Ludhiana, February 20
No 4 Punjab Air Sqn NCC conduced 'B' certificate examination for the second year Senior Division Air Wing NCC cadets at Arya College here today. More than 40 NCC Air Wing cadets, including 11 girl cadets from different colleges, took the examination.

The cadets were from five different colleges of the city---Arya College, SCD Government College for Boys, GGN Khalsa College, Government College for Women and Khalsa College for Women.

The examination board comprising Commanding Officer No. 4 Pb Air Sqn, Ludhiana Wg Cdr V Sethi, Commanding Officer of I Pb Air Sqn Jalandhar Wg Cdr H Singh, Captain Charanjit Singh CGI, Flight Lieutenant Dr S P Singh tested the skills of the NCC Air Wing cadets through written and practical examination like principles of flight, GSK, GST, airmanship, air navigation, armament, first aid, hygiene and sanitation, civil defence and adventurous activities etc.

The course commandant and CO 4 Pb Air Sqn, Wing Commander V B Sethi, thanked Principal Dr. S.M Sharma, Vice Principal Dr V.V. Pawar and Flight Lieutenant Dr S.P Singh ANO for extending the administrative support for the smooth conduct of the examination.

Meanwhile, the 'C' certificate examination of NCC Air Wing was conducted at College of Veterinary Science, Punjab Agricultural University, in which 30 SD and SW NCC Air Wing cadets appeared.

Ludhiana, February 20
The Postgraduate Department of Commerce, GTB National College, Dakha, organised a one-day seminar on "The extent of observance of Principles of Corporate Governance in NW India" here today on the college premises.

The seminar was sponsored by the ICSSR-NW Regional Centre, Panjab University, Chandigarh.

Dr Prem Kumar, Principal, Sri Aurobindo College of Commerce, who delivered the keynote address, said corporate governance was important for a developing country like India because it was necessary to integrate India with the world economy. Secondly, the flow of foreign capital was directly linked to the extent of the observance of principles of corporate governance by corporate entities of a country.

Mr K.S.Arneja, senior executive, Ludhiana Stock Exchange, said the seminar was intended to give an opportunity to academicians, industry leaders, authorities from the stock exchange and students to interact on this burning issue and provide solutions to improve the standards of corporate governance in the region.

Prof Avtar Singh, seminar director, said other sub-themes of the seminar were "Corporate Governance and Board of Directors", "Corporate Governance in Financial Services and Banking Sector", "Corporate Governance and Globalisation", "Audit function as a governance tool", "Benchmarking CG", "CG and shareholder's value" and "CG a stock exchange perspective".

Principal Balbir Singh, speaking on the occasion, said the resource persons had been drawn from universities and institutions of the region and had tremendous experience in their respective fields.

Ludhiana February 20
The twin-principle of crop breeding for stress tolerance, early maturity and quality trades as well as production-protection technologies, aimed at efficient use of resources should be the focus of crop improvement research.

This was stated by Dr B.S. Dhillon, Director of Research, PAU, on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Dr K. S. Aulakh. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the Agricultural Officers' Workshop for Kharif Crops held on the campus.

Speaking on the recommendations in production technology, Dr Dhillon stated that rice could be planted on the middle of slope of beds in heavy treatment soils to save 25 per cent of irrigation water. Similarly, planting of sugarcane in 30 cm wide and 20-25 cm deep trenches made with tractor-operated trench maker saved irrigation water.

He recommended the cultivation of spring maize starting from January 20 up to February 15 and summer moong from March 20 to April 10.

In protection technology, Dr Dhillon laid stress on biological control for maize borer for its efficacy. The other recommendations made in this category were Foratone 10 G @ 5 kg per acre for the control of stem borer on Basmati rice, Flubendiamide 480 SC @ 40 ml per acre for younger larvae of American bollworm on cotton and cultural control of mealy bugs.

Dr Dhillon called upon the scientists to be proactive to counter the coming challenges in agriculture.

Earlier, Dr Nirankar Singh, Joint Director of Agriculture, said about the targets and problems of agriculture in the state. The target for paddy had been kept at 25 lakh hectare this time and the production target is 95 lakh metric tonnes. Similarly, an area of 2 lakh hectare would be targeted for maize to have a production of 5.20 lakh metric tonne.

Citing the problems, Dr Nirankar Singh drew attention towards the depleting water table and imbalances in ecological system. He stressed the need for early maturing varieties that required less water.

In the welcome address, Dr G.S. Chahal, Dean College of Agriculture, emphasised the requirement of serious adaptive trials for farmer in order to compete with the private sector.

Proposing the vote of thanks, Dr. N.S. Malhi, Director Extension, delved upon the need of such workshops that shaped the destiny of the farmers. 

Ludhiana, February 20
A talent hunt competition was organised at Satguru Ram Singh Government Polytechnic College for Girls, Rishi Nagar, here today.

The students were divided in various houses and participated in events like folk songs, solo dance, mono-acting , skit, choreography, fancy dress competition and giddha. More than 125 students participated in these items.

Ms H K Toor, Principal of the college, appreciated the efforts made by the students and staff for organising the function. She said that such curricular activities were necessary for the overall development of the students.

The position holders in the competition will further participate in the state-level inter-Polytechnic Youth Festival scheduled on March 22-24. The youth festival will be held in the same college, added Ms Toor.

Ludhiana, February 20
Nearly 20 students of final year from Arts, Science, Commerce, Computers and Business Management were selected on the campus placement drive conducted at Khalsa College for Women by IBM Daksh under the stewardship of Mr Varun Sachdeva, Assistant Manager, Human Resources here today.

Ms Pooja Chatley, Placement Officer, welcomed the team and introduced the executives to students. A pre-placement talk was given by the team comprising Mr Manish, a voice trainer, Ms Neha and Ms Rupreet Sukhija regarding the requirements of the company. The remuneration, benefits and career prospects were also highlighted. The presentation was followed by a rigorous selection process which included four rounds.

Principal Dr Varinder Kaur Thind thanked the officials for visiting the campus.

Mandi Gobindgarh, February 20
The Punjab Institute of Management and Technology today organised a programme ‘Campus placements-2007’ .

More than 250 students participated in this placement drive. Himachal Futuristic communication Limited, which is engaged in providing world class telephony services in Punjab, visited the campus to select candidates for various positions of marketing executives, customer care services and operations etc.

In this campus placement effort for graduates PIMT provided a common platform to all students irrespective of the stream they belonged to. At the beginning of the session HFCL Company Executive, Mr Ripu Daman, gave an overview of the company's mission to the students. For the final selection of candidates interview panel followed a rigorous process in which they started with presentation followed by group discussion and in the first round 150 students were shortlisted. In the second round of interviews for final selection they conducted personal interviews. 
— OC