Bump nokogiri from 1.13.10 to 1.14.3

Bumps [nokogiri](https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri) from 1.13.10 to 1.14.3.
- [Release notes](https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri/releases)
- [Changelog](https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md)
- [Commits](https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri/compare/v1.13.10...v1.14.3)

---
updated-dependencies:
- dependency-name: nokogiri
  dependency-type: indirect
...

Signed-off-by: dependabot[bot] <support@github.com>

Gemfile.lock

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 GEM
   remote: http://rubygems.org/
   specs:
-    activesupport (6.0.6.1)
+    activesupport (6.0.6)
       concurrent-ruby (~> 1.0, >= 1.0.2)
       i18n (>= 0.7, < 2)
       minitest (~> 5.1)
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ GEM
     colorator (1.1.0)
     commonmarker (0.17.13)
       ruby-enum (~> 0.5)
-    concurrent-ruby (1.2.0)
+    concurrent-ruby (1.1.6)
     dnsruby (1.61.3)
       addressable (~> 2.5)
     em-websocket (0.5.1)
@@ -201,14 +201,14 @@ GEM
       rb-fsevent (~> 0.10, >= 0.10.3)
       rb-inotify (~> 0.9, >= 0.9.10)
     mercenary (0.3.6)
-    mini_portile2 (2.8.0)
+    mini_portile2 (2.8.1)
     minima (2.5.1)
       jekyll (>= 3.5, < 5.0)
       jekyll-feed (~> 0.9)
       jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.1)
-    minitest (5.17.0)
+    minitest (5.16.3)
     multipart-post (2.1.1)
-    nokogiri (1.13.10)
+    nokogiri (1.14.3)
       mini_portile2 (~> 2.8.0)
       racc (~> 1.4)
     octokit (4.18.0)
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ GEM
     pathutil (0.16.2)
       forwardable-extended (~> 2.6)
     public_suffix (3.1.1)
-    racc (1.6.1)
+    racc (1.6.2)
     rb-fsevent (0.10.4)
     rb-inotify (0.10.1)
       ffi (~> 1.0)
@@ -240,7 +240,7 @@ GEM
     thread_safe (0.3.6)
     typhoeus (1.4.0)
       ethon (>= 0.9.0)
-    tzinfo (1.2.11)
+    tzinfo (1.2.7)
       thread_safe (~> 0.1)
     unicode-display_width (1.7.0)
     zeitwerk (2.6.6)

_posts/2023-02-19-hult-prize.md

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Hult Prize"
+category: coverstory
+tags: [wona, column]
+image: hult-prize/cover.jpg
+excerpt: "The Hult Prize competition not only provides a platform for entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas, but it also provides a valuable opportunity for networking and learning."
+---
+
+The 11th of February 2022 was a landmark day for entrepreneurs and start-up enthusiasts of IIT Roorkee alike, as the much-anticipated Hult Prize competition started its first round of elimination. The competition, which has been held annually for the past few years, is a platform for entrepreneurs to showcase their innovative ideas and gain exposure to potential investors and industry leaders. The topic of this year was “Redesigning fashion to be sustainable”.
+
+The Hult Prize competition not only provides a platform for entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas, but it also provides a valuable opportunity for networking and learning. The competition provides a valuable opportunity for entrepreneurs to connect with like-minded individuals, learn from experienced entrepreneurs, and gain exposure to potential investors and supporters.
+
+The competition was fierce, with each team given just twelve minutes to pitch their idea and convince the panel of judges why their start-up was worth investing in.
+
+The judges, made up of the members of the Hult Prize organising committee, were impressed by the high quality of the presented ideas. The first round went on for more than five hours. After each of the teams pitched their idea, the judges shared their thorough feedback on how to improve their ideas or pitches.
+
+![pic](/images/posts/hult-prize/1.jpg){: style="width:100%;height:auto;"}
+
+Only four teams from the participants’ pool, namely Blahsters, Baazigars, Ever-Grin, and Hulters, have moved forward to the next and final round of the competition, which will be held on 19th February. 
+
+The judges for the final round are experts and veterans in the fashion industry. Firstly, we have Miss Ayushi Kumar, an alumnus of NIFT and IIM Bangalore who currently serves as the Director at Ednam Solutions Private Limited. The second judge is Mr Krishna Sumanth Alwala, an alumnus of IIT Madras and the co-founder and CEO of TRI3D. The third and final judge for the finals is the very renowned Mr P. R. Rathod, who boasts over 35 years of experience in the fashion and apparel domains and is well known for his mentorship of the next generation of fashion enthusiasts.
+
+This competition's winner will represent IIT Roorkee at the Regional final (Central & South Asia region). So, please stay tuned to find out which team bags the honour and takes a leap in their entrepreneurial journey.
+

_posts/2023-02-20-director-open-house.md

@@ -0,0 +1,178 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Director Open House"
+category: coverstory
+tags: [wona, column]
+image: director-open-house/cover.jpg
+excerpt: "WO! had the opportunity to interview the newly elected Director, Professor K. K. Pant on 8th February 2023."
+---
+
+<iframe width="720" height="415" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pIwBGvl5WeY"> </iframe><br /><br />
+
+WO! had the opportunity to interview the newly appointed Director, Professor K K Pant on 8th February 2023. You can watch the full recording using the embed above. The interview in the text form is available below.
+
+Disclaimer: Since a lot of the audience questions were not directly spoken into the microphone, they are inaudible in the video. However, you can find them in the transcript.
+
+**<span style="text-decoration:underline;">WO!</span> How has your experience been in IIT Roorkee till now and what was the one major difference you found between IIT- Roorkee and IIT Delhi?**
+
+<span style="text-decoration:underline;">Director</span>: Indeed, it has been a pleasure for me. After 23 years of service at IITD and working in different capacities with many Ph.D. students, in October, I had the pleasure of joining IIT-Roorkee.
+
+I knew the flora and fauna of IITR. The climate (in Delhi) has always been a challenge. There were issues like fog and stubble burning during the month of Oct-Dec. Roorkee weather is indeed a pleasure, so I liked that weather. Also, the environment and infrastructure here are something I wanted. When I came here, there were many things, 175 years of the Institute, lots of seminars, and conferences. I participated in almost all the conferences as a guest. It was an excellent experience for me because, for the past 23 years, I was restricted to the chemical engineering domain, and now I can check off all the 23 departments, schools, and the centers of excellence. I had to read about all the departments, areas of expertise, etc., for the inaugural ceremony. Thus, I got to know about them briefly. A lot of new things happened around that time. It was an excellent experience for me. We won the General Championship at the Sports meet, which was a first for the Institute. Also, we won the CII award for Research for the third consecutive time. It is a new experience for me as an administrator, and I am thankful for the support from all the faculty members, staff, and students. 
+
+In comparing IITD and IITR, I believe all IITs are equally good. All the branches of science/engineering are sound. Whatever engineering department you are pursuing, in the end, it is for societal importance. When you can transfer your knowledge to society, it will automatically convert into a business or a source of income generation. Among the top 7 IITs, IITD is either 2nd or 3rd in rankings compared to us being 6th. This is one difference I'd like to bridge. 
+
+Secondly, before joining here, I had studied the SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) analysis, which is critical to understand before starting any business or startup for the feasibility analysis. I did this analysis for all the IITs in the prospectus. In the study, I observed that IITR has all the facilities and high-quality faculty standards available at all the 5-6 IITs. Still, we are lacking somewhere because there is a difference if you look at the QS rankings and NIRF rankings. If you look at the past ten years’ data, IITR has continuously been in the range of 360-400. If you compare this with the top 4-5 IITs and IISc, they are between 150-200. This means that we must reach that level. So, in 2047 when India will be celebrating 100 years of Independence and IITR will be celebrating 200 years of foundation, our world rankings should be under 100, and this is my ultimate target.
+
+**<span style="text-decoration:underline;">WO!</span>**: **You talked about business and how research should be oriented around business. So, the top 5 IITs have a rich startup culture as of now and IITR in recent years has tried to build one of its own. How do you envision this journey and what are your short-term goals so that we can achieve this?**
+
+Director: We had a brainstorming session when we talked about India 2047 or IITR 2047, around the time of 175 years celebration. I would like to have another brainstorming session in terms of the long-term/short-term vision of IITR. In the short-term goals, we are working on diversity and inclusion. We want to see women's participation and participation from all parts of society in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Also, we would like to implement the NEP (New Education Policy) 2020, which is a need of the hour. After a brainstorming session, this was sent to the Senate. Soon you would see a much more vibrant curriculum. We will come out of the box of just bookish knowledge, which will include more practical knowledge, where the focus will be on applying the knowledge you learn in class. We will also focus on the students' entrepreneurship skills and how they can provide jobs for many. Long-term goals include bringing the institute under the top 100. For this, we would have to do a lot of work. In the coming 25 years, I'd like to see at least ten unicorns from IITR. We already have 140 ongoing startups, and I would like to see how these startups could be converted into businesses. To conclude, the implementation of NEP is the immediate goal, and then how the students can be motivated by using the NEP policy and look at their own startup activities. We have the Tinkering Lab whom we are asking for 1000 ideas each year, out of which we will shortlist the selected ideas which can be taken forward with financial support from the SRIC office. We could shortlist 50 at first and then come down to 10 finally. Through this process, we will have a good startup culture at IITR.
+
+**<span style="text-decoration:underline;">WO!</span>** **You mentioned about ten unicorns from our institute. To implement this idea, is it essential to give a specific benefit to students doing entrepreneurship, i.e., in terms of credits, some advantage in their grading?**
+
+<span style="text-decoration:underline;">Director</span>: Not just certain benefits, these students should receive a lot of benefits. The NEP has multiple entries and exit policies through which a student can do entrepreneurship in a semester and after a certain period (6 months-1 year) return to complete that semester. We want to see our students flourish, develop entrepreneurship skills, and set up industries. This process will take time, for sure. You are never restricted to just your branch of engineering. What you learn here is just for mind development. Through that, you can go into any branch of science or business.
+
+**<span style="text-decoration:underline;">WO!</span> A lot of students have raised concerns about the need for more transparency and the absence of clear communication between the students and the administration. What are your thoughts on this?**
+
+<span style="text-decoration:underline;">Director</span>: I did not observe any lack of transparency as such. The academic curriculum is made after we take feedback from the students. For example, when we had prepared the curriculum of IITD, we did a thorough study. The Dean of Academic Affairs told me that a similar study was done here to design the curriculum. A common query among the students was that they were heavily loaded. As a result, we reduced the total credits from 200 to the range of 150-160. Some students said that they didn’t want to read about chemical engineering. We allow them to get into the CSE branch, provided they must work hard, and their CGPA should be at a certain level. Also, from 3rd year onwards, they can take minor courses in the CSE department like AI, ML, Data Science, Deep Learning, etc. You can also take management courses. We are looking forward to improving some of the course structures. Now you can take minor courses with 15-20 credits out of 150. So, you will have to study just 55% of your core branch. Businesses nowadays require an interdisciplinary approach, and thus you need to learn how to do business which will require everything in terms of science and engineering. I think there is transparency throughout any academic system. Some students might feel that they have got a poor grade, but the professors do all the grading according to a set of predefined rules. There are student representatives in the Senate, so the students’ voices can be heard. To my knowledge, there is full transparency in our institute. If this is not the case, do let me know.
+
+_Dean(Student’s Welfare): We have complete transparency in the system and believe in transparency throughout. We do not know of any lack of transparency. As a student, if you think that this problem persists and there is room for improvement, we are ready to hear any suggestions. But we still believe that we have full transparency._
+
+Director: Prof. Barua, do you think that we have this problem in hostel affairs?
+
+_Dean (Student’s Welfare): No. We have hostel committees for all hostels, which consist of student representatives. In all committees of the institute, we have student representatives. You will not find any committee without student representation._
+
+Audience: Earlier, we had NPTEL courses for OEC’s which were removed recently. As you said that you take opinions from the students, none of the student representatives to the Senate agreed. What are your thoughts on this?
+
+Director: Do you think that an IIT student should take the NPTEL course unless the course is essential?
+
+Audience:(Inaudible)
+
+Director: In that case, your department must agree to it, and then you can take the course.
+
+Audience: But that makes the process cumbersome for the students.
+
+Director: I have never allowed my Ph.D. students to take these NPTEL courses. These NPTEL courses were made for the private/state engineering colleges that needed more competent faculty. At all IITs, we believe that we have sufficient high-quality faculties who can teach that subject. We allow students to take a course only if it is the case that the course is particular and the institute is not running that course. Otherwise, it is a mockery of the system. You are IITians, and thus you should have that kind of confidence. If you take a more relaxed course which improves your grade, chances are that you will regret this decision in the future.
+
+Audience: It is not always about a relaxed course. In NPTEL, we have a lot of variety of courses available to choose from.
+
+Director: If you want to take the course, we have given you an option.
+
+_Dean(Academic Affairs): What this student is saying needs to be corrected, according to the data. The number of students taking NPTEL courses in a semester ranges from 200-750. Many courses these students opt for are available in our institute’s various departments. For example, Programming in C++._
+
+Director: I will allow you to take these courses from Stanford, Purdue, MIT, or other IITs. If you think that the course is essential, I will allow it.
+
+_Dean(Academic Affairs): For many medical cases, I have allowed these students to take NPTEL courses. This number has again come down to less than 50._
+
+Director: Why would you want to learn C++ and Python through NPTEL if we already have experts at our institute? This is why many companies have a terrible image of IITR students compared to other IITs. We allow students to audit as many courses as they want.
+
+Audience: But for taking any minor courses, we have to have a certain CGPA, and thus only a few students can take these courses.
+
+Director: So, basically you want to take those NPTEL courses to improve your grade. Indeed, by discussing this with the Dean, we can decrease the CGPA criteria if that is the issue. We will allow you to take a specific course only if that college has a better ranking than IITR. We will also make this process easier by conducting the process by mail.
+
+_Dean(Academic Affairs): For some courses in some departments, there is a heavy rush in the students. As the department fixes the number of seats, we must choose from the applied candidates. Thus, keeping the CGPA criteria is required._
+
+Director: We can conduct multiple course cycles if there are many candidates. I am looking forward to increasing the number of faculty members. I am hoping that soon these problems will be resolved.
+
+Audience: The discussion started on the topic of transparency. So, all of the student representatives of the Senate disagreed to this. Why was this still implemented?
+
+Dean(Academic Affairs): This was mentioned in the Senate. I agree that this was not a specific agenda item in the Senate, but it was discussed.
+
+Audience: You just mentioned that this was not a specific agenda.
+
+_Dean(Academic Affairs): Yes. But this was discussed in the Senate, and the student representatives also agreed that this was mentioned in the Senate._
+
+Director: Be relieved, as this is not a hard and fast rule. If you want to take a course and the DAPC agrees to it, you are allowed to take it. You are not forbidden to do this. But I would prefer that you do a course at our institute itself. You can also suggest the specific courses to be included in the curriculum. We will also increase the number of seats for minor students. In the new curriculum, you will have the option to do courses from other IITs.
+
+WO!: IIT Roorkee currently lacks infrastructure in terms of basic student’s needs. Many groups share rooms in SAC and some of them don’t even have a room. Also there is a lack of co-working spaces for students who are not involved in any of these groups. Library closes at 12:00 am,except for the exam days. So what is being done or what could be done to improve the current situation?
+
+Director: I feel SAC and MAC are sufficient, because I visited SAC and ground floor was empty. Individual rooms become difficult. One of the options is the top floor of Ganga Bhawan and also we are looking for other space options. Slotting can be done, time slots can be made. Also since students are so studious, we will relook into the timings of the library.
+
+_Dean(Student’s Welfare): This is good if there is shortage of space. Everyone is coming up with new groups, so everybody cannot be given a separate room. We are trying to get large space above Ganga bhawan_
+
+_Dean(Academic Affairs): We made LHC-rooms open for 24 hours during the exam time, on request of students._
+
+WO!: For the people who are not in campus groups and have to work on a project cannot find a place, because in the library there is supposed to be silence. SAC, MAC are open spaces but there is no space to sit and work.
+
+Director: I think we can make Ganga Bhawan and other places available.
+
+_Dean(Student’s Welfare): We also plan to provide space given to Cogni and Thomso because these groups operate only for 6 months. So for the next 6 months, we will provide these rooms as co-working places for students._
+
+Director: Give us some time, we will find suitable space using space audit.
+
+WO!: Moving to the next question, post Covid, many of the cultural activities saw a setback. The Electoral procedure has been disrupted along with the elections of DAPC’s. Last year, the Convocation was not held. So what steps would you take to ensure that we go to the same position where we were before covid.
+
+Director: Yes, this is right. Covid has impacted various activities of all academic institutes. We should be ready for these types of man-made or natural calamity. They also taught us methods of online teaching and NPTEL. Having said that, I understand Convocation is still not done. We are communicating with different ministries to get the date but we still haven’t been given a gate. We are still hoping that our honorable Prime Minister will grace the event. But if he doesn’t come, we are looking for alternatives also. Probably in March , we will conduct Convocation.
+
+As for the DAPC election, I consulted Prof. Barua and he is coordinating that activity. Soon you will have DAPC. As for other activities, this year JEE will be conducted on time, probably in the first week of June and next year, first sem students will be on time so probably from the next sem, we hope that all our activities will be on track.
+
+WO!: Sir, you mentioned how important placement and internship are,for students as well as the institute. Sometimes, the intern season and placement season is a very exhausting period for students because they have to give tests and interviews and side by side they have to manage classes, assignments and quizzes. The academic schedule is not aligned to prevent this from happening. Do you think something could be done to reduce the mental burden on students?
+
+Director: I was looking at the academic calendar and discussing it with the Dean of Academics. By 30<sup>th</sup> November, all academic activities are completed and interviews generally start from 1<sup>st</sup> December. Our academic calendar and curriculum should be well placed. Classes should be as per schedule, from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm and there should not be lag. If there has to be a rescheduling of class, it should be done on Saturday or before 30<sup>th</sup> November. This is same in all IIT’S and I don’t think there is any mismatch.
+
+WO!: Sir, What about the intern season specifically?
+
+Director: Yes, the intern for 3<sup>rd</sup> year students . They go for internships in May when the semester closes. They plan accordingly, but If there is a special case, do let me know.
+
+_Dean(Academic Affairs): Academic calendar is perfect. Before 30th November, all activities of the autumn semester get completed. And same for spring semester. All activities will close before 13<sup>th</sup> May, so students will get 15 days before joining for intern._
+
+Director: If you disturb this schedule, companies will go e lsewhere and we will miss the buse should follow the common schedule.
+
+WO!: The tests for internship happen in September of the previous semester. So our main concern was there.
+
+Dean(Academic Affairs): Our academic calendar cannot align with specific companies but it follows the path aligning with the schedule of most companies.
+
+Director: We will look into it, if there is any problem.
+
+WO!- Moving to our last question, What are your opinions on the 75% compulsory attendance rule? A lot of students are concerned regarding that.
+
+Director:- I am saying, not 75% but 100% attendance should be there. 42 lectures for (3, 0 ,0) course, 56 lectures for (3,1,0) course. This should be followed by every faculty member and in a similar way, there should be 100% attendance. If there is any medical issue or personal problem, we always address it. Classes are an opportunity to interact. Interaction between students and professors is very important. I personally feel, if students are not coming to the class, then either the fault is with faculty. We will try to improve in that case or there is a lack of interest in students. In case attendance is falling short to 70% attendance, send the students to wellness centre. Our outreach should be very important with positivity. It is my suggestion for you to remain disciplined and attend classes. The MNC’s’ expect an 8:00am-8:00pm job. So this is training you.
+
+WO!: Sir what about the students who want to pursue something different from the course that they are pursuing? Classes take up a major part of their day. Do you think some more grace could be given to the ones opting for different fields of study than their own.
+
+Director: Co-curricular activities are very important. Personality development is very important. World is growing at an exponential rate, so we also need to grow at that pace and become multi-dimensional. For this you have to make your schedule for academic, extra-curricular and co-curricular. Then only you can compete with the world outside. There are 5 courses and a lab, so you do get time.
+
+WO!: After 6-8 hours of classes, they can give a maximum of 6-8 hours for their field of interest. So classes are stopping them from pursuing their field of interest, with the attendance rule being so stringent.
+
+Director: You are young people, must work from 8:00am-12:00am. After working for these many hours there is no scope that you don’t have time left. You just need to optimize.
+
+Audience: Sir everyone has a different style of teaching. So there is a chance that I might not resonate well with the teacher in class ,but with a YouTube video or NPTEL. So don’t you think attendance is taking away my liberty to study from someone I can resonate better with?
+
+Director: In such cases, I would say that you attend both. There might be many things that haven’t been taught in video. Your learning will then be much better. You can discuss this with the professor too. Teachers also learn while teaching.
+
+Audience: What about the students who are interested in entrepreneurship? You stated that we are aiming for 10 unicorns in the coming decades. What are the steps we are going to take in this regard?
+
+Director: Unicorn will take time. I want that IIT-R alumni should be capable enough to donate the amount the institute needs. That’s why we started with start-up activities. Presently there are 2 unicorns from IIT-R. IIT-D has 20 unicorns. So, I would like to see something similar from here. Our vision and mindset are important.
+
+Audience: Sir I don’t understand why the 75% attendance rule is given so much importance. I run my own business and I would rather spend my time designing rather than attending lectures which are not coherent with my goals. I would not gain anything out of attending lectures I didn’t even opt for myself. I didn’t choose my branch, my JEE rank did. But I do get to choose my passion and goals. The attendance rule is a hindrance to that.
+
+Director: Since you are registered in IIT Roorkee as a student, you are registered in a particular department, so your responsibility first is to fulfill your responsibilities for the department and then if you find time then you can do the rest of the work on weekends. If your business is a good one then you can hire a person who can do rest of the jobs for you.After classes in the evening, you are free to do whatever but the classes are very important hence this 75% rule is necessary. This is our responsibility to make you functional, attend classes and get the degree.For getting a degree, attending the classes, passing your course and maintaining a good CGPA is also important.
+
+Audience: Sir it may be possible that the professor or TA is great at their field but I may face problems in understanding their lectures. So I rather use other resources available online. If the end goal is to get good grades and understand concepts then why waste my time attending lectures?
+
+Director: Everytime the philosophy says that , even Bill Gates became a billionaire but since you appeared in JEE,came to IITR ,you should be following rules and regulations.Rules are everywhere. Even if you do a business ,you have to follow the government’s laws.You have to pay taxes, get market permissions, not disturb the ecology etc. You cannot say that I will be independent, you have the responsibility of the society.Similarly, I have the responsibility for IITR and all faculty members have a responsibility to maintain the campus bright. As a student, you are registered in some courses, you have your department's aim and we have expectations from you. You just have to manage the 75% attendance and rest all is in your hands. My suggestion would be, get the degree first and then expand your business. I am sure if you have an engineering degree, it would be much better. Your degree has no barrier though, a biosciences degree may get you much more than a computer science degree.You could have done a business after getting a degree from a local college also but IIT has certain norms which ought to be followed. That is why it’s a brand.
+
+Audience: Sir we see that certain departments provide higher grades to the students and some provide lower. So when it comes to 3rd year where we have our intern season, many departments have a disadvantage because of low CG. I think there should be a regularized and normalized way of marking. Most Professors are reluctant to change/improve grades and then go about boasting about their alma mater. They ask us to take permission from directors or deans which is a tedious job. 
+
+Director: I don’t think this is because the grading is relative to the class, placement companies do consider that (branch-wise). But yes, I do understand your point. Some MNCs do not see branches but CGPA for the cutoff list but I have already sensitized to the dean academic that the grading should have a certain pattern and criteria. But you know it’s a relative grading that 50% class should be put above average but that can be changed to even 60 or 70 because at times many students can be exceptionally good. This happens on the discretion of the faculty and that’s why moderation is important.We should also train the young faculty members regarding this. Academic curriculum meeting took place and a lot of suggestions came, we are incorporating those.
+
+Audience: There are many of our profs who don’t give above 8, like in a branch of 170, only a handful get 9 or 10
+
+Director: We will have a meeting with all the faculty and sensitize them. This is really important considering MNCs consider above 8 grades across all IITs. We have to make our grades better but not diluted, reasonably good. 
+
+Audience: Sir we have a committee on campus which caters to the fauna called the CCF. They work for the welfare of the campus animals and yet receive minimal to no funding. They mostly rely on public funds. Do you think they should be given funding from the administration?
+
+Director: I think we need to develop in terms of our flora and fauna. So far we do not have any strategy made for this but hopefully in future we do.I also think that the street dogs should be kept controlled and hence too many feeding points are not good. There have been cases of dog menace in the picture and we have to avoid them. But apart from this, we can do many things. We have enough funds, we just need to redistribute them. Funding is not the issue, implementation is.
+
+Audience: Sir, in the past few weeks, the mess food quality has gone down. We even found brick pieces and other stuff in our food. As students, we expect basic good quality food. Please do something to maintain this.I am talking about the Ravindra mess.
+
+_Dean(Student’s Welfare): Yes, we heard about that incident and don’t worry, it has been taken care of. The mess contractor has been fined already.Our messes have good quality and even tasty food. For instance, students moved to Himalaya bhawan are requesting the same food taste as their old bhawan. We take action against anything that happens wrong. There is a mess council consisting of students which ensures this._
+
+Director: Let us check the complaints. Did you convey this to the bhawan warden too?
+
+Audience: Yes sir, we regularly report our complaints to the bhawan council and wardens but little has been done to improve the scenario.
+
+Director: The quality is very important, we will work on that.
+
+Audience: Sir, since we were talking about your vision for IIT Roorkee, you focused a lot on STEM but I feel that the social sciences are an integral part of this university too. How do you think we should expand in this area too?
+
+Director: Yes, I already mentioned STEM so I am not focusing only on engineering. STEM is multi diverse. Any branch of engineering does not work independently and it needs humanities and social sciences too to function. Ethics are very important in research. Many BTP papers are lacking in this field. Linguistic skills are equally important. Management and economics are integral parts of engineering. Business tactics are very important. Other branches of engineering have to join hands with the Humanities and Social Sciences department and even the management department . We are not getting any funds from outside agencies and we have to make our projects complete by doing economic analysis. I would even like to see a school for public policy because it is another integral part of science these days. We are working on recruitment of more faculty for this department.

_posts/2023-02-22-branch-change.md

@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Branch Change - Clearing the Mist"
+image: "branch-change/cover.jpg"
+tags: [wona, column]
+category: bigstory
+excerpt: ""
+
+---
+
+The IITs are considered to be the most coveted institutions for undergraduate studies across the country. The fact that only around 1% of the candidates appearing in the entrance exam manage to secure a seat in these institutions is a testament to the quality of students that manage to get through.
+
+But added to this is the disadvantage that your fate is left in the hands of that little amount of magic that you produce during the 6 hrs of one of the most difficult and strenuous examinations across the globe. The incredible load of expectations of all those who surround the examinee sometimes leads to blunders that can cost the candidate his/her dreams. However, the system itself provides the candidates with another chance to deem themselves worthy of their dreams, with the opportunity to change their branch in their freshman year.
+
+In the oldest technical institute of the country, this opportunity presents itself at the end of the first semester. The best part about it? The students compete as equals with nothing but merit separating them from their dreams—that, and of course, their JEE rank that comes back to haunt some of the candidates. Most of the freshmen find themselves struggling to strike that sweet spot of balance between exploring the plethora of opportunities that the campus has to offer and studying “hard enough” in order to have a better shot at changing the cards they were dealt with.
+
+This article aims to dispel some of the myths that seem to surround the idea of changing your branch, make past year statistics easily accessible, and hopefully provide perspective with regards to the ideology behind the process.
+
+## Rules and Regulations
+So far no changes to the policy have been announced. This article will be updated if and when that happens.
+
+Key Takeaways from the present policy:
+
+1. The additional 10% seats “added” at the end of the semester are calculated using the original number of seats being offered by the department during the JoSAA counseling. Extra seats are also vacated if students from a department change their branches. (see next picture)
+2. Grades are the only criteria on which preference is given to students. In the case of equal grades, the JEE Advanced rank will be the tiebreaker.
+3. B.Arch students aren’t eligible.
+
+*“In India, we don’t choose our major but our major chooses us.”*
+
+Reflect on this for a second. Most of the students who enrolled in IIT Roorkee in any branch whatsoever did so without much research about what they were getting into. In fact, the research generally begins after the JEE ranks are out and your future has already been partially decided. Most of us are told to choose any available branch from the old IITs simply because of their reputation(sounds familiar?).
+
+According to the modern-day convention, almost everyone seems to be aiming for the circuit branches without actually even knowing what the stream is all about.
+
+But since we’re already here, how about adopting a different approach?
+
+The first step in any life-changing decision is to identify why you think taking that decision means so much to you. Most of the candidates that think about changing their department do so citing the placement statistics of the previous years. While not the best way to make that decision, we don’t discourage you from going down that road. But what we certainly encourage you to do is to understand that now that you are on campus, you have the opportunity to talk to a wide variety of seniors, all of whom are working in various different fields. In doing so, you enable yourself to make an informed decision of what you want to do, at least for the next few years, if not eternity.
+
+Citing the fact that a number of students look forward to the process, the rules and regulations for the same were considerably relaxed last year. Owing to this, the students now enjoy a much better chance to change their branch. The following diagram shows the number of students that successfully changed their branch last year:
+
+<iframe class="everviz-iframe" src="https://app.everviz.com/embed/xr20cH73d/?v=4" title="Chart: Branch Change" style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 500px"></iframe>
+
+## Adopting a Holistic Approach
+
+Contrary to popular belief, being a traditional “ghissu” is not the key to changing your branch. For most of it, it is a journey in parallel to the one you embarked on when preparing for JEE but also a lot different in terms of the opportunity cost and final outcome.
+
+Most candidates who give their everything towards the idea of a branch change often make the same mistakes, the most major of them all being never actually stepping out of their rooms to explore what the campus has to offer. This decision either comes back to haunt them if they fail or becomes something that just falls into the pit of buried regrets if they are successful.
+
+Adopting a holistic approach in getting through your time on campus is probably the best thing that you can do regardless of what your aspirations are. Devote yourself to your studies, the idea being to give your best but not to be bogged down if you’re unable to do so (this is where relative grading is most helpful). At the same time, don’t disregard all the talks and lectures that the institute and the various campus groups organize.
+
+The key is to manage your time exceptionally well and also to be persistent with your efforts towards the final goal (see the similarities yet?).
+
+## How tough is it?
+
+To put things into perspective, we now follow up with a diagram based on last year’s statistics. The numbers provided here are just to give the viewer an idea of what he/she needs to do in order to secure a branch change. It is important to note that these numbers do not form a standard basis and change each year according to the preferences of the candidates that year.
+
+As mentioned earlier, the rules for this procedure have been considerably relaxed, but the entry into the “much coveted” circuit branches(CSE, ECE, and EE) remains an uphill task. The required SGPA last year was as follows:
+
+|Branch | Opening CGPA | Closing CGPA |
+|-------|:------------:|:------------:|
+| CSE   |           10 |         9.67 |
+| Eph   |           10 |          8.6 |
+| MnC   |         9.81 |         9.42 |
+| ECE   |         9.67 |         9.55 |
+| EE    |         9.52 |         9.42 |
+| Mech  |         9.33 |            9 |
+| Eco   |          9.2 |          8.3 |
+| Chem  |        9.143 |          8.6 |
+| PnI   |        8.619 |         8.34 |
+| Civil |         8.42 |         8.05 |
+| Meta  |        8.095 |          7.6 |
+| MSP   |            8 |            8 |
+{:.mbtablestyle}
+
+<style>
+.mbtablestyle {
+        border-collapse: collapse;
+
+   > table, td, th {
+        border: 1px solid black;
+        }
+}
+</style>
+
+## Final Word of Advice
+
+The truth is that changing your branch is by no means easy, but consistency and persistence go a long way in getting you what you want. It is important to remember that your college isn’t just here to provide you with quality education; being an IITian is a lot more than that. It’s about modeling yourself into a better individual, something that is only possible if you step out of your room and your comfort zones to experience the journey that is IIT-Roorkee. So although putting a semester into something that draws you as much as the idea of a branch change (and we know it does), it wouldn’t be the worst idea to allow yourself to indulge in the little joys of campus life as well.
+
+## Hear it from them
+
+**Vansh Uppal, 2nd Year, Branch Changer from EPh to MnC**<br>
+
+“I would say that interest was the major deciding factor for me. And this is also what I would advice, especially in the case of Mathematics and Computing. Since I was interested in Math, I find the branch both easy and engaging. Some people do have apprehensions regarding going from a BTech degree to BS/MS, but personally I don’t think it’s that big an issue in the long run. Overall, a very noice experience with noice people”
+
+**Chinmay Nagpal, 2nd Year, Branch Changer from Chem to ECE**<br>
+
+“Why did I change my branch? The pros include the fact that ECE has more opportunities in core (Placements and internships) than Chemical and plus,I was less inclined to the core side of chemical, compared to that of ECE. The cons include the fact that it was very difficult to adjust and start the process of mixing up once again with new people where already friend circles had formed. We had to leave our previous friend circles and comfort zones. l, I would say it took quite a lot of time for me to adapt and adjust with everything, but I really feel at home now, in this branch.”
+
+**Aditya Tiwari, 2nd Year, Branch Changer from Metallurgy to ECE**<br>
+
+“I just hated metallurgy as a subject and as a branch I guess that's about it lol. Anyways this point is true to some extent but Meta and mech mei hoke bhi acchi intern aur placement laga sakte. It's just a matter of your dedication and whatever. But yes circuital mei it's far easier. I still get asked about my cg and when I tell them my cg they are like "f**k kitna drop hua" and there's obviously the "online mei branch change ki isne toh" But imo still the plus overpowers the minus definitely.”
+
+**Saiyam Arora, 2nd Year, Branch Changer from Chem to EE**<br>
+
+“Why electrical- My SGPA for the first could at best make me upgrade to electrical. MnC could also be an option but I like math upto a decent level, not enough to take a branch dealing with math only.  There is just 1 major problem, Considering the hectic schedule of circuital branches and also side by side doing some tech stuff, doing extracurricular becomes tough. But pros outweigh the cons.”
+
+**Gauri Garg, 2nd Year, Branch Changer from GPT to Economics**
+
+“I had no interest in core geophysics. I got a cg high enough to get to mechanical but I didn't want to choose a more difficult and hectic degree since I did not want to take up conventional engineering jobs. Economics always seemed interesting and I wanted to pursue higher studies in this field, I felt this was the best option. Also I sucked at physics but I loved mathematics so economics seemed like a great option for me.”

_posts/2023-02-23-acad-report-card.md

@@ -0,0 +1,241 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "IITR's Academic Report Card"
+category: coverstory
+tags: [wona, column]
+image: acad-report-card/cover.jpg
+excerpt: "It's term end and the Report Card for IITR's Academic Performance is out! This is based upon the recent survey conducted by Watch Out! to know about the issue areas in the current academic structure of IITR. Read on to know more!"
+---
+
+Team Watch Out! conducted a survey to find the major issues related to Academic Affairs being faced by the students of IIT Roorkee. It was circulated in January 2023, and received responses from students across all years. In this survey, we also asked the students how they would like the structure to be molded to make academics more student-centric and smooth flowing. 
+
+After noting the various grievances faced by students daily during academic hours, as well as student reviews on the current academic structure, a need for change was immensely felt. 
+
+Summarized below are the major issues that we could identify, along with several testimonials (marked in italics) and changes that the respondents proposed. Since the issues vary greatly over students from different departments and in different years of their study, we have classified them into smaller subsections for the sake of clarity. 
+
+- [A. NPTEL Courses](#a-nptel-courses)
+- [B. Second Examination](#b-second-examination)
+- [C. Minor Courses](#c-minor-courses)
+    + [C.1 General Secretary Academic Affairs Verbatim](#c1-general-secretary-academic-affairs-verbatim)
+    + [C.2 Academic Affairs Office Verbatim](#c2-academic-affairs-office-verbatim)
+- [D. Query Portal](#d-query-portal)
+    + [D.1 General Secretary Academic Affairs Verbatim](#d1-general-secretary-academic-affairs-verbatim)
+    + [D.2 Academic Affairs Office Verbatim](#d2-academic-affairs-office-verbatim)
+- [E. Curriculum](#e-curriculum)
+- [F. Grading System](#f-grading-system)
+- [G. Changes Proposed](#g-changes-proposed)
+- [H. Miscellaneous Suggestions](#h-miscellaneous-suggestions)
+    + [Appendix A: IITK & IITKGP Verbatim](#appendix-a)
+        - [IIT Kanpur](#iit-kanpur)
+        - [IIT Kharagpur](#iit-kharagpur)
+    + [Appendix-B](#appendix-b)
+    + [Appendix-C](#appendix-c)
+
+## A. NPTEL Courses
+
+In a recent notice issued by the Academic Affairs Office on January 3, 2023, the option to choose NPTEL courses as part of the academic evaluation was discontinued w.e.f. Spring Semester 2022-2023, except for certain special conditions. This was decided without taking the student community in confidence. As the students could not put forth their point of view, the decision has caused several grievances:
+
+
+<p style="margin-left: 30px"><strong>A.1</strong> Students who wished to take up elective courses based on their interests are now bound to take up courses from a predefined list which may not be very relevant to them.</p>
+
+_“The main issue [...] is that many elective courses mentioned in our course structures are often scrapped, forcing us to take other electives which are not relevant to our interests [...] The discontinuation of NPTEL Courses has made the situation even worse. Beyond electives, even some of the core courses are irrelevant.”_
+
+**NOTE:** WO! found out that students in other IITs, such as IIT Kanpur and IIT Kharagpur, cannot take NPTEL courses as their minors. All courses are to be done within the institute coursework.
+
+<p style="margin-left: 30px"><strong>A.2</strong> The decision directly affects the final-year students who had saved their NPTEL courses for their last semester to reduce their time commitment and better focus on reducing their time commitment and better focus on placements. It is also unfair to them as many students already took NPTEL courses in the preceding semesters.</p>
+
+_“NPTEL courses are not allowed in lieu of PEC courses for final year B.Tech students, it should be allowed as many of the students are appearing for placements in their 7th and 8th semester so NPTEL courses should be allowed for them at least.”_
+
+<p style="margin-left: 30px"><strong>A.3</strong> There's also the lack of flexibility in the academic programmes being offered; discontinuing NPTEL courses further aggravates this problem.</p>
+
+_“The institute being rigid in its way of teaching is really problematic. Not having NPTEL or more electives or non-existent inter-branch electives is a direct consequence of this.” ~Pratham Jain,3rd year_
+
+**Note:** Upon talking to the AAO regarding the short notice period in which NPTEL was scrapped, the Acad office clarified that they also learned about the NPTEL notice a night before it was released. Moreover, as a side note, they’ve mentioned that NPTEL on medical grounds will only be allowed for very rare cases, because this threshold is quite flimsy and unreliable.
+
+To elaborate, they commented that the method used to cross-check this is to use BTP trail of a student, i.e. if a student also has BTP coming up along with an offer letter, then even that would get hindered on medical grounds. This forms the basis of a cross-check of sorts. Students sometimes have supervisor backing saying the project is Computer based and is allowed remotely. However, that is not always allowed for a BTP. Hence medical grounds are a flimsy reason and lack robustness, which is why the AAO does not consider it.
+
+## B. Second Examination
+
+Students applying for the second examination faced major issues, with some finding it irrelevant to involve the DAPC in the second examination application process and others facing difficulty in convincing professors to allow makeup labs on medical grounds. 
+
+_“Regarding the Second Examination. As per the Rules, I applied for a second examination by writing mail (with attaching Medical certificate also) to DAPC on time. But DAPC did not forward it to the Academic section. When the list of students came, and I didn’t find my name in it, I went to DAPC, but he scolded me like anything, even if it was not my mistake, it was only his mistake [...]”_
+
+_“Professors don't allow makeup labs in some subjects even on medical grounds, leading to academics being poorly affected  due to health issues.”_
+
+## C. Minor Courses
+
+Minor Specialisation lectures clash a lot with the usual timetable of students and often include first-year courses. Due to the shifted Academic Calendar of the first year, the end-term exams clash with students' summer internships. A number of students approached the academic affairs office and the concerned departments with their issues. However they were sent back with a series of indifferent responses. 
+
+_A student commented, “After running from department to department to adjust TT for me to attend (the) minors course, I went to the academic affairs office for the same complaint. Their response was to drop minors and [not to] do a minors degree. ‘We cannot do anything. It's an unresolvable issue for us, too’.”_
+
+#### C.1 General Secretary Academic Affairs Verbatim
+
+**WO!:** At times, students have to go from department to department to get their issues like clashing timetables, availability of minor courses and others resolved. Many times these issues are not resolved, and even if they are resolved, there is a lack of a proper mechanism to get these issues resolved. Also there is no record maintained of the problems resolved by the department.
+
+**Gensec Acads:** Even we are working on resolving the clashing of minor timetable issues. The hindrance is that we follow an algorithm to generate the timetable, and with the available slots, the huge number of subjects are difficult to accommodate without clashes. I have proposed having a separate slot for minor courses just like Wednesday 4-6 for NCC/NSS/NSO. That might work, hopefully.
+
+#### C.2 Academic Affairs Office Verbatim
+
+**Acad Office:** The major issue which has led to such inconveniences is the lack of centralisation in timetable making; all departments make their own timetable which is sent to the Acad office near the start of the semester, and thus not many changes can be accommodated. 
+
+Slots for all common courses of 1st and 2nd year, and minors derived from those are fixed beforehand by the Academic office and sent to all the departments before the semester starts. After this, each department independently decides the slots for PECs offered by them and fits them into a timetable which comes right around the start of the semester. That comes after students have filled in their choices for PECs for the semester. Between this small period, it remains out of the hands of the AAO to make fruitful changes to the timetable as the semester is about to begin. They suggest that in the window provided for the addition/deletion of courses, students should alter their PCC/PECs’ choices and stick with the minor instead of going the other way around to fairly accommodate all of their choices. That is, if a student is voluntarily opting for additional breadth; they must choose the structure compatible with their minor's choice. Moreover, the issue has been noted down; and a centralised portal for the generation of automatic timetables is under formulation. It could, however, take 1-2 semesters to be completely implemented. 
+
+Regarding the mismatch of calendar between people choosing minors especially ones that follow UG 1Y timetable and their foreign internships. They mentioned that the students should try to get the intern period adjusted or the mode changed to online, since the structure of minors cannot be changed for those few students. And the timetables for 1y would take a year or two to align with the rest of the batches owing to the gap created by COVID. 
+
+## D. Query Portal
+
+Students pointed out the delays they faced in getting a reply to their queries raised on the query portal.
+
+_“Queries on the query portal aren't resolved even in 6 days.”_
+
+#### D.1 General Secretary Academic Affairs Verbatim
+
+**GenSec Acads:** Some people are dedicated to resolving AIS portal queries, and they are doing their best. The only problem might be they may miss some queries, or some queries are difficult to answer before doing some groundwork.
+
+#### D.2 Academic Affairs Office Verbatim
+
+**AAO:** On AIS, the department is dedicated to addressing each query and resolving it in under 4 days. Some periods of the semester may see delays in query resolution as the Acad department has to shift focus to other pressing issues, for example, during the start of the semester.
+
+## E. Curriculum
+
+**E.1** Students across the years also feel that their course structure fails to impart the skills that modern-day jobs require, and many courses have lost relevance in today’s age. Many electives mentioned in the course structure aren't even available to be taken up, and students are forced to take electives irrelevant to the field they want to build a career in. 
+
+_“Personally, I feel minors are introduced very late in our academic schedules, and that makes them kind of pointless as you are not able to explore your minors' field properly before graduation.”_
+
+**E.2** Many students seemed discontent with the 75% attendance system currently in place. Students complained that the attendance system is a brute force method to make them sit in classes while they feel there are better ways to learn the same thing without the compulsion of attending lectures. Students also complained about facing the issue of not being able to track their attendance in a particular course.
+
+## F. Grading System
+
+Professors having the discretion to decide the grading process they'll follow for a course leads to a lack of uniformity in the grade distribution[<sup>\[1\]</sup>](http://aao.iitr.ac.in/ACAD/Notifications/78.6.pdf).
+
+In the absence of a transparent procedure, students are often left in the dark with no other alternative but simply to accept the grades they've been given.
+
+_“There should at least be a more stringent guideline on what grades are to be given.” ~Pratham Jain, 3rd year_
+
+## G. Changes Proposed
+
+After noting the various grievances faced by students daily during academic hours, as well as student reviews on the current academic structure, a need for change was immensely felt. 
+
+In the survey conducted by Watch Out! We also asked the students how they would like the structure to be moulded to make academics more student-centric and smooth flowing. The responses were recorded, and some of the most pressing ones are as follows:
+
+<p style="margin-left: 30px"><strong>G.1</strong> It is widely agreed upon that the decision to remove NPTEL courses in the middle of the year by the Acad section did not consider the students’ stance on the issue. Students chose their courses accordingly for the year, keeping the presence of NPTEL choices as an option in mind. But when asked to suddenly compulsorily choose electives, it led to changes in their schedule management and caused confusion and stress among the student body. There was a lack of uniformity as some students from the same batch who had taken NPTEL earlier were at an unfair advantage. NPTEL also helps students take up subjects that are not available in the institute; manage other activities, minors and non-academic courses. It has overall been heralded as a misdirected decision.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 30px">Students had a common consensus that NPTEL courses should be brought back as they were highly dynamic and interesting.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 30px"><strong>As a third year student suggested:</strong> <em>“The NPTEL rule should be applied from the joining batch this year onwards, as no one from the batch has had the opportunity to use that until now. Few 3rd, 4th and 5th year students had already used the NPTEL option, which was unfair to their batchmates who didn’t get a chance to do so yet. Secondly, a fixed deadline should be given to the professors for grade delivery, and failure to do so should lead to serious actions. This is similar to the <a href="http://watchout.iitr.ac.in/2019/03/highlights-of-senate">late fee fine</a> that the students have to follow. Additionally, the Acad office should fix a proper slot for the conduction of minor courses, as it does for OECs and HSSMECs. This would also avoid the clashes in the timetable that many have experienced.”</em></p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 30px"><strong>G.2</strong> Department and inter-departmental courses should be introduced from the second year itself, allowing students to shape their career as they want to; whilst also providing them with incentives to maintain a good CGPA to be offered their preferred courses each semester. Another suggestion was to introduce more HSS-MEC courses in 2nd year, as the few provided usually force students to choose the one which gets them grades easily, as opposed to the ones they’re actually interested in.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 30px">For example, due to a lack of effective choices, students from the Economics branch took up HSS-01 as their preferred choice, despite being taught similar course contents in a more advanced manner in previous semesters. This made it a redundant course for the students of the Economics branch as well as unfair for students of other departments taking this up for the first time and facing relative grading with others. The limitation of choices is a very real issue which must be resolved soon. <strong>Appendix-A</strong> contains the conversation WO! had with IITK and IITKGP in this regard.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 30px"><strong>G.3</strong> “During the chaos that followed the NPTEL and minor selection time, what was apparent was the stringent nature of the Acad department and their unapproachability.” It was noted by many students that the academic section does listen to their grievances but there are no real efforts made to change it so that the students are at their convenience; and it often feels like they’re unreceptive to the students’ needs.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 30px"><em>“The academic section should be more flexible and more receptive to students' grievances instead of taking a stance that students should handle all this themselves.” ~ Pratham Jain,3rd year</em></p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 30px">More efficient communication between departments, within the academic section, between the admin and departments and within the department is necessary to avoid the many, many cases of timetable clashes that were seen. If, due to unavoidable reasons, clashes do occur, students should be allowed online alternatives for certain courses, especially important ones like minors and electives, which would help students to cover up material at one's own convenient time. “More flexibility in course structure, an approachable POC between students and Acad office is needed.”</p>
+
+**NOTE:** A snippet of the conversation with GenSec Acads regarding this matter:
+
+**WO!:** A lot of students complained about there being no point of contact between the Acad department and students. As the GenSec Acads, why do you think this problem still exists in spite of the existence of elected student representatives such as the DAPCs and the Gensec?
+
+GenSec: Certain things in the Acad department take some time to process because there are specified paperwork and even protocols to be followed, due to which students might feel there aren't any updates. But the people who approached me or even some other student DAPCs have often got their issues resolved or clarified.
+
+## H. Miscellaneous Suggestions
+
+Some miscellaneous suggestions regarding commonly faced issues within the academic structure:
+
+1. A notable instance was when professors mentioned the need for sliding blackboards for classroom teaching. LHC-GB has no such infrastructure in place, which must be rectified asap. The issue is not pushed as much because many professors opt for teaching via slides. Blackboard teaching leads to content delivery becoming concise and intuitive for students.
+
+2. If attendance is made compulsory, it is necessary to cater to students who are interested in pursuing a field of study other than their branch. Providing notes/slides (exclusively for home study) is a good answer that assists both sets of students.
+
+3. It is necessary that updated software and present-day technology are added to labs and coursework to make them more relevant. It often happens that the practical aspect of a course exists, but the lab is in such a dilapidated state that it is almost unusable. This leads to both the lab assistants and the students wasting time and effort trying to keep up with the experiments.
+    
+    _“More practically applicable teachings to be imparted. Skills sets like communication to clients etc. Should also be covered within the course structure.”_
+
+4. Uniform grade distribution has become rare if a large enough pool of professors is taken, and that is concerning. Students are left with unanswered questions as to why they’re receiving grades lower than 7 when they’re well above the aggregate class scores (given the professor has announced relative grading). Such incidents, however small, do multiply in effect, causing a severe divide and mistrust between professors and students.
+
+5. Moreover, there should be an open choice of minor courses instead of selecting from a pool of 6/7 courses, as well as more departmental elective courses that are offered. Along with it, compulsory attendance in Minors should be scrapped.
+
+6. A more mathematics-intensive CSE curriculum is seen as necessary. (A detailed review on this is mentioned in **Appendix-B**)
+
+This article aimed to bring the grievances faced by students daily under convergence and address them efficiently. From the responses we received in the survey, we have mentioned the changes students think should bring about a difference in their daily academic interactions. Moreover, we also talked to the academic office to dig deeper into the root cause of the problems pointed out. We got some great insights and found out valid reasons for some of the inconveniences; whilst also noticing a need for immediate change in certain areas.
+
+<div id="appendix-a"><h2>Appendix A: IITK & IITKGP Verbatim</h2></div>
+
+#### IIT Kanpur
+
+**WO!:** Can you explain in short how students opt for minors? What is the structure exactly? Are there clashes in the timetable with regard to departmental courses and what minor courses? If so, how are they resolved?
+
+**IITK:** Students can opt for Minors after the fourth semester and in each semester till the 7th semester. Minors are allocated in almost all departments and are generally offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and CGPA in some cases. Completion of minors is fairly doable, and clashes with courses are a manageable problem since each Minor has a basket of courses, out of which 3/4 need to be done. Several electives are available for students to choose from.
+
+#### IIT Kharagpur
+
+**WO!:** Could you explain in detail about the conduction and structure of minor courses there; and how do students opt for them? Basically an overview of the entire process.
+
+**IITKGP:** I’ll explain with an example. I am pursuing a dual major. My B.Tech degree is in Chemical Eng. and my M. Tech degree is in Financial Eng. 
+
+So students can opt to pursue a dual major at the end of their second year. They can take a master's degree in any of the three interdisciplinary programs - Financial Engineering, Artificial Engineering, and Engineering Entrepreneurship. The allocation to the three is done on the basis of CGPA of the students who have applied.
+
+Students can also opt to do a minor in any department. This is done in the 5th semester. Any student can do a minor in any department of his/her choice if his/her cgpa at the end of 4th semester > 8. A dual major gives a deep understanding of the subject, whereas a minor gives an overview. 
+
+**WO!:** Are there clashes in the timetable with regard to departmental courses and minor courses? If so, how are they resolved? If not, what is the method of allotting these courses in the timetable?
+
+**IITKGP:** There are no clashes between the subjects of a dual major since the B Tech degree is done in a different subject and M. Tech degree is done in a different subject. If a student enrols in any dual major program, then the respective subjects are added to his/her M Tech timetable, which does not clash with the B Tech timetable. B Tech courses take place from 1st - 3rd year. There are only 1-2 courses in the 4th year, and Mtech courses take place in the 4th and 5th year, which is how clashes are avoided. 
+
+Whereas if a student is doing a minor, then he/she has to take the subjects on his/her own either as electives or breadth or additional. The student should look for subjects each semester required for completing the minor and do not clash with their department timetable. In case of a clash, the students can request the professor to change the slot of a particular course. This is done after consultation with the professors in charge of the course and the Head of the Department. 
+
+**WO!:** How many electives are offered, and how many are actually taken up by the students? Are the courses actually useful for someone looking to build their career in a field that doesn't align with their branch?
+
+**IITKGP:** Electives are a part of the degree. Each student has to take up 6-10 electives and 4-6 breadths depending on their course and degree. Electives offered by any department depend only on the department.
+
+## Appendix-B
+#### Clarification regarding students asking for a math intensive CSE curriculum
+
+**Current situation of Math in CSE courses:**
+
+1st Year: 1st semester offers MAN001, which provides a decent exposure to calculus and linear algebra (which is relevant for fields like computer graphics and Machine Learning (more on this later). 2nd Semester introduces students to Discrete Structure, where they are taught Number Theory, Set Theory, Graphs and more. The topics taught are relevant, although not in-depth, since the syllabus is vast. Apart from this, the Quantum Mechanics course supplements the mathematical foundation. In addition to this, they are taught Optimization techniques 
+
+2nd Year: Transform calculus is taught, which includes topics like Fourier transforms, Z transform, etc. In 2nd sem, Design and Analysis of Algorithms teachers some math (involving proof and such like induction, contradiction), but not in much depth (unlike the course offered by Math department) 
+
+3rd Year: It offers an elective in probability (more on this later)
+
+4th Year: It offers an elective in Advanced algorithm 
+
+Apart from this, students are free to take inter-department courses since the math department offers quite a few. 
+
+**Need for change?**
+
+The courses of the computer science department teaches the relevant mathematical topics, but since it's not a degree in core math, some topics are not taught and not needed either. Case in point: a course like computer architecture is based on math, but it uses discrete math like binary mathematics, logic gates, et cetera. Continuous mathematics doesn't find much relevance, thus the need to teach it is not large.
+
+As most CS professors would agree, computer science, at its very heart is Mathematics. Students are introduced to these topics as one might expect at a UG level, and if they wish, they can specialise and research these topics in their Masters’.  
+
+If one wishes to pursue the “hot topics” in computer science field (ML, DL, AI), then some of the relevant math is taught in MAN001, so students are introduced to the subject
+
+**What needs to change**
+
+As mentioned above, probability courses are offered in the 3rd year, but that too on a rotation basis (i.e. only alternate years are offered this course).
+
+It should be made a PCC for the students so they can learn topics like probability distributions. This is extremely important for students wishing to pursue a career in Data Science or Quantitative analysis. The inspiration for this should be the Stats 110 course offered by Harvard. PS: There is already a course (MAN006) which deals with Prob-Stats but unfortunately not taught to CSE students.
+
+Not to mention, there has been limited or no exposure to the Stochastic aspect. Other IITs like KGP and Guwahati have been quick to adapt and include this lucrative field of Finance Engineering while Roorkee is lagging behind. 
+
+The current growing topic in technology is Blockchain. However, no courses are offered in that field. The closest we have is an NPTEL course (which, moreover, can only be audited now). Considering the extreme relevance of the field in the future, it should be offered as an elective. This should be supplemented with a course in cryptography, which forms the backbone of blockchain.
+
+Numerical Methods is a very important topic that actually familiarizes students to real life problems that need to be solved through computation. Under this, topics like Monte Carlo simulation and curve tracing should be taught as it also finds application in Quant. This should also include Mathematical Modelling and Simulation (a course which is a part of the BS-MS Mathematics and Computing course structure [MAN004, MA302])
+
+**A word for Minors:**
+
+Since this is a minor in CSE, the courses have relevant computer science courses. The students have an option to pursue a minor in the mathematics department if they wish to specialise in math extensive courses.
+
+## Appendix-C
+#### Clarification regarding upper cap on the number of credits a student can get each semester
+
+**Acad Office:** The system has now become flexible and student-friendly, and one may now choose up to 32 credits per semester. When choosing for >24 credits on the academic portal, a warning is displayed to the student so they may reconsider the decision to take up such a heavy academic load. After the usual process of a student being recommended for a course by the DAPC, we can take up to 24 credits. For more than 24, Deans can vouch on behalf of the student after running due diligence. Beyond 28, the IAPC can approve a student to take up 32 credits after knowing sound reasons for doing so. 
+
+Now, the DoAA also stands empowered to decide when the number of credits lies between 28 and 32; to help smoothen the process even more. 
+
+Once the recommendation reaches the Academic Office, they look for CGPA Criteria. Students under a 5 CGPA aren’t allowed to exceed the 24 credit limit. This rule is relaxed for students in their last semester/extended year. Moreover, the Acad office also examines the trail of the student, which could suggest reasons for the relaxation of the rule. 
+
+Students above 5 CGPA can still opt for 24-28 credits. For >32 credits, there’s a separate channel of application via the IAPC. Due reasoning for such a credit score is demanded, and approval is based on that.
+
+Additionally, for students in 3-2, if they wish for >=4 PECs for reasons such as doing their BTP in a foreign college but have no offer letter in hand proving so, they aren’t allowed. Students are hence randomly assigned two courses among the chosen four or asked to take the other two as additional credit courses. This method is randomised and not encouraged even by the academic office. Students in 3-2 are thus encouraged to stick to the mentioned rules.

_posts/2023-03-10-nss.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "National Social Summit"
+category: news
+tags: [wona, column]
+image: nss/2023/cover.jpg
+excerpt: "The National Social Summit, established in 2016, is a resolution to come together to propose and discuss policy and technical solutions to socio-economic problems pertaining in the country."
+---
+
+**Coordinator:** Mr. Chaitanya Gupta
+
+**Organizer:** NSS
+
+**Date:** 10-12 march 2023
+
+**Venue:** IITR campus
+
+**Theme:** Breaking Conventions
+
+**Idea:** Smither farce conventions prevailing in our society, be it social, political, or economical.
+
+The National Social Summit, established in 2016, is a resolution to come together to propose and discuss policy and technical solutions to socio-economic problems pertaining in the country. It aims to bring together socially active groups in IITs, NITs, and other prestigious institutions with a reach of over 500+ colleges as well as stakeholders such as NGOs and activists under an umbrella to think and create solutions.
+
+**Events:**
+
+This year, we're bringing you an exciting lineup of events that will inspire, educate, and entertain. This summit has it all. From Workshops, to Nukkad natak- a drama that will help in creating social awareness, Mun- a platform to put perspectives over an issue across all nations, Case Study- Intensive studies aimed at generalizing over several units from considering views of the concerned authority, Treasure hunt- To keep up the delegates' spirits and create a jovial atmosphere, Action Plan- to find strategies against the challenges that beckon us in the future, Turn Coat- An unconventional debate where you get to watch the same candidate present both sides of the coin just by the sound of a clap!, Sociothon- to build hardware and software solutions for efficient strategies against social hindrances and overcoming existing challenges and Policy Case Study- Reviewing and adapting laws when and wherever necessary is imperative.
+
+**Price pool:** Rs. 15 Lakhs
+
+**Speakers:**
+
+Get ready for an awe-inspiring lineup of speakers who are breaking conventions and leading the way to a brighter future at SocialSummit! From Ashneer Grover, who has redefined the traditional models of business, to Amit Lodha, who has challenged the status quo with his innovative mindset, to Rakhi Pal, who is transforming the event industry with her creative approach, we're honored to have them share their insights and inspire us all. Join us as they share their creativity and willingness to shape the world of tomorrow.
+
+**Past Speakers:**
+
+* CM of Uttarakhand -  Shree Pushkar Singh Dhami
+* Mr. Devendra Jhajharia
+* Kiran Bedi
+* Sonam Wangchuk
+* Priyanka Raina

_posts/2023-03-21-exchange-diaries-janani.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Semester Exchange - Jan edition"
+category: summer2022
+tags: [wona, column]
+author: "Janani"
+image: exchange-diaries/janani/cover.jpg
+excerpt: "How to get that semester exchange, you go bbgurl? (+ free tips on surviving as a broke person in Europe)"
+---
+
+**How To Apply?**
+
+To all the people who will ask me in the future, how did you apply for semester exchange?  Keep checking your emails for information since the international  relation cell usually mails when the portals open up. Then just wait for the floodgates to open on the number of documents you would have to collect and submit over the course of the next 2 months. This would be the first time you would feel like an adult in your life since all this was handled by your parents before, and now you gotta keep deadlines in mind. For more detailed information, check out the [previous article](http://watchout.iitr.ac.in/2017/03/exchange-diaries-switzerland) on exchange at Lucerne university. The only fact that has changed from then to now is that we don't have to take up 30 ECTS (_basically ECTS is another term for credits, I don’t know full either honey_), oh fun.
+
+Now that we got over the excruciating part of applying and getting accepted and all, let's get to the fun part. Getting to swiss itself is a struggle from India, you spend an insane amount of money on flight tickets, only to be hit with the reality that international flights are not so different from domestic flights and layovers are no fun. In my case, I had no idea until halfway through if my landlord kept my keys in the key box or not. Am I going to be stranded when I land? The panic was real, but it worked out in the end.
+
+The first thing I would think about living in a different country is **food** - it’s pretty cheap if you cook yourself. Bring a spice box and pressure cooker to make amazing meals. The will to cook versus time is an inverse gradient graph. By the end, I was surviving on frozen pizza and cornflakes which are pretty good. Forget eating out if you are vegetarian cause there are not many options or you would have to make a huge dent in your wallet. Restaurants or food delivery, forget it for five months unless you got monies to spend but yeah, supermarkets are your best friend. The peak of broke people behavior is when one takes photographs of same products from different supermarkets to compare prices with the help of excel. Now I can add excel to the list of software I know in my resume. 
+
+The results of my research were:
+
+- get vegetables, cornflakes from Coop or Migros, and anything else from Lidl. (_yes Coop, Migros, and Lidl are supermarket names_)
+
+- Migros M budget line is the best thing, I am impressed by their marketing technique, placing their own brand product which is significantly cheaper next to other commonly known brands. Good job convincing me to buy. Interestingly, Swiss people don't work on sundays. I am serious, groceries are not open on Sunday or after 5 pm. Wild concept, coming from India where stuff is always open and what is a Sunday? Many people in IITR don't have the concept of weekends.
+
+![pic](/images/posts/exchange-diaries/janani/1.png){: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
+
+One of the other concerns of a person who would freeze and almost die in Roorkee winter is How would I survive in minus 0-degree conditions Plus Europe currently has an energy crisis, so forget warm heating. I get it, but I am freezing okay. You can get a small heater for pretty cheap and that helped me through. Now, coming to the location of the student housing, it is usually super close to the train station which is the coolest thing - the amount of adulting I felt when we ran to catch the bus because who is always on time? Well, It depends on your location and how far the university is, for me it was 40 min ride with a transfer in between. I have done crazy transfers in under a minute or running to catch the bus with my professor and both of us missed it and looked at each other like alright, let’s take the next connection. Swiss transport needs a separate article to praise it. It's clean, warm, efficient, and cheap if you get the right passes. Two passes I would recommend are a zone pass (_for Luzern city - since one travels to campus every day_) and the after sevenpass which is worth the money you spend since it’s only 40 francs per month and a one-way ticket from Luzern to Zurich is 30 francs. Now the one-way ticket from Luzern to Zurich was around 20 francs with the Half-fare card. You must be like, wait that doesn’t make sense, IK the Half-fare card costs around 120 francs per year and since you would be there for 6 months - one can't reap its potential to the fullest. So, how does one save money on travel even further - Book one day earlier - you can get the Supersaver discount if you book just a day earlier - For example - a one-way ticket from Luzern to Zurich was around 15 francs with both supersaver and half fare.
+
+Transitioning smoothly into traveling, planning well in advance is crucial because travel and accommodation are super expensive last minute. But imagine spending only 8k in Munich or something. The broke way of traveling is by using after sevenpass and going to places at the oddest of hours like 7 am and then waiting in the train station because it is freezing outside. You are saving money but at the cost of your health. But hey, you feel good at the end okay? Again pack meals if you're vegetarian and prepare to eat them super cold since you can't microwave them. Tips for broke travelers like me, universities, and libraries are warm zones you can stay in for a while or use the restroom without paying. Yeah, you gotta pay for the restroom unless it's on trains which is not cool, but that's the reason they are spotless. Try not to miss annual fests and markets, they are so much fun. Going Outside Switzerland is a really cool experience but it requires a lot of planning. There are many budget-friendly options - flix bus and youth hostels for the win. Or you can travel like me to only places that you can visit within a day like Milan. One thing about Milan is the food is amazing and the clothing is cheap. Forget about trying to buy a winter jacket, go down to Milan, do all your shopping, and come back to Luzern because everything is way more expensive in Switzerland. If you wanna buy stuff from India before coming here that would be better. All you need is one heavy-duty jacket and waterproof shoes for walking in the snow.
+
+Regardless of where you travel, You can always find someone Tamil or Indian if you visit popular tourist spots. If I took public transport, the chances we find a tamil person in the bus or train is so high. I used to love the wholesome interaction I had with aunties and uncles who told me stories about how they immigrated to the country, the kind of struggle they went through to get there. I met people of various ages telling me like someone who was my brother's age was telling how they were in a war just a few years ago, and now they are leading a better life. I wouldn't had the confidence to talk to strangers and share life experiences but being outside of your country and finding comfort in your language just gives you that extra push to be more social. 
+
+Well, we can’t leave out the actual reason, you are traveling all the way to Switzerland, hello?
+
+It doesn't feel like I did a lot of academic work, but by the end, I had done so much work by just trying to match the level of work of regular swiss students do. You can feel the knowledge and age gap at times like in HSLU _(Hochschule Luzern)_. People go all in and it's really motivating to see people work and produce amazing designs. Definitely want to bring this kind of culture back to Roorkee. All of us are proud of the work we put out but there is always some sort of catch, we didn't get to travel outside Switzerland much since we didn't have enough time. The professors are really nice, we didn't have to call them sir or ma'am, we just called them by their surnames.
+
+The way they had planned out the semester was really impressive and made me want to study. For example, any theory I studied in construction class, I would be using in the design studio. We went on case study tours about similar construction so that we can learn from them and use in our designs. All the classes and subjects were interlinked and the pacing of the submissions gave us enough time to make the designs good.
+
+![pic](/images/posts/exchange-diaries/janani/2.jpg){: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
+
+Concluding facts thoughts whatever because this article is too long already, consider this a sequel to the [previous article on a semester exchange](http://watchout.iitr.ac.in/2017/03/exchange-diaries-switzerland). I am just sharing random facts and trying to cover all topics one would have doubts about. PACK ONLY HOODIES, don't be like me packing only two hoodies. That's dumb south Indian behavior. I do have regrets like not making as many friends as possible, but then again, I was trying to balance work, academics, and life so it's fine you win some you lose some. Be punctual and follow deadlines, as swiss people are very serious about it. Have fun if you get to go. I hope it was fun to at least read about broke student tips and experiences. Peace.
+
+_PS: Hit in DMS if you wanna the cool backstory behind how the majority of this article was written, hehe - those who know, know._

_posts/2023-03-28-the-merit-myth.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "The Merit Myth: An Examination of Casteism in IITs"
+category: coverstory
+tags: [wona, column]
+image: the-merit-myth/cover.png
+excerpt: "Through this article we aim to understand what casteism is, how it is seen in Educational Institutions in the country and how it is seen in IIT-Roorkee specifically."
+---
+
+<p style="margin-left: 30px">“Once you clear the minds of the people of this misconception and enable them to realise that what they are told is religion is not religion, but that it is really law, you will be in a position to urge its amendment or abolition.”</p>
+
+<p align="center">― <strong>B.R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste</strong></p>
+
+In July 2021, Vipin P. Veetil, an assistant Professor at IIT Madras,  resigned, alleging caste-based discrimination. According to him, the discrimination came from all individuals in power, irrespective of their political affiliations or gender. This incident sums up how caste is perceived and how caste-based discrimination exists in the elite institutions of the country, like the IITs and the IIMs.
+
+IITs have always been a glaring example of a dichotomy that exists in India with respect to the accessibility of resources. While IITians get good quality education and lucrative packages, the reality is very different for the rest of the country. Such glaring inequality is normalized in conversations by terming this phenomenon as “Merit” and conveniently ignoring the needs and aspirations of the majority. This classist and meritocratic system harms a developing country like India by segregating all resources in the hands of the few. People from the Upper Castes make up only about 20% of the population, yet if you look around you, in campus groups, in student bodies, and in the administration, you’ll hardly find any individuals from the Dalit, Bahujan or Adivasi communities. 
+
+Through this article we aim to understand what casteism is, how it is seen in Educational Institutions in the country and how it is seen in IIT-Roorkee specifically.
+
+#### Contents
+1. **What is Casteism?**
+2. **Affirmative Action**
+3. **Looking at Caste in IITs through statistics**
+4. **The Food Question**
+5. **The Current Situation in Campus**
+
+## 1. What is Casteism?
+
+Castes are rigid social groups characterised by hereditary transmission of life style, occupation, and social status. The definitions of casteism and caste seem very simple and obvious. Yet, caste, despite being omnipresent, is seldom talked about; especially in privileged circles here at IIT-Roorkee. 
+
+The ideas of casteism were corroborated by the existence of books like the Manusmriti, which enshrined these ideas into the very backbone of Hinduism. The Hindu society became synonymous with a vertical distribution of social groups based on their occupation. Over time, as casteism developed, it brought with it the normalisation of certain vices in the society. Discrimination and untouchability were openly practised, social mobility became extremely hard to achieve for people belonging to the lower castes, and the ideas of “exclusivity,” and “uniqueness” of a certain caste group were promoted. 
+
+Casteism came with the sense of privilege in people having a better economic status and a reputable occupation, and inferiority in the minds of people doing jobs that were considered dirty. This was exploited by those at the top of this hierarchy, to their own benefit. 
+
+The revolution against caste started much earlier, with the likes of Shahu Maharaj, Savitribai Phule, and Periyar working extensively to eradicate casteism from the society. The watershed moment though came with Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar incorporating anti-caste ideas into our constitution. This included any form of discrimination on the basis of caste being illegal and measures for affirmative action, among many others. This made the idea of independent India and the manifestation of it in the minds of people anti-caste in every sense. 
+
+While India has progressed immensely both socially and economically in the past 75 years, casteism still prevails- both violently as well as in subtle ways in the society around us.  The statue of Manu- the man who codified casteism still stands tall in the High Court of Rajasthan. In the same state, a 9 year old dalit boy was killed in 2022 for touching a water pot meant for upper castes only. 
+
+The casteist foundations of Hinduism continue to be glorified in an environment like this, hidden subtly in the form of “cultural practices”. This continues to happen as thousands suffer every single day to live a life of dignity. In seemingly urbanised and modern spaces, violent forms of casteism are uncommon, but casteism continues to be present in the society around us- at our homes, educational institutions, professional workspaces etc. People continue to use the names of certain castes as slurs, completely ignoring the impact that these statements have. Casteist statements and slurs are so normalised in society that you can get away with  using them without any consequences. People proclaim themselves to be anti-reservation without having any knowledge or context of why reservation exists in the first place. Let us now talk about how casteism is seen in our own college. 
+
+## 2. Affirmative Action
+#### A. Why should reservations exist?
+
+The denial of casteism and the discrimination that marginalised communities face is almost always from people with generations of privilege who are protected from the realities of the world. An individual with one Dalit friend who could afford to go to the same school as them comes to the conclusion that all Dalits hold the same privilege as an upper caste person, that they’re only pretending to be oppressed so as to benefit from reservations.
+
+Even before freshers start packing up for offline college, a particular murmur tends to punctuate general discussions- the roommate question. Rooms  are allotted according to ranks and not branches, and so, obviously, reservation started being discussed. On campus, the awkwardly skirted around subject of reservations lays out bare how students perceive merit, worth, and have an innate difficulty comprehending the way intangible privilege works. Most critics of social justice dismiss it as petty, material consolation. Social justice has a more ‘structural’ purpose- the redistribution of privilege. 
+
+Affirmative action broadly refers to a set of policies aimed at achieving such social justice by the inclusion of underrepresented groups, mostly through quotas and reservation. To understand the need for affirmative action, we need to reimagine the meaning of equality. Definitions of equality that phrase it as a simple game of restructuring opportunity ignore how privilege moves over time, translating into cultural and social capital- intangible assets no one accounts for.
+
+In arguing for economic-based reservation as a replacement for caste-based reservation, what is ignored are factors like social networks, growing up in a household that for generations has not had the said opportunities, the inability to navigate this recently acquired social mobility, et cetera. 
+
+Have you, or someone in your house, ever asked your help at home to come and eat with you and had them deny, in a way that seems almost unable to comprehend the possibility of eating with you? That’s years and generations of an unconsciously inherited broken idea of self-worth.
+
+Justice DY Chandrachud at a BR Ambedkar Memorial Lecture said:
+
+“_Castelessness is a privilege in itself. A privilege that only the upper caste can afford._”
+
+It’s important to reimagine affirmative action at the very crux of a healthy democracy, because we really aren’t beginning at a place where the playing field is level. We need a broader perspective on the nature of substantive equality, a distribution of rights and opportunities that accounts for historic, and systemic discrimination. We need to learn the true meaning of merit and worth- not some abstract ideal of skill, but a representative and inclusive space for growth and learning. This is vital for both, a holistic democracy, and uplifting every individual’s understanding of self-worth.
+
+Years ago, people like Ambedkar, and later, Kanshi Ram, realised the importance of creating a political consciousness among minorities and marginalised groups and how important affirmative action was to achieving true social mobility. But today, those conversations have died out. The simplest thing to realise here is that a platform where ‘all voices are heard’ is of no use where some voices are just faint, disappearing whispers
+
+#### B. Busting common myths around Reservations
+
+The purpose of reservation is to provide representation. This is the exact same principle as needing Student Representatives in college bodies so that the administration does not have the power to make decisions that affect you without your say. People tend to get the need for student representation and even women representation in administration but often ignore caste. The most repeated form of hate that Dalit and Bahujan students face on campus is the constant reminder that they “stole a general student’s seat”. As of 2019, only 30% of India’s population belongs to the general category. 54.5% of the total seats are reserved for 70% of the population. Saying that someone stole a general student’s seat is illogical. 
+
+A common argument used against reservation is how it will lead to incompetent graduates. People claim that reservation has led to ‘mediocrity’ in the country. This is because, according to them, reservations enable people who are ‘less capable’ to have an ‘unfair advantage’ over the ones who are ‘meritorious’. If it wasn’t for reservation, they claim, only the most meritorious students would become doctors or engineers or scientists. The only reason that the country is not moving forward is reservation, they say–. Otherwise, we would be one of the most developed countries. 
+
+Most of these claims are made by people who are in engineering or medical fields where reservation is only helpful in getting admission into an institute and not in getting the degree itself. Anyone who has graduated from these institutes has had to go through the same examinations as a general ‘merit’ student. 
+
+Then comes the argument that even if one manages to join a college through reservation, they cannot cope with academics. That they cannot compete with general students not only in entrance exams but also during their stay in college as the only reason that they are a part of any college is reservation. Otherwise, they do not have any ‘merit’. 
+
+To be ‘meritorious’, one needs economic as well as cultural resources. While ‘merit’ is considered a neutral parameter to judge a student, social structures on the other hand are not neutral. This ‘merit’ is another form of discrimination. It does not take into consideration how the upper castes are transforming their caste capital into modern day ‘merit’. As the supreme court explains, “a ‘meritorious’ candidate is not merely one who is ‘talented’ or ‘successful’ but also one whose appointment fulfils the constitutional goals of uplifting members of the SCs and STs and ensuring a diverse and representative administration”.
+
+We need to acknowledge that only upper caste people being allowed to go to schools in the past was a form of reservation in itself. What is being given to Dalits and Bahujans now is counter-reservation. It’s more of compensatory reservation to make up for all the times that their communities were denied basic human decency. Reservation is definitely not sufficient, but is a necessary step for minimising caste-based discrimination. 
+
+Among the few who do understand the need for reservation for the marginalised communities, many of them claim that the ‘truly marginalised’ are not able to avail the benefits of it. The ones who are grabbing all the seats through quotas are rich and non-meritorious. There is no evidence that only the rich students are using reservation. However, let us assume that it is true - only rich, untalented and incompetent students are taking most of the seats offered through reservation. Are only the rich, untalented and incompetent upper caste students grabbing all the seats offered in the general category? Since upper caste intellectuals believe that the success of general category students is only through hard-work, why can’t they believe that the success of reserved category students is also through hard-work? In addition to this reservations for Economically Weaker Sections and Non-Creamy OBCs has also come up after independence, which gives reservations to individuals who are not economically privileged. Therefore, it can be acknowledged that discrimination on the basis of caste, and not having access to resources are two different things, and that reservations for both can co-exist in the same paradigm. 
+
+## 3. Looking at Caste in IITs through Statistics
+
+<br/>
+
+58% of students who lose their lives to suicide in IITs, NITs and other central institutions belong to these marginalized communities. Most dropouts and students who were expelled are also either Dalits or Bahujans. Instead of examining the conditions that lead to such statistics, people are very quick to claim that this is why reservations are bad even for those who avail them.
+
+As recently as April 2021, a video circulated on the internet. A professor from IIT-KGP was seen abusing SC/ST students in an online class. They were even taunting students to complain about them to the SC/ST Ministry. This clearly shows that the professor is confident that the upper-caste dominated administration would protect them. Another blatantly casteist incident is the closing of Krishna Gate. In late 2019, IIT-M shut the gate connecting the campus to Vellacherry, a Dalit populated area. More about this - <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/archive/in/entry/iit-madras-casteism-gate-dalit-community_in_5e380cb1c5b611ac94d86d64" style="color:blue" ><u>IIT Madras Under Fire For Casteism After Shutting Off Gate Leading To Dalit Community</u></a>
+
+In 2011, Manish Kumar, a Dalit student of IIT-R, commited suicide ‘due to depression’ as stated by the police. However, Manish’s family claims that casteist abuses from their peers, inaction of administration and being forced to live outside of campus instead of acting on their complaints lead him to completely losing faith and henceforth, ending their life. Source - <a href="https://thedeathofmeritinindia.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/the-death-of-merit-manish-kumar-iit-roorkee/" style="color:blue"><u>The Death of Merit: Manish Kumar (IIT Roorkee) [A Documentary]</u></a>
+
+Casteism in “institutes of national importance” isn’t only faced by students. Multiple professors have resigned in the past three years owing to caste-discrimination. Less than 3% of faculties among all IITs are Dalits. Reservation rules for faculty hiring are already violated in IITs. Out of the 6043 faculties in IITs, only 149 are from SC and 21 from ST communities. As of 2018, out of the 745 faculty posts at IIT-R, only 12 of them are filled up by Dalits. Thirteen IITs - Kharagpur, Bombay, Kanpur, Ropar, Gandhinagar, Bhubaneshwar, Jammu, Goa, Bhilai, Indore, Jodhpur, Palakkad and Patna have zero faculty members from ST communities. 
+
+Data - <a href="http://164.100.24.220/loksabhaquestions/annex/16/AS267.pdf" style="color:blue"><u>AS267.pdf</u></a>
+
+Moreover, in 2020, a government panel along with Directors was supposed to suggest measures for the effective implementation of reservation norms. Instead, they recommended that IITs should be exempted from reservation for faculty hiring as they are “institutes of national importance” and “in order to compete with other top institutions in the world in terms of excellence, output, research and teaching”. This implicitly suggests that the panel believed that the presence of Dalits and Bahujan faculties in their institutes has led to a decrease in the ‘quality’ of the institute.
+
+## 4. The Food Question
+
+Why is non-vegetarian food not available in all canteens across the institute?
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+Why is non-vegetarian food served in different plates in the Mess of all hostels?
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+Why did students in Azad Bhawan protest for a week to ban non-vegetarian food in their Mess?
+
+These are questions that even the most “liberal” individuals would think twice before asking. The concept of non-vegetarian food being impure is so ingrained in the minds of an average Hindu, that they are seldom able to see the inherent casteist roots that their  “Pure Vegetarian” attitude has. What is so pure about being a vegetarian anyway and why is non-vegetarian food associated with a lack of hygiene, when the same can very well be true for vegetarian food also.
+
+The answer to all of these questions is the concept of “Purity”, made for and by the upper caste Hindus to keep their hegemony on all aspects of social life.  It was majorly through food that Caste Hindus justified the existence of untouchability in society. It was because of the food habits of Dalits that they were demonised for centuries and continue to be “othered’. 
+
+A majority of individuals in this country are non-vegetarians. Except Rajasthan and Punjab, all states in India have non-vegetarians in a majority. In states like Andhra Pradesh and Nagaland, this number is beyond 95%. Dalit food ‘preferences’ were a mode of survival. At a time when Dalits were denied the right to things as basic as water, food practices were never a choice. They ate whatever they could get their hands on, which is everything that Brahmins didn’t eat. The food hierarchy places those who do not eat meat at the top, those who eat meat but not beef in the middle and those who eat beef at the bottom. Beef, the easiest available food, became a chief part of Dalit cuisine because the upper castes didn’t want it. According to the latest National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) figures, more than 70% of the beef-eating population is from the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), 21% is from other backward castes** **and only 7% belongs to the upper castes. Caste is indeed ingrained in modern India’s eating habits. Upper caste people, whether or not vegetarians, oppose beef eating. Food has always been used by upper castes as a tool of humiliation.
+
+Having different utensils in the mess is nothing but a form of segregation, reinforcing existing societal divisions and furthering the concept of purity of certain individuals and the impurity of others. While not consuming non-vegetarian food is a choice, why is there a need to have separate utensils when the utensils are being washed between uses?  There is also a need for people to introspect and understand where this disgust towards non-vegetarian food actually comes from, why vegetarianism in India is almost always related to caste, and why it is of utmost importance to unlearn such biases.
+
+## 5. The Current Situation in Campus
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+An SC-ST Cell exists in colleges like IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi and its aims include addressing academic and non-academic issues and complaints received from students and staff belonging to the SC and ST communities. There is a dire need for such a cell to exist in our institute for the reasons stated above. An SC/ST Employees Welfare Association does exist on paper in our institute. When WatchOut! tried to verify the existence of such a cell, we found that it does not hold meetings/meet on a regular basis. Moreover its working has hardly any bearing on an average student. 
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+A recent case of a student from IIT Bombay shows how important such a cell is. Our college needs a student led body which promotes diversity and equality on campus to build a discrimination free environment. A SC/ST Cell in particular can ensure that very strict actions are taken against individuals promoting caste discrimination and support is provided to students from marginalised communities. The situation currently, is abysmal to say the least, with the SC/ST Cell existing merely in name. 
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+Disclaimer: Since the last caste census was conducted in 2011, and it's findings were thought to be unreliable, there is a general disagreement about the percentage of each caste. However we have tried to use the most recurring numerical data. We do however recognise that some sources might disagree with our data