HINDUSTAN TIMES, PUNE

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2020 hindustantimes metro 05

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Dheeraj Bengrutn dheeraj.bengrut@htlive.com

PUNE : The Savitribai Phule Pune

University (SPPU) has hit the

state’s historical and cultural

tourist map, with a mop and a

broom, and garbage bags, in a

manner of speaking.

Various historical monu-

ments, forts and other important

structures in Pune, Nashik and

Ahmednagar districts will be

deep cleansed, all in keeping

with permissions from the nec-

essary heritage departments and

authorities.

First up, the city’s favourite,

Sinhgad fort.

The initiative, started by the

National Service Scheme (NSS)

unit of the SPPU, comes from the

varsity working on a policy to

“adopt” such historical monu-

ments and forts.

A list of such sites that will be

taken by the SPPU is currently

being formulated.

“According to guidelines we

have received from the Univer-

sity Grants Commission (UGC),

SPPU has decided to work on

conservation and beautification

of historical monuments, forts

and old structures.

“Students in the NSS unit of

SPPU and affiliated colleges will

regularly visit these structures

and keep it clean, apart from

maintenance work. Saptshrungi

Fort in Nashik district is next on

the list,” said Prabhakar Desai,

project director of SPPU’s NSS

unit. On February 23, 1,400 NSS

students, along with SPPU vice-

chancellor Nitin Karmalkar par-

ticipated in a Sinhagad fort

cleaning drive.

From 9 am to 2 pm, students

spread across the fort and

cleaned the area.

The Sinhagad gram pancha-

yat, forest department and Pune

Municipal Corporation (PMC)

officials were all in the loop and

had officials present at the fort

on that day.

“Along with cleaning Sinha-

gad fort, it is necessary to repair

the steps, roads and other dam-

aged parts of the fort. We are also

going to plant trees. We will be

take the help of the Fine Arts

department for the beautifica-

tion work of the fort,” added

Desai.

Deepali Gunjal, an NSS stu-

dent who participated in the

cleanliness drive said, “The

drive taken by NSS was really

nice and it created social respon-

sibility among students towards

our historical monuments,

structures and forts.

SPPU’s NSS unit adopts Sinhgad fort to ensure it’s clean and greenHERITAGE CARE The university is currently drawing up a policy under which such sites can be taken up for permanent care

n More than 1,000 students undertook the cleaning of Sinhgad fort recently, in lieu with the gram panchayat and Pune Municipal Corporation. HT PHOTO

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E M A I L H T

HTCn puneletters@htlive.com

PUNE: A conversation with

Adya Sharma, director,

Symbiosis Centre for Man-

agement Studies, Pune, is a

lesson in post-modern,

dynamic, online education

courses. Terms like “Coil”

and “MOOC” seem jangly,

to say the least, but, in busi-

ness management, staying

ahead of the curve is what

it’s all about. Symbiosis is

not just ahead of the curve,

at its centre for manage-

ment studies, it is trying to

re-define the whole she-

bang. Sharma has been con-

nected to the industry as a

corporate trainer with com-

panies like Goldman Sachs,

Tatas, Amdocs, McDo-

nald’s, Wipro and Coca Cola

on her CV.

What’s the elevator pitch for Symbiosis Centre for Man-agement Studies?The Symbiosis Centre for

Management Studies,

Pune, was set up in the year

2004. The institute offers a

BBA (Bachelor of Business

Administration) degree and

the luxury of choosing sub-

jects from across disci-

plines, known as the “cafe-

teria approach”.

If you had to pick a USP? At SCMS Pune we maintain

a balance between aca-

demic rigour and co-curric-

ular/extracurricular activ-

ities for overall develop-

ment of the student.

Regular activities, like

industry visits, workshops

and various club activities,

alongside academic lec-

tures has become common

practice across institu-

tions.

What’s on the must-do list?The institute provides

opportunities for interna-

tional exposure through the

university’s Global Immer-

sion programme. Students

during the course of the six

semesters at SCMS can also

choose to undertake

courses for twelve credits

in any one of our partner

universities abroad. We

have students from all the

states of the country as well

as students from 27 differ-

ent countries.

From here, to... We have now taken another

step to provide relevant

exposure to students

through Coil (Collaborative

Online International

Learning). As a step in this

direction we had our first

Coil collaboration with an

institution from the USA in

August 2019. Acknowledg-

ing the role of MOOCs (Mas-

sive Open Online Courses)

in future learning, we at

SCMS made MOOC courses

a part of our regular curric-

ulum four years ago.

B-school that keeps the Coil wrapped around its MOOCs

ADYA SHARMA, director, SCMS

principalspeak

›We at SCMS gostep ahead and

experiment with various pedagogies, like implementing Hubspot certification and Facebook projects

n At least 45 such garbage bags were filled to the brim after the Sinhgad fort clean-up. HT PHOTO

PTIn puneletters@htlive.com

BHUBANESWAR: Savitribai Phule

Pune University consolidated

their position at the top by

claiming three gold medals at

the inaugural Khelo India Uni-

versity Games here on Thurs-

day.

Mahesh Datta Asawale and

Prajkta Ravindra Khalkar won

gold in weightlifting competi-

tion, while Jyotiba Bajrang

Atkale bagged a yellow metal in

wrestling. Panjab University

(Chandigarh) and Jain Univer-

sity (Bengaluru) remained on

eight gold medals each, while

with 13 golds, Pune University

surged ahead. Guru Nanak Dev

University (Amritsar) and Uni-

versity of Mumbai complete the

top five on the charts.

Mahesh Asawale, who won

the All-India Inter-University

Championships in Mohali last

December with total lifts of

258kg, showed an improvement

here.

He lifted 123kg in snatch and

143 in clean and jerk for a total of

266kg.

He returned to the sport in

September last year after a year-

long suspension for a doping

violation. Juturi Koteswara Rao

(Krishna University) and Mith-

lesh Sonkar (Hemchand Yadav

University) claimed the silver

and bronze medals respectively

with total lifts of 243kg and

238kg.

Manoja Kumar Sahu (Ber-

hampur University), a silver

medal winner in the boys

Under-21 73kg class in the Khelo

India Youth Games in Guwahati

last month, also improved on his

own mark.

He lifted a total of 267kg here,

compared to 264kg in Guwahati,

to claim the gold ahead of Man-

ish Kumar (Panjab University)

and Lovepreet Singh (Punjabi

University).

Varsity consolidate Khelo India top spot

›Along with cleaningSinhgad fort, it is

necessary to repair the steps, roads and other damaged parts of the fort. We are also going to plant trees. We will be take the help of the Fine Arts department for the beautification work. PRABHAKAR DESAI, project director of SPPU’s NSS unit

theysay

›We reached fort earlyin the morning and at

9am started cleaning. The number of students was so many that we did not leave any corner of the fort dirty. DEEPALI GUNJAL, an NSS student