Centre for Professional Communication (CPC) at UPES organised “MAGIC 2016-Methods Aesthetics and Genre in English Communication”, the two day conference held on November 10 and 11 was also an initiative to Support Skill India movement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is the 4th international conference organised by CPC in association with Higher learning Research Communication (HlRC), International Journal of the laureate Network which would publish selected papers in their journal.
The two-day international conference saw participation from various institutions from Uttarakhand and from outside of Uttarakhand, including EFl Hyderabad, GlA Mathura, Guru Nanak Institutions, Technical Campus, Hyderabad, IIS University Rajasthan and KlE Society’s lingraj College apart from some others.
Rati Oberoi, the convener of the conference, informed that a total of 87 papers were received under various themes and sub-themes related to professional communication, English literature, language, Online Hybrid and Blended Education and had a unique association with Skill India initiative. Out of these, only 55 were accepted and presented. Virtual presentations were also accepted for the conference.
The plenary speakers for the conference were some distinguished personalities of the Communication Fraternity which included Prof Sisir Basu (Banaras Hindu University), Prof Rashmi Gaur (IIT Roorkee) & Prof S Chakrabarti (Delhi University) and Thalia Nazario, managing editor, HlRC.
Shrihari, the vice-chancellor in his welcome address shared how communication in terms of the spoken language indicates a generation gap. Basu in his address to the gathering while commenting on the idea of Natives and Migrants of the internet also mentioned how the bandwagon effect works in the youth and how fear of isolation often holds people from being creative.
Some others ideas shared by Basu pretty much summed up the major takeaways of the conference. He remarked that all efforts in the direction of English education are directed mostly towards a microscopic minority of students.
He suggested that efforts should be made in the area of inclusion of the students coming from the vernacular belt. Only through the
emancipation of students from different backgrounds into mainstream can the problems of education system in India be resolved, he said.
Gaur in her speech shared the various initiatives and efforts being put in by her at IIT-Roorkee towards conducting communication skills workshops for students who come from vernacular backgrounds.
A large number of UPES faculty and students participated in the conference, including Kamal Bansal, dean College of Engineering Studies and S R Das, vice- president-Academic Affairs. Members of the organizing committee of this conference included Vickram Sahai (co-chair), Rati Oberoi (convener), Asha Kaushik (co-convener), Shalini Vohra (co-convener), Arunabh Banerjee, Anand Pathak, Jyoti lakshami Kashyap, Pll Annapurna, Pooja Gupta, Noopur Jha, Amit Nautiyal, Pooja Khanna, Brahmleen Kaur, Manu Priya Chhabra, Nitin Bhambari and Amit Sharma.
They were actively supported by a student volunteer team which included Antima Kanwar, Mandavi Trivedi , Jashandeep Singh Gill and Sarvjeet from the electrical engineering department, Shailesh and Vicky Anand from civil engineering department, Aman Chawla from Geo Science engineering department, Divyesh Sagar from Petroleum engineering department, Satwik Shukla from electronics engineering department, Mohd Arish from mining engineering department, Suabhagya from computer science department and Aniruddh Das from automotive engineering department.