AHMEDABAD: A super hero of our own, zipping through the dark aisle of Manek chowk or Raikhad to fight the evil or help needy. This might soon
become a reality as the animation film making department of the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad prepares for ‘Chitrakatha’ - the three-day animation festival hosted by the institute.
This year the theme for the festival is - Ahmedabad. “Across the world festivals of all sorts are known from the city they are hosted in. We plan to make this animation festival a festival of the city where work from the city and about the city is brought out. Be it illustration, animation films or comic books, artists taking inspirations from the stories of the city can create world class animations,” said Shekhar Mukherjee, the coordinator of the animation film making department.

Chitrakatha, will start from October 29. “The Ahmedabad Heritage Cell and other private and public bodies are being roped in so that the city reaps most from the event. The festival includes exhibitions, workshops, panel discussions and screening of select animation films from across the world,” said Mukherjee.

“This year there will be three categories - national students, international students and teachers’ work and under which various competitions will be held. From what we have seen in the last event, we feel Indian students and international students have different criteria for them. We have also introduced a category for teachers’ work so that this also becomes a part of their self development process,” added Mukherjee.

AHMEDABAD: Foreign students who are scheduled to visit the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), as a part of the exchange
programme, have been directed to get medical certificates declaring their swine flu status. Institute authorities are keeping pace with the preventive arrangements in view of the swine flu scare on the campus. The institute has had three positive cases of, two of which were detected on August 22.
“We have asked exchange students to bring health certificates from their home countries. This is just a precautionary measure. Once they arrive on campus, the institute’s doctor will conduct a thorough check-up. Once all cleared, they will be allotted rooms and the session will start for them. This process is being followed for students already residing on campus as well,” said a member of the student exchange committee. “There have been no cancellations yet,” said Karan Varmani, the student coordinator of the exchange programme cell. Exchange students mostly come from the partner institutes in the UK, US, south America and some Asian countries. Students from swine flu-infected countries have become a worry for the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).

A senior AMC official said, “IIM-A will have many students coming from foreign countries in the next two to three months. This will require strict swine flu checkups. We have advised IIM-A authorities to keep a complete history of the students. In case, any exchange student is found of complaining of flu-like symptoms, he should be immediately isolated and given medical treatment.” “We had a detailed discussion with the campus doctor on the swine flu-cases and on the precautionary measures to be followed for next few months.” added the official.

New Delhi: An oil spill off the coast of Gujarat that no one’s taking responsibility for is causing a big worry for fishermen. The black oily sludge has now spread more than 100 kms across the coastline of south Gujarat, right from Navasari to Tithal and even up to Daman. Locals as well as tourists are wondering where the foul-smelling chemical comes from.

Two young innovators based in Ahmedabad , Hardik and Kushal Sanghvi run VMukti Solutions and are incubatees of the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entreprenuership (CIIE) at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) have been nominated for WEF ( World Economic Forum ) For their Innovation Ultra Mobile Personal computer (UMPC) .

UMPC is a computer which helps access internet, stores all your data, including songs, videos and much more, and can even be used like a phone.

AHMEDABAD: Bleak placement days at the country’s premier B-school Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) seem to be over. After
enquiries from recruiters dried up between February-April and students of executive management programme (PGPX) still waiting to be placed, the institute is now getting calls from potential recruiters interested in placing its students even as the country gets into the mode of faster-than-expected economic revival.

The institute has had a hard time placing PGPX students — five are yet to be placed — as very few recruiters approached the institute with enquiries regarding placements during the three crucial months and the process got prolonged by another couple of months.

However, placements officials are optimistic as inquiries have started pouring in from potential recruiters, which is seen as an indication of placements at the campus getting back on track.

“Between February and April this year, we had a hard time finding the right recruiters for PGPX students as companies across sectors enforced hiring freeze and inquiries went down to a historic low. IIM-A had not faced such a situation before. The uncertainty is over now as companies have begun approaching the institute with inquiries regarding placement,” said IIM-A placement chairman, Saral Mukherjee. Placements 2009 was unprecedented across B-schools and IIM-A was no exception.

Average salaries came down, and graduates had to content with the limited choices available to them in terms of sector and location and position preferences. While the placements of the institute’s flagship PGP programme got delayed by a few days, becoming one of the longest placements season in the past five years, the PGPX, a course meant for executives with more than 10 years of work experience, is yet to be over as five students have not found suitable recruiters. The institute hopes to place them as the situation is improving.

PGPX students join campus after spending several years working in a particular domain and are highly selective in terms of role, responsibility and location as compared to PGP students. The institute arranges for a rolling placement for such students as it involves heavy negotiations unlike PGP.

“With the number of offers decreasing, the students had a hard time settling down on the right choice as they cannot afford to join the wrong company at senior levels. The five students who are yet to be placed are very particular about getting the right fit and due to drop in offers, they failed to get the company of their choice. Now with fresh enquiries, they may be able to find the right suitor,” Mr Mukherjee added.

Global slowdown affected placements at IIM-A as average domestic and international salaries for PGP students went down to Rs 12.17 lakh and Rs 41.5 lakh respectively, a sharp decline from last year’s average salaries of Rs 17.85 lakh and Rs 60 lakh, respectively. Also, the institute could not place five of its 77 PGPX students, and their average domestic and international salaries dropped sharply by 26% and 16%, respectively.