Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University is to soon get an impetus in its efforts to take research from the laboratory to the field.
The Union Bank of India has prepared a plan to step up its association with the university by exploiting its research papers and projects commercially. The bank’s agrotech branch, the first of its kind in the region, is slated to be opened in Fatehabad, near Hisar, soon. The branch will cater to the needs of especially those wanting to set up big mushroom units, poultry farms, etc. Entrepreneurs will not only get easy loans but also technical knowhow and assistance from the university. University scientists and other personnel will thus be at hand to incorporate the latest research into production units. Punjabi language.
Under an exchange program, a group of 15 students from the Center of south Asian studies, university of California, Berkeley, will visit Punjabi University to attend a course in the Punjabi language at the Center of the Teaching of Punjabi as a Second Foreign Language. The two universities are pooling their resources in a student exchange program in Punjabi studies.
In response to wide publicity given by the university’s Department of Linguistics and Punjabi Language which controls the center, a number of countries have shown keen interest in the programs on offer. The university offers free academic guidance and lodging facilities to the exchange group, besides taking students on cultural and environmental tours. Such tours are intended to provide them firsthand knowledge of specifically, Punjab’s culture and environment.
In fact it was to meet the needs of all those interested in learning Punjabi in its natural setting and cultural background through the English medium that this center was started. The center offers a diploma. Certificate and crash courses of varying durations. These courses meet the requirements of students, educationists, technocrats, businessmen and interested visitors.
The University of Berkeley is the first university in the USA to introduce various courses in Punjabi. The group coming to India will consist of students of Punjabi origin as well those of American origin. A part from the USA the Patiala center has received inquiries evincing interest from England, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada, Punjabi writers.
Kurukshetra University’s Punjabi Department, which has been contributing substantially to the promotion of the Punjabi language through literature and literary criticism since its inception added a feather to its cap by organizing a three-day seminar on “Three generations of contemporary Punjabi writers ‘on November 22. More than 100 delegates from Punjab, Haryana, New Delhi and J & K were invited to participate.
Dr, Amarjit Singh Kang, Director of the seminar which is being organized in collaboration with the Sahitya Academy, Delhi, says the forum will provide the opportunity 10 a galaxy of Punjabi writers and critics belonging to three generations to come face to face. Among them will be Pritam Singh Safir, Santokh Singh Dhir, Jaswant Singh Neki, Surjit Patar, Jaswant Deed, Vinita and Ramesh Kumar (all poets), Surinder Singh Narula, Ajit Court, Niranjan Tasneem and Waryam Sandhu (all novelists and storywriters), and Kirpal Singh Kasel, Himmat Singh Sodhi and Raghbir Singh Sirjana (all critics).
Each session will conclude with evaluating comments by the chosen among the delegates. Prominent among such commentators will be Mr Harbhajan Singh Halwarvi, Editor, and Punjabi Tribune. Dr Gurbax Singh Frank of GND University and Dr Amarjit Singh Grewal of PAU. Dr. Sutinder Singh Noor of the “Delhi school of thought” will deliver a lecture at the far end to wind up the seminar “Haryana Punjabi Sahit”, “Medieval Punjabi Literature”, and “Approaches to Literary Criticism” are a few of the subjects on which Punjabi Department has organized seminars in collaboration with the Punjabi Sahita Akademi, Delhi Administration, the UGC and the Haryana Sahita Akademi, respectively.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 23, 1994
