36th Annual Report (2023-24)

109 i n f o rma t i o n a n d c ommu n i c a t i o n technology; Nilika Mehrotra, JNU, New Delhi and Deepa Chari, HBCSE, TIFR Mumbai, on student diversity and inclusive education; Farhat Naz, IIT Jodhpur and Sourav Pal, Ashoka University, Sonepat, on research and development; and N V Varghese, NIEPA, New Delhi and MekinMaheshwari, Founder, UdhyamLearning Foundation, Bengaluru, on skill development. National Education Policy (NEP) Orientation and Sensitization Programme: 2024 March The third NEP Orientation and Sensitization Programme of the year was held from 14th to 29th March 2024. The resource persons for this programme were Hiten Choudhury, Cotton University and Prakash Arumugasamy, IUCAA, on information and communication technology; Sushruti Santhanam, Musician and Music Historian, and Vijay Singh, CEBS, Mumbai, on Indian knowledge systems; Ayush Gupta, HBCSE, TIFR Mumbai, on student diversity and inclusive education; Dhruba J Saikia, IUCAA and K J George, IIT Jodhpur, on higher e d u c a t i o n a n d s o c i e t y ; S o m a k Raychaudhury, Ashoka University, Sonepat and Padma Sarangapani, TISS, Mumbai, on holistic and multi-disciplinary education; Maithreyi Ravikumar, Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, Bengaluru and C M Malish, IIT Bombay, on skill development; Javed Iqbal, former Director, Dr Reddy's Institute of Life Sciences, Hyderabad and Vijay Singh, C EBS , Mumb a i o n r e s e a r c h a n d development; Ved Prakash, former C h a i r p e r s o n , U n i v e r s i t y G r a n t s Commission, and Furqan Qamar, former Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities, on academic leadership, governance andmanagement. A screen shot showing a section of the participants of the NEP Orientation and Sensitization programme held in 2024 March. Professor Ved Prakash, former Chairperson of the University Grants Commission delivering a lecture on Academic Leadership, Governance and Management as part of the MMTTC, ACE, IUCAA programme on the National Education Policy Orientation and Sensitization on 20th March 2024 Astronomy, Science and Society: 2023 September at MSFDA, Pune A workshop on the theme of Astronomy, Science and Society, was organized from 6th to 8th September by the Maharashtra State Faculty Development Academy (MSFDA) and the Astronomy Centre for Educators of IUCAA, at MSFDA, Pune. The objectives of these workshops which are often held in smaller towns of Maharashtra are to bring the excitement of astronomy and science to faculty members across disciplines and also discuss broader issues related to science and society such as inclusiveness and non-discrimination. During this workshop Pramod Kale (ISRO and Savitribai Phule Pune University) traced the history of India's space programme and discussed the recent Chandrayaan Mission, A group photograph of the participants of the workshop Astronomy, Science and Society at MSFDA, Pune