PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH Minutes of the meeting of the SYNDICATE held on Friday, 30 th March 2018 at 10.00 a.m ., in the Syndicate Room, Panjab University, Chandigarh. PRESENT 1. Professor A.K. Grover … (in the Chair) Vice Chancellor 2. Dr. Ameer Sultana 3. Dr. Amit Joshi 4. Professor Anita Kaushal 5. Shri Ashok Goyal 6. Shri Gurjot Singh Malhi 7. Dr. Inderpal Singh Sidhu 8. Professor Keshav Malhotra 9. Professor Navdeep Goyal 10. Shri Prabhjit Singh 11. Professor Ronki Ram 12. Dr. Raj Kumar Mahajan 13. Shri Sanjay Tandon 14. Dr. Satish Kumar 15. Dr. Subhash Sharma 16. Dr. Surinder Singh Sangha 17. Col. (Retd.) G.S. Chadha … (Secretary) Registrar Shri Harjit Singh, DPI (Colleges), Punjab and Shri Rakesh Kumar Popli, Director, Higher Education, U.T. Chandigarh could not attend the meeting. Condolence The Vice-Chancellor said, “with deep sense of sorrow, I may Resolution inform the members about the sad demise of – i) Prof. Yash Gulati, former Chairperson of the Department of Hindi, on February 26, 2018; ii) Prof. Sudhakar Pandey (Retd.), Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, on February 26, 2018; iii) Dr. D.V. Rao husband of Dr. Anju Rao, Associate Professor, Dept. of Botany on March 6, 2018; iv) Mrs Rajesh Bansal mother of Prof. Meenakshi Goyal of Dr. S.S. Bhatnagar University Instt. of Chemical Engg. & Technology on March 25, 2018. The Syndicate expressed its sorrow and grief over the passing away of Professor Yash Gulati, Professor Sudhakar Pandey, Dr. D.V. Rao and Mrs. Rajesh Bansal and observed two minutes silence, all standing, to pay homage to the departed souls. RESOLVED: That a copy of the above Resolution be sent to the members of the bereaved families. 2 Syndicate Proceedings dated 30 th March/21 st /29 th April 2018 Vice -Chancellor’s 1. The Vice Chancellor said, I am pleased to inform the honourable members that: Statement i) Prof. Manmohan Singh, former Prime Minister of India and PU alumnus, will visit Panjab University along with Mrs. Gursharan Kaur to deliver the First Dr. S.B. Rangnekar Memorial Oration, mooted by Department of Economics of PU, on April 11, 2018 at 10 am. Dr. Rangnekar has taught Dr. Manmohan Singh at Hoshiarpur and they both worked as colleagues later at Panjab University, Campus. ii) Five Professors of Panjab University, namely, Prof. Suman Bala Beri, Prof. Vipin Bhatnagar & Prof. Manjit Kaur from the Department Physics, Prof. O.P. Katare (UIPS) and Prof. Kewal Krishan from Anthropology Deptt.), have been honoured by the Union Minister of Human Resource Development with the Faculty Research Awards, 2018. These five researchers are among the top 10 most outstanding researchers in their respective field(s) of specialization on the basis of documentation sourced out from science indexed journals. The awards have been constituted by Careers360. At this point of time Shri Sanjay Tandon suggested that as and when a news regarding award to any person etc. is received, there should be some mechanism to send an email to the members so that in case they want to congratulate somebody, they can do so immediately to which the Vice Chancellor said that his suggestion is well taken. He further said that in the email section they have a very nice group of Syndicate and Senate members. If this small information is received by the members immediately, the reaction would be faster. There are now twelve such points, by the time they finish the meeting, this will not be of any importance to most of them. iii) Professor Kewal Krishan Tewari from USA, vide email communication of March 2, 2018 has expressed his desire to further augment Smt. Prem Lata & Prof. D.V.S. Jain Research Foundation Fund b y sending a cheque for ten lakhs rupees. He had sent Rs. 10 lakhs last year as well. So, there is a fund created by Professor D.V.S. Jain and his spouse which has already Rs. 50 lakh. He added 10 lakhs last year and he has offered to add Rs. 10 lakhs more to the same fund. The details about its use will be worked out by a committee to be constituted in consultation with Prof. D.V.S. Jain. Shri Sanjay Tandon said that if they send him an email, he would feel good and next time he may give Rs. 25 lakhs to which the Vice Chancellor said, it is alright. iv) Professor Darshan Singh, Professor Emeritus in the Chair of Guru Nanak Sikh Studies, PU, has donated a Cheque amounting to Rs.4 Lakhs (Rupees Four Lakhs only) for the creation of an endowment in the memory of his daughter Ms. Shishu who was Professor in the 3 Syndicate Proceedings dated 30 th March/21 st /29 th April 2018 University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS), to organize a Memorial Lecture, in the UIPS and Guru Nanak Sikh Studies alternatively. The lecture would he held every year, one year in UIPS and the other year in Guru Nanak Sikh Studies. The University desires a minimum donation of Rs. 4 lakhs to organize a lecture every year. v) Ambassador (Retd.) Paramjit S. Sahai, retired IFS officer, Chandigarh, in his communication of March 28, 2018, has informed the University that he would like to make a token contribution of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One Lakh only) to Panjab University by way of seed money to be used for organizing next two International Conferences on ‘India’s Foreign Policy in Contemporary Era’ (Rs.50,000/- for each conference). A conference was organized this year and he was so moved that he said that they should do it every year. This time it was funded by the ICSSR. vi) Prof. Jitendra Mohan, Professor Emeritus of Psychology has been invited to deliver keynote address on ‘Mindfulness, Yoga and Health’ at the 29 th International Congress of Applied Psychology at Montreal, Canada from 26-30 June, 2018. He will also chair a Scientific Session there. vii) Prof. R.K. Pathak of Department of Anthropology has been awarded with Dr. Panchanan Mitra Memorial Lectureship for the year 2016 for outstanding contribution in the field of Anthropology by the Asiatic Society, Kolkata. Asiatic Society, Bombay and Asiatic Society Kolkata are one of the oldest societies in the field of science. viii) Dr. Prashant Jindal, Assistant Professor, University, Institute of Engineering & Technology, PU, has been awarded Commonwealth Rutherford Fellowship 2017- 2018 for carrying out research in the area of additive manufacturing for medical implants at Nottingham Trent University, UK for a period of one year. ix) Dr. Monica Munjial Singh, Assistant Professor, Centre for Social Work (U.I.E.A.S.S.) has been honoured with ‘Bharat Ratna Indira Gandhi Gold Medal Award’ for her outstanding individual achievement in education on March 8, 2018 at Bangalore by the Global Economic Progress & Research Association (GEPRA). x) Ms. Jasnoor, a final year student of B. Pharmacy of the University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, has been selected as one of the ten International students to pursue the NANOMED Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree Program. She has been awarded a scholarship of 50,000 Euros by the European Union for her 2 year International Master’s Degree in Nano- Medicine. 4 Syndicate Proceedings dated 30 th March/21 st /29 th April 2018 xi) Panjab University, Punjab Engineering College and CRIKC institutions have received a proposal from Prof. Hardev Singh, Chair Trustee of Haydn Green Foundation, to create Haydn Green Institute International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Corridor (HGIIIEC) linking CRIKC Institutions in India with University of Nottingham (UoN), UK and UoN, China Campus at Ningbo in China. xii) With reference to Panjab University’s proposal submitted in 2017 for the consideration of Institution of Eminence status, this is an all India competition, University Grants Commission vide its communication received on March 28, 2018, has invited PU to make a presentation before the Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) constituted for the selection of Institutions of Eminence, on April 3, 2018 in New Delhi. Ten institutes in the State sector are to be considered for this status and they would be provided upto Rs. 100 Crore every year for a period of 10 years in a project mode, 5 years at a time. I, just received last evening a confirmation that Rakesh Bharti Mittal of Bharti Foundation which had once given us an endowment of Rs. 50 lakhs to create a Professorship at U.I.E.T. and also hosts a lecture in memory of Satpal Mittal. He has consented to be the Chief Guest for the U.I.E.T. Convocation this year on May 5, 2018. This Chair had been lying dormant. With great difficulty it had been revived and they had sought a report from us as to what all has happened over the years The report was submitted, today they have one crore rupees in that endowment and we have a Professor appointed who is Honorary/Visiting Professor Smt. Pomila Kumar who has been now visiting from Bangalore frequently. So, there was something which was lying dormant has commenced. The donors have accepted the lapses on our part that for many years it was lying dormant and he is coming to be the Chief Guest at the UIET Convocation. I am hopeful that the involvement of Mittals’ in the Panjab University as well as the involvement of Munjals’ in Panjab University would enhance in the years to come. Both these are international names, they belong to Punjab and their association with the Panjab University would do us good. Shri Ashok Goyal said that he would like to make two observations.