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Bathinda, June 4

To mark the World Environment Day (June 5), a massive tree plantation drive was organized in the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University, Bathinda on Friday. This drive was part of the Environmental Awareness Week which is being celebrated by the university.

MRSPTU, Vice Chancellor, Prof. Buta Singh Sidhu, Registrar, Dr. Gurinder Pal Singh Brar, GZSCCET, Campus director, Dr. Savina Bansal and senior officials of the university inaugurated the plantation drive and flagged off tractor-trailers carrying different varieties of trees for plantation in different villages and Bathinda city.  Plantation was also carried out by different departments of the university in the campus premises on Friday.

NSS in-charge, Dr. Meenu said that the various varieties of plants including Sheesham, Amaltas, Gulmohar, Toot, Dek, Neem, Kachnar, Guava  and Jamun etc. will be planted during the week.   

Giving details, Dr. Meenu said that during the Awareness week, National Service Scheme (NSS), Programme officers, volunteers and environment friendly alumni of the Institute will take part in this initiative of environment concern. They will carry out plantation drives in Chak Bakhtu, Chak Fateh Singh Wala, Chak Ram Singh Wala, Kartarpur  Thande,  Lehra Mohabbat and Punjab Institute of Technology (PIT), Nandgarh .

June 5 has been celebrated as World Environment Day every year since 1972 when the United Nations General Assembly established this day on the first day of the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment. Two years later in 1974, World Environment Day was celebrated for the first time with the theme: “Only One Earth” and since then it is celebrated all over the world with full enthusiasm.

Prof. Buta Singh Sidhu expressed concern over the dire consequences of deforestation which is quite rampant in the current trends of urbanization, Industrialization and consumerism.    He said the new generation should cultivate eco-friendly living as a culture.

“The pure air and water are the rights of the coming generation. No development is possible by destroying nature. Not only June 5, should every day be environmental protection day,” said Prof. Sidhu while urging  everyone to make their living style and practice nature friendly by  growing  more and more trees. He lauded the efforts of NSS units in arranging such events of environmental protection and spreading the awareness among the students.

It is worthwhile to mention here that Mahatma Gandhi National Council of Rural Education (MGNCRE) under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India selected MRSPTU  with Swachhta  Award under “One District One Green Champion” Award for clean green environment of the campus. 

Google News Initiative India, Data Leads and First Draft conducted this programme to support the journalist and media educators across India in their fight against misinformation

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Bathinda, June 3 : To counter the vaccine hesitancy caused due to spread of misinformation on various social media platforms, the Dept. of Mass Communication & Media Studies of Central University of Punjab, Bathinda (CUPB) and Chandigarh Press Club jointly hosted a training programme on #VaxCheck. This training programme is a part of 30 Workshop Series to be conducted across 30 states and Union Territories by Google News Initiative, Data Leads and First Draft.

During this programme, the certified trainers and experts provided training on different topics such as Understanding vaccine misinformation, Vaccine mis-info narratives and data deficits, Monitoring social media conversations and Keywords & Search Queries.

On this occasion Prof. Raghavendra P. Tiwari, the Vice Chancellor of Central University of Punjab, congratulated the team of Google News Initiative India, Data Leads and First Draft for conceptualizing this workshop and providing training to the youngsters of India. He added that CUPB’s Dept. of Mass Communication & Media Studies is already running two inter-disciplinary courses for University students on ‘Fake News & Media Literacy’ and ‘Debunking Fake News’ to limit the spread of falsehood on new media. He expressed his hope that this Workshop would not only be helpful in reducing vaccine hesitancy but also would play a vital role in combating the Infodemic of fake news.

During the first session, Sh. Jatin Gandhi talked about Vaccine Misinformation, Narratives and Data Deficits. He referred to various case studies to highlight that vaccine misinformation not only leads to decline in people’s confidence, but also becomes a hurdle in the success of the vaccination programme of the state. To differentiate between fake and authentic information, he suggested that we should always identify the information source and search for the authenticity of information by using various fact checking tools or by visiting fact checking websites.

In the second session, Prof. Umesh Arya discussed strategies to monitor social media conversations in open and closed platforms. He also shared tips to gather news on social media such as creating a tip line, google keyword search etc. Prof. Arya also threw light on the common queries related to COVID-19 Vaccination. He appealed participants to always take authentic information from the official websites of WHO, CDC, MoHFW, ICMR etc and whatsapp helpline of WHO or GOI.

The programme was moderated by Akanksha Bathla. She complimented the Programme Coordinators Dr. Rubal Kanozia (CUPB) and Shri Saurabh Duggal (Chandigarh Press Club) for making this programme a success. The programme was also attended by CUPB faculty Dr. Chhavi Garg, Dr. Paramvir Singh and Dr. Mahesh Meena. Fact Checking experts, journalists, researchers, faculty and students participated in this programme through an online platform.

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Bathinda, June 3: The Central University of Punjab, Bathinda (CUPB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Innovation–Technology Transfer Office (i-TTO) to promote collaboration in areas of IP Management, technology transfer and competency development.

i-TTO is a regional technology transfer office set up at Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), the IP and Technology Transfer arm of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, with support from National BioPharma Mission, BIRAC (a Govt of India and World Bank Project) to assist the academic institutions.

The objective of this MoU execution is to promote cooperation between the two organizations and to engage i-TTO to assist CUPB with IP management, transfer of technologies developed by its faculty and students and business facilitation.

In view of COVID-19 pandemic, the signing ceremony of this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was organized on Wednesday through a virtual platform where  Kanwal Pal Singh Mundra, Registrar, CUPB and Pooja Bhatia (Chief Manager, i-TTO, New Delhi) inked the pact in the esteemed presence of Prof. Raghavendra P. Tiwari, the Vice Chancellor of Central University of Punjab and Dr. Anil Wali, Managing Director, FITT. Member of CUPB IPR Cell and i-TTO team members also attended this programme.

While sharing the details of MoU, Pooja Bhatia (Chief Manager, i-TTO) mentioned that under this association i-TTO will assist CUPB to excel in the field of IP management, technology transfer and capacity building. The services that will be provided by i-TTO to CUPB will comprise assessment of research outcome, IP filling, drafting IP & tech-transfer policy, technology assessment & promotion, negotiation and signing of deals with corporate and capacity building.

On this occasion Dr. Anil Wali, Managing Director, FITT, mentioned that CUPB is a research centric university and it has the potential to set higher standards in the area of IP management and technology transfer. He stated that, under this MoU, i-TTO will act as a facilitator and provide the necessary support to ease the process of patent application filling and tech transfer

In his address, Prof. Raghavendra P. Tiwari, Vice Chancellor, CUPB, mentioned that CUPB has set high benchmarks in the field of research and innovation with high research publications in international journals and research projects. As a research-centric university, we need to improve our performance in number of patents applications filled which are currently low in number due to absence of patent support system.

Prof. Tiwari stated that the purpose of this MoU is to encourage our researchers and faculty to build competencies in the areas of IP Registration and Tech Transfer by taking assistance of a professional organization having expertise in this aspect. He expressed his hope that this partnership will certainly prove to be helpful in generating a higher number of patent registrations in future and build a system to generate additional income for the university in the form of patent royalty and technology transfer fees.

At the start of the programme, Prof. Anjana Munshi, Dean Research, welcomed the participants. Dr. Preeti Khetarpal, Coordinator, IPR/Technology Transfer Cell at CUPB coordinated the programme and shared the details of the MoU document. Prof. R.K. Wusirika gave the concluding remarks. Prof. Monisha Dhiman, President Institution Innovation Council at CUPB extended formal vote of thanks.This MoU signing ceremony was virtually attended by Reema Sahni Mediratta (Project Manager – IP & Tech Transfer, i-TTO), Pragti Aggarwal (Senior Project Officer, IP, i-TTO) and Prof. Raj Kumar, (Members of CUPB IPR Cell).