Youth Connect

The impact of Coronavirus pandemic has been felt across the globe. The working class has suffered immensely due to the pandemic’s impact on the economy. In India, Images of labourers undertaking long journeys on foot continues to flash on TVs and newspapers. Goa too is bearing the impact of the pandemic. Under these circumstances, Pinnacle, a students’ club from the Goa University, is organising a webinar on the topic of ‘Migrant Labourers and Goa’s Political Economy’ on the occasion of ‘Statehood Day’. It will be held on May 30 at 4:30 pm. The discussion aims to reflect on the issues of Migrant labourers in Goa and how they can be contextualised in Goa’s Political Economy. It will also deliberate on how the Goan industry as well as government is dealing with the crisis caused due to Coronavirus with regards to Migrant labourers and what will be the way forward. Prof. Rahul Tripathi, HoD of Dept of Political Science, Goa University will be chairing this open webinar discussion. Blaise Costabir – Chairman CII Goa Council and Amita Kanekar – Architectural Historian & Novelist will join as Lead Discussants. The webinar is organised in association with the Department of Political Science, Goa […]

The Women’s Cell and Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) of Shree Damodar College jointly organized 2 sessions on ‘Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) for all First Year students. The session was conducted to create awareness about the Act amongst the students and the teachers of the college. According to the Act every person studying/working in an educational institution also has to be cognizant about the same.  The Resource Person was Ms. Siddhi Parodkar, Asst. Professor, G R Kare College of Law. Ms. Siddhi Parodkar delivers talks on various issues pertaining to women across Goa.  She has been associated with NGOs in Margao and provides voluntary assistance in their work. Ms. Parodkarbriefed the audience on different acts and actions that are considered as sexual harassment, the law pertaining to it, the requirements for the constitution of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and the penalties that could be imposed for non-compliance with such requirements.  She informed students about different situations wherein females are made victims and sexual favors expected of them. A similar talk was organized for all the non-teaching staff members.

Kala Academy is now accepting entries for the One Act Play Competition at High School Level. The institutions who are participating have to pay a Rs.100 fee irrespective of the number of one-act plays (category wise). The amount shall be accepted in cash during office hours between 10.00 a.m to 1.00 p.m and 2.00 p.m to 4.00 p.m at Kala Academy’s accounts section. The entries should be filled in the prescribed format and physically received in the hard copy format. Changing the names of the plays won’t be allowed after the entries are submitted. The official seal of the high schools’ headmasters should be on all the entries. The entry forms are available at Kala Academy’s reception desk during office hours. (The last day to submit entries is on 20th December 2019)

Department of BBA Travel and Tourism, Don Bosco College organized ‘‘Magnify 2019’’, an inter-collegiate event on the theme ‘‘: a better future for all’’. The chief guest for the event was the former deputy director of the department of tourism, Pamela Mascarenhas. Students staged a welcome dance that marked the beginning of the event. The competitions suggested career options for students. These included a fashion show showcasing the different countries assigned to them, a photography competition that motivated students to learn more about the on-ground scenario in Goa, and a quiz. The colleges that took part in this event were VM Salgaoncar Institute of International Hospitality Education (VMSIIHE), Goa University, MES College, Goa College of Home Science and Carmel College for Women. The chief guest of the valedictory ceremony was former commissioner of labor and employment exchange, SA Deshpande. Magnify 2019 was won by VM Salgaoncar Institute of International Hospitality Education, Raia.                

Department of philosophy, Dhempe College of Arts and Science, Miramar organized an awareness program on ‘‘Human Rights and Duties’’ in collaboration with Goa-based NGO, Uzwaad – A Ray of Hope and the California-based NGO, United for Human Rights. The guest speaker of the program was an associate professor and head of the department, VM Salgaocar College of Law, KS Rao who raised awareness about one’’s fundamental human rights and their violations. This was followed by a screening of the video ‘‘The Story of Human Rights’’ created by the NGO United for Human Right. The staff and students of the department and Uzwaad held a rally to spread the message of human rights and duties to the people. They displayed placards and banners, shouted slogans and performed a street play directed by the head of Uzwaad, Sendra Pereira.

In continuing with its mission to celebrate the power of music, Child’s Play Foundation will host its anniversary monsoon concert on September 21, 6 p.m. at Institute Menezes Braganza Hall, Panaji. NT KURIOCITY gets you the details On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, Child’s Play India Foundation is organising its anniversary monsoon concert on September 21, 6 p.m. at Institute Menezes Braganza Hall, Panaji. The NGO led by Luis Dias works towards bringing classical music to underprivileged children in India. By doing so, their aim is to give children an opportunity to make music, learn a new skill, and lead a life of empowerment. The concert will feature a range of performances by the children of Child’s Play (aged six to 19), the Camerata Child’’s Play India along with invited musicians including Omar De Loiola Pereira, Selwyn Menezes, Jonathan Bager (flute), Laura Riccardi (violin), and others. This concert will showcase a variety of pieces such as works for beginner orchestra, and the more advanced ensemble which will give the Indian premiere of a concerto grosso by a less-well-known Baroque composer, Johann Valentin Rathgeber (with children playing the solo parts); two movements (Rondeau and the famous Badinerie) of Johann Sebastian […]

Department of commerce, Dnyanprassarak Mandal’s College and Research Centre, Assagao organised a one-day State level workshop on ‘Financial Literacy and Investor Education’ in association with ACBM Global Mentor Academy, Mumbai. Resource person for the workshop was chief executive officer, Amanpal Singh Chawla. About 58 participants from 15 colleges and higher secondary schools in Goa participated in the same. Chawla covered topics like saving v/s investment, goal planning, risk planning, retirement planning, investment planning, estate planning, comprehensive financial planning, products knowledge on mutual fund, gold, shares, real estate, etc. As a part of skill development and learning, participants were mentored and guided on how to plan their finances at an early stage to attain financial freedom. Participants were also trained on mobile apps to learn financial planning concept. NT KURIOCITY

With the aim of helping locals and small scale industries to eliminate manpower, save time, and thereby make the segregation of fish more efficient, four students from Agnel Institute of Technology and Design, Assagao worked on developing a fish sorting system which uses image processing. The group comprised of Sahil Deosekar, Gauri Halankar, Amey Patil, and Devashree Samant. The team was mentored by professor, Gauri Gaunekar and professor, Mrunal Sawant. “On an average fish consumption in Goa is 70 to 90 tonnes a day. Being the staple food of Goans, the demand for fish in the local market has increased and so has the cost,” says Deosekar. However, according to Halankar, several tasks are involved between the catch of fish to selling it. “One of them is sorting the fish on the basis of different sizes. Since a standard type of net is used, fish of different sizes are caught at a time,” she says. Segregation of fish based on sizes is a must as the cost of the fish depends upon its size; larger the size more expensive is the fish as compared to smaller ones of the same species. Generally, fish is manually sorted by size using 10 […]

In its continuous endeavour to share knowledge, improve skills and introduce new ideas, The Navhind Times has been organising workshops, seminars and competitions since 2011. In its latest venture, Your Career Matters, various popular, as well as uncommon professions, will be highlighted. The maiden interaction will be with some of the top RJs of Goa who will speak about radio jockeying as a career. Maria Fernandes | NT Kuriocity If things like music programming, scripting, presenting radio shows, radio advertisements and lending voice to audio magazines and documentaries seem interesting to you, a career as a radio jockey (RJ) is something you can consider. Radio is not only the fastest growing but also a very popular segment in the media sector today. Thanks to the various innovative approaches of the new channels that have entered the scenario in recent times, the popularity of radio is at an all-time high. RJs who run the shows are celebrities in their own right. Take for example our very own Shakuntala Bharne and Alfie of FM Rainbow, Ayesha Barretto of Radio Indigo and Uday Chari of Big FM, whose voices have charmed us over the years and kept us informed and entertained. Radio jockeying […]

BITS Pilani in collaboration with IHE Delft, Netherlands has launched a new ME programme in Sanitation Science, Technology and Management for this academic year. The research track programme entails that the student pursues two semesters of coursework, initiates his/her ME dissertation in the third semester (concurrent with remaining coursework), while the fourth semester will be entirely allocated for pursuing the dissertation. The curriculum will focus on on-field best practice aspects to impart skills to the students. The programme will be run at BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa campus and the degree will be awarded by BITS Pilani. BITS Pilani has been recently recognised as Institute of Eminence by MHRD, Government of India. It is also India’s highest ranked non-Government Institute as declared in various reputed world rankings of 2019 such as QS BRICS, QS Asia, and QS India. This programme, in collaboration with IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Netherlands is part of the Global Sanitation Graduate school. In partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IHE Delft launched the new programme in sanitation. The Delft-based postgraduate programme in Sanitation was then made available to universities in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa as part of the recently established […]

The COMEDK (Consortium of medical, engineering and dental colleges in Karnataka) UGET and Uni-GAUGE e-entrance examination, for the admission to the engineering courses – Bachelor of Engineering/ Bachelor of Technology – will be conducted on May 12. While briefing the media, the executive secretary of COMEDK, S Kumar stated that this examination is the second largest multi-university private engineering exam in the country, after the Joint Engineering Exam (JEE). After the government of India issued a notification as regards National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) being the only entrance exam for dental and medical courses, COMEDK has now restricted its entrance exam to only engineering courses. The students answering COMEDK UGET and Uni-GAUGE merit-based e-entrance examination will have the option to study in any of the 150 engineering institutions in Karnataka affiliated to 25 private/ self-funded universities. Kumar also said that the students making it to the engineering courses through this exam has an advantage of internship so that they become employable after the end of the course. The applicants need to register on or before April 19, 2019. All candidates, who have passed or are currently pursuing 10+2/ PUC/ any equivalent exam, as approved by the All India Council […]

On Monday, minister for art and culture, Govind Gaude said that the drafting of the cultural policy is underway and the final changes in the amendment will be done by the end of next week. “After these changes are done, it will be scrutinized by a selection team which will then approach the Directorate of education. After getting the nod from Directorate of education, the policy will await the approval of the cabinet and the cultural marks can only be introduced by 2019-20 academic year”, added Gaude.

One of the biggest management events of Goa- Odyssey 2018- took place at Kala Academy on 10th and 11th October.  It was organised by the BBA department of Saraswat Vidyalaya’s Sridora Caculo College of Commerce and Management Studies.  There are many barriers that women in India face which is metaphorically known as a ‘glass ceiling’.  This inspired the theme for this year- ‘Breaking the Glass’. Various rounds in different business areas such as Human Resources, Marketing, and Finance kept the participants on their toes. Additionally, there were challenges which revolved around women. These included tasks like creating HR policies and finance schemes beneficial for female entrepreneurs.  KLE Cbalc Belgaum won the first place of Odyssey 2018.

The next step college students have to face in their lives is facing job interviews. It is very important for them to be prepared for this as it can enable them to get their dream job. These skills can be very beneficial later on in life. At St. Xavier’s College, Ms Runa Menezes conducted an ‘Interview Facing Skills’ workshop for some final year students from different courses.  She is the founder of Speaking Studio which is a persona and skill development centre.  It was an interactive session where students took part in activities like sharing their concerns about interviews. Ms Menezes used video clips to show the students how to answer certain interview questions. She spoke about the significance of body language and taught them about good/ bad posture, proper eye contact, how to give proper handshakes, and so on. The students also got other tips like researching the organization they want to join and what to wear on the day of the interview.

The Directorate of Art & Culture organises Cultural Talent Search Competitions for students in Goa annually, to promote and preserve art and culture and to give a platform to the youth of Goa. The Taluka Level Talent Search competition will be conducted in the first and second week of October 2018. For South Goa, the competition has been arranged from October 4 to 6, 2018. For North Goa the competition will be held from October 8 to 10, 2018 at Sanskruti Bhavan, Patto. The competition is open to school students from class 5 to 10. The first three prize winners in each category will then compete at state level and the winner of state level will be awarded with scholarships. Students from Dahrbandoda, Canacona, Quepem, Salcete, Marmugao and Sanguem taluka, will have to be present at the Loyola High school Margao and Mahila Nutan High School Margao at 2.30 p.m. on October 4 for the poetry writing, drawing, essay, Devnagri and English Handwriting competitions. Students from Sanguem, Quepem, Canacona Taluka participating in the Indian classical and western music, singing and dance competitions should be at the Rajiv Gandhi Kala Mandir Ponda at 8.30 am on October 5. Students from Salcette, […]

On the occasion of teacher’s day St. Xavier’s college Mapusa inaugurated its first research instrumentation center hosting X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD). Speaking on the occasion Principal (Fr) Jeronimo D’Silva, said that: “Research is one of the key focus of an academic institute which gives rise to cutting-edge technology and St. Xavier’s college is the first undergraduate college in Goa to procure X-RAY diffraction Instrument for material characterization.” He also informed that the central facility will be open to students and staff from other colleges as well as Industry. The X-Ray Diffractometer will deal with material characterization and help identify the atomic and molecular structure in materials. X-ray powder diffraction is most widely used for the identification of unknown crystalline materials (e.g. minerals, inorganic compounds). In addition to the identification of the compounds, X-ray diffractometer can also be used to determine strain, preferred orientation, crystallographic structure, and grain size of crystalline materials.

The Counselling Cell of M.E.S College of Arts and Commerce, Zuarinagar, organised an interactive session for the students on the topic: ‘Enhancing Mental Health among Adolescents’. Dr Ravi Agrawal a consultant psychiatrist at Manipal Hospital- Panaji and Samir Walavalkar, a psychotherapist were the resource persons for this session. Dr Ravi Agarwal spoke of the vulnerability of young people to mental problems. He also emphasized that enhancing resilience through cultivating the right attitude, learning life skills and indulging in a hobby would help in overcoming mental health problems among the youth. On the other hand, Samir Walavalkar, asserted that being aware of individual problems is the key to enhance resilience in young people and stated that negative emotions are harmful when a person cannot control the intensity, frequency, and duration with which these emotions are expressed. He shared four tips with the students – being aware of one‘s feelings, accepting them, analysing them and applying them appropriately to maintain healthy relationships.

Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) – a 3D animation and visual effects institution, recently organised annual national students’ meet in Goa. Over 250 students from 25 different cities participated in the event. The idea behind the meet was to encourage animation and VFX students from all over the country to come together and learn the art from experts during seminars, workshops, case studies, panel discussions and various other creative activities. The students were also provided a platform to work on live projects, meet professionals and get access to real life experiences and insights. Students from MAAC interacted with – head of the department, Double Negative (DNEG), India, Madhu Nair; CEO, Aum Animation Studios, Vivek Bolar, among others. Spokesperson of MAAC, Pravir Arora said: “We aim to provide budding animators an opportunity to interact and learn from the industry stalwarts as innovation and creativity are of utmost importance in the field of cinematics.”

A two-day ‘Entrepreneurship Awareness Camp’ was organised by the department of chemistry, Carmel College for Women, Nuvem- Goa, in collaboration with Agnel Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (AEDI), Verna. The main objective of the camp was to make the students aware of the different areas of skills where they can establish themselves as an entrepreneur and create jobs for others. Pravin Sabnis, mentor (AEDI) delivered the lecture on ‘Camp Objective and Business Opportunities Identification’. He explained the current scenario in the industry and the marketing strategies required for setting up a startup as a career option. He also highlighted various career options and asked the students to take maximum benefit of the prevalent situation by venturing into entrepreneurship. In the second session, Tushar Sawant- Manager (AEDI) gave an explanation on the schemes such as, Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) and Chief Ministers Rojgar Yojana (CMRY) that are available. On the last day, a field visit was arranged for the students at Center for Incubation and Business Acceleration (CIBA), Verna, where the students got the opportunity to interact with various startup companies and learn about their startup stories.