Sirmaur: The second convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) was held at Poanta Sahib in Sirmour district on April 13, 2018.  Thirty-five students graduated from this institution.

Padmanabh Adhikari was awarded Director’s gold medal while Somaya Depdass was awarded as the best all-around student award. Arushi Singh grabbed the Director Special Recognition award.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur distributed medals to these meritorious students of the Institution.

 The institution was in its initial stage but still, it has created a niche for itself among the premier institution of the country, said the Chairman, Governing Council, IIM Sirmour Ajay S. Sriram.

Director, IIM, Dr Neelu Rohmetra while presenting the Director’s Report said that the institute was committed to producing the talent ready to meet the challenges of the modern era.

The institute was delivering a quality education to the students through highly qualified faculty and some of the best in the industry as guest faculty.

She said that the coming academic year would see main new initiatives by the institution.

The nation has great hope and expectations from the young professionals for making a New India,

the Chief Minister said while addressing the students and faculty.

The institution may have some limitation regarding infrastructure, but still, there was no dearth of talent and the students passing out from here would always cherish the memories of this institution and Himachal Pradesh as well, he further added.

Solan: Dr. Divender Gupta, an entomologist working at the Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (UHF), Nauni, Solan district, has bagged the prestigious Bharat Shiksha Ratan Award.

The award was given in recognition for his services in the field of agriculture education, research, and extension.

The Global Society for Health and Educational Growth presented the award to Dr Gupta at a ceremony held at the Vithal Bhai Patel House, New Delhi.

Dr. Gupta is presently working as a Principal Scientist in the UHF’s Department of Entomology. After a brief stint in the All India Agricultural Services, he joined the UHF in 1990 at its regional station in Jachh.

Upon shifting to the main campus, Dr Gupta got involved in academics in addition to research and extension activities.

Dr Gupta’s main work has been on fruit flies, which is a formidable pest of agro-horticultural crops causing losses to fruit and vegetable crops. He has provided solutions to a number of problems pertaining to fruit and vegetable entomology. Dr Gupta has also been a pioneer in studying population dynamics and management of fruit flies in the department.

He has devised management methods against fruit flies like the use of methyl eugenol based attractant traps using wooden blocks.

This has also been included in the Package of Practices of the University and Spray Schedule of HP Horticulture Department.

Dr Gupta has also evaluated a chemical, which helps in breaking of eggs inside the body of the fruit fly. He is undertaking further studies on this method. He presented this work at an International Seminar in Malaysia in 2016 in which participants from 20 countries took part.

Besides several research papers in reputed journals, Dr Gupta has five chapters, manuals and a number of bulletins to his credit.

He attributed his success to hard work, inspiration from teachers, and feedback from the farming community, and good wishes of family members, friends and students. UHF Vice-Chancellor Dr HC Sharma and other faculty congratulated Dr Gupta on bringing laurels to the University.

Shimla: Government of India has signed a USD 80 million (Rs. 512 crores) loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB). As per the State government, the loan will be used to improve and modernizing Technical and Vocation Education and Training Institute (TVET) in Himachal Pradesh. 

With an estimated cost of USD 100 million (Rs. 640 crores), the government claim, the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

With this loan, the government has assured to set up basic institutionalised institutes at various levels in the state. A polytechnic for women, six city livelihood centres and seven rural livelihood centres will be set up under it.

Further, 10 employment exchanges will be upgraded as model career centres, said the government.

The loan will create awareness among youth about TVET programmers, modernization of training equipments, and implementation of MIS, enhanced partnership with private sector along with creating market-oriented training and livelihood opportunities for the youth.

The funds would be made available for short and long-term training programmes to the youth in the automobile, electronics, pharmaceuticals, tourism and hospitality, banking and financial services and health etc. sectors under the project, it was informed.

Under this project, approximately 65,000 youth of State will be imparted special trainings as per the standards of National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF), informed a spokesperson of the state government.

State Government will get 90 percent of the loan component as a grant from the government of India.

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