Basant Panchmi celebrations at Panjab University 

Chandigarh, February 5, 2022: 
Basant Panchmi is celebrated at Girls Hostel No. 6, Mother Teresa Hall, P.U., Chd. today. The warden, Dr. Manisha Sharma, staff and residents of the hostel worshipped Goddess Maa Saraswati on this occasion. The entire atmosphere was filled with positivity. Residents were very excited and enjoyed the celebrations. They wore yellow clothes. Yellow sweetened rice and laddoos were distributed among the residents.
Prof Kashmir Singh, Department of Biotechnology, Panjab University Chandigarh have been sanctioned the project on “To study the crosstalk between long non-coding RNAs and MYB transcription factors for enhancement of drought tolerance in Brassica sp” by SERB, Govt  Of India. The cost of the project is 50 lac and it will be for three years duration. Indian economy heavily depends on agriculture which is immensely affected by various abiotic stress factors. Brassica juncea (Indian mustard) has high socio-economic importance and is used for food, fodder, condiment and oil. Owing to global climatic change, yield of both irrigated and rainfed mustard will be affected in future. Hence, there is a need to study the genes empowering drought tolerance and other abiotic factors in this plant to meet the growing demand for food.
Dr Singh informed that this research could help improve the agricultural profits in the long run. In their previous studies, Dr Singh’s lab have already identified B. juncea lncRNAs that have been annotated to be involved in numerous biological processes in response to drought. Now through the proposed project, they aim to leverage the lncRNA-mediated regulation of gene expression in B. juncea to improve drought tolerance in the plant. This project would widen the horizon of experimental efforts being made by our scientific community at the national and international levels to tackle the problem of crop stress-tolerance.
Dr Singh has more than 16 years of experience of working in the field of plant sciences, he has completed 12 research projects funded by various funding agencies of Govt of India. He has published more than 100 research papers in international journals. He is recipient of international fellowships and worked in different countries such as Poland, USA and Canada. He has produced more than 20Ph.D students till now and 7 are working in his lab.

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Florence nightingale, Girls Hostel No. 8, Under the aegis of DSW office and able guidance and motivation of Dean student Welfare Prof Jagtar Singh and Meena Sharma celebrated Basant Panchmi with the residents and staff of the hostel. Simran Kaur, Warden of the hostel shared her views with the residents. Gaurav Gaur, Chairperson, Centre for Social Work also graced the occasion and prayered that Maa Saraswati would help us all in gaining the ultimate knowledge. The residents lighted the Lamp and done prayer for the enlightenment.

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The Department of Music, Panjab University, Chandigarh organized Saraswati Pooja on the occasion of Bansant Panchmi on February 05, 2022. On this occasion Professor Neelam Paul, Chairperson of the department said that Basant Panchami is a festival that is celebrated to worship goddess Saraswati. Professor S.K. Tomar, Dean of University Instruction graced the occasion and performed pooja of Goddess Saraswati by lightening diyas. He said that the festival marks the beginning of the spring season. He emphasized that Goddess Saraswati, the symbol of knowledge encourages all of us to live a life full of knowledge and positivity. Dr. Prabhakar Kashyap also performed on this auspicious occasion. Students of the Department of the Music performed Saraswati Vandana and enjoyed the event with full enthusiasm. Professor Neelam Paul concluded the event with thanks note and congratulated to all for being a part of the event.
 
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Students, staff and warden celebrated Basant Panchami with worshiping of goddess Saraswati and an interactive session in the sun, informed Dr. Smita Sharma, Warden, Girls Hostel No. 1, Panjab University, Chandigarh