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Students of Cotton College stage a streetplay in Guwahati on Wednesday to create awareness on witchhunting. Picture by Eastern Projections

Future leaders of N-E
Students of the first batch of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Northeast campus, received their diplomas in the presence of the secretary of the North Eastern Council, U.K. Sangma, on December 15 on the institute’s premises.

Altogether 27 youths from all over the region were awarded diplomas in community organisation and development practice.
These students were nominated by various government bodies like the Bodoland Territorial Council, NGOs and eminent individuals of the region. These youngsters will now go back to their own areas and contribute significantly to the development of the region.
Apart from rigorous academic inputs, which are characteristics of a TISS programme, the students have been exposed to a plethora of issues and practice skills not related to the region but also outside the Northeast.
“Though I have been engaged in social issues for the past two years, I have greatly benefited from this programme. I am now able to see through and connect the local problems to the regional, national and international happenings,” said Habahun Shisha Niller, a candidate from Bethany Society, Meghalaya.
The Assam government has allocated land to the institute for it initial post-graduate academic programmes in social work, rural development management, health systems studies, human development and other certificate and diploma programmes.

The first batch of students of TISS, Northeast campus

The fully automated EXIM Bank Knowledge Centre at Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management Shillong was formally brought into operation on December 10, therein beginning a new journey in the field of technology with the implementation of the integrated library management system.
The integrated library system is not only a standards-based, fully integrated, flexible and open, but more. It has advanced features such as functional requirements for bibliographic records, update notifications through selective dissemination of information, user reviews and ratings.
The system completely fulfils requirements of the EXIM Bank Knowledge Centre. Because of its flexibility, it allows creation of customer profiles for the library and staff user and controls access to more than 600 functions throughout the system. It is engineered for the robustness and ease of use that library patrons and staff demand. In a nutshell, it allows setting of the rules and parameters that work best for the library.
CHIT CHAT
A popular talk on Primatology in the Northeast was held recently on the Digboi forest inspection bungalow premises. It was organised by the department of zoology, Digboi College, for the students of zoology of Digboi College and Margherita College.
Narayan Sarma, a doctoral research scholar of National Institute of Science Academy, Bangalore, delivered a lecture on the primates of India with special reference to the Northeast and Assam.
Another resource person, Sumitra Sankaran of Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, gave a lecture on the Western Hoolock Gibbon’s distribution and their biology. An interactive session with the resources persons was also carried among the participants chaired by the head of the department of zoology, Digboi College, Anu Borgohain. She also highlighted ongoing various courses in wildlife at the masters degree level in India, where a science graduate can begin his/her career in wildlife field. Later, Narayan Sarma gave a live demonstration on how to record latitude and longitude, way points, track records with the help of GPS to the forest officials of Digboi forest division.