IGNOU now offers M.A. in Bhagavad Gita, Disaster Management Diploma, Agricultural Cost Management, and B.A. in Home Science
M.A. in Bhagavad Gita
IGNOU offers an M.A. degree in the Bhagavad Gita to teach the Gita in a structured academic format. The two-year course aims to provide an understanding of Indian knowledge traditions, including Vedanta, Upanishads, scientific perspectives, and cultural insights.
This program is designed to help students explore ethical values, leadership principles, conflict resolution, environmental concerns, and socio-political aspects through the Bhagavad Gita.
IGNOU already runs a Master of Arts (Vedic Studies) program, known as MAVS. This program aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of Vedic knowledge, including the Vedas, Vedangas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads, and other subjects like Vedic Science, Mathematics, and Art.
Disaster Management
IGNOU offers a postgraduate diploma in Disaster Management, an area that helps deal with disasters of different natures, whether it be floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, or landslides in a systematic manner. The students are intended to be trained in disaster preparedness and response, risk assessment, disaster mitigation, and emergency management. It provides a certificate diploma of six months and a Postgraduate Diploma of one to three years
Angeli Quatra, a renowned disaster management expert, said, 'Even though there are several universities offering courses in Disaster Management, what is unique about IGNOU's courses is that they are offered online by distance learning and are flexible in terms of period. Plus, they have centres all over India.'
Ms. Quatra said, 'The course flexibility is very useful for professionals who wish to learn alongside their job or other occupation. Personnel responsible for planning and response for disasters can enhance their theoretical knowledge base and learn the latest information and technology available by taking up these courses.'
The course covers various aspects of Disaster Management, including disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, as well as response, recovery, and rehabilitation. It covers most disasters, both natural and manmade.
Agriculture Cost Management
In the area of Agriculture, a few specialised courses have been started, such as the Diploma in Agricultural Cost Management, which aims to sensitise the farming community on cost management and return maximisation. It is being conducted by the School of Agriculture, IGNOU, in collaboration with the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICMAI).
The programme will educate and train individuals in this sector on agricultural cost management, promoting sustainable agricultural practices, and help manage farm costs, enhancing crop yields, and improving the well-being of farmers and rural communities. IGNOU also offers a postgraduate diploma in agribusiness, which would attempt to train persons interested in the farming sector on how to make it into a successful commercial venture.
Today agricultural sector has become a competitive high-tech business with global reach. The sector is volatile with fluctuating demands of consumers and markets in terms of the diversified product base, quality, and price. The diploma intends to create agribusiness professionals in agriculture, food, and allied sectors. It intends to encourage entrepreneurship among farmers, intermediaries and traders, and other stakeholders in the Agri-enterprise chain.
Home Science
IGNOU has also started a Bachelor of Arts degree program in Home Science. The program is designed in line with the curriculum and credit framework of the University Grants Commission and the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 to meet the growing demand for specialisation in diverse disciplines within Home Science or Community Science.
The programme aims to empower students with a comprehensive understanding of Human Development and Family Studies, Community Resource Management, Food and Nutrition, Extension and Communication, and Fabric and Apparel Sciences.
The programme aims to integrate theory with practical application, providing skill-based learning aligned with contemporary social needs and employability. It would cover Human Development, Food and Nutrition, Resource Management, Fabric and Apparel Sciences, and Extension Education.
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Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Argentine defence forces complete historic mission to Himalayas
The Argentine Army soldiers who completed the mission to climb Mount Kun , in the Himalayas , at 7,077 meters above sea level, are beginning their return journey to their country. On their final stop of the expedition, they received recognition from the Argentine Embassy in India, hosted by Ambassador Mariano A. Caucino. In the words of the Argentine Ambassador, it was a " historic mission " carried out in a joint exercise with the Indian Army , which strengthens defense cooperation between the two nations. "It is a source of enormous pride for all Argentines," Caucino said. 'Before their return to our country, we received and paid tribute to the soldiers of the Argentine Army who completed the historic mission to climb Mount Kun (Himalayas) at 7,077 meters above sea level, in a joint exercise that strengthens cooperation in Defense between Argentina and India and constitutes an enormous pride for all Argentines,' was the entire message that Caucino published on his X account. The expedition took place last week, on Tuesday, coinciding with Mountain Troops Day , when a nine-member team of the Argentine Army reached the summit of the mountain for the first time. The trek was carried out alongside Indian army personnel in an operation that combined logistics, training, and bilateral coordination. The ascent was the result of more than a year of planning. In fact, an Indian Army team, in collaboration with the Argentine Army, successfully summited Mount Aconcagua on Army Day 2025. The joint expedition, which began on January 3, 2025, involved an eight-member Indian team led by Lieutenant Colonel Manoj Joshi and a 15-member Argentine contingent. They reached the summit of the 6,995-meter peak on January 15, 2025. The Argentine contingent in the Himalayas was composed of Major Ramiro Antoñana (Lobos, Buenos Aires), of the 8th Mountain Brigade Command, Mendoza; Captain Rodrigo Orellano (San Carlos, Mendoza), of the 6th Mountain Engineer Battalion, Neuquén; and Chief Warrant Officer Pedro Rodríguez (Tartagal, Salta), of the 8th Mountain Hunters Company, Puente del Inca. They were joined by Chief Warrant Officer Néstor Maidana (San Salvador de Jujuy, Jujuy), Chief Warrant Officer Juan Bustos (Puente del Inca, Mendoza), Assistant Sergeant Víctor Giordano (Luque, Córdoba), of the 16th Mountain Infantry Regiment, Uspallata; Assistant Sergeant Carlos Villafañe (Esquel, Chubut), of the Military Mountain School, Bariloche; First Sergeant Oscar Oro (Cinaguita, San Juan), of the 11th Mountain Infantry Regiment, Tupungato; and First Sergeant Diego Alegre (Captain Bermúdez, Santa Fe), of the Military School of Mounted Troops, Buenos Aires. In total, the expedition involved 67 people: 17 members of the Indian Army, nine Argentines, 11 avalanche rescue specialists, porters, and administrative staff. The operation began on July 23 with the departure from Kumathang/Kargil to the Safat Valley, where, at 3,900 meters, the first camp was set up and joint activities with the Headquarters of the 8th Indian Mountain Division began. During the first few days, the group completed the acclimatization process, which included hiking through gorges and boxes, and checking and preparing equipment, medications, and medical supplies. The Indian expedition leader gave talks on the ascent and safety protocols. In parallel, an air evacuation plan was coordinated with the Indian Air Force, and daily medical checks were conducted. On July 25, base camp was set up at 4,515 meters above sea level. Two non-commissioned officers and two porters remained there, while the expedition leaders conducted an aerial reconnaissance of the route. At the Safat refuge, Indian medical personnel provided training on altitude emergencies, and Argentine troops provided instruction on the use of the Recco radar, a tool used in rescue operations. On July 28, the entire team moved to base camp and conducted a reconnaissance mission toward Camp 1. Since then, the final phase of preparation began: transfer and distribution of loads to the high-altitude camps, daily medical checks, and constant coordination with Indian military authorities. The final ascent was scheduled for August 4 and 5, when the summit was reached as planned. Defense Minister Luis Petri celebrated the achievement and published images captured from the summit. On his X account, he wrote: "At 7,077 meters, on the summit of Mount Kun, the nine members of the Argentine Army patrol made history alongside the Indian Army." For his part, President Javier Milei recognized them and shared a message with the phrase "Argentine Pride" on his X account.
Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Barking up the wrong tree
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is considering issuing an advisory to prevent the feeding of pigeons in public places, which includes our balconies and terraces. The MCD wants to ward off diseases associated with pigeon droppings. Children playing with street dogs in New Delhi. (Arun Sharma/Hindustan Times) In the concrete jungle that I live in, pigeons are the only birds I ever spot and feeding them is in my DNA. My interest in pigeons increased manifold when I read Twilight in Delhi (1940) by Ahmed Ali. In the book, the patriarch, Mir Nihal, loves pigeons and is an ace trainer with a family history of flying them at official functions such as the Delhi Durbar of 1903. The summer of 1911 has been exceptionally cruel, and many of Mir Nihal's pigeons have died. He visits the pigeon market held near the Jama Masjid every Friday to buy more 'Golays' and not 'Kabulis'. The Golays are a novelty in the Delhi market and are being eyed by wannabe flyers. Almost feral, these pigeons fly low over roofs in a straight line and are difficult to train. The Kabulis, however, fly just above their own homes, and, when tired, return. Downward dog (RAJ K RAJ /HT PHOTO) These days I wonder if Golays were like the stray dogs that people don't want to take home, and the Kabulis like the pedigreed status symbols they pay a fortune to procure, never mind that they are inbred and the products of illegal and inhumane breeding operations. Even as I was pondering over the fate of pigeons and how soon before I would be asked to not put out water or food for them, the Supreme Court delivered a shocker. The stray dogs across Delhi-NCR were to be rounded up and sent to pounds. This is to do with Indian breed dogs, also called Indies or desis or free ranging dogs, who do not find homes because 'dog lovers' prefer to decorate their homes with non-native pedigrees. There was a time when our Indies were prized possessions and exported across the world. S Theodore Baskaran in The Book of Indian Dogs quotes Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) in this context: '…India is home to a number of indigenous breeds of dogs. Sadly, some of them have already disappeared, due to indifference. This is unfortunate, especially given that in ancient times they were much prized around the world… Historians have recorded that they were exported to Rome and to Egypt. Old travel accounts tell us that dogs from India were sent to Babylon… When Alexander the Great invaded India and overpowered the local rulers… he was gifted 150 dogs. Another story that has come down from the period says that to demonstrate the pluck of these dogs, two of them were set upon a lion. Even as one of the dogs suffered a badly injured leg, it held onto the lion. Alexander is said to have watched the display of tenacity with awe.' Baskaran goes on to add that although Indian dogs were in demand abroad, at home, except for kings and nobles who indulged in hunting, the upper and middle class shunned them. 'In fact, the dog was despised, and the word 'dog' was used as a derogatory term in daily use and in literature,' he writes. A dog sitting pretty within a circle marked for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO) On August 11, when Supreme Court Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan ruled that every single dog on the streets will have to go to a pound – ignoring all earlier landmark judgements pertaining to reducing human-dog conflict and the reasoning and science behind them – the anti-dog brigade, which unfortunately includes pedigreed dog lovers, rejoiced. For lovers of the noble Indie, it was like witnessing the persecution of beloved friends and family. Though this grand idea to send around 10 lakh dogs to a pound is untenable – the government does not own even a single shelter as of today – the celebrations and pronouncements on social media continue unabated. Where will the government find funds to build these pounds and then feed these dogs, and in such a short period? Where will they find the catchers to nab these lakhs of dogs? There are just a handful of good catchers around and most of the time, when it comes to vaccination or providing medication, feeders usually help catch the dogs. The existing shelters (all private) are bursting at their seams and are poorly kept. It's not rare to have sleepless nights if one happens to visit such a facility. Ironically, the Supreme Court's pronouncement came after taking suo moto notice of a newspaper report which claimed a child had died of rabies, though it later turned out that the cause of the child's death was meningitis. According to The Lancet, there are 5,726 human rabies deaths annually in India. This study, conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), highlights that while rabies deaths have decreased in the past two decades, India still accounts for a significant portion of global rabies fatalities. The research also emphasises the need for a 'one-health approach' to accelerate progress towards the global target of eliminating dog-mediated rabies by 2030, according to The Lancet, which also states that there has been a '75 percent decrease in rabies deaths over the past two decades'. Most dog lovers know the skewed maths behind the anti-rabies shots. Depending on the severity of the bite, a patient gets four to five shots. What are the chances of every anti-rabies shot being registered as a separate dog bite case? What if the patient visits five different facilities for the anti-rabies shots? While dogs are being cornered as they are so conspicuous and disliked by many who are generally averse to animals, nobody seems to care about the other big 'monster killer' – mosquitoes. Not even the MCD. According to the reported deaths due to malaria in 2022 were 83, but the estimated deaths in the same period were 5,511. Malaria in pregnancy is a life-threatening condition with adverse outcomes. India has inadequate surveillance, but some studies show that 10 percent to 30 percent of pregnant women suffer from malaria. In his book The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator (2019), Timothy C Winegard describes how mosquitoes and their diseases have shaped the outcomes of war, the spread of religion, and the development of modern culture. In the introduction, Winegard writes: 'The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has contributed nearly $4 billion to mosquito research since its creation in 2000, releases an annual report that identifies the animals most lethal to humans. The contest is not even close. The heavyweight champion, and our apex predator in perpetuity, is the mosquito. Since 2000, the annual average number of human deaths caused by the mosquito has hovered around 2 million. We come in a distant second at 475,000, followed by snakes (50,000), dogs and sand flies (25,000 each)…' According to WHO, India registers nearly 50,000 snake bite deaths annually. With one sweeping judgement, the Supreme Court justices have taken the long standing human-dog equation back in time. The dog carers, who prided themselves in the landmark judgment of Justice JR Midha – the Delhi High Court judge who ruled that community dogs had a right to food, must be treated with compassion and emphasised the right of citizens to feed stray dogs – are at a loss for words. The fear of dogs has been systematically unleashed over the past couple of years. Parents now repeatedly instruct their kids to run a mile if they spot a dog. And then there are odd cases such as the one reported from Greater Noida, where a woman in morbid fear of dogs fell off a walkway and fractured her spine. The walkway had a low railing - a structural fault of the building – but her fall and her spine fracture was blamed on the dog. The dog's owner was arrested, though the dog did not even touch the woman. Such incidents, and the many fake videos and stories (such as the one the apex court based its decision on) constantly being circulated on social media have widened the gulf between dog lovers and dog haters. It would have been apt if the justices had pulled up the municipal corporation for not carrying out Animal Birth Control (ABC) programmes or vaccination drives with zest or for withholding payments to NGOs, which were hired to carry it out. Or pulled up pet shops that sell birds, cats, rabbits, dogs and what not and keep them unhygienically caged for long periods. They could have pulled up illegal breeders who sell pedigreed animals, even those unsuited for Indian climes such as huskies or large breeds that need exercise and cannot be confined in small apartments. They could have pulled up those who abandon pedigreed animals when they fall sick or when their reproductive organs fail; or those who abuse animals sexually and physically. They could have pulled up dog haters for abusing dog lovers, often physically, and preventing them from feeding dogs. Alas! A dog in the fog (Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times) An interesting study conducted in West Bengal on 110 randomly selected free-ranging dogs (51 males and 59 females) was published in the Applied Animal Behaviour Science Journal (Volume 278, September 2024). The researchers observed that free-ranging dogs needed four interactions over four days to learn, and that they use the learned information to their benefit on subsequent days: 'Individual human recognition is important for species that live in close proximity to humans. Numerous studies on domesticated species and urban-adapted birds have highlighted this ability. One such species which is heavily reliant on humans is the free-ranging dog. Very little knowledge exists on the amount of time taken by free-ranging dogs to learn and remember individual humans.' This is the first study aiming to understand the time taken for individual human recognition in free-ranging dogs, and can serve as the scaffold for future studies to understand the dog-human relationship in open environments, like urban ecosystems, the researchers concluded. 'While some humans are a source of food, shelter and even care for them, others can be threats, as people's reactions towards free-ranging dogs range from extremely positive to extremely negative. It is thus interesting to understand the extent to which free-ranging dogs are capable of recognising individual humans, as this might be impacting their survival in the human-dominated landscape.' Sadly, we now seem set to trade this super easy four-interactions-over-four-days step to dog-less streets, pigeon-less skies and rocket-sized holes in our hearts. Lamat R Hasan is an independent journalist. She lives in New Delhi.
Mint
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