H-1B visa application to begin from April 2, premium processing stopped

Petitions for H1-B visas, popular among Indian IT professionals, will be accepted from April 2, a federal agency announced on Wednesday.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) also announced the suspension of premium processing of all H-1B petitions, which are subject to the annual caps.

The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/h-1b-visa-application-to-begin-from-april-2-premium-processing-stopped/story-NLw7Irchj1V7UWC4FjoM2L.html

To read more: Hindustan Times dated March 21, 2018

In a historic decision, 60 Higher Educational Institutions granted autonomy by UGC : Shri Prakash Javadekar

In a historic decision today, the University Grants Commission has granted autonomy to sixty Higher Educational Institutions which have maintained high academic standards. This was announced by the Minister of Human Resource Development, Shri Prakash Javadekar at a media briefing in New Delhi today. Shri Javadekar said that the Government is striving to introduce a liberalized regime in the education sector and emphasis is on linking autonomy with quality. 

Giving further details, Shri Prakash Javadekar said that the sixty Higher Educational Institutions which have been granted autonomy includes 52 Universities i.e. 5 central universities, 21 state universities, 24 deemed universities, and 2 private universities. Shri Javadekar explained that these universities will remain within the ambit of  UGC but will have the freedom to start new courses, off campus centers, skill development courses, research parks and any other new academic programs. 

They will also have the freedom to hire foreign faculty, enroll foreign students, give incentive based emoluments to the faculty, enter into academic collaborations and run open distance learning programmes.

Source: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=177751

To read more: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=177751

March 21: International Day of Forests

Image Source: https://viralknot.com/slogans-save-trees/ (Accessed on 21/03/2018)

International Day of Forests: 21 March 2018. The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Forests (IDF) in 2012. The Day celebrates and raises awareness of the importance of all types of forests.

References:

www.greeningtheblue.org/event/international-day-forests (Accessed on 21/03/2018)

For More Information:

International Day of Forests (Accessed on 21/03/2018)

Forest Survey of India (Accessed on 21/03/2018)

Workshop on High Impact Presentation Skills

A half day workshop on” High Impact Presentation Skills” was organized by BKC Knowledge Network and Bai Ratanbai Gharda Memorial Library on 16 March, 2018.

The well attended event sourced together nearly 33 participants from most of the well known premier institutions.

Shiv Khera has aptly said “Leadership is about persuasion, presentation and people skills” and this suits all of us in every walk of life and especially in the academic sector.

As we all might agree, our library profession also encompasses all the three P’s stated above by Shiv Khera. We create presentations for orientation to new students, faculty and various committees. A presentation, in essence, could also be a brochure which says “Know Your Library”. Most of us include more of text (textual matter) and less of images. The success of any presentation depends upon the way information is captured (understood) by the audience. So, you might agree that the presentation should be appealing at all times. Very often, we tend to use the same format, layout, design, colour combination, bullets for strong points and our presentation lasts longer in time rather than in the minds of the people.

This workshop which I attended beautifully focused on the art and science of presentation and changed my whole perspective about it.

Dr. Dhanashree Date (Head - IRC, TCS - Mumbai) was the invited speaker for this workshop. Dr. Date shared her insights about “Presentation”. Few very important points shared by her are as follows:

1. Create a story using the 5 W’s - Why, Where, When, Who, Which
2. Make a mental note of the audience and the space of presentation
3. Do not be too loud while presenting as you might drain out the end of the session
4. Take a break after 10 minutes as watching the same presenter for more than 10 minutes dilutes interest
5. During this break, make your presentation interesting by including relevant images or videos
6. Minimize text, use infographics
7. Acknowledge and give due credit to the resources you have used

The workshop was focussed on Presentation Using Pecha Kucha format.

Pecha Kucha is essentially a presentation (software format ) style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each. This presentation format was devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham Architecture.

Pecha Kucha is a very engaging style. I feel that this style of presenting can also be applied to our regular MS Power Point Presentations and Prezi too.

I was fortunate to be a participant of this workshop. Thanks to SFIT and BKCN!

Sucheta