CANACONA TEACHER GETS FULBRIGHT AWARD
BENNY Varghese, a maths teacher from Navodaya Leadership Institute (NLI) Canacona, has been honoured with America’s Fulbright Distinguished Award for International Teachers. This is an international award given by the United States of America to 50 teachers from different parts of the world who have introduced innovations in teaching. Benny Varghese is currently working as a research and publication officer at the Navodaya Leadership Institute, Canacona.
In 2017, he was a recipient of the National ICT Award. Benny will have the opportunity to go to the United States from August to December 2023 to familiarise himself with US educational methods and technologies. This award recognises his project, “Toy-Based Pedagogy for Enjoyable Math Learning.” He has developed many digital games for Maths learning.
GLOBAL AWARD FOR TELUGU FILM
“RRR” is a film directed by Telugu filmmaker SS Rajamouli and its song “Naatu, Naatu” has won the Golden Globe award. The film itself narrowly lost out to an Argentinian film for the best film in foreign language. The film is an action and entertaining film about a fearless revolutionary and an officer in the British force who shared a deep bond with locals and has been nominated for Oscar award. Southern Indian films seem to be taking over from Bollywood.
STEEP RISE IN ACCIDENTS
THERE has been a steep rise in road accidents during the last fortnight. What is curious is that the punishment given to offenders seems to depend on their social status rather than the gravity of the offence. Take the latest instance of a car crashing into a bike and killing a 46-year-old man in Taleigao.
The driver, under the influence of alcohol, Arpita Goel, who claims to be an interior decorator living in Dona Paula, was granted bail immediately. It may also be recalled that some time ago the executive of one of the casino companies was also granted bail instantly after running a couple over on bike. One terrible case of hit-and-run was the one involving the father of physician and cardiologist Dr Oscar Rebello, who was hit by a car near Magsons while he was taking a walk down the Campal promenade. It is high time there is uniform policy while dealing with such rash acts of negligent driving and the culprits committed to police custody.
MODI GOES EASY ON INDUSTRY
IN what seems to be a change in policy for students, the enforcement agencies, mainly the CBI and the enforcement department have, decided to be less harsh to leading industrialists and bankers Chanda Kochhar and her husband Dilip Kochhar — accused of fraudulently lending money to Venugopal Dhoot family.
Earlier they were arrested by the CBI and were not allowed to get food from home. It is reported that the CBI is also likely to extend bail to the Venugopal Dhoot family. The ICICI had lent Rs1.41 lakh crore to the Dhoots without adequate security.
PONDS TALC POWDER
THE production of Ponds talc powder which was banned during three lockdown period has now resumed. The high court has pointed out that there is no evidence proving that the popular Johnson & Johnson baby powder is contaminated in any way. In any case, the earlier judgement was based on a sample of five milligrams taken three years ago.
JAN AUSHADHI SCHEME
IN a special concession to senior citizens, the cost of generic medicines has been reduced very sharply from 50% to 90%. These Jan Aushadhi generic medicine pharmacies have been set up under the Aushadhi scheme at subsidized cost. There are several of these pharmacies in Panaji now and here one may check out the range of generic medicines which are similar to branded medicines but without the fancy packaging and available at much lower costs. Generic medicine stores have become very popular abroad including the USA.
STRESS MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP
“STRESS is the new norm in any workplace now. Some stressors are positive and some are negative. It is important to identify triggers for negative stress and convert it into positive energy,” said Prof DB Arolkar, Principal of Dnyanprassarak Mandal’s College & Research Centre. He was speaking at a “Stress Management Workshop” organized by the Counselling Cell and further added that the objective of the workshop is to identify the stress triggers and to learn coping strategies to deal with the same.
The workshop was conducted by college counsellors Marika De Lima and Sneha Chodankar. Marika De Lima spoke about different types of stress and various factors responsible for the same. She also conducted a psychometric test to evaluate the stress levels and physical symptoms of stress of teachers, and detailed coping strategies to deal with the same.
The second half of the workshop by Sneha Chodankar detailed various stress management activities like art therapy, elimination of the negative thoughts, visualization relaxation and dance therapy. The vote of thanks was given by Prashanti Talpankar, co-convenor of the counselling cell. The workshop was attended by 73 participants.