Khurshid Ahmad Tariq

The new National Educational Policy (NEP 2020) document in its section on Higher Education recommends the introduction of four-year honour’s undergraduate program (FYUGP) with or without research, one year or a two-year PG program with inclusion of one-year exclusive research (for a two-year PG program), replacement of choice-based credit system (CBCS) with National Credit Framework (NCF) at UG and PG level in higher educational institutions (HEIs), and shift from existing high-stakes examinations towards more continuous and comprehensive evaluation during the course of a program. Besides, the NEP 2020 also emphasises on other crucial measures to revamp the Indian higher education sector by increasing the employability potential of higher educational programmes, and enhancing access to aspirants by establishing more high-quality autonomous teaching intensive and research intensive HEIs. The credit based FYUGP is a futuristic solid investment and is expected to infuse the spirit of para...

Parasite is a strategic, smart and prudent natural agent primarily created by nature to balance the energy dynamics of life in varied ecosystems on this earth although for us they mean noxious, irritating, annoying, pathogens and harmful agents. Parasite evolutionary history enables us to understand that nature has created every form of life on this planet with a reason and purpose to enrich the earth with diversity of species ecologically interlinked and mutually beneficial too. This ecological linkage overall balances and maintains the ecosystem functioning. Parasite is one such biological agent that has been entrusted with multiple ecological roles.  Basically, parasite (either a macroparasite or a microparasite) which is the focus of this article is a biological organism which lives in or on the body surface of other living organism (different types of hosts) for shelter and to fulfil its metabolic and reproductive needs. As students of parasitology we are made to understand th...

I owe you everything! - http://risingkashmir.com/news/i-owe-you-everything This piece is an attribute and a tribute to my school teachers to honour their contributions during my ten years of schooling at a public owned high school the Government High School Kanipora, Kulgam. Those ten years of learning with a diversity of teachers carved a strong relationship between the teacher and the taught.  The first recollection about this school are the old and draggled class rooms with clay plastered cracked walls, an easel and a blackboard, an old cloth saturated with chalk dust, a single wiggling teacher’s chair (often with sunkseat) and rough and dust-covered coir floor mats (would always tamper the uniform at buttocks)was the ultimate infrastructure available albeit academic competence and pedagogy of able teachers finely carved the school to be remembered as the cherished almamater. At the same time it is painful to remember those few inexplicable teachers who never loved their teachin...

Why is Islamia College a distinct institute during these COVID-19 times? COVID-19 enforced disruption of global educational activities with closure of institutional campuses has stuck academics in the homes, and the teachers are managing it very well by offering online education to students at their doorsteps. At a time when this pandemic is considered to be a blow to academics worldwide, and has redefined the role of educators with debate brewing on response of educational institutions during post COVID-19 era too, some arguing that the next casualty of the COVID-19 may be the academic calendar, we in Islamia College of Science and Commerce, Srinagar aim to manage our academics in a virtual mode using ICT based teaching learning processes to cope with the unprecedented institutional closure due to this coronavirus pandemic. Almost administrators and academic leaders are in a struggling phase to devise policies to respond to the quickly evolving academic situations and to decide wh...

Understanding COVID-19 through the prism of natural selection, three quick outbreaks in human sequentially in 2003, 2012 and now 2019, can we predict 4th.. Covid-19: http:// risingkashmir.com/news/covid-19- impact-on-ecosystem … by Khurshid A. Tariq

https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/immunology-of-flu-pandemic/?amp

http://risingkashmir.com/article/islamia-college-on-path-of-excellence-4960.html

https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/mask-your-face/?amp

http://www.risingkashmir.in/article/flu-and-face-mask-culture-4976.html

Quality, not numbers | Greater Kashmir https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/quality-not-numbers/

In the present world, we have a wealth of information just a click or touch away from our finger tips, thanks to information technology. People have become habitual of surfing, downloading and saving literature files preferably as pdf's in their computer devices. Gone are the days when paper books used to be the only dependable sources of information or knowledge for us. And those times are also over when scholars needed to travel and visit libraries to get a book, manuscript or an article available in a particular library hundreds or thousands of miles away. Because of revolution in information and communication technology, the emergence of e-library has opened doors to innumerable sources of high quality literature freely available or with paid access over the internet at our places. Having a computer, laptop, smart phone or some related gadget with internet connectivity is the only requirement that we get access to varied domains of e-literature through a network of search...

http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/pdf-alibi-syndrome-352154.html#

On World Biodiversity Day - http://risingkashmir.com/news/on-world-biodiversity-day

Toxic air and smoking: the two silent killers | Greater Kashmir https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/toxic-air-and-smoking-the-two-silent-killers/

The obstacles and factors to get an optimum sleep are many ranging from stress to diseases. During the last one or two decades use of smart phones and lap tops is considered big jolt to our health by pushing our sleep timing into late hours in the night due to habit of using these electronic gadgets on average one or two hours within the bedtime. Another problem is keeping the smart phones near to our sleeping pillows throughout the night hours. These smart phones emit light falling in the blue spectrum and has been found to cause suppression of sleep hormones, thereby depriving us of precious sleep hours. Sleep is a vital indicator of normal well-being and plays a housekeeping role to detoxify the human body and boost the development of immunity. Insomnia or sleeplessness is a root cause of many human diseases and sleep deprivation results into various behavioral, metabolic and physiological consequences. Good health is not possible without immunity and optimum immunity is not possi...

The ABO system discovered by Landsteiner in 1901 is clinically most significant and is of great importance in transplantation immunology and transfusion medicine. The ABO grouping is the single most important serological test performed in compatibility testing. It is a major blood group system with enormous diversity consisting of three carbohydrate antigens (A, B and H) under the control of A & B genes (of 175 alleles) present on the chromosome 9. The organ/tissue transplantation and blood transfusion depends on the successful matching of these blood groups. These antigens are widely distributed and are present not only on RBCs and platelets but also on endothelial cells of various tissues in human body. An interesting co-evolutionary relationship exists between the ABO blood group system and the useful microbial flora (bacteria) in human body. As far as their development is concerned, the A and B antigens are produced by the addition of N-acetylgalactosamine (UDP-GalNAc) and ...

Antibiotic pollution: The critical issues of enrichment of our environment by antibiotics, antibiotic resistant population of microbes and their genes are one of the greatest emerging threats to our environment. The solid waste or liquid waste accumulation of diversity of antibiotics due to their release from the industries or expired or unused products from the hospitals or households is making the environmental waste management processes quite challenging. Further the partially metabolised antibiotic components are released or excreted unaltered via human and animal excretory products into the surrounding environment (pits, ground water, lakes, rivers, etc.). Even the world’s topmost waste treatment plants are not capable to remove these antibiotics, so they continuously build up their concentration in our environment because most of their non-biodegradable nature. Therefore, ecological effects of antibiotic presence in soil and aquatic ecosystems alone has serious risks to human,...

Most of our population lives in rural areas but majority of the quality degree colleges are located in the city alone. This means there is a huge divide as far as establishment of quality colleges and quality education is considered for youth without getting displaced from the original residential areas. Pertinently, the shifting pattern from rural to urban or city colleges for gaining degrees is deeply rooted in our society and creates additional family and social problems with the displacement of student community. Because students are a part of the family and society and sharing that responsibility is equally important as is acquiring academic degrees, because working for the cause, welfare and betterment of the society is the true purpose of gaining education. This problem can only be redressed when equal facilities in terms of quality colleges are made available irrespective of region and/or rural city divide. Recently, government announced the establishment of forty more deg...

When Science was Debunked and Myth Elevated at Indian Science Congress 2019 By Dr. Khurshid Ahmad Tariq Science is an intellectual and systematic study based on observation and experimentation. The knowledge generated by science has made living on this planet happy, easy and successful. Good science is a comprehensive and exciting way of discovering the hidden secret of physical, chemical and biological world. Every day or moment holds possibility of a new discovery and words like “Eureka eureka” are still in the nature of a valid, euphoric excitement among the scientists. Scientific discoveries are based on facts and evidences and not on myths or folklore beliefs. As man progressed in science myths and mythological concepts started losing salience in human minds and thinking. However, the scenario was quite different this time in Jalandhar’s Lovely Professional University which held the 106th session of Indian Science Congress from 3rd to 7th January, 2019 with the theme: Future...

On academic excellence Published at January 03, 2019 12:22 AM ‘Education is not preparation for life, education is a life itself’   Dr. Khurshid Ahmad Tariq The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth (John F. Kennedy). Schools, colleges and universities are the main centres of acquisition of knowledge, education, wisdom, skills, truth, facts and experiences for a meaningful life. Schooling is a teaching environment to acquire while as colleges and universities are a learning environment to apply with focus on a student development. The transition from schooling to higher education is, therefore, central to the capability of expressing the creativity and potential of students towards an academic excellence. In this write-up, I shall be discussing the keys, tips, principles and methods that a student should possess or adopt to dream big and do smart to achieve excellence. Discipline an...