IIM-A aims to be among top five business schools in the world

Mangaluru: Agnes Towards Community (ATC) is a five-year old project of social responsibility undertaken by St Agnes College (Autonomous), Mangaluru to give their students a taste for community service before they leave the portals of the College.  For this purpose the College has adopted five villages in the vicinity of Mangaluru, namely Harekala, Amblamogaru, Munnuru, Kotekar and Hosabettu.  The ATC programmes are undertaken on saturdays wherein all the final year students as guided by their staff members are given hands on experience of community interaction and service.  The four saturdays in a month are divided to plan, prepare, execute and evaluate the whole service exercise.

The year 2019-20 saw a major change in the format of the project. The Science and Arts faculty came together with projects based on the syllabus of study and apply it for their service learning activity.  This was done with the dual purpose of helping students to learn the topic practically in a real social set up and to identify and render useful scientific based practical solutions to the problems faced by the villagers.  

One such problem is water purity. Since water plays an important role in maintaining the human health and welfare, water quality testing is important because it identifies contaminants and prevents water borne diseases. In this regard, Departments of Chemistry and Microbiology took up a project on water analysis.   The major objectives of the project were: 1. To provide hands on experience on water analysis, a topic learnt by the students in their course of study.  2. To test the potability of water sources of the villages, so that the scientific and practical solutions can be provided, wherever needed.  

The first village chosen for the study was Amblamogaru.  The two batches of students (20 students in each batch) were led by Mrs.Prajwal Rao, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Ms.Smitha, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry. They were assisted by Ms.Hezil Saldanha, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry in carrying out the project. 

The water samples from different sources were collected in sterilised glass bottles. The students were enthusiastic in collecting water samples and also interacted with the village folk regarding the availability of drinking water supplies. The students under the guidance of faculty carried out the experiments in water analysis in Chemistry and Microbiology Laboratories at St Agnes College. This included testing for parameters such as pH, conductivity, total hardness and turbidity, presumptive, confirmed and completed Coliform test. From chemical analysis, it is found that all parameters satisfy the standards of potable water. Microbiological analysis showed that the water samples were potable for human consumption (No faecal contamination observed). 

The project has been envisaged to help the villagers to have recourse to the information on the results of the tests conducted. The water samples collected for the analysis were found to be potable for human consumption. If the water samples not been found to be potable, the departments had strategized to guide the villagers on useful scientific and practical solutions wherever needed.

This project of Agnes Towards Community (ATC) helped students to go beyond classroom learning, develop practical skills, disseminate knowledge and render service to the community. This activity also provided direct and relevant experiences to the students that deepened and enriched their learning abilities.

The Post Graduate Department of English, St. Agnes College (Autonomous) organized COSMOPOETICA – a Two-Day International Poets Conference, transcending the boundaries of language and bringing together scholars from English, Hindi and Kannada languages. The key-note speaker was Dr Hima Urmila Shetty and the Panel of Experts included Maggie Harris, a Commonwealth short stories award winning poet of Broadstairs, Kent; Dr Kathryn Hummel, a visiting professor at IIT Hyderabad; Prof Raj Rao, acclaimed poet and novelist, former HOD of English, Savithribai Phule University; Lata Chouhan from Bangalore; Vijay Tiwari from Ahmedabad; Dr. Nagaveni Manchi, an acclaimed Poet and Professor, Govt College, Carstreet and Ms. Chandrakala Nandavara, former Principal of Ganapati PU College.

Dr Sr Jeswina A.C., the Principal; Dr Sr Maria Roopa A.C. the Superior and Dr Sr Vinora A.C., graced the occasion.

Dr Geralyn Pinto, the Staff Convenor; Dr Malini Hebbar, the HOD and Ananya Sneha the student Convenor organised the Conference.

The highlight of the Conference was the Poetry Workshop, Slam Poetry Competition in three languages and paper presentations on various aspects of poetry.

Overall the conference drew together poets and academicians to discuss poetry as a genre and practice with ignited minds.

Mumbai, March 3: Mumbai-based Ed tech startup Caymus Tech Ventures has announced inclusion of courses and programs from Harvard Business School, Chicago Booth, Harvard Kennedy School, Harappa Education, The Wharton School, and Stanford Online.

Lore.online users can now discover, compare, and enroll in both online and offline courses and programs including the following:

●  HBS online programs such as Business Analytics, Management Essentials, and Disruptive Strategy.

●  Select courses from the Harappa Habits framework such as Writing Proficiently, Managing Teamwork, and Negotiating Wisely.

●  The Wharton School and Chicago Booth offline executive education offerings, delivered in an face-to-face format, and that touch on topics such as Global Strategic Leadership, Private Equity and Digital Marketing for Executives.

Emerging leaders can tap these offerings to build skills to complement their formal education and experienced professionals can leverage them to hone new age skills required to manage a younger, more globally aware workforce.

Kavita Mehta, Founder CEO, Caymus Tech, says, “Giving our learners the best-fit options has always been our driving factor, which is why we are excited to announce that learners can now access Harvard Business School's highly coveted online programs on Lore and avail quality learning options from anywhere in the world.”

“We are continuously adding quality course providers like INSEAD and Stanford, whose select courses are also live on the platform”, she adds.

Lore.online has also integrated an assessment system in their Learning Pathways, where after undertaking each course, a report is generated which outlines learners technical and non-technical strengths and weaknesses. The platform now also shows open jobs for which a learner can also apply.

Caymus’ enterprise platform LoreForTeams, which was rolled out in Nov 2019, has been updated with additional features.

The new look now comes with a dashboard, new UI for Lore-curated learning lists, discussion features and a personalised learning feed. LoreForTeams, a learning experience platform (LXP), is aimed at working professionals in mid size companies. By adding the LoreForTeams functionality layer, Caymus aims to offer a revolutionary platform for skilling. This segment is seeing tremendous growth as more working professionals look for learning options to upskill themselves and stay relevant in shifting employment and business environments. The global demand for such platforms is north of $200 billion and in India, demand is nascent yet growing and expected to reach $10 billion by 2025.

Kavita Mehta, Founder CEO, Caymus Tech, says, “We heard what our customers and users were telling us. They want a real time view of what their teams are learning, a two way feedback system, and a more focused curation of learning options. Thus, we decided to add these features in LoreForTeams platform so that learning never stops and working professionals continuously find relevant courses to upskill themselves. Our vision is to democratize learning so that everyone has equal access to the best options out there.”

About Caymus Tech Ventures

Caymus Technology Ventures (Caymus) is a Mumbai-based ed-tech start-up focused on bridging the massive skill gap in the global workforce. The Company was founded in 2018 by Kavita Mehta, who earlier led Asia’s leading education consultancy. Caymus, with its expansive, integrated, and holistic perspective, believes in driving empowerment on the bedrock of education, skills, and technology. The Company‘s robust machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) powered platforms help recent graduates and experienced individuals identify targeted opportunities for personal and professional development.