VOL: 00 ISSUE: 00

SLS MIRROR SLS MIRROR

VOL: 02 ISSUE: 10

2

URVI SHAH

Editorial

A very happy new year to all our readers from SLS Mirror! Since this is the second new year we here at SLS Mirror are ringing in, we wracked our brains as to how to make this issue something different. Then we re-alised, we don’t need to – because the December issue is special, all by itself for the contents. Over this month, the students of SLS have been on internships, heling make the world better through their hard work, participat-ed in the Kankaria Carnival extravaganza, shone at ASICON 2013, and attended the usual vibrant assortment of activities on campus, all leading up to a brilliant close to the year 2013. As with all beginnings, we take a moment to review times past, both good and bad. We remember the after-math of Nirbhaya’s ordeal and all it brought in consequence, celebrate the the Mars Orbiter Mission, all the upheavals and glories. And, having looked upon the highs and lows of the year past, clear our minds and pre-pare to dive into the approaching one, a fresh slate – a new chapter to be written in our lives and the history of our college and country. We hope you have a grand time, now and in this year to come, and enjoy this issue of SLS Mirror.

3

The kankaria carnival

Kankaria Lake, a city in itself, from dawn to the dusk sees every color of nature and every nature of human, and the students of SLS-13 were assigned the task of dealing with these natures. As for the partial fulfillment of Urban Renewal Mission Internship with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, 1st Year BA/BBA students collected feedback from the public about the Kankaria Carnival which was held from 25th Dec to 31st Dec 2013. People were expected to answer basic questions like how did they arrive there, at what time did they prefer visiting the carnival etc. They were also asked to rate basic facilities provided at the carnival and suggest if some improvements can be brought up.

The students explained the importance of feedback and what does the government exactly wants out of this feedback exercise. Many visitors voluntarily helped the students in getting feedback. The students were suc-cessful in getting more than 6,000 feedback forms (questionnaire) filled. The best part of the carnival was the day when students of SLS performed on the stage. It was a performance by around 20 SLS students. The other 100 students were also active participants in motivating and cheering for them altogether. The entire experience of working with AMC helped the students to garner a very in-depth sight of Governance. Leadership Skills, Communication Skills, Management Skills were a few of the many lessons learnt by the stu-dents during this six-day activity.

URVI SHAH

4

Plethora of Activities

Internships

18 students from Psychology department of SLS were a part of an internship at Prerna, Delhi Public School, Bopal, Ahmedabad. It is a Calorx initiative for children with learning disabilities. The duration of this winter internship was 1 month, from 28th November’13 to 24th December’13. 4 Psychology Major Students of se-mester 5 and 14 students of semester 3 were a part of this internship in the field of School Psychology. Mrs Taruna Kriplani, Provisional In-charge, Prerna had briefed the students about the functioning, environ-ment and objective of Prerna. Prerna focuses on concept-driven teaching, and has classes from II to X where-in students with learning difficulties are encouraged and motivated to develop their skills through practical application in a supportive environment. These disabilities include Dysgraphia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, ADHD, and Dyslexia. Special needs educators use Project Based learning techniques, they focus on Multi- Sensory Cognitive Enhancement, and Audio- Lingual Methods of learning by creating IEP’s (Individualized Education Plan). Their main goal is to make the students active and responsible learners and help them blend in with the society by joining the main school from class XI. Students got exposure and direct experience in the areas of Psychology through observing the classes as-signed to them and conducting aptitude assessments of students, individually developing the identified skills of students through constructive activities. An important area was to handle the behavioral fluctuations of the students and guide them into becoming attentive learners. Student also got a chance to administer psy-chological test and learned report writing of psychological test . This experience gave students of psychology an understanding of the multi-faceted problems that these chil-dren and their families face, in terms of child development. It gave them an opportunity to experience School Psychology and Developmental Psychology as a profession, along with gaining insight in the practical roles of special educators and their importance in society.

- Palak Mendiratta ————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Darshan Gor (SLS ‘11) got selected as an intern at CONSUMERS IN-DIA; NEW DELHI an NGO under Ministry of Consumers Affairs. Only 39 students from all over the country and only one student from Gujarat was selected for this internship. Students from reputed and renowned colleges and universities from the country like National law university (NLU) Visakhapatnam; Shree Ram College of Com-merce, Delhi; IIT, Kanpur; JNU, Delhi; Delhi Technological Universi-ty, Delhi; Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi; Amity Universi-ty; South Asian University, Delhi etc. participated in this internship

5

SLS Shines at ASICON 2013

“Never Doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed youth can change the world” -Margaret Mead

One of the umpteen positive reasons to cherish being a SLSite is the sheer freedom to ferret out and unleash the immense internal potential that lies within each one of us by undertaking a plethora of avenues and op-portunities that we can capitalize upon. It was prudently palpable that the 40 Odd Interns from PDPU who were undergoing the Event Management Internship under the helm of Hrim Shah –(SLS’12) at the Six Day 73rd Annual National Surgeons Conference spanning from 24th to 29th December at the Gujarat University Convention Centre, Ahmadabad had taken the entire arena by a storm. Adorned with their distinctive orange attire, the PDPU students actively involved themselves into every facet of the event management internship, doing a commendable job in whatever they laid their hands on. The 14 SLS students excelled and garnered rave reviews for their professional-like performance during the Registration process, Hall managing and over-all Event Co-ordination activities. The sea of medical surgeons from all over India and sub-continent were visi-bly impressed by the skills and demeanor of the Interns which they found to be congenial yet very formal. Alongside the invaluable knowledge regarding event management processes which they imbibed during the internship the students were made aware and exposed to various elements of the medical milieu including latest developments in the medical world, relevant health topics and advanced surgical techniques which were previously unknown to them. Such conferences provide abundant avenues and priceless experience to budding students who wish to

better their future and resumes as well. At the valedictory function on the concluding day, Dr Kaushik Shah

Organizing Fellow of Association of Surgeons of India, heartily praised thanked PDPU for providing them with

such talented and hard-working interns who heavily contributed in making the entire event a smashing suc-

cess.

HRIM SHAH

6

GUJARAT – NEW BRUNSWICK ROUNDTABLE

ON ENERGY, OIL AND GAS

Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University jointly hosted a Roundtable on Energy, Oil and Gas with Consulate General of Canada and Government of New Brunswick on December 4, 2013. The roundtable was graced by the attendance of the Honorable ministers, Bruce Fitch, Minister of Economic Development, Craig Leonard, Minister of Energy & Mines, Robert MacLeod, President and CEO, Invest NB, Nora Lacey, Director, Research & Marketing, Invest NB, Jay Reid, Investment Attraction Officer, Invest NB and Nicolas Lepage, Consul Gen-eral of Canada. The conference commenced on time where the guests were welcomed very warmly. Soon, Mr. Craig Leon-ard, Minister of Energy & Mines was called on the dais to say a few words. After greeting the gathering he appreciated the hospitality they had received. He also spoke about the different opportunities that western India has in investing in New Brunswick, the increasing demand for oil around the world and the key features about New Brunswick that made it appealing and investment friendly. Mr. J. G. Chaturvedi, Executive Director, ONGC, was invited to share his views. He welcomed the delegation and said that they had come to the right place for business. He mentioned that ONGC has a permanent office in Calgary, Canada and he looks forward to the partnership. He also stressed on Canada to relax the rules so that India doesn’t face any hurdles while investing. Mr. Bruce Fitch, Minister of Economic Development, also invited Indian companies, especially companies from the western states of India, such as Gujarat, to invest in New Brunswick. He emphasized on how New Brunswick is lucrative for business. Mr. D. J. Pandian, Principal Secretary to Government of Gujarat in Energy & Petrochemicals Department and Board of Governor, PDPU, gave a warm welcome to the Canadian Delegation. He discussed about the large number of resources that Canada produces but does not have enough consumers to utilize them and that is where India and Canada can partner. He asserted that Canada has an easy approach, is investor friendly and has simple governance. He thanked the high-level delegation for this fruitful interaction and further invited them for Vibrant Gujarat, January 11 - 12, 2015. The delegation was presented with mementos and offered shawls. The Vote of Thanks was delivered and the delegation was lead for a tree plantation ceremony. The conference ended with delicious lunch hosted by PDPU.

SHINJALI DIVANJI

7

SLS reaches out to academia

Dr. Rupakjyoti Borah, Assistant Professor (International Relations), SLS, presented a paper on “India-China Strategic Ties in the Asian Century: Problems and Prospects” at the 7th Annual APISA Congress at the METU (Middle Eastern Technical University) in Ankara, Turkey.

Dr Rupakjyoti Borah, Assistant Professor of International Relations, recently presented a paper titled

“Japan-India Maritime Ties in the Indo-Pacific Region: Strengthening the Kizuna” at the 9th Convention of the International Association for Japan Studies at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan . Dr Borah was also invited to deliver another lecture on “India’s role in East Asia” at Dokkyo University, Tokyo during this trip.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Book Fair at SLS

As a part of a recent initiative taken by SLS Library, and its staff members, a book fair was conducted on 23rd and 24th Dec 2013 where eight book dealers and four publishers (Cambridge University Press, Oxford Univer-sity Press, Taylor & Francis Group and Cengage Learning) exhibited more than 3,500 Books in these two days. More than 200 students took an opportunity to glance at the books on various subjects and disciplines. The fair helped to know about recent book titles, contents, and coverage of books on variety of subject and helped the Faculty Members to recommend many books useful for curricula of SLS programs.

8

SLS Scaling Heights

A Report on International Conference of Research in Marketing – IIT Delhi International Conference on Research in Marketing (ICRM-2013, a refereed International Conference) was organized by Department of Management Studies, I.I.T. Delhi in conjunction with School of Marketing, Curtin University, Australia and XLRI Business School, Jamshedpur, between 21-22 December, 2013. The conference aimed to bring together academicians, researchers and experts from all over the world to come together, interact and exchange views and to support professional development. ONGC, Rockland hospital and Air-tel were the sponsors of the ICRM-2013. Springer was a knowledge partner. The themes for ICRM -2013 were Neuro Marketing and Marketing Practices in B2B and B2C Sector. The goal behind the conference was to promote papers that develop new ideas or theories, attempt to ad-vance our understanding of real world phenomenon, and/or address any of the key research themes were encouraged. Papers may take an individual or organizational perspective. The researches were global in focus and application. The research papers were selected on the basis of the review by the panelist. About 180 pa-per where presented in the conference on varied themes. All accepted papers and abstracts were published in the Book of Refereed Conference Proceedings (with an ISBN number). ICRM 2013 was graced with the presence of prominent individuals from diverse spheres, including academi-cians from MDI-Gurgaon, IIM-Ahmedabad, IIT-Delhi, NIILM, IIITM-Gwalior, Curtin University-Australia, XLRI Business School-Jamshedpur, Shantou University-Peoples Republic of China, University of Essex etc. and in-dustry personalities from ZenithOptimedia Group, Prasar Bharati, The Royal Bank of Scotland etc. We had presented a research paper on theme of consumer behavior and ethical marketing titled “The Fac-tors Affecting Online Consumer Behavior”. The research study includes the study of different factors which has influence on decision making of consumer in the process of Online Consumer.

9

SLS Scaling Heights

The conference provided us the opportunity to connect with research scholar, professor, student from vari-ous universities/college of India and other parts of the world. We also got opportunity to interact with dele-gates from Curtin University especially Prof. Nigel de Bussy, Head of School of Marketing, Curtin University. We had chat about our research study and future scope of that study which motivates us very well. The con-ference really helped us to have a good guidance from many research fellows to take a good look at mar-keting scenario in all over world and what are the constituents of good research study.

-Ankit singh Rathore and Jaimin Pandit ————————————————————————————————————————————————— It has been a matter of pride and pleasure for us that SLS foundation batch student Mr. Shubham Bansal has passed CAT with flying colors. He has secured 99.7 percentile. This sets the benchmark for the success for all oth-er students also. ——————–—————————————————————————————————————————— Interns at Gujarat Human Rights Commission visit and interact with SLS

SLS 2010 students Yash Modi and Sarthak Malani participated in the Goa River Marathon at Vasco da Gama, Goa on 8th December, 2013. They ran the 21.1 Km half marathon with a route through extremely rough hilly terrain and chilly conditions. Sarthak completed the marathon with a timing of 2 hours and 45 minutes. Yash completed the marathon in 2 hours and 55 minutes.

10

Creati-witty

Rushank Agarwal

Nishit Rangwala

Mayank Parikh

Manas Daxini

11

SLS Mirror Recommends

Sites: 1) Finaid: http://www.finaid.org/loans/loancomparisonsites.phtml A great site for SLS students to avail financial loans for future studies. 2) Education oasis: http://www.educationoasis.com/resources/sitesforstudents.htm Fun games and activities for learning and remembering facts and figures

Blogs: 1) IES abroad: http://blogs.iesabroad.org A blog for the students who wish to pursue their further studies abroad 2) Student fashion blog :http://studentfashionblog.co.uk A very famous blog endorser by many celebrities for enhancing student's fashion sense

Apps: 1) My fitnessPal : A great app that tracks and guides You through your daily fitness regime and

keeps you in good shape 2 ) Good reads: collection for the world's largest and bestselling books which is free along with the personalized recommendations much like this section ;)

SLS MIRROR SLS MIRROR The Editorial Team The Editorial Team

UPCOMING EVENT

Vibrant Gujarat National Education Summit

PANDIT DEENDAYAL PETROLEUM UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF LIBERAL STUDIES

Off Koba—Gandhinagar Highway

Raisan, Gandhinagar, 382007

Gujarat, India

Phone: +91 79 23275231 Fax: +91 79 23275030

Visit us at: www.sls.pdpu.ac.in

Dr. Chaitanya Vyas

Durva Vyas | Gayatri Chauhan | Harpalsinh Vaghela

Hrim Shah | Jasmine J. Pereira | Saksham Singh

Shinjali Divanji | Shivani Shah | Yash Modi