Orientation Camp @ IIITA Prayagraj, U.P. Bharat

 

Prof. Neetesh Purohit, (General Chair) 

A Report on IIITA’s Orientation Camp 2020

The National Education Policy (NEP2020) emphasizes on imparting Indian values, greater awareness about various dimensions of the society/environment, and nationalism in the students. Incidentally, it is in line with the primary moto of IIITA, ‘प्रज्ञानंब्रह्म’ (भारतकेपुरातनशास्त्र'ऋग्वेद' का'महावाक्य', which is proudly carried by IIITA’s logo too). Since its inception IIITA Prayagraj has been imparting the highest level of Gyan, which is reflected in several success stories of its alumni and various world rankings. Now, after attaining 21 years of age, the institute must explore new verticals towards achieving the ultimate goal, प्रज्ञानंब्रह्म, as defined by government of India while establishing it.

The Gyan (ज्ञान) may be defined as the knowledge gathered through the enumeration and learning various skills as per known (pre-established) principles, what has been going on since a long time at IIITA and other educational institutes. Whereas, Pragyan (प्रज्ञान ‘pra’ i.e. Beyond + Gyan) encompasses all attempts of finding new philosophies/theories of our existence/survival and much more i.e. the ultimate truth, which is defined as Brahm (ब्रह्म) or Parbrahm (not Brahma ब्रह्मा, who is one of three manifestations of Parbrahm,these descriptions/representations have some intermingling and much deeper understandings though) in the Indian ancient scriptures. Interestingly, all interesting descriptions of Brahmend with nayati (नयति i.e. ‘this is not the end of his/her descriptions) keeping the end open for further exploration/research.

The attention of the Senate of IIITA Prayagraj was drawn on this issue during its 18th meeting which was held on 24th July 2020, while agreeing in principle, the Senate constituted a committee comprising of the proposers of the concept note, namely Prof. Tapobrata Lahiri and Prof. Neetesh Purohit, External Member of the Senate Prof. K. C Gowda, and the subject expert Prof. Neena Kohli Allahabad Central University. The committee was desired to draft a suitable syllabus and modalities of organizing "ORIENTATION CAMP" as a mechanism for systematically inculcating some novel qualities into new entrants in all programs at IIITA, in line with the discussions held in the Senate.The committee studied several suggestive models proposed by various organizations including UGC, AICTE, SSUN, etc. and took consultations from various eminent persons including Padmashri Prof. Manindra Agrawal, Dr. Vinay Sahastrabuddhe, Prof. MilindSudhakarMarathe and Prof. P. Nagabhushan, who has given consent to become a patron to the Orientation Camp. Several rounds of ONLINE meetings and telephonic interactions among the committee members took place (as Covid-19 constraints did not allow in person meetings) to arrive at the recommendations. Finally, the Senate approved organizing the Orientation Camp w.e.f. 2020 batch.

Following are a few salient features of the orientation camp2020 @IIITA Prayagraj:

Credit Description:

Over and above the credit requirements of the respective program, all students need to earn 4 credits of the Orientation Camp (in two parts of 2 credits each). The LTP structure for Part-1 of the orientation Camp L:T:P = 1:1:0 and 0:2:0 for UG and PG students respectively. The Part-2 for both UG as well as PG has L:T:P = 0:0:2.(1 L credit = 1 Hour; 1 T as well as P credit = 2 hours).

The Riders:

The performance Orientation Camp is expressed in terms of qualifier e.g Excellent/ Very Good/ Good/ Satisfactory/Drop etc. Also, for earning the institute’s Medal as well as the degree with ‘Honors’, the respective student must have to attain GOOD (or higher) grade in at least one of the two parts of the Orientation Camp.

Themes:

Both in Part-1 as well as part-2 the Lecture, Tutorial and Practice sessions are to be planned around various themes like,

• Proper career planning to selectively tap opportunities against the ethos of ‘Life is a bundle of lost opportunities’
• Know Ancient Scientific Heritage of India
• Empowering Our Own Mind
• Life Skill management
• Practicing and Acquiring Mind Controlling Skill, etc.

          Part-1 for 2020 Batch:

Several distinguished speakers delivered talks on the above mentioned themes including Prof. P. Nagabhushan, Swami Gauranga Das, Shri Jayant Sahastrabuddhe, Swami Divyanand, Swami Aatmashraddhanand, Dr. Chinmay Pandya, Prof. K Chidananda Gowda, Prof. D. P. Mishra, Prof. NeenaKohli, Shri GokulMuthu, Dr. Pramod, Dr. Sanjay Tarade, Shri Avatar Lila, Shri Santosh Gupta, Shri Prashant Patel Umrao, Shri Prateek Suthar, Shri Jayendra Singh Jadhav, Shri Sandeep Kumar, Shri K C Badapanda, Prof. Krishna Mishra, Dr. Padma Singh, Prof. U S Tiwary, Prof. T. Lahiri, Prof. Shekhar Verma, Prof. Neetesh Purohit, Shri Varun Bhardwaj. The videos and study material provided by various speakers along with other information is made available via the course website. The assignments were given based on these talks, the students were also motivated to write articles as per their own views on any one of the above said themes. Interactions and discussions in short batches also took place and finally grading is done. 54 UG students have earned ‘Excellent’ grades, whereas 20 UG students have got a ‘Satisfactory’ grade.

          Part-2 for 2020 Batch:

The students were asked to choose any suitable non-profit organization which is operating in India with a larger objective of serving the society and the nation. Suitable practice exercises are assigned by the faculty coordinator in consultation with the office bearers of the respective organizations.Students have opted about 50 such organizations and are working under the Covid-19 Constraints. The Umeed Foundation (119 students), Think India (101 students) and VIBHA (69 students) have emerged as the most preferred choices. Further, the participation of students in IIITA student Gymkhana’s events like Aparoksha, Effervescence, and ASMITA, IIIC’s events like E-Summit, etc. are also taken into account for evaluating Part-2 of the Orientation Camp.

 

While presenting this booklet to all students of 2020 batch I am sure that whenever if they turn its pages, something worth reading will become available for them. I wish all the best to them for a great career ahead.

     

(Prof. Neetesh Purohit) General Chair