Friday 2 October 2015

Padmshri Dr Kiran Seth ji will be in Varanasi on 8th October 2015


Kiran Seth (born 1949) is an Indian academician, Professor Emeritus in the department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He is most known as the founder of SPIC MACAY (1977), a non-profit organization which promotes Indian classical music, Indian classical dance, and other aspects Indian culture, amongst youth the world over; through its about 500 chapters and through conventions, baithaks, lectures and musical fests. In 2009, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for his contribution to the Arts.
Seth was born on 27 April 1949. Seth's father, Bhojraj Seth, was a mathematician and the first professor at the IIT Kharagpur, established in 1951, while his mother Bhagawathi Seth was a housewife.[1] After completion of schooling from Modern School in Delhi, Seth secured AIR (All India Rank) 28 in the prestigious Joint Entrance Examination (IIT- JEE). Seth was one of the toppers of Mechanical Engineering (B.Tech) from IIT Kharagpur in the year 1970, after which he did his MS in 1971 and PhD in 1974 from Columbia University in New York.[citation needed.
He started his career working as a Member of the Technical Staff (MTS) at Bell Laboratories, New Jersey in 1974, a job he gave up to return to India in 1976 as an Assistant Professor to teach at IIT Delhi, where he has been working ever since. It was at IIT Delhi that he founded SPIC MACAY in 1977.
He has been member of several committees and boards, including, Central Advisory Board of Education, General Council of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Executive Board of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and Advisory Board (Education) of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.He has also served as Vice Chairman of the Governing Council of the Film and Television Institute in Pune, 2012 -14.
Seth is credited with setting up the Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY) in 1977, a society that has done phenomenal amount of work in the area of promoting classical music and culture amongst school and colleges in India and more recently in different parts of the world.
This is the biggest, nonprofit, voluntary, cultural, youth movement in independent India. Its contribution to Indian classical music & dance is unparalleled. Generations of Indians are today aware of Indian classical music and in a position to appreciate it, thanks to the efforts of Seth.
Today the movement conducts thousands of concerts, lec-dems, talks, yoga workshops, classic film shows, theater shows and craft workshops all over in schools and colleges so that the young person is inspired and awakened.
Awards and recognition
• Padma Shri – by the Government of India in 2009.
• Distinguished Alumnus Award by the IIT Kharagpur in 2010.
• NDTV Indian of the Year under Arts and Culture category in 2009.
• Sahitya Kala Parishad Award.
• Sanskriti Award.
• Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan Award in 2009.
• Keshav Kothari Smriti Award.
• Ustad Chand Khan Award in 2009.
• Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award 2011.
• FTII Vice Chairperson (2012-14)
India is world renowned for its varied classical music forms, classical dance forms and in totality, its rich culture and heritage. But, with the onslaught of rapid change and global homogenization, this multifaceted Indian heritage is being increasingly marginalized and diluted. SPIC MACAY seeks to conserve and promote an awareness of this rich and heterogeneous cultural tapestry amongst the youth of this country through focus on the classical arts, with their attendant legends, rituals, mythology and philosophy and to facilitate an awareness of their deeper and subtler values.
The Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth, often known by its initials (SPIC MACAY), is a voluntary youth movement which promotes Indian classical music, Indian classical dance, and other aspects of Indian culture. It is a movement with chapters in over 200 towns and cities all over the world.
The “Big Bang”- conception of the idea behind SPIC MACAY, happened way back in 1972. Kiran Seth, a young graduate from IIT Kharagpur, was studying for his doctorate at the Columbia University, New York, when he chanced to attend a Dhrupad concert by Ustad Nasir Aminuddin Dagar and Ustad Zia Fariddudin Dagar at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York.
In 1976, Dr Kiran Seth returned to India and started teaching and doing research work at IIT Delhi. There, he got together with the students and started SPIC MACAY in 1977, and its first concert was held at IIT Delhi in the same year.
SPIC MACAY seeks to foster the exchange of traditional Indian values and to generate awareness of the rich cultural traditions and heritage of India. In order to achieve its goals, SPIC MACAY organizes concerts, lectures, demonstrations, informal discussions, and seminars. These are hosted by the local chapters of the organization. Today, SPIC MACAY has some 500 chapters across the world and holds around 6000 events annually, mostly in educational institutions, but also occasionally in “public” venues like town halls or community parks.
Some of its major activities include: FEST series, VIRASAT series, National Conventions for students and teachers, National School Intensives, Music in the Park, the SPIC MACAY Scholarship Programme, heritage walks, talks by eminent thinkers, yoga and meditation camps, screening of classical cinema etc. Lately it has also started getting international artistes from other equally rich cultures to perform in India.
The organization structure of SPIC MACAY is very decentralized and democratic in its functioning involving college students/youth as its office bearers. It has a national executive body which is elected every two years. Each state has a central state facilitator based in New Delhi and a state coordinator in the respective state capital as well as chapter coordinators in different regions of the state. There are also various heads for publicity, finance, artiste management and programming scheduling. All chapters have a similar system of governance with a Chairman, Secretary (a student) and a Treasurer.
Some years ago the organization also formed an Advisory Board consisting of eminent personalities from all walks of life.
Since its inception and its first concert in 1977 at IIT Delhi, SPIC MACAY has grown geographically and in content to over 300 centres in India and 50 abroad. Over, 6000 events are conducted annually. And it has done so by engaging the youth at the grass-root level of early schooling years, for the exposure as well as in the organization of programmes.

Wednesday 30 September 2015

All PhDs should not be treated equivalent to NET

The Human Resource Development Ministry currently headed by Mrs. Smriti Irani and the University Grants Commission (UGC) has stated that they are unlikely to review the Supreme Court judgment that debars many PhD holders from teaching jobs. The rationale behind this is that teachers need to clear an eligibility exam which credits their teaching ability and that a PhD does not automatically qualify the same ability.
At a meeting of the UGC last week, the matter came up for discussion. Two members of the commission said the representative of the HRD ministry and the UGC officials gave the impression that they may not seek any review of the court decision.
On March 16, the apex court upheld the UGC’s regulations of 2009 on minimum qualification for appointment of teachers in colleges and universities. According to the regulations, the eligibility for assistant professor in a college or a university is the National Eligibility Test or the State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) qualifications. However, a candidate who has a PhD that complies with the UGC’s PhD norms of 2009 would be eligible for the post even if he has not cleared NET or SLET.
The UGC had in 2009 provided for admission through entrance test and course work before working on the thesis. It also laid down that a teacher cannot guide more than eight PhD students and five MPhil students at any point in time. Before this, every university had its own PhD regulations.
The 2009 order threatened the careers of thousands of existing PhD holders who had not cleared NET/SLET. After protests, the UGC last year decided to amend its regulations to grant an exemption to the pre-2009 PhD holders. It sent the amended regulations to the HRD ministry, which has not yet granted approval.
Ruling in a case filed by a few PhD holders, the apex court held that the HRD ministry and UGC are the highest policy makers and their norms must be followed.
Since no assessment has been done to ascertain if any universities were following the UGC’s 2009 norms for PhDs, it is not clear which of the pre-2009 PhD holders can be granted exemption from NET/SLET. The confusion is affecting the prospects of many aspiring teachers, including those who had earned their doctorates from universities that followed rigorous norms.
After serving as ad hoc faculty in Dyal Singh College under Delhi University for seven years, Manoj Singh was selected as assistant professor in March but his appointment has now been put on hold.
The college has sought clarification from the varsity whether it can appoint him since he does not have NET/SLET qualification. The university has not replied because there is no clarity on the issue yet.
“I have done PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). But the college is not allowing me to join as a regular teacher after selecting me,” Singh said.
Out of nine candidates selected, seven have been allowed to join in this college because they had qualified NET/SLET.
College principal I.S. Bakshi could not be reached for comment despite repeated calls to his mobile phone.
At last week’s meeting, the UGC members brought up the plight of the pre-2009 PhD holders.
“The UGC and government officials said that they would respect the Supreme Court direction,” a member said.
Another member said the HRD ministry was not approving the amendments to the regulations on the ground that many universities have started implementing the UGC regulations. Any change would add confusion and dilute quality, he said.
Teachers’ organisations feel the regulations should be amended since they cannot be implemented retrospectively. All India Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisations general secretary Ahok Barman said the government must file a review petition. “You cannot implement a policy retrospectively. It is a big blow to thousands of PhD holders who want to become teachers,” Barman said.
Former Madras University vice-chancellor S.P. Thyagarajan, who headed a committee that prepared the 2009 regulations on PhDs, hailed the Supreme Court ruling.
“Personally, I support the court order. There has to be some quality control in teacher appointment. All PhDs should not be treated equivalent to NET,” he said.

उज़्बेकी कोक समसा / समोसा

 यह है कोक समसा/ समोसा। इसमें हरी सब्जी भरी होती है और इसे तंदूर में सेकते हैं। मसाला और मिर्च बिलकुल नहीं होता, इसलिए मैंने शेंगदाने और मिर...