Latest news with #MaharajaSayajiraoUniversity
Time of India
03-06-2025
- General
- Time of India
MSU to felicitate Padma awardees, UPSC achievers
Vadodara: Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) will felicitate Padma Shri awardees and achievers of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examinations who are associated with the institution. A felicitation ceremony will be held on Thursday to honour them, including three Padma Shri recipients and two outstanding performers in the UPSC 2025 examinations. Among those to be honoured is Ajay V Bhatt, the visionary behind the revolutionary Universal Serial Bus (USB) technology, who was awarded the Padma Shri for his contributions to science and technology. Bhatt is an alumnus of MSU's Faculty of Technology and Engineering. The university will also felicitate Ratan Kumar Parimoo, a nonagenarian artist and eminent art historian closely associated with the Faculty of Fine Arts. In addition, Suresh Harilal Soni, founder of the Sabarkantha-based Sahyog Trust, will be honoured for his tireless efforts in supporting people with leprosy and physical disabilities. The ceremony will also recognize two remarkable UPSC achievers: Harshita Goyal, who secured AIR 2 in the civil services examination and Bhavesh Royda, who attained AIR 86 in the Indian Forest Service examination. "The university community will come together to celebrate the inspiring journeys and accomplishments of these individuals," said a university official.
Indian Express
17-05-2025
- General
- Indian Express
To ‘restore the rhythm' after multiple controversies, Vadodara's MS University declares UG results in 30 days
In an attempt to 'restore the rhythm' of the University, which has been at the centre of controversies in recent months, the Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda on Saturday announced that it had declared all Final Year results of Under-graduate (UG) programmes within 30 days of the completion of examinations. Calling it a 'milestone' achieved after a long gap, the University credited its staff for showcasing the 'institutional spirit'. In a statement issued Saturday, the MS University said, 'In a moment of quiet institutional pride and academic excellence, MSU achieved what has not been seen in many years: the timely and complete declaration of all Final Year Undergraduate (Semester 6) results across all faculties — within 30 days of the last examination date. This remarkable coordination involved 59 undergraduate programmes, impacting the academic journeys of 11,185 students, and was accomplished through the sincere and sustained efforts of the Examination Section, faculty tabulators, Central Assessment Cells (CACs), and support staff across departments.' According to the University's statement, one result was declared within 10 days of the examination while 19 streams saw the results declared between 21 and 25 days after the papers were held. 'Altogether, 43 out of 59 results — over 72% — were declared within 25 days, demonstrating efficient academic governance and collective responsibility. Faculties such as Law, Family & Community Sciences, Technology & Engineering, and Social Work delivered some of the fastest results, while even the largest faculties like Commerce, Arts, and Science successfully declared results within the 30-day benchmark. This statistical summary is not merely data — it represents hours of dedication, layers of academic checking, tabulation precision, and countless moments of individual accountability. It is the outcome of unwavering focus and responsibility across all levels of the university structure,' the release said. Professor Bhavna Mehta, Controller of Examinations (OSD), called it a 'collective outcome', crediting the Examination Section staff, tabulators, CAC coordinators, and supporting assistants, who treated 'every single result as a matter of responsibility'. Mehta said, 'This achievement required discipline and care at every level — from scheduling to tabulation — and acknowledged the contributions of even the often-unseen hands behind the scenes: temporary staff, data entry teams, and file movement clerks.' The University is celebrating the achievement after it faced criticism and protests from student unions in the previous academic year as the Third Year B-Com results were declared in September, with the delayed exams conducted as late as August 2024. Thereafter, MSU also faced criticism for delaying the convocation in 2024, despite resolving to complete the ceremonial hand-over of degrees by September every year. The University has also been shrouded in controversy over the appointment of former Vice-Chancellor V K Shrivastava, who resigned in January this year, pending a hearing in a petition before the Gujarat High Court, challenging his appointment to the post. Professor Dhanesh Patel, In-Charge Vice Chancellor, called the expedited results a testament to the 'institutional spirit' of the University and 'not a meter statistic'. Patel said, 'This is not just a statistic. It is a reaffirmation of what MSU stands for — responsibility, discipline, and student service. That over 11,000 students received their results on time is a testament to the harmony between the Examination Section and all our faculties. I congratulate Professor Bhavna Mehta and every contributor for restoring MSU's rhythm.' He further observed that such timely declaration plays a direct role in supporting students' onward journeys — whether to postgraduate admissions, scholarships, or job applications. 'It is our institutional duty to honour their timelines,' he said.
Indian Express
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
How artist Jyoti Bhatt questioned power hierarchies and chronicled his times
The visual language of one of India's most distinguished artist-pedagogues, Jyoti Bhatt, combined modernism with traditional idiom, as his engagements left a deep imprint on Indian art. In the exhibition titled 'Line and the Lens' at Latitude 28 in Delhi, Rekha Rodwittiya — artist and his student at Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda in the late '70s — has woven together decades of his art practice, reflecting on the evolution of his oeuvre and that of the Indian art landscape. In this interview, Rodwittiya discusses her fondest memories of her beloved teacher and her curatorial vision for the exhibition celebrating Bhatt. Excerpts from an interview: I have always said that while I was studying at FFA (1976-1981), Jyoti Bhatt was the only teacher who exemplified, through his teaching and conduct, a lived and practised understanding of feminism. He addressed his responsibilities of being an educator very seriously, exposing his students to varied areas of articulation within the arts – yet never preferencing anything as being more or less deserving of attention to curiosities. He has been a major contributor to defining the pedagogic content of the syllabi at the faculty, and with students from varied cultural backgrounds he insisted that an openness to diverse cultural practices was respected within the classroom. He loved to deconstruct methods and techniques to share with us, and was wary of anyone holding things as too precious to be questioned. All students were equal to him. He disliked any display of power hierarchy, and always stated that he learned from his students because their questions led him to new areas of inquiry. At a personal level, one of my most impactful experiences was when as his student, after a particularly gruelling submission session, he said to me that I could view critique as damning or I could view it as a compliment that indicated that people held an expectation of me. These works of the artist are known as the series 'Living Traditions'. This archive is hugely significant because it serves to document, what he himself refers to, as vanishing practices. However, for me this archive serves another less obvious factor of importance. The wanderings of his travel create this journeying back and forth between the many worlds of 'his India'. It positions his engagement with plural and parallel existences that otherwise get ignored. He is, however, never the outsider or the voyeur – he is within the images he takes despite his physical absence, because he has the connect of empathy that allows him to be the sutradhar of these other worlds. He brings them to you to also belong within. The camera therefore isn't a device to 'record' but to perpetual memory. Jyoti Bhatt is never shy of what constitutes his value system and therefore the personal politics that shapes his thinking. He grew up in Bhavnagar, where he was exposed to the changes India was experiencing through the Independence movement, and through the industrialisation that the British Raj had swept to our shores. Extraordinarily, he displays his political alertness at the tender age of 12, when he paints an image that references the reality of a lower caste Dalit man having to proclaim his presence to the upper castes by wearing a broom what sweeps away the imprint of his existence, so as to avoid polluting them even in passing. As an artist he continues to exhibit an informed understanding of how visual language provides a vocabulary that can be read, and which accommodates a commentary with referential indicators that are infused with specific meaning. We see this very clearly in the works he did in 1975-77 that holds the commentary of censure in which he refers to MF Hussain equating Indira Gandhi as mother India, during the time of the Emergency. Jyoti Bhatt has always been someone who discredits systems of elitism and hierarchies. He worked outside of any need to hold attention to any personal space of self-glorification. However this did not mean he did not see his art practice as holding relevance and belonging within the discourses around him. What he positioned was the idea of disseminating a work of art through an edition, therefore becoming a means and method by which his art could reach and belong to many people. He also strongly believes in the idea of democratising his art practice by keeping his prices very nominal and not playing up to the manipulations of an art market. Perhaps this is because Jyotibhai has never cared to be prescriptive. Respectful of the choices and functioning of other artists and art institutions, he nonetheless configures his own operative systems as an artist, to what his personal beliefs adhere to. Jyotibhai and Jyotsnaben's doors have always been open. When I was a student and on one occasion when I needed to attend a theory class, both of them babysat my infant son. It is a tradition within Baroda where the communication and relationship with students or young artists does not end at the college front gate, or at the exit of an exhibition gallery. Jyotibhai, in his belief of equal relationships, views his interaction with all whom he interacts with, with the greatest of openness and humility. There is never a time that I have visited him, when my favourite dish of Batata Poha isn't made and kept ready for me. This, I think, best exemplifies the platform of how he engages with those who visit him. His genuineness and his comfort with who he is, allows for others to find their comfort in their discourses with him.
