ins ght Flagship Edition 22.1
Utopia or Dystopia
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Academics MMXIX
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Food Safety @ IITB
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Behind the Picture Understanding Research in the Institute
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Back to Being a Professor Only
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Vitamin H
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UTOPIA or DYSTOPIA?
by Atharva Padhye, Apurva Desai, Cherub Kapoor, Tanmay Goyal
This article is aimed at highlighting the resource wastage problem that has been plaguing our campus and humankind, in general. We wish to throw light on the seriousness of the problem and also suggest some plausible solutions that might help alleviate the problem by looking at what IIT Bombay and some of the other institutes are doing to tackle the problem. Do you realise how dangerously close we are to the tipping point? The Amazon is burning, the Arctic is on fire, Bangalore has hit a water crisis, the Maldives are sinking and the coral reefs are dying, and there you are - waiting for incentives and nudges to do some good. Stop And Think. For once, just consider the times where you saw people leave their room fans on while going for a meal, the tap water running, or waste a whole chunk of their meal because it wasn’t tasty, and you said nothing. Think of the times when you yourself did this, the ecological footprints that you’re leaving on this world. Let’s talk about this. It’s high time that we make a note about the waste that we’re creating, and as responsible citizens, the onus falls onto us. What’s important is that we realize that there won’t be a better time for a change ever again, and since we have the privilege to make an impact, we should. The forthcoming article consists of some laudable practices followed by other IITs, the sustainability pathway of IIT Bombay and some methodologies which one can adopt to make a difference.
STEPS TAKEN BY OTHER IITs IIT Ropar (Zero Liquid Discharge) Recently, IIT Ropar became a zero liquid discharge campus. More than half of the total water requirement in the campus is now met through recycling wastewater. The treated water is used for gardening purposes, toilet flushes and HVAC cooling. Sludge generated from the Sewage Treatment Plant is rich in organic content and they use it as a fertilizer for horticultural purposes.
IIT Mandi (Mess Food) The administration has come up with a series of recommendations after conducting an analysis of food wastage in two high-volume mess halls. Moreover, they aim to track attendance at each mess hall for each meal to understand the eating patterns for each individual meal. They also plan to conduct monitored segregation waste audits frequently and introduce a personal feedback system to privately alert users of the food wastage.
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IIT BHU (Smart Dustbin) IIT BHU has created a prototype for the ‘Smart Dustbin’ which gives Swachhata Points for every piece of garbage one throws in it. As of now, they are done with the prototype and are planning to implement it throughout the campus by next year. On average, a person produces 4.4 pounds of non-recyclable waste on a daily basis. To tackle this problem, IITBHU has also come up with a ‘Plastic to Fuel Plant’. This plant converts all the plastic waste generated into diesel which can then be used for various daily purposes. The plant can convert 100kg of plastic into 70L of diesel. Considering the amount of waste being generated, this method will surely help them manage the waste generated in a much better way.
IIT Roorkee (Solarsification) IIT Roorkee has come up with multiple schemes under their green campus initiatives. They have made plans for the solarsification of the entire campus. Apart from using solar heaters, they have started using solar energy to cook vegetables to feed more than 5000 students.
SO WHAT’S THE STATUS IN OUR INSTITUTE? The Hostel Affairs Council After its conception by the Hostel Affairs Council, the idea to make a Sustainability Cell took around 2-3 years to materialise, only to be implemented in 2018-2019. In its initial period, the goal was to devise a basic framework, build a community and implement some initiatives. With the help of the Sustainability Community, a platform for students who are enthusiastic to brainstorm and work on pressing problems in the institute, the body organised several awareness sessions and zero wastage activities in hostels. Future plans include waste segregation at the hostel level as the major focal point. The body is also organising several technical projects based on sustainable solutions in collaboration with the Institute Technical Council. With support from the Hostel Affairs Council, Sustainability Cell aims to complete the initiatives of smart water metering system to check overflow of tanks, waterless urinals, and further data collection and implementation of simple solutions to reduce water wastage. Hostel
Affairs is also facilitating the transition from Halogen flood lamps to LED flood lamps in the hostel grounds, enabled display digital boards in collaboration with Web and Coding Club (WnCC) for display of posters and banned the use of plastic spoons in canteens.
Graph of a Hostel before and after zero waste day
Team Zero Waste The team started off with the vision of finding technical and managerial solutions towards managing waste in the campus. As per the report created by the Tata Center for Technology and Design at IIT Bombay (September 2016), the institute generates around 6 Metric Tonnes (MT) of municipal solid waste (MSW) every day. The institute does have some waste management solutions like biogas plants and composting units, for wet waste. Team Zero Waste aims to bridge this gap by devising a policy for waste segregation at source for IIT Bombay. Currently, they have conducted a test run for plastic segregation, also comprising of doorto-door drive in Hostel 15B in collaboration with NSS, by collecting plastic waste from designated cardboard boxes placed in each wing. Their next goal is to devise a permanent policy for segregation at source for the whole campus based on the results and findings of this pilot run. Apart from this, Team Zero Waste also strives to raise awareness with regards to sanitary waste, with a separate red bin to exclusively collect the menstrual waste.
Tata Centre for Technology and Design Tata Centre for Technology and Design at IIT Bombay, established in 2014, aims to develop solutions to challenges faced by resource-constrained communities within India and across the world using an end to end innovation approach. The Tata Centre acts as a virtual centre for teaching and research that draws faculty members and graduate students from various academic units across IIT Bombay. The centre focuses on challenges in the areas of Education, Energy, Healthcare, Water and Waste Management and various others. Tata Centre for Technology and Design at IIT Bombay has been working on technological alternatives for solid waste management. IITB campus is chosen as one of the test beds and a detailed waste audit report was prepared. Based on this report, TCTD has funded several projects to faculty from different Departments and Centres in IITB on technologies such as composting, plastic pyrolysis, biogas separation, bioreactor landfill, gasifier for garden waste pellets etc. Among its ancillary activities, major ones are campaign for waste segregation at source, revamping of biomethanation unit, app development for data collection etc.
Suggesting Solutions and Appeal to all Now what can we as residents of the campus do? After all, we are responsible for generating this sheer quantity of waste. So let’s talk about the solutions A faculty member in the know of things, who wished to remain anonymous, was of the opinion that students have a lot of power within the campus and are not doing enough to take up causes and use their powers to pressurize solutions to materialize. One of the most potent tools is the Right to Information which the students can use to demand to know the status of some of these initiatives and even ask for reliable data! On a less radical front, zero wastage days should be implemented on a regular basis in all hostel messes while keeping account of the wastage and displaying that in the mess every week. A constant pang of guilt works wonders! As individual residents, what we can do is implement segregation, because after all change starts from home (here hostel). Team Zero Waste has already initiated test drives in the campus with appreciable results. However there are quite a few roadblocks in the implementation, the major hurdle being little knowledge about the methods. A nudge from the institute’s side could do wonders, or even if seniors could inculcate these values among their juniors, the institute could witness an immense change!
Diagram showing the MSW generation and disposal at IIT Campus - TATA Centre for Technology and Design, September 2016.
Just remember, the current scenario is not okay. And we are going to fix it. We belong to one of the best colleges in the country, and it is our responsibility to at least follow good practices, if not spearhead innovative solutions for urgent and imminent issues. So if you see wastage of any form around you, speak up and more importantly try to identify ways in which you can contribute in solving the problem.
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ACADEMICS MMXIX
by Ayan Sharma, Siddharth Mehta, Tanmay Goyal, Yashaswini Chauhan
One of the paramount issues that haunt the dreams of students is that of the academic landscape that unfolds before them in their years at IITB. Here is Insight’s attempt to shed some light on the topic. “The number of ChemE quizzes per week is inversely proportional to the expectation of quizzes” “CS XXX is most likely to have XXX number of course projects” “The Section you’re allotted for a course depends on mahurat of course registration” Each and every student has something to comment about their department’s academia- good (trust us), bad (politeness is a virtue), absurd (so is honesty), laudable (aspirational). Some of the department problems are as clear as day while some scintillate just at twilight. Some problems are localized and some cross-departmental barriers with worrisome ease. We decided to undertake an odyssey to understand the gravitas of such academic issues faced by IITB students and aspired to search for their solutions. The odyssey, figuratively resembling a Mobius strip, brought us to the two stakeholders and the insights prompted Insight to share its own two cents on the topic.
The Howls of Horrors… Insight conducted a campus-wide survey to reach out to the student body and parallelly interviewed student representatives like the GSAAs, DGSecs, and DAMP Co-ordinators.
The DAMP program received pretty affirmative responses with more than 60% of the students in almost all the branches approving of their work; who doesn’t need reminders :P?
Independent from the survey, Insight performed a deep dive analysis into the academic scenario of the departments, particularly of Civil, MEMS, Electrical and Aerospace Engineering. For apposite functioning, there needs to be a strong synergy between the department administration and the DAMP - which seems to be not working well for the MEMS Department. One source shared an anecdote
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about a room retention issue where their faculty advisor was on leave and they couldn’t gather their approval, but the administration betrayed no sympathy. The interaction between students and faculty advisors remains low, with many confessing to never having met their advisors even once. Also, some of the key administrators of the department didn’t have any knowledge of D-AMP and were not co-operative enough in tackling student issues. The Department of Civil Engineering doesn’t have any marked issues with their Head of Department and appreciate the efforts put in by their DAMP. The faculty advisors interact with students and are approachable and helpful; Fac-Ad introduction for freshers and a reconnection session for sophomores happen every year. Thus, the Student-Council-Administration bridge gives a semblance of strength, only if one were to ignore issues that students face with the course curriculum and policies. There are courses that leave many backlogged students in their wake. At times, students can’t register for a core course since they may have a backlog in some prerequisite core course. Rubbing salt in the wound is the double-edged truth that these courses may not be registered for the next year due to slot clashes and a good percentage don’t run during the summers, cursing students with a direct extension. The curriculum can be broadly divided into 5 categories, one of which is Remote Sensing and Ocean Engineering. Since there are only 3-4 professors with a parallel background, there isn’t any elective course offered for the Undergraduates. There have been instances when professors were known to misuse their authority, with one singled out, having gone to lengths of granting DX grade just for talking or standing up during the lectures. A very recent example is from the last week itself when 8 students were awarded DX grades for performing poorly in midsems of one of the courses. Setting a positive example, Electrical Department ensures at least 1 meeting with Fac-Ad and HOD per semester. It may not be easy to change your Fac-Ad but if there’s a genuine concern, then your issue would be addressed. Course feedback is taken into consideration and the curriculum feels appositely structured to students and 1-2 courses are yearly added to the CDEEP repository. But the courses appear to not have evolved with respect to the technology, since many professors still opt for teaching on black board over reference books and slides; this makes missing any single lecture a figuratively lethal blow to students. The DAMP blog provides course reviews to students, an envious activity not yet replicated across all other departments. Apparently, the Aerospace Department more than makes up for the outdated infrastructure with a helpful and approachable system of DAMP Coordinators and
The Voice of Reason… Fac-Ads. The latter are available for the students to meet regarding but not limited to their academics while the department council boasts of always willing to accommodate students’ requests and address their grievances in a timely manner. Next, we analyzed scenario of backlog courses across various departments.
Apart from Electrical and Mechanical, students are pretty dissatisfied with the efforts taken by their Departments to ensure that students avoid possible career-threatening extensions.
Daunting extensions is the kind of road no one would like to walk upon. Currently, the only possible solution for it is a summer course, or clearing the required course in subsequent semesters. But if the backlog is a prerequisite then the problem severely escalates considering the fact summer courses have now become rare. We went on discussed this with concerned authorities. Prof. Eldoh, HOD of Department of Civil Engineering said, “Professors have many other commitments which can possibly be addressed only in summers, therefore making summer courses infeasible at times. Perhaps a solution to reduce the number of backloggers can be, the reintroduction of FF grade wherein students with backlog can write a re-exam with summer repeaters. ”. Academic Problems isn’t just limited to undergraduate students but also extends to Post graduates. Here is Insight’s take on some of the PG issues we stumbled on after interviewing PG representatives and from the responses of the survey we conducted. There are certain issues primarily haunting the postgraduate populace of IITB. Our institute takes pride in and celebrates diversity among students. Yet, many PG (and also UG) entrants suffer from minor alienation in terms of language. About the course descriptions, the students are quick to catch on that deciphering the cryptic descriptions and understanding the grading policy is a moot point since the professors have the liberty (in layman’s terms, autonomy) to change the rules of engagement anytime during the course. Postgraduates’ studies happen beyond the classroom spaces- project work, student interaction, and introspection. Though not exactly an academic issue, it warrants serious attention about the space crunch across almost all the departments where students can sit and work (currently they have to shuttle between departments, library, and hostels), that may indirectly impact their studies. The General Secretary, Academic Affairs (PG) also pointed out a lack of structured guidelines for project work that more often than not cascades into a multitude of problems for students.
The greatest support system that the Departments offer to the students is that of Faculty Advisors and the DAMP program. While the ISMP program is supposed to oversee the wholesome development of the first-year students, the torch is kept ablaze by the DAMP mentors for life after the freshie year. DAMP, being a student body, connects students with seniors who can guide them in their academic journey. But there are limitations to the extent to which this is possible because DAMP mentors have their own various personal responsibilities, and they may also lack experience for some intense academic suggestions. For example, deciding a core sub-field as a prospective career. How does a career in research look like? Professors are also actively in touch with industries via consulting projects and therefore FacAds can be the point to start enquiring about industry one wants to pursue. To counter these issues, the students are allotted faculty advisors, who, if approached, can significantly improve their academic life considering the fact they have great insights into general student academics, research, and industry. However, how many of us actually approach our Faculty Advisors?
Insight conducted a survey which showed, sadly, that there is a big gap between most of the students and their Fac-Ads with almost 42% of the students never even having met theirs!
The survey concluded that 42% of the participants never met their Fac-Ads but among the 58% who did interact, more than 75 % found the discussion to be useful. We further probed the academic authorities including DAMP/ISMP Heads, Department HoDs, GSAA (UG) and GSAA (PG) in this regard and received some not-sounknown responses. Varshit Kumar, the GSAA (UG) said, “Most of the departments ensure an introductory meeting for students with their Fac-Ads. After that, it is the responsibility of the students to get appointments with their respective Fac-Ads and present whatever queries they have to them. In the past few years, the administration has significantly increased the role of faculty advisors.”. He also said that students not initiating communication is a major reason for the aforementioned gaps. We shared this stat with Prof. Vikram Gadre of the Electrical Department who was head of the ISMP Program at the time of its inception and is still closely involved with its functioning.
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He said, “These many students not interacting with Fac-Ads is shocking. It is ensured in the Electrical Department that there is at least one student- Fac-Ad meet each semester. Fac-Ad is not a voluntary post but is a responsibility allotted to Professors by the department which they should care for.” The Associate Dean (Academic Programmes), Prof. Prita Pant, was not available for a comment.
The Gordian Knot… After the above sensational issues of the so-called educated people, come the problems of the mortal (normal) instizen. These range from the dreaded CPI to the random grading policies. The commonplace problems like lack of research exposure and supplementary materials lie somewhere in between. It’s a common misconception that the professors are very busy beings and getting a few minutes off their hectic schedules is not a feat many students have managed to achieve. But the survey results completely refute these absurd rumours and exhibit the Profs’ propensity to grant ample time for the betterment of their charges. Bagging the best in the business does have its perks (despite the minor eccentricities).
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The most staggering result of the survey leaving no doubt that the students are very happy with how the Professors respond to their approaches & requests.
The above point is rendered irrelevant and redundant if the Professor gives good grades. After all, all’s well that ends well. It has been observed though that the Professors do not tend to be as benign in this regard. The random grading policies, surpris(ing)e quizzes, dreadful DX grades, interview-like vivas, all combine to make the experience a rather forgettable one. The whole student populace is saddened by the grading policies and almost
B.L.U.F everyone suffers from a scar or two. But we are helpless! All the Professors are autonomous and are at full liberty to do whatever they wish to- another myth that needs to be taken care of! The Professors are answerable to the Dean AP and the Director and can be questioned on the practices they follow in class. You just need to ensure that your feedback matters!
The ‘Bottom Line Up Front’ is that we are all familiar with the 10000 fundae that the DoSA enlightened us with on our first day at IITB. With the academics holding so much significance in our students’ lives, it is evident that any problems faced in this regard should be dealt with immediate effect. The issue of academic problems students face can be dealt not by rants, blame games, and indifference but by co-operation and sympathy for the ‘other side’, at least till the realization that there is only one. The IITB administration and students have devised multiple ways to enable everyone to solve their issues. All one has to do is ask for help because ‘Help will always be given at IIT Bombay to those who ask for it’!
Only the Civil Department has managed to keep its students happy with more than 60% approving of the present system. Rest (Chemical leading the way) seem to be just trudging along with the system with bound hands!
Having gotten the laypeople’s problems out of our way, we focused on the people woke enough to dabble into and take steps on the forbidden path and actually dare to wish to research. Researching is not a new phenomenon but one that has undergone so many transformations that it is unrecognizable from its original self. The digitization & round-the-clock availability of the internet has reduced researching (at the Undergraduate level) to a quest for a Letter of Recommendation from a renowned Professor. The number of UG researchers is surprisingly low, with the graph depicting the lack of awareness and exposure to research.
The high numbers of ‘Maybe’s depict the ignorance on the students’ part raising fears that the concept of research will soon be long lost.
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Food Safety @IITB
by Atharva Padhye, Mahima Sethi, Suman Mondal
Issues pertaining to food safety has recently come to focus of one and all in the campus with a number of unfortunate incidents including the Hostel 10 food poisoning. In this article we present you an analysis of the Hygiene survey reports conducted by the institute on February 2018 and show how our hostels lag in even basic parameters of food safety.
The safety and hygiene of the food served inside the campus has been an ongoing major concern. The students and their guardians were quite apprehensive after the recent food poisoning in Hostel 10. Afterwards, hygiene reports were prepared by way of a unanimous decision by the GSecs and the Hostel Affairs (HA) council. The reports aimed to investigate into the food safety and practices of various food establishments inside the campus, which include messes, canteens as well as all other eateries with the aim to plug the loopholes. Here’s a deeper dive into what the Hygiene reports tell us about our Campus. The Hygiene Survey Results (conducted by MS Certification Services Pvt. Ltd.)
While the report is very detailed, we have specifically targeted points which should be necessary hygiene requirement for any food service establishment. 1. If the eatery used potable water - 4 points 2. If Vegetables and other raw materials were thoroughly cleaned before cooking - 2 points 3. All the equipments, if adequately sanitized before and after food preparation - 2 points 4. Cutlery, and crockery used for cooking and serving, adequately cleaned and sanitized - 2 points 5. Packaging and wrapping materials which come in contact with food should always be clean and of food grade quality - 2 points 6. Absence of signs of pest activity and infestation in the premises of food eateries - 4 points 7. If drains present in hostels or canteens are covered and have traps for cockroaches or other pests - 2 points 8. The food handlers are to maintain personal hygiene (like wearing clean clothes, trimming nails etc) as well as hygienic behaviour (like washing of hands, wearing no loose jewellery etc) - 4 points 9. The food handlers should be properly equipped with suitable aprons, gloves, headgear which are necessary while working with food - 2 points
Mishandling and negligence of hygienic measures on part of food handlers might cause a number of illnesses and is a serious concern. As you can see, the highest performer was H12, H13 & H14 in terms of both the mess and the canteen (15 out of the total 26 points) However, the performance of many hostels are largely negative even on a relative scale; with the lowest for Hostel mess being H1 with just 2 points and for canteen it was Hostel 15 with 0 points.
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What does the administration have to say? In our earlier interaction with the HCU in-charge, Mr C.P. Joglekar, which took place after the food poisoning incident in Hostel-10, we had raised the issue of hygiene and also cited reports of both national and institute conducted surveys that came out largely negative, where he had informed us that it is the complete responsibility of the respective hostel committees to maintain hygiene standards. He also pointed out the recent formation of the hygiene committee, and the earlier task force that took action on the closing of Aroma’s Delight in campus. Students in general have always questioned the administration on its role in providing safe (if not very tasty) food to the campus residents. But our interactions with the authorities have put this onus largely on the hostel committees, who have only limited authority in maintaining mess and workers who handle the same.
What are the hurdles in maintaining hygienic standards? Our interaction with the GSecs of both, the somewhat well-performing hostel messes as well as the worst performing ones, illustrated a wide variety of problems that they face. Talking about the issues that Hostels face, the H16 GSec was of the opinion that it is not always possible to implement essential steps towards better hygiene as CHMS(Clean Hygienic Maintenance Standards) workers are resentful in this regard. While the H16 GSec maintained that they have managed to convince the workers to wear uniforms and are somewhat positive that they can further improve, the ex H4 GSec Saurabh presented a grim picture by pointing out that because of different reasons identified by the workers, the most significant one being ventilation, the scope for any improvement is mostly scuttled. In addition, they are not even equipped with suitable aprons, gloves, headgears, etc which is highly unacceptable considering hygiene standards. Most of the hostels have been found to have issues regarding cleaning, and the H4 GSec also pointed out that there is a shortage of cleaning staff in H4 which is true for some other hostels too according to our knowledge. The private messes on the other hand also have their own set of problems. There have been instances, for example, in the tenure of the previous mess caterer of H10, wherein the food had insects in it and although the system of levying fines might seem empowering, it had failed to keep this problem in check. But with regard to the other messes, the private ones seem to be the only ones that have some safety of the food we eat at present, although cleanliness is a problem here too.
What are the steps planned? We asked Mr. C. P Joglekar whether any training or steps were being planned for the workers. He informed us about the following :
A. In case of government Hostel messes, training the CHMS workers has been proposed, which falls under the institute domain. B. In case of private messes and canteens, caterers will be instructed to conduct trainings periodically. We also tried to know whether the previous as well as the current GSHA have had any plans for maintaining essential food hygiene, while the current GSHA did not inform us about any immediate steps they were willing to take, the ex GSHA maintained that although the survey was initiated during his tenure, the reports came in late into his tenure and he had not planned any steps in this regard by then.
Implementation Issues Taking into account the large number of hostels in IIT Bombay, we decided to talk to the General Secretaries of multiple hostels to try to understand if there are certain unique things that these hostels implement when it comes to maintaining the hygiene standards in the hostel eateries. These are the responses we got from themH4- Recently, their canteen was closed as it was not fire-safety compliant. The GSec has planned to have CCTV surveillance in the canteen kitchen so as to maintain a regular check. He also told us that as there is a government mess in H4, in spite of the Gsecs trying to improve certain things, the workers are often reluctant to cooperate. H6 - The Gsec has taken inspiration from the recently formed Institute Hygiene committee. As it is difficult for the hygiene committee to keep a constant check on all the hostels, the Gsec has decided to form a hygiene committee only for Hostel 6. It will comprise of the Mess Councillor, Mess Secretary and few other students from the hostel. H3 - The Gsec has planned on proper and timely implementation of the various things stated in the tender. He has planned things like vaccination and regular checkup of the mess workers so as to ensure that they are always healthy. He has also planned on having surprise checks to the storage room. This will make sure that the mess workers never use stale or rotten food. H2 - According to the H2 GSec, the most important thing to do is to be strict when it comes to enforcement of rules by the mess workers and also conducting surprise visits. He believes that certain major infrastructural changes are needed but are currently not possible for lack of funds. The open drains in some hostels are also a cause of concern in this case as these promote pest activity as we know. It must be pointed out therefore that the painted picture of the all-powerful hostel councils often falls flat as there are always many problems when implementing, ranging from reluctance to use of proper clothing, poor cleanliness habits, lack of some infrastructural facilities, etc. Any of the necessary initiatives have to come from the HCU or the Associate Dean SA who are the commanding authorities in this case.
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The formation of the Hygiene Committee Last year, the Hostel Affairs council took a step towards improving the check mechanism specifically for all the canteens and other eateries in the institute. Since every mess has a mess committee to keep a check on their hygiene standards, a need to keep a check on the canteens and eateries led to the formation of Hygiene Committee. The most important role of the Hygiene Committee is to ensure that all the hygiene-related rules and regulations are followed by the canteens and eateries. The members of these Hygiene Committees conduct surprise visits to these canteens to keep a check. Certain parameters are kept in mind and all the eateries are given a rating based on those parameters. If certain rules are found to be violated or the working of the eatery is not up to the mark, then a fine is imposed on the owner. This ensures that no eatery in the institute is below par. The formation of this committee marks a step towards the betterment of the hygiene standards in the institute. A round-up of the hygiene report’s statistics is rather harrowing and indeed too profound to ignore but has made us fully aware of where the institute eateries stand in terms of hygiene. The formation of the Hygiene Committee has given us a ray of hope and is undoubtedly a major step towards improving the overall hygiene standards of the institute eateries. We believe food safety should be on the top of the agenda for the Hostel Affairs council as well as for the other concerned authorities and hope to see required improvements in the hygiene parameters of the institute eateries till the hygiene survey is conducted the next year, which is a welcome step that has been proposed.
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Behind the picture Understanding the Research in the Institute by Athul CD, Purushottam Kumar, Tushar Kumar, Vipul Ramtekkar What exactly does research entail? What is the motivation for doing research? What happens in the life of a researcher? Read on to know what your professors are doing when they are not busy with teaching. (Disclaimer : We have tried to be comprehensive yet concise in our approach in tackling this topic so that it is not overwhelming for someone new to this area. We want to thank all the professors who helped us understand research and get more in-depth insights into their work & ideologies.) “If we knew what it was we were doing,it would not be called research, would it?” - Albert Einstein IIT Bombay is one of the premier institutes of technology when it comes to scientific development, but unlike cultural, sports and technical activities in the institute, research is not visible; so they tend to miss this aspect during their stay. The main focus of the article is to cover the different types and perspectives of research For simplicity in understanding the research in our institute, we have tried to categorise it into: Industrial application Social impact Exploratory Research Evolution of Idea
Industrial Application The impact of inventions and discoveries like steam engine, electricity, telecom, artificial intelligence and many other applications in industries can be easily seen in history. It was all the marvels created by the researchers and taken out of labs by the entrepreneurs that has shaped our modern world.
Milind Atrey (Department of Mechanical Engineering) Prof Atrey has worked in the industry for ten years and his motivation is to strengthen the technologies that can be taken out of the labs to be applied in their respective domains. “The research world needs to invest more and more towards the products that can be taken out of laboratories and applied in the industry or sold into the market. A major portion of research work in our institute is oriented towards published works in renowned journals that has its own importance to carry forward the work
done by previous researchers but what’s more important is to give them a chance to deliver their productivity. Even government nowadays are collaborating with industries to promote such research. They are more willing to fund those projects that are partially funded by industries because when they invest into something, they visualize a return on investment. A major aspect of achieving these goals it to create an environment of collaboration among institutions and also among industries with institutions so that knowledge as well facilities can be shared to achieve research targets.”
My Research Work - Cryogenics “My research work is in a very niche area called cryogenics. I’m currently working on refrigerating a truck through which we are aiming to solve transportation losses of vegetables and other perishables. It is an Indo-UK project where we want to develop a technology in which liquid nitrogen can be used to achieve minus 60 to 70 °C of cooling. Currently, the cooling demand is achieved by a diesel engine which creates pollution. We are trying to achieve it using environmentally harmless liquid nitrogen which will not only act as a coolant but due to its rapidly expanding nature, it can be also utilised as a compressing agent.”
How can students help? “Several Profs are working on pollution-related problems, industrial waste, health facilities, etc. But the problems demand not only solutions that are innovative but also cost-effective. For example, a simple necessity like, pure water not being available to people is a problem we have faced for a long time in India. We have all kinds of technologies to address this issue but all of them may not be feasible in implementation. Can our technology match the problems faced by society? Such questions can only be answered by an entrepreneur and not just a researcher. We can put these technologies into a website and offer industries to come and analyse its market feasibility. But before this, the students should club together and make a survey of the labs where 70 to 80% of the products are ready. Then we can look for budding entrepreneurs who can take these projects to the market. But of course, only some of them could be taken out as a startup product, so the rest of the technologies could be pitched for the industries to take over. Therefore, I want to develop the startups and more and more industrial collaboration.”
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Social impact Ultimately researchers should be able to solve problems faced by society using technology. Such real life problems involve multiple dimensions and unlike academic problems aren’t of ideal nature. For researchers like Priya Jadhav, the output and impact of their research is not measured by the publications or number of citations in the elite journals, but by the number of people who get benefited by their technological solutions.
Priya Jadhav (Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA)) “Our work is fairly interdisciplinary, it’s not just about technological solutions, but also how these technological solutions interact with society. We see technology as a tool that can be used to transform society and our research involves designing solutions that are useful to the society. Our research is targeted to the needs of society, not the academic community. What’s unique about the kind of research that we are focused on is that our projects are relevant to the bottom 80% of society. One thing we decide before a project starts is who this project is going to help? (ie. stakeholder-oriented decision making). The social, governmental, economic and environmental aspects are taken into consideration before deciding our projects. We also try to make our end-products available to NGOs/Govt civil groups, etc.”
Our Approach Given a problem statement we follow an algorithmic approach and proceed by addressing the following guidelines : Finding the bottlenecks involved Understanding how the problem affects the people Analyzing the relevance of the problem Whether it fits the current scheme? How it affects the ecosystem? What are the current policies of the local body? “We start working by targeting a village and talking to the stakeholders at the ground level -This forms the primary dataset. We then compare it with data from NGOs/Govt on a block/district level which forms the secondary data. We try to generalise our solutions by matching primary and secondary data.”
Projects are on rural energy consumption /electrification. “Agriculture is the main power consuming sector and it has a lot of technical inefficiencies. For example, farmers don’t use capacitors in pumps for maintaining the power factor. This may be due to misconceptions, lack of knowledge and their preconceived notions. There is a resistance towards adopting technology and farmers need to be educated about the benefits of these technologies.”
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Undergraduate students “We don’t have an undergraduate program. But we feel other depts should adopt our approach in some form or other. We have a program called TDSL (Technology Development Supervised Learning) for interested students, a course with some field engagement involved where students will try to identify and solve problems in the rural areas.”
Exploratory Research Do you always have a goal every now and then? Does expectations always turns out exactly the way one thinks. No, Right? Research is sometimes an exploration, like walking down the unknown paths to explore the various possibilities that can turn into something novel. Prof. Abhijit Majumdar is one such explorer who believes that research is a treasure hunt without a roadmap. He doesn’t work for a scientific breakthrough or driven by societal problems but only look for clues left behind by the previous explorers with a faith in his path.
Prof. Abhijit Majumdar (Department of Chemical Engineering) “Research is a quest to find something novel that has never been understood or found. By nature, it’s a lonely and frustrating journey. As I always tell my PhD students, if you didn’t get frustrated in your PhD, then you haven’t worked enough. However, the treasure that you get at the end is priceless. Who once has tasted that nectar, can’t sit idle. Ze will travel from one exploration to the other. Also, scientific research was never done to solve a predefined problem. A scientist does not think about serving humankind beforehand or while doing their work. The applications come later, sometime after centuries. At the initial stages, it’s just a pristine question. I am not saying that orientation towards solutions to specific societal or industrial problems is not important. However, if we look at the history of scientific development, we’ll see that solutions to problems are built on the foundations of scientific knowledge. The goal-driven research such as finding solution of global warming, low cost medical devices, treatment of cancer etc, is not possible until one have a clear fundamental understanding of the problem. Curiosity based research paves the way of that understanding. Some of you ask me how PhD is different from other degrees. I think, till your M. Tech, you are a hunter-gatherer of knowledge. In your PhD, you become a producer. That’s a huge change.”
My Research “My lab is working on understanding the effect of mechanics on cells; stem cells and cancer. Many researchers are working to understand the biochemical nature of the cellular functioning. However, we know very little about the physical and mechanical nature of how biological systems function. In our lab, we are
trying to see the effect of fluid flow, microstructures, and stiffness on cell behaviour. For example, one of the major problems in the stem cell field is the short life span of adult stem cells in the labs. We are trying to see if we can grow the stem cells in the lab for longer duration by culturing them on a soft material. I would like to put humbly here that we are not looking forward to an instantaneous breakthrough but only expecting to have a better understanding of a previously unexplained question. The answer may or may not lead to an application. Time can only give that answer.”
Evolution of Idea Sometimes a research idea originates from a desire to find solutions to the challenges, pains or impediments that life has thrown. In the following extract, Prof. Soumyo Mukherji talks about the sensors and its multitudes of functions and the stories and hardships that led to its making.
Prof. Soumyo Mukherji (Department Of Biosciences and Bioengineering)
you keep your research in the subconscious part of your daily life and suddenly a great idea pops out. The important thing is that in my lab, no student works for me, I work for myself and the students work with me.”
Conclusion “Research is to see what everybody has seen, and to think about what nobody else has thought.” -Albert-Szent-Gyorgyi Research can neither be classified nor quantified; it’s just too broad for that-- This is what we believe should be the main takeaway from the article. One should always see the bigger picture before saying, “I am not meant for research.” The diversified streams and scope of research available in academia not only offers fantastic career opportunities but are also a constant source of inspiration. Be it an unventured path like Prof. Majumdar explains it or innovation for a society like the way Priya Ma’am sees it; research is more than just an h-index or the QS Rank for the people of the institute. It gives them a guideline to choose their work, a goal to reach, a different way to see things and get through the hardships they come across. And they expect the students to create their vision to carry forward their work as well as philosophies that will help them work.
Ideas inspired from real-life problems “My mother had a heart attack. Later, she underwent some tests and the doctor had to send the sample for testing. However, in the meantime he put her on medication immediately. This was a risky move on the part of the doctor since the medicine had a history of side effects. He took the risk even without the test results coming in and that’s why my mother is alive. After this incident, the doctor catches me and says, “You are a biomedical engineer, and an instrumentation engineer, why don’t we have an instrument which I can carry with me and test blood on the spot?” This incident motivated me to work on heart attack related solutions. One of the first things we started working on, was the detection of markers of a heart attack. When someone suffers from chest pain, they take an ECG, but the ECG may not always accurately diagnose a heart attack. Furthermore, blood reports and ECG tests require a couple of hours to be conducted and this time is crucial when it comes to serious cases. Our solution to this problem tests for the level of certain molecules in the blood. During a heart attack, the heart muscles dump certain molecules in the bloodstream. If the levels of these molecules go beyond a threshold, and we can measure them, medications for heart attack can be immediately given which saves crucial time.”
Research to me “No scientist is ever happy with the status quo. They are in constant pursuit to arrive at a theory that can explain the entire thing with more precision. Talking about what research is like, I have a bunch of different things to do but no one is standing behind me and telling me to do this or do that. Here I am my own boss, which adds a number of responsibilities. It is not a 9-5 job, it is a lifestyle, you think, you live, you breathe,
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Back to Being a Professor only
by Abhinav Anand, Athul CD, Lovesh Gupta
This year, Prof. Soumyo Mukherji’s tenure as Dean of Students Affairs ended. So, we decided to have a chat with him and look at his tenure in retrospect, from his perspective. There have been numerous changes in the way our insti looks and the culture within it, with Prof Mukherji at the helm. Tum-tums, Poll reforms, infrastructural developments have been a few burgeoning topics over his tenure. Via this article, we have tried to delve into his mind to find out how he feels as he is no longer serving in the capacity of the Dean SA. We will find the answers in the excerpts of a long and engaging interview, before that we would like to thank our former Dean SA for taking out time and answering all the questions patiently. DoSA, as we called him, an apt acronym of his designation. I suppose he will miss it in the future.
How has hostel infrastructure changed over the years? When I joined the institute in 1997, we had roughly around 3500 students only. Now there are more than 10k. The student intake increased rapidly over the last decade, and we had to adapt to it. Hostel 12-13 came up in 2003 later on followed by 14, 15 and 16, and recently 18. Personally speaking, it made me sad. The long verandas were replaced by rooms on both sides. The interaction among students gradually started to fade as high-rise buildings began to replace the old open structures. Unfortunately, the increase in the number of students necessitates that we construct more high rises. We can’t have the older structures either. It is really in bad shape. The former hostels will be demolished in the future while we have finalized the place for hostel-19 and 20. The demolition has already started with 2 and 3 the last two to be taken down.
What changes have you seen in hostel culture over the years? Now, I observe that the culture is moving more towards what is there in foreign universities. Organised Hostel events are becoming less intense over there. Shift to more institute level events, with hostels selecting people for institute events. Councils are now more empowered to take measures. Things were different during the period when I was a student. I learned a lot from friends through informal chats. Everything, from paper clips to space ships, philosophies of Adam Smith and Karl Marx, Economic theories. 90% of students were involved in some activities. I was social, and so were most of my hostel mates. I knew everyone in my hostel which, back then had 300 students.
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What exactly happened on the tum-tum issue? Tum tums were introduced after motorbikes were taken out of the campus. A Committee was formed to decide the future of Tum Tums. The plan was to outsource and make it private. But it didn’t happen due to some reason. As the years passed, the efficiency decreased, dissent increased, cost of operation increased, which is not a healthy combination. Based on a survey among students 80% were not satisfied with the service. Only hostel 12/13/14 students wanted it. I tried stopping loss-making routes like the ones along the lakeside. Still, we were running 20 lakhs short every year and taking loans to keep it running. Handling the drivers was a big nuisance. Only half of the 30 drivers were hard-working, rest were leech. Drivers were goaded repeatedly, but things did not improve and finally had to pay them off. I had even proposed that they form a cooperative, and any profit they make (while charging the students on a per-ride basis) can be theirs. But they did not agree. Now E-shuttles and Pedl bicycles have been introduced. In their trial mode. They have been kept entirely private, and they are now charged for electricity without parking fee. The outsourced parties have been asked to charge wisely. They can run the business if it is profitable to them, else they can leave.
How would you go about working along with the student councils to make major decisions? Imagining like a student always helped a lot, and every decision was made after a long deliberation with the concerned authorities and bodies. I used to take students into confidence, make them understand, discuss with them, convince them before concluding or finalizing. In case of conflicts, yes, I had to make a call.
What steps you took to help the institute bodies to grow? I did not do much to take these events to such heights which they are at today. The credit goes to the students who run it tirelessly year after year. During my tenure, I have always stood by the side of these Independent student bodies and allowed them to make decisions, not just MI and Techfest but E-Cell and Abhuyaday as well. A few measures which I took sure helped them, appointing two Techfest OCs and moving the concerts from OAT to the football grounds. Initially, it faced defiance from the OCs as well as the gymkhana authorities. MI feared the hefty stage cost that would incur and the sports officers were enraged as they were concerned about the ground getting ruined. Now, we can see how everything turned out. Techfest guys worked on a suggestion which refined one of their events, new anchor in the Robowars competition brought about crowd participation which initially was not there even though it was their flagship event.
What changes have you seen in student career choices over the years? During counselling, people used to ask which institute/ branch had a higher chance of going abroad and settling in the US. Now they ask which one provides the highest package. Living standards in India were much lower than the US back then. More core companies used to come for placements in the past. No company paid much for work in India. Everything was a luxury in India. You needed to wait for two years for an ambassador and six months for a TV. Before 1985, America was like a dreamland. Now India has improved. People going to non-Core chose to get into IITs then they go to IIMs and finally move into banking or consulting. Now it’s straight after graduating from IIT.
What is your outlook on the events that occurred in the recent institute elections? Elections are meant to be on the candidate’s merit, opinion, dedication towards work. We always took steps to counter the negativity in the polls, but problems will always be there. If you see the end of it, students are smart enough to choose for themselves. As for the recent elections, when I declared my decision for MI OCs in the OAT, everyone was silent, no one opposed the choice I made. Students wanted to send MI a message, and they were never against the candidates. I have my full trust in the students of the institute.
A lot of improvement is seen in student mental health in the institute over the years. How did you achieve that? The biggest impact that I hope I brought in my tenure was in terms of student mental health. I wanted to understand the student’s general well being. I came up with the idea of surveys that brought tremendous insights about which students needs help immediately. We have expended the student wellness centre from 2 to 7 members. At Least one of our counselors is always available for students at any time of the day. Awareness among the students has also increased. They are coming for sessions in large numbers. We have been successful in gaining the confidence of the students. Thanks to professor Khakhar and everyone else for the support. I see SWC as one of the most significant achievements of my tenure.
Any message you would like to convey to the students? These are very critical four years of a student’s life. You come as an adolescent, you leave as an adult, adult in many ways. Some students study all the time, do very well in life. That’s fine, but I would say engage yourself in some activity and make yourself a complete person. I am afraid for the students who do nothing, and they shouldn’t give up. As I say every year in freshman orientation, academics will always be your one. Extracurriculars are the zeroes behind that “1” that make you an extraordinary person.
How were you able to effectively manage your time with so much workload? I devoted 8 hours of a day to academics, and in the rest, I performed the job of Dean of Student Affairs. Every day, I came to the office at 9:30, and in the afternoon I spent 2:30 to 4:30 in the DBSE office which gave access to my students for at least 2 to 3 hours a day.
How are you utilising the extra 16 hours now after your tenure ended? I have much more time to think about science, and instead I would say much more stress-free time.
What would you like to say to the next Dean? First of all, I wish well to Kundu sir for his tenure. He has been an excellent friend and a mentor. How many times you see a mentee handing over to a mentor. I was very relieved I was handing over to Professor Kundu.
Thank you note: Once again, we would like to thank Prof. Soumyo Mukherji for providing us with his valuable time for the interviews.
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Vitamin H
by Alok Ranjan, Apurva Desai, Pushkar Lohiya
This article is purely for fun and entertainment purposes only. The light-hearted content does not reflect genuine views of Insight, IIT Bombay but is only meant as a joke. Keep calm for a safe journey ahead The institute, in the last year, has undergone a lot of changes, with Hostel 7 and Hostel 8 getting vacated, and Hostel 4 in the process of being vacated. However, there have been a lot of memories attached to our old hostels, where generations of seniors and juniors have formed bonds of a lifetime and wings have become family. The demolition of these hostels strikes a chord with every one of us. To celebrate everything that these Hostels mean to us, here we have Hostels bragging about their stereotypes in the worst way possible!
Hostel 1: N/A Note: We do not know anything substantial about Hostel 1, except that it has a nice canteen, and a TV room that everyone except H1 residents use.
Hostel 2: We’ve got all the great rooms, a fine AC study room, and you know what guys, we aren’t going anywhere hehehe. Oh, so y’all moving to H18 and we aren’t going anywhere!? So what if we have insects in our food, Ambani’s caterer has brought acche din in the hostel.
Hostel 3: Want to become the next GSAA/GSHA/GSCA/GSSA? Look no further than H3 “poltu” academy. We have a long legacy of producing exceptional candidates with a(n) (un) proven track record. Additional benefits include dissing H4, decent rooms, dissing H4, cursing H4. I kid you not, we have to eat in a government mess. Damn these elections! Yeah, whatever. At least we’re still gonna have a better one than H4 though.
Hostel 4: We don’t need your passive aggressive sympathies. The best hostel culture with machau alumni like Manohar Parrikar, Nitesh Tiwari, Ranjan Raj, uhh..yeah Nitesh Tiwari, Chichore!! Well, we don’t have the best, or even slightly edible food, but there’s infi milk, so there’s that Have any of you non-H4 peeps even seen a hot water shower? Insti ka baap kaun? H4! H4!.... H4! H18…... H18! H18!
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Hostel 5: Neither the best nor the worst. Perfectly balanced as nothing should be. Juice peevanu, foosball ramvaanu, majjani life! Darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis. - Dante Alighieri
Hostel 6: A home pretty damn far away from home! Feels like running a crossy every day coming to lecture hall. Gotta wonder why we aren’t winning the GC. We are the 300 Spartans..oops sorry, Vikings!! Now that we think about it, it’s a blessing in disguise, everyday is leg-day and walking is very benefi...damn that e-shuttle is full again.
Hostel 7: We bear so much resemblance to the Titanic, both in glory and in downfall, from becoming the overall GC winners, to getting completely vacated the year following. (Sigh, don’t cry). Our (In) famous Bahubali wing has reached its conclusion and dear mosquitoes have lost their home but our heart will go on & on.
Hostel 8: This Hostel took James Bond: Skyfall, far too literally. However, as the night has fallen, the highest point in the institute has been left deserted. Never to be touched by human civilization again. But hope still remains. H8’s native fauna has settled in another hostel and like a ‘Phoenix’ (We’ll talk about her later), H18 has risen from the ashes to race its way to the peak.
Hostel 9: Pretty crazy that our canteen was closed due to a fire permit while our mess is full of water. But then again, our hostel is “Pluto” and still, we claim to be a part of Solar (read; IITB) system. So, I guess that’s how we roll. Yaha irony hai har cheez mein. Kuch din to guzariye Venice mein.
Hostel 10:
Hostel 15/16:
Living in the First World comes with its own set of problems. We would walk 500 miles just to get to our room. Living in the concrete jungle makes us feel like having a prison number instead of room number. Wake me up 2 mins before biometric ends
“Enthu Dikhao Junta, Middle Wing mein aa jao” still haunt our hallways. And what is this metal cover on lift buttons? It’s not like we’re going to break them. Damn, we’re so fortunate that IIT Bombay has such great hostels for all 4 years of our stay.
Hostel 11:
Hostel 17:
Known to be the fortress of solitude of the insti but usually, the footpath in front of this Hostel is more crowded than the LCH classrooms. We’re placed at the most optimal location in the campus, but you guys realize our importance just during PAFs.
*Random construction noises and incessant dust*
Hostel 12/13/14:
Hostel 18: We are what your dreams are made of. Being down to earth is all about sleeping on the floor and being one with the water pipes. Just wait and watch us living in fully furnished rooms in 2 weeks EDIT:- 1 month EDIT 2:- Jab bhi aayega, we’ll look down upon you Whoops!! Stuck in the balcony again. Somebody help! Not to talk about turning first world soon.
Conjoined triplets. Look at all these peasants fighting over who’s better. Does taking away a GC trophy really compare with us taking away all the Autos? Unpopular opinion: We’d rather prefer a “Bhoot Bangla” in place of the current Bhookh Bangla! #Amul_or_Nothing
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Chief Editors’ Note Hey! Every year, through our Print Editions, we try to bring to your doorsteps, articles which we feel will have the most significant impact on the reader, focusing majorly on relevant issues. Our hope is that by bringing forward these issues to your doorstep we’ll be able to provide you with articles that matter, while at the same time raising issues of importance in the institute. Via this edition in your hands at the moment, our first Flagship Print Edition, we have tried to some pressing topics whose relevance has been felt numerous times in our dayto-day life on campus. Be it the hygiene standards of our eateries, common concerns with regards to academics that we all face, or the resource wastage issue on campus, we have tried to give justice to these important topics. Even though we try our best to keep an ear to the ground, there are always issues of importance that we might have missed, and that is why we play high importance on the suggestions and feedback that we get from students. If there’s an issue that’s close to your heart, feel free to approach us and together we can work on representing the issue in the best manner possible! Cheers! Saman and Varun
Graphs:
Akshat Lad Pradnesh Patil Devansh Bangad Devansh Garg Hari Krishna Nama Ravi Kumar Soham De Shubham Sharma
Editorial Board:
Abhinav Anand Alok Ranjan Amogh Gawaskar Apurva Desai Atharva Padhye Athul C D Ayan Sharma Cherub Kapoor Lovesh Gupta Mahima Sethi Purushottam Kumar Sahu Pushkar Lohiya Siddharth Mehta Suman Mondal Tanmay Goyal Tushar Kumar Vipul Ramtekkar Yashaswini Chauhan
Design and Layout: Aditya Patil Ameya Nikose Akanksha Sachan Krishna Nair