JNU Annual Sports Function

The Sports Office conducted its Annual Sports presentation function on  24 March, 2011  in the sports stadium for the year 2010 – 2011. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Sudhir K. Sopory was the Chief Guest. The function started with a short but very impressive demonstration by the Yoga Kendra members Ms. Alpana Tripathi & Mr. Arvind Kumar to the narration of the benefits of each 'aasan' by Sh. Ajay Kumar Shastri, the Yoga Instructor. This was followed by a breathtaking demonstration by the young enthusiasts of the Taekwondo club under the able guidance of Master Daulat Singh Bisht, which impressed one and all.

In her welcome address the Chairperson of the University Sports Committee Dr. Shankari Sundararaman enumerated the benefits of sports in the lives of the youth today.  She welcomed the Vice-Chancellor, the Dean of Students and the students who took part in various activities all through the year with great enthusiasm. The Deputy Director, PE, Mrs. Damayanti V. Tambay read out the report on the annual activities held under the sports office between April 2010 to March 2011. This included activities of the following games:

Athletics, Badminton, Cricket, , Football, Volleyball, Tennis, Table Tennis, Taekwondo Weight & Power lifting, Yoga, JNU Mountaineering and Trekking.

Awards and Certificates were given away by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Sopory and later by the Dean of Students to the students in the above games. The Vice Chancellor in his address recognized the importance of the contribution of sports in an education institution like JNU and offered to look into the needs and requirements of the sports office. The Dean of Students, Prof. Jain narrated his close association with the sports activities in the university first as the Chairperson USC, then as Associate Dean of Students and presently as the Dean of Students. He also promised to continue to give his patronage for the sports activities as and when it is required.
The evening clearly belonged to Asutosh Gupta of SLL&CS who bagged the three Best Lifter's Awards in the category of Weight Lifting, Power Lifting and the Best Physique.

Vote of thanks was given by the Assistant Director (PE), Dr. Vikram Singh

Damayanti V. Tambay
Deputy Director, (PE)

International Earth Hour

JNU Eco-Club observed International Earth Hour on Saturday, the 26 of March 2011 in keeping its pursuance with environment oriented issues. In a short span of time, the Club has managed to successfully organize some events related to environmental and social causes, e.g. First JNU Bicycle Rally for an Eco-friendly Campus, Blood Donation Camp for people from poor background, participation in CANSUPPORT etc. A candle light march from Ganga Dhaba to 24 X 7 Food Court and back to Ganga Dhaba was also organized.

MD. Phakharuddin Ansari, Co-ordinator
JNU Eco- Club

Hispanic Festival

A Cultural group called 'Murcielago' of the Centre of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian & Latin American Studies, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies organized Hispanic Festival under the direction of Dr. Meenakshi Sundriyal. The festival entitled HISPANOTSAV was held on March 31, 2011 in the SSS Auditorium with the participation of faculty members, students and some representatives of the Hispanic world in India and presented songs, dances, poetry recitation jointly organized by the students, faculty of the Centre and the representatives of the Hispanic world in India. The event was also attended by the diplomats of the Spanish speaking countries in India. Prior to the event, the 'Murcielago' group had organized a literary contest for students of the Centre and the winners were awarded certificates by His Excellency Mr. Juan Alfredo Pinto Saavedra, Ambassador of Colombia in India who was also the Chef Guest on the occasion.

Ranjeeva Ranjan, Research Scholar
Centre of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian & Latin American Studies, SLL&CS

SPS@25:Looking Forward

This meeting celebrated the silver jubilee of School of Physical Sciences in JNU which was founded in 1986. It was a reunion as well, bringing back the Ph.D. and M.Sc. students who had graduated from SPS as well as staff and faculty who had earlier been in the School.

The two day meeting was inaugurated on 10 March in the auditorium of the School of Arts and Aesthetics. In addition to Prof. Subir Sarkar, the present Dean, and S. Dattagupta, one of the founding members of the School, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof.  Sudhir Sopory and the Chancellor, Prof. Yashpal also spoke.The scientific sessions included talks by four keynote speakers, Profs. S G Dani, Deepak Dhar,  Shiraz Minwalla of the TIFR, Mumbai, and Prof. Gautam R Desiraju of the IISc, Bangalore. In addition, there were speakers from institutions that SPS has close academic links with, Prof. Amit Roy of the IUAC, New Delhi and Varun  Sahni of the IUCAA, Pune, and  Dr Narahari Sastry of the IICT, Hyderabad and Dr Maneesh Thakur of ISI, New Delhi.

The core of the meeting consisted of talks by SPS alumni who are in academic positions in other Institutes and Universities in the country and by some of the younger SPS faculty. The overall theme, "Looking Forward", tried to address the areas that would be of interest in coming years, and the conference featured talks on a variety of topics in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. These ranged from cosmology, self organized criticality, interactions in DNA, dynamics on Homogeneous Spaces, Supramolecular Chemistry, Nanoscience, and String theory.
Students of the School showcased their research through posters- a tradition of the SPS March meetings- with a poster competition (won this year by Gaurav Srivastava and M R Ajay Kumar). In addition to the scientific discussions, there was a small function to mark the career of Prof. Ashok K Rastogi who has been in SPS since 1989, and who turned 60 this past year.

Ramakrishna Ramaswamy, Professor,
School of Physical Sciences