Dr. Peter Phillimore, Professor of Social Anthropology, School of Geography,Politics & Sociology, Newcastle University (UK) spoke on the un-knowability of dire environmental risks and their consequences. He tried to explore how far such public ambivalence may be found in considering local discourses around risk in Indian contexts of heightened nvironmental awareness. He discussed about two major industrial towns in Britain
notable for the marked risk sensitivities of local populations, and one in Germany notable, in contrast, for the almost nostalgic trust shown towards the main chemical company and used these examples as a springboard for exploring the ways in which place-specific histories, and the memories associated with these histories, may likewise colour local discourses of risk and trust in India according to Dr. Rani Mehta, Seminar
Incharge.

Prof. R.K. Gupta (Coordinator, Human Rights and Duties) graced the occasion. Ms. Madhavi Kataria (PCS) was also present on the occasion. She stressed that dialogue is the only way to resolve any dispute. Dr. Swarnjit Kaur (Co-ordinator, Human Rights and Duties) talked about the ‘intent’ and ‘impact’ of the said Act and stated that though the intent of the Act is noble; however, there is a need to curtail the negative
impact of the Act. The film festival was well attended and participated by the students from Human Rights and Duties and students from Manipur, studying in various departments in the University by sharing their views on the subject. Ms. Namita Gupta and Ms. Upneet Mangat, Faculty Human Rights and Duties coordinated the proceedings of the film festival.

The festival concluded with each and every student and faculty present on the occasion taking the Oath of Solidarity. The oath expressed solidarity with the north-eastern fraternity and with Sharmila Irom in her struggle for justice in line with assurance given by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2009.

According to Mr. Rabindra Narayan-President, PTC Network “Gavo Sachhi Bani is an initiative from PTC Punjabi towards promoting Gurbani Sangeet among youth. We wish all the very best to the contestants who has participated in the show.”

According to Ms. Rajiee M. Shinde—COO, PTC Punjabi, ‘Gavo Sachhi Bani is a fresh concept from PTC Punjabi with a dedicated cause of promoting Gurbani Sangeet. We are confident that we will be able to touch a cord with Punjabi audiences with this concept. In future also, we shall keep on working towards promoting such concepts which are for good cause.”

The show is hosted by tanchor Rhythm Arora.

In his presidential speech, Dr Singh said the Centre should create a ‘pressure group’ to aggressively enforce the gender equality being defaulted in several manners. Such enforcements should go along with the Centre’s major function of conducting academic studies in the causes and traditions that underlie such social malaise. Recounting the prevailing gender- discrimination, Dr Singh said on the world level, women, constituting half of the population, share only ten per cent of income. Similarly, of the total property, women share only one per cent while rest, 99 per cent, is owned by men. In the same vein, he said, of all parliamentary fora world over, 90 per cent seats are represented by men. And in the executive and bureaucracy women’s share is only 3.5 per cent. The Vice-Chancellor observed that the educated and resource-rich families were relatively more affected by the colossal evil of female foeticide, even as the female deficit has reached an alarming stage in Punjab. The preference for male child symbolizes a deep social malady that needs to be corrected through education and awareness, he added.

The Centre was formally inaugurated by Prof (Dr) Pam Rajput, Vice President, National Alliance for Women (NAWO) who said the Centre would study invisible discrimination and disparity with women in the Punjab society and attempt to sensitize the people against such maladies. Already, 63 such Centres are operative in various parts of the country and setting up of 34 more Centres are in offing. Punjab Information Commissioner Dr Ravi Singh said efforts were being made to the effect that the state budget and planning should be orienbted more towards women’s development. Dr Manjit Singh , Dean, College Development Council endorsed the Vice Chancellor’s views that discrimination with female child in the land of Sikh Gurus whose holy scripture subscribe to gender equality, was all the more troublesome and unacceptable. Dr Manju Verma, Director of the Centre said they would coordinate and collaborate with the social organizations working the field of women empowerment in Punjab.

The objective of the Centre is to foster research and to provide training in furthering higher education in pharmaceutical sciences nationwide. The center will serve as a pool of trained professionals and modern facilities for researchers and faculty of other institutes of the country lacking in specialized facilities. Exposure to modern facilities, latest techniques and training to post-graduates, researchers, entry- and mid-level faculty in the frontier areas will be the central theme of this MHRD initiative. The programmes are open to candidates on all India basis and selections will be made on merit. Besides the in-house resources at UIPS, this project will also embark upon the on-campus centralized facilities at Central Instrumentation Laboratory (CIL), Centre with Potential for Excellence in Biomedical Sciences (CPEBS) and the allied departments on the campus.

The meet began with Prof. Karan Vasisht, coordinator of the centre and chairperson of UIPS, apprising the committee members about the various missions and goals of the centre. The Executive Group Meeting discussed the various points pertinent for the success of this first ever ‘Resource Networking Centre’ in the field of pharmaceutical sciences. Thrust areas for Summer/Winter School-Training Programmes and various strategies to be adopted to attract the researchers from all corners of the country were discussed in-length. The meeting ended with making valuable inputs for the successful implementation of the programme according to Associate Professor Ranju Bansal, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Panjab University, Chandigarh.