Six Days Faculty Enrichment Program on 21st-Century Knowledge and Character skills for University Teachers organized by Amity Staff College concluded today at Amity University Haryana

“Strengthen cognitive abilities, integrate education and research and foster innovations in plenty in universities and colleges in India- Experts at the six-day FEP 2021 organized by AUH”

Gurugram: 26^thJune 2021

With the objective of inspiring university and college teachers to empower themselves with the 21st-Century Knowledge and Character skills and to support the major transformation of higher education, the Amity Staff College of Amity University Haryana organized a six days Faculty Enrichment Program from 21^st June to 26^th June 2021. The program was Inaugurated by Dr RA Mashelkar FRS, Founder Chairman National Innovation Council and former Director General of CSIR in the august presence of Hon’ble Chancellor Dr Aseem Chauhan, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor Prof PB Sharma, Vice Chancellors of Amity Universities in India, Deans, Heads of Institutions, large number of faculty members and 180 registered participants from various universities and institutions from across the country, that included Allahabad University, BR Ambedkar National Law University, Mahatma Gandhi University Kerala, Mizoram University, IGNOU, Alagappa University Chennai, Carrier Point University Himachal Pradesh, NMDC Tamilnadu,KL University Andhra University, GD Goenka University, KR Mangalam University Haryana, Amity Universities at Noida, Mumbai, Jaipur, Gwalior, Raipur and Gurugram among others

A galaxy of eminent speakers who addressed the participants during the above FEP included Padma Vibhushan Dr RA Mashelkar FRS, Prof Prem Vrat, Hon’ble Chairman IIT Dhanbad and IIT Mandi, distinguished Scientist and National Science Chair Padma Shri Dr S Hasnain, Eminent Educationist India’s Representative to UNESCO Executive Board & Padma Shri Prof J S Rajput,  Secretary General of AIU Dr Pankaj Mittal and Dr Krishen Kumar, former Lead Technologist NASA Johnson Space Centre (JSC), Houston, Texas, USA, Emeritus Professor, Department of Pharmacology Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Rutgers University USA Prof. Debabrata Banerjee, DG-ICSI- International Chamber for Service Industry Dr. Gulshan Sharma, President ASTIF Dr W Selvamurthy, Pro VC Dr Padmakali Banerjee, Dy Pro VC Dr Vikas Madhukar and Dean Research Dr Rajendra Prasad among others.

At a time when major reforms in education are in the offing with the education framework proposed by NEP-2020, it is highly important to encourage and enrich the insights of faculty members to pursue and upgrade their professional acumen not only to ensure the best learning outcomes for their students but also to make them more effective and outcome oriented in their future endeavours. Further, apart from domain knowledge and professional skills and enterprising spirit, the teachers of the new knowledge age are to imbibe the character skills of integrity, truthfulness, compassion, peaceful co-existence, sustainability and resilience, the experts emphasized during their deliberations.

The faculty need to continuously update their domain knowledge in their chosen field of expertise as well as keep themselves updated with the emerging technologies, as also to create new knowledge through engagements in Industry and Society relevant R&D and cause innovations, new product development and give rise to start-ups in the university and college campuses, the experts opined.

Delivering the Inaugural Address Padma Vibhushan Dr RA Mashelkar, Eminent Scientist & Former Director General, CSIRsaid “Teachers are architects of the future of the country. As such they should not to satisfy with incremental improvements or even leapfrogging but take courage to pole-vault to another level of excellence by their exciting and intuitive quest for eminence”. The Teachers of the university and colleges should transform themselves into great mentors and great researchers and innovators empowered with enterprising skills of the new knowledge age.

Eminent Educationist India’s Representative to UNESCO Executive Board & Padma Shri Prof J S Rajput while sharing his rich experience of formulation and implementation of Education policies of 1986 and 1992 invited the universities and colleges in India to shoulder the responsibility of adopting Government Schools in their neighbourhood to strengthen the school education for children of low- and middle-income parents. As good quality school education lays a strong foundation for building both the capabilities and character and is the surest way to improve the quality of life of people. The NEP-2020 has laid a great emphasis on teacher education, as the quality of teachers truly decides the quality and standards of education. Prof Rajput invited the teacher participants from universities and colleges to pursue lifelong learning, practice self-discipline and lead by their example to earn great respect and reverence from the student’s community.

Dr Krishen Kumar, former Lead Technologist NASA Johnson Space Centre (JSC), Houston, Texas, USA while delivering his plenary address said, “in this new age of knowledge and technology revolution the teachers have and important role to prepare students for an exciting journey of lifelong enlightenment and shape them as great human beings who shall work with head, heart and soul for humanity at large”. Technology shall be a great enabler, but the human touch of empathy and compassion can never be replaced by smart and intelligent machines. As such great teachers who fire the imagination of their students and kindle their intuition and innovative faculties shall always be in great demand.

Prof Prem Vrat, Hon’ble Chairman IIT Dhanbad and IIT Mandi and founder Director IIT Roorkee delivered his plenary address on “Effective Implementation Strategies for NEP-2020”. He emphasised the need for interdisciplinary and integrative approach for education and research and invited the teachers to empower themselves with the mindset of a mentor, innovator, researcher and imbibe human values in the student community along with the capabilities to create globally competent professionals.

Secretary General of AIU Dr Pankaj Mittal in her actioned packed address on NEP2020: Empowering the Teachers invited the teachers at the universities and colleges to empower themselves with the digital technologies and support the cause of autonomy and flexibility of learning. Dr Pankaj Mittal opined that the NEP 2020 offers a great opportunity for radical reforms in education from schools to the university levels. She talked about the importance of ABC concept of Lifelong learning, Blended & Hybrid system of learning and also highlighted the benefits of the National Credit Bank idea proposed by the NEP- 2020.

Director General of International Chamber for Service Industry Dr. Gulshan Sharma in his plenary address while highlighted the importance of the service industry in India said that more than 200 million people will be added in the global workforce by India by 2030 and as such great opportunities lie ahead for Indian graduates who pursue their education with interest and passion. He invited the teachers to make education relevant, go back to basics and submit to the call of curiosity, innovativeness, and humility to succeed in life.

President Amity University Science, Technology and Innovation Foundation Dr W Selvamurthy, while delivering his plenary address on “Power of Innovation, Science & Research in 21st century” said that the universities of India should be empowered with the innovation eco-system so that innovation at all levels could be pursued to support the accelerated growth of relevant research, IPR and innovative product development. Dr Selvamurthy called upon the teacher participants to cause incremental, sustaining, disruptive and radical innovations to empower India with breakthrough technologies and accelerated growth of start-ups.

Executive Director of Young Lives, India Dr Renu Singh in her plenary address on “Is our curriculum doing justice with the 21^st Century Skills” invited the teacher participants to seriously revisit both the curriculum design as well as content delivery and develop new tools for assessment of the 21^st Century Skills imparted and imbibed by the learners of modern age.

Pro Vice Chancellor AUH Dr Padmakali Banerjee in her thought-provoking address on “Pedagogical Eclecticism and Learning innovation in the digital age” said that we need to nurture abilities of adoptability and flexibility both in the students and teachers to cope up with the challenges of education tomorrow. The digital age offers immense opportunities to innovate the learning environment.

Prof. Vikas Madhukar, Dy Pro Chancellor and Dean of Management Studies, at AUH invited the participants to support the development of entrepreneurship ecosystem in their institutions and foster enterprising spirit among the students to boost the rise of start-ups and innovation incubation.

Distinguished Bio-Scientist and former Vice President of Indian Nation Science Academy, present Dean of Research Dr Rajendra Prasad while delivering his plenary address on “Healthcare: Where Will We Be in 2050?” said that the future of medicines will be of ‘Precision Medicines’ that will be tailored to the needs of an individual to combat the disease and metabolic disorder. While stressing that   genetic similarity between human and a human   is 99.9% nobody in world has similar DNA of you.  This diversity is possible because of millions of differences in the alphabets of DNA and epigenetics changes influence by the environmental factors.  The old idea that genes are ‘set in tone’ has been disproven. Nature vs Nurture is no longer a debate but a reality. Giving a hope for good health and long life for all and even mastery over death by 2050, Prof Prasad shared the mind-boggling advances taking place in the field of life sciences research and invited the teachers to enjoy the excitement of research in their own domain areas and carry this excitement to the classrooms.

In her plenary address on Mental health: A fundamental component of human development, Prof. Surinder Jaswal, Deputy Director (Research) at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai said that “there is no health without mental health” and as such a greater attention is required to develop emotional maturity and mental health of the students. Prof Jaswal further inspired the teachers to reach out to the community along with their students to spread awareness about mental health in the community.

Dr Gunjan M. Sanjeev. Vice President (Amity Education Group) & Director – International Affairs, delivered her address on “Internationalization in Higher Education” and said that great opportunities for internationalization at home and maximizing the global connect are now available as power of connectivity has created a highly enriched environment for global cooperation in education and research.  Dr Gunjan also shared the strategic framework for strengthening internationalization in universities in India.

In his words of wisdom Dr. Aseem Chauhan, Hon’ble Chancellor, Amity University Haryana said, “Teachers have to play a pivotal role   as leaders in their domain areas and should work as mentors. For this they need to regularly upgrade their knowledge base as well as technology Skills. Much of this upgradation should be self-motivated. Teachers should have the capabilities to adopt advanced technologies and should have the willingness to experiment with innovative technologies to improve learning outcomes. National education policy has provided a great opportunity for globalization and growth and is important to be implemented. University rankings would greatly improve by maximizing the university outcome in respect of quality of education, research publications and a more effective translation of research into innovations and new product developments said Hon’ble Chancellor Dr Aseem Chauhan.

Delivering the valedictory address Dr Rakesh Bhatnagar, former Vice Chancellor BHU and currently Vice Chancellor Amity University Rajasthan said that “We teachers must enjoy our profession then only we can give our best to the noble profession of teaching and research. We need also to promote out of box thinking in our teachers as well as students and engage in learning beyond classrooms in collaborative learning, collaborative research and cause an upsurge of innovation and new product developments to empower India with accelerated growth of science and technologies of the new age of knowledge”.

Prof. C.S. Sharma, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi talked upon the MOOCs as life long learning opportunities. Prof. C.S Sharma focused on life-long learning and breaking down various barriers which distract us from learning. This can be overcome by training which requires a lot of commitment. MOOCs help us overcome normal learning process. Prof Sharma emphasized that there is need to create alternatives while creating MOOCs otherwise the MOOC is of no use. Overall, Prof. C.S. Sharma, beautifully blended psychology and study of MOOCs together which gave us valuable information.

Dr. Renu Malaviya, Associate Professor, Department of Education, Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi while delivering her talk on “Higher Education Pedagogy, Student-Centered Teaching-learning Processes.” emphasized on the importance of being ‘teachers of today’ who are energized and true to their profession. These days’ resources are available and we should treat them as the assets in our hands. Dr Malaviya said that teachers are the agents of change and student centric education should be encouraged wherein, networking, team work, support, and group learning takes place.

Prof. Debabreta Banerjee, Emirutus Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Rutgers University, USA. while delivering his talk on “Importance of critical thinking and effective communication for teachers” stated that the workshop is the next step in terms of enriching faculty members in terms of how they would be able to impart knowledge, their research, their education, their experience to the students who are actually the flag bearers of future. They are here today but they are going to lead the charge in terms of taking the nation forward tomorrow. Prof. Banerjee mandate was to talk about communication skills, how to improve them, how to be clear, how to be concise, and how to convince both in the oral part of the communication, as well, as in the written part, as both are equally important. Prof Banerjee also touched upon the subject of critical thinking, which in higher education is probably the most important aspect of human research.

Addressing the valedictory function Prof P B Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, Amity University Haryana said, “the new normal of higher education necessitates a thorough revisit of education and research ecosystem in universities and colleges in India to create a great Advantage India in higher education and support the Society and Nation’s development on pathways of inclusive growth and nurturing of human excellence”. Prof Sharma expressed his delight at the august presence of great many eminent educationist who addressed the participants during the Six Days FEP organized by Amity Staff College under the caring patronage of Hon’ble Founder President, Amity Education Group Dr Ashok K Chauhan and visionary leadership of Hon’ble Chancellor Dr Aseem Chauhan. Prof Sharma specially acknowledged the live interactions of the participants and highly intuitive questions raised by them in the chat box as well as in the question answer session for each plenary session. Prof Sharma warmly appreciated the excellent coordination and execution of the FEP by Director Amity Staff College Rear Admiral KK Pandey and Program Director Dr Sanjna Vij.

Expressing their profound happiness in participating the highly insightful FEP at AUH, the participants shared their online feedback and also expressed their profound appreciation of Amity University Haryana for organizing such an impactful Faculty Enrichment Program.

Dr Sanjna Vij, Program Director, Academic Staff College, AUH said that the Staff College is deeply devoted to empowering teachers and Sr Executives of the Universities and Colleges in India with vision and skills of 21^st century to nurture education and research excellence in higher education. Rear Admiral KK Pandey (Retd.), HR Director, AUH whilst delivering the Vote of Thanks, highlighted that in a rapidly changing world scenario, the role of Teachers assumes utmost importance. He expressed his profound delight at the level of sincerity and keenness to participate in the deliberations by the faculty participants who closely interacted with the eminent speakers during the sixday Faculty Enrichment Program.

Excellent support for the program was provided by the Amity IT Team headed by Dr JS Sodhi and Shri Sandeep Singh, Dy OSD to VC AUH.

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Twitter goes on to add that this represents dangerous overreach that is inconsistent with open, democratic principles.

“Twitter is deeply committed to the people of India. Our service has proven vital for the public conversation and a source of support for people during the pandemic. To keep our service available, we will strive to comply with applicable law in India. But, just as we do around the world, we will continue to be strictly guided by principles of transparency, a commitment to empowering every voice on the service, and protecting freedom of expression and privacy under the rule of law,” a Twitter spokesperson said.

Twitter has also urged the Ministry of Electronics and IT to publish these Standard Operating Protocols on procedural aspects of compliance for public consultation.

On 25 February 2021, the Central Government enacted the InformationTechnology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which cast various obligations on internet intermediaries, and in particular, on social media platforms.

It was reported that social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were yet to comply with their obligations under the 2021 Rules. This gave rise to an apprehension among users of such websites that these websites could either stop operations or be banned in India for such non-compliance.

Internet intermediaries are entities which perform various functions including facilitation of exchange of information and online communication. For example, Facebook or Twitter are internet intermediaries.

A user registered on Facebook can share information with his connections without the same being edited by Facebook in any manner. This passive role adopted by Facebook is what in essence enables it to be classified as an intermediary.

Under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, intermediaries are granted protection from incurring any liability for third-party data available on their platform or hosted by them. This protection is essential as various intermediaries such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube do not monitor the content posted by third-party users on their platforms.

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Speaking on the occasion Shri. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, Government of India said “India is an attractive investment destination and is poised to become a major player in the global supply chain in the electronics and IT products industry. Our Government’s decision to launch a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme has received tremendous response globally. We welcome Amazon’s decision to set up a manufacturing line in Chennai, as it will enhance domestic production capacities, and create jobs as well. This will further our mission of creating an AatmaNirbhar Bharat which is digitally empowered.” Minister also mentioned that it is only a beginning for Amazon’s efforts to manufacture electronics products from India for India and export markets.

Amazon will commence its manufacturing efforts with contract manufacturer Cloud Network Technology, a subsidiary of Foxconn in Chennai and start production later this year. The device manufacturing program will be able to produce hundreds of thousands of Fire TV Stick devices every year, catering to the demands of customers in India. Amazon will continuously evaluate scaling capacity to additional marketplaces/cities depending on the domestic demand.

India has taken several key steps to encourage electronics manufacturing in India. The Production Linked Manufacturing (PLI) for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing has emerged as a major success with many international companies commencing production of electronics goods from India. Entry of Amazon in this sector adds to the success story of electronics manufacturing in India.

IT Minister wrote on Koo- “Under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, electronics manufacturing in India has recently attracted some of the biggest investments from global giants. Happy to share Amazon India is the latest to join this success story of India.”

Shri Prasad asked Amazon India to help in taking products made by India’s artisans and Ayurvedic products to global markets through eCommerce Platform. He said, “Amazon is a global company but Amazon India must evolve as a truly India company deeply connected with Indian business community and culture.”

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Search action revealed that at the behest of Chinese individuals, more than 40 bank accounts were created in various dummy entities, entering into credits of more than Rs 1,000 Crore over the period. A subsidiary of Chinese company and its related concerns have taken over Rs 100 Crore bogus advances from shell entities for opening businesses of retail showrooms in India. Further, incriminating documents in respect of hawala transactions and laundering of money with active involvement of bank employees and Chartered accountants has been found as a result of search action. Evidences of foreign hawala transactions involving Hongkong and US dollars have also been unearthed. Further investigations are under progress.

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How many professionals in India have declared annual income of ₹1 crore from their profession in their tax returns? About 2200. This was clarified in a series of tweets by the income tax department, sharing income tax return data for the financial year 2018-19.

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The department said incriminating evidence collected during the raids show “large-scale tax evasion and money laundering”. Sources said the I-T sleuths also carried out surveys at the premises of a few BMC officials.

“Raids were carried out on entry providers and beneficiaries who have been engaged in execution of civil contracts mainly in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC),” the Income Tax Department said in a statement. “There were reports that certain contractors had taken entries in the form of loans, etc., from entry providers and inflated expenses in the books of accounts to suppress income.”

In its statement, the CBDT said reports had shown certain contractors had taken entries in the form of loans among others from entry providers and also inflated expenses in the books of accounts to suppress income. “Incriminating evidences showing large scale tax evasion and money laundering have been found,” the tax body said, adding it has so far detected irregularities to the tune of Rs 735 crore and the extent of accommodation entries is being quantified.

The operation “also led to the detection of the use of bogus companies (floated by entry providers) for giving entries to businesses in the form of loans or bills for expenses, among others”, it added.

“In the case of the entry providers, systematic modus operandi of bank fraud and forgery has been detected whereby the promoters have made investments in immovable properties and shares of group companies by siphoning off the bank loans,” said the CBDT.

In the case of the contractor groups, several instances about inflation of expenses by bogus purchases/sub-contracts and taking of loans from entry providers have been identified, the statement claimed.

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