandemic has been a Game Changer in enabling millions of Teachers to learn and use Technology enabled teaching-learning methodologies, in fact, have pushed many Teachers even in remote villages where it would not have penetrated, but for pandemic and lockdown situations. Gen Z
Dr. K. Kasturirangan
Dr K Kasturirangan is a famous scientist of modern India. He is a member of several important scientific academics within India as well as abroad. He was former Director of ISRO. He received his Doctoral Degree in Experimental High Energy Astronomy from Physical research laboratory, Ahmedabad. He is a former member of the Rajya Sabha (2003–09) and a former member of the now defunct Planning Commission of India. He was also the director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. He is a recipient of the three major civilian awards from the Government of India: the Padma Shri (1982), Padma Bhushan (1992) and Padma Vibhushan (2000). He was also the Project Director for India’s first two experimental earth observation satellites, Bhaskara-I and II. Defining India’s most ambitious space based High Energy Astronomy observatory and initiating a related activities was also an important milestone under his leadership. He has made extensive and significant contributions to studies of Cosmic x-ray and gamma ray sources and effect of cosmic x-rays in the lower atmosphere.
Dr Kasturirangan is head of a committee tasked with creating the National Education Policy 2020 for India. Later in September 2021, he was appointed as the head of a 12-member steering committee which would be responsible for developing a new National Curriculum Framework (NCF). Dr Kasturirangan is the recipient of Honorary Doctorate from 27 universities.
Dr. Sitaram Jindal
Dr. Sitaram Jindal is the Chairman and Managing Director of Jindal Aluminium Ltd. He also holds a doctorate in Naturopathy and established the famous Jindal Nature Institute in Bengaluru. Jindal Aluminium Limited is India’s largest aluminium extrusion company with a legacy spanning 50 years.
Jindal Aluminium Ltd is also a pioneer in renewable energy working in the areas of wind energy and solar energy. Apart from the industrial and naturopathy journey, he has been a giver all his life. His philanthropic initiatives are manifold through the Sitaram Jindal Foundation. It is a charitable organization in Bangalore and was started with the sole objective of helping with the moral and social upliftment of the weaker sections of society. The Foundation was envisioned by Dr. Sitaram Jindal and was instituted in 1969. This charitable trust in Bangalore has worked at setting up several educational institutions, NGOs, and hospitals,
For all his accomplishments, he was recently conferred with the prestigious Padma Bhushan Award by the Government of India.
Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon Limited, a biotechnology company based in Bengaluru, India. She was awarded the Othmer Gold Medal, for outstanding contributions to the progress of science and chemistry. She is on the Financial Times’ top 50 Women in Business list. She was listed as the 85th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. She was voted Global Indian of the year by Pharma Leaders Magazine in 2012.
Her work in the biotechnology sector has earned her numerous national awards, including the Padma Shri (1989) and the Padma Bhushan (2005) from the Government of India. She was also awarded the Nikkei Asia Prize (2009) for regional growth, the ‘Veuve Clicquot Initiative for Economic Development for Asia’ Award (2007), Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Life Sciences & Healthcare (2002), and ‘Technology Pioneer’ recognition by the World Economic Forum (2002). At the Pharma Leaders’ Pharmaceutical Leadership Summit, she was named ‘Global Indian Woman of the Year’ (2012).
At Biocon, she started a CSR wing, which focuses on the areas of health, education and infrastructure. Her “The Mazumdar-Shaw Medical Foundation” supports Translational Research and the Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer outreach program. She is also the Chairperson of IIM, Bangalore.
She studied Biology and Zoology, graduating from Bangalore University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Zoology and has a Master Brewer certification from Federation University.
Prof. S. Sadagopan
Prof. S Sadagopan, former director of IIITB, is a graduate of Madras University, India and Purdue University, USA. He has 25+ years of teaching experience at various premier institutes (IIT, IIM etc,) across the country. His research interests include Multi-criteria optimization, Decision theory, Simulation, Operations research, Multimedia and e-Governance. He has authored 7 books, various chapters of the books. He is also a fellow of IEE(UK) and Computer society of India. He serves on boards of Bharat electronics, Neyveli Lignite corporation and various other committee.
Prof Sadgopan consults widely across different industry segments and lectures extensively at Corporations, industry events and various International Universities.
Prof. Manjul Bhargava
Prof. Manjul Bhargava is a Canadian-American mathematician of Indian origin known for his contributions to number theory. He currently serves as the R. Brandon Fradd Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University and the Stieltjes Professor of Number Theory at Leiden University. He has made several contributions to mathematics, especially to the number theory. He developed several new techniques of counting objects in algebraic number theory which revolutionized the ways in which fundamental arithmetic objects in algebraic number theory are understood. His research has given rise to several exciting applications. Along with number theory he also made important contributions to the representation theory of quadratic forms, to interpolation problems and p-adic analysis, and to the study of ideal class groups of algebraic number fields.
He was given the Clay Research Award in 2005. The same year he also won the Leonard M. and Eleanor B. Blumenthal Award for the Advancement of Research in Pure Mathematics In 2012, Bhargava became the inaugural recipient of the Simons Investigator Award.
In 2014, he was awarded the prestigious Fields Medal “for developing powerful new methods in the geometry of numbers, which he applied to count rings of small rank and to bound the average rank of elliptic curves.” He was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award of India, in 2015.
Prof. Bhushan Patwardhan
Prof. Bhushan Patwardhan has over 40-year experience in higher education, scientific research and institutional governance. He is one of the top cited biomedical scientists who is Fellow of National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medical Sciences India. Until March 2021, he was Vice Chairman, University Grants Commission, and Chairman additional charge Indian Council of Social Science Research, Government of India. Currently, he is Chairman of the Interdisciplinary R&D Taskforce on Covid-19, and member, advisory committee constituted by the Ministry of AYUSH. He has worked as academic head of Manipal Education Group; Director, Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, Bengaluru; Vice Chancellor, Deemed University in Pune, and visiting Professor at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla. He has worked on Boards of several Universities and member of important national committees of Ministry of AYUSH, Ministry of Education, University Grants Commission, Council for Scientific & Industrial Research, Department of Science & Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Council of Medical Research Central and Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences. He has worked on several policy making committees and Taskforces of National Knowledge Commission, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, Lancet Citizen’s Commission on Reimagining Indian Health System. He was temporary consultant to the WHO Geneva. He is recipient of many orations and awards including Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Award 2021, Dr. R.P.Devadas Oration 2020, V K Joag Best Teacher Award 2017, Waldemar Haffkine Oration 2014, Harihar Mukherjee Award 2015, Gopaldas Parikh Award 2015, Sir Ram Nath Chopra Oration 2013, Dr P.K. Devi Oration 2011, Dr C. Dwarkanath Oration 2008 just to mention a few. He has extensively travelled worldwide and delivered invited lectures at many national and international platforms including the United Nations, World Health Organization etc He has authored many books and chapters with reputed publishers. He has received several research grants, has guided 20 PhD students and holds 8 Indian Patents, 2 US Patents with over 9800 citations.
Smt. Sonal Mansingh
Smt Sonal Mansingh is a renowned dancer of Odissi, a classical Indian dance form that originated in Orissa and the Member of Rajya Sabha. She began her professional dance career in the early 1960s. Smt Mansingh is trained in Hindustani and Carnatic classical vocal music and is proficient in the Sanskrit and German languages. In 1977 she founded the Centre for Indian Classical Dances in Delhi. Her choreography was often rooted in Indian mythology. For her work, she is also a fine orator and through her determined participation in seminars, discussions, workshops and lectures she is able to influence a lot of people of her community. Lately, her work has shifted towards issues concerning women, environment, prison reforms and re-interpretation of ancient myths.
Smt Mansingh is the recipient of many awards, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1987) and the Padma Bhushan (1992) and Padma Vibhushan (2003), two of India’s highest civilian honours.