Hindi Pakhwada was celebrated at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra from 14 – 28 September 2020 in online mode due to CoViD19 pandemic. Dr. Anil Tewari, Nodal Officer, Hindi Cell and Head, SoPC inaugurated the celebration on the occasion of Hindi Diwas on 14th Sept. 2020 via Google Meet platform. The inauguration also witnessed a kavi sammelan including Dr. Amitabh Dwivedi, Dr. Madhu Mangal Chaturvedi, Dr. Saurabh, Dr. Ajay Singh, Sh. Keval Ram Keval, and Sh. Vivek Kumar. From 15th -27th Sept., many events were organized in which around 150 students, faculty, staff and their kids participated virtually with great zeal and enthusiasm in the most awaited annual Hindi Festival. There were 8 competitive events organized during the fortnight: Drawing, poetry and essay composition, quiz, storytelling, story writing, précis and creative writing. These events were coordinated by a team of students of Hindi Cell led by a computer science and engineering student Mr. Shivam Kumar.

The theme of Hindi Pakhwada 2020 was ‘Constitution of India’ and ‘Mahatma Gandhi’. The valedictory ceremony was held on 28th Sept. in the benign presence of Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor, SMVD University Prof. (Dr.) Ravindra Kumar Sinha (Padma Shri), who blessed the winners and participants and emphasized the importance of mother tongue. He also suggested to use Hindi in administration and office works. On this occasion, two issues of the Hindi magazine “Gyandhara”, a half yearly magazine of Hindi Cell, SMVDU, was also launched by Prof. Sinha. The Sharad Edition (winter 2019-20) was dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary while the Shishir (2020) edition was dedicated to Sardar Patel and National Integrity. The valedictory ceremony also witnessed a poetry recitation by an alum Sh. Vivek Kumar (B. Tech Electronics and Communication Engineering, 2018) which ended with a thanks note by Shivam Kumar, Student Secretary, Hindi Cell. The session was conducted by Dr. Anil Tewari who also congratulated the winners and participants and wished the wellness of students during the pandemic.

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University ranks 44 and is in top 70 Public State Universities in India according to Outlook's Annual Ranking of India’s top 70 public state universities in 2020.

A five day virtual AICTE ATAL Faculty Development Programme on “Advances in Clean Energy Conversion Technologies & Materials for Energy Storage Applications” from 21-25th September 2020 was concluded at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU). The programme was hosted by the School of Mechanical Engineering, SMVDU, and was coordinated by Prof. Eswaramoorthy Muthusamy and Dr. Yatheshth Anand, and Dr. R. K. Mishra, was the Organizing Secretary. The programme had a huge participation from different Indian states, and from various disciplines of Science and Engineering.

Programme was enriched with the technical talks (15 sessions) by the subject experts from the premier institutions of higher learning such as , IIT Jammu; IISc Bengaluru; Anna University, Chennai; NIT Kurukshetra; NIT Jalandar; NISE, Delhi; Saintgits College of Engineering, Kerala; RGMCET, Nandyal; Kongu Engineering College, Tamil Nadu and SMVDU, Katra. Also, two special sessions on the Stress Management, in the lieu to the ongoing pandemic, were delivered by the representatives of the Sahaja Yoga.

The technical talks were focused on various topics like: Power Plants Marching towards Renewable for Sustainable Future; Advances in direct energy conversion; Solar PV system, Energy system Holistic Approach; Advanced Thermodynamic Power Cycles; Thermoelectric Materials for Clean Energy Conversion; Novel Energy Storage Materials; Solar Thermal Energy Conversion, Advances in thermoelectric; Exergy analysis; Energy Storage Materials Research Insight, Smart Energy System; Energy and Environment and Advances in Phase Change Materials.

The FDP concluded with an outcome based methodology supported with an online examination. The first five scorers were awarded with the text book in the relevant area. The participants also expressed their sincere thanks and gratitude towards their learning.

The Coordinators acknowledged the AICTE ATAL team for providing the necessary technical and financial assistance.

Prof. (Dr.) Ravindra Kumar Sinha, HVC, SMVDU, was acknowledged by the Coordinators, for his adequate support and constant encouragement throughout the programme.

The National Engineer’s Day 2020 was celebrated by faculty, staff members, research scholars, students from the Faculty of Engineering here at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU).

The National Engineer’s Day is celebrated every year to pay tribute to Greatest Civil Engineer, Bharat Ratan, Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (1861-1962) who dedicated his life for the development of country through his outstanding achievements in construction of dam, irrigation systems, flood protection system, roads, industries, education etc.

Dr. Mir Irfan Ul Haq, the moderator of the event, briefed about the importance of Engineers Day celebration in our Country. Dr. Balbir Singh, Event Coordinator, briefed on the life of Sir M. Visvesvaraya and talked on the theme “Engineers for a Self-Reliant India”. Chief Guest, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor Padmi Shri Prof. R. K. Sinha shared his wisdom and stressed upon the sustainable development, further other dignitaries from SMVDU including Prof. Eswaramoorty Muthuswamy, Registrar SMVDU, Dr. Sumeet Gupta Dean Academics, Dr. RK Jha Dean R&D, Dr. RK Mishra Head School of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. VK Dogra, Head, School of Civil Engineering, Dr.Sharda Putokuchi, Head School of Biotech and Mr. BK Bhatia, Training and Placement Officer spoke on theme of Engineers Day.

Abhishek Sharma, Sonal Bhatia and Depanshu, students, School of Mechanical Engineering, expressed their ideas to make India Self Reliant.

The Vote of Thanks was proposed by Co-coordinator, Dr. Sanjay Mohan Sharma.

Online ATAL AICTE FDP programme on "Advances in Clean Energy Conversion Technologies and Materials for Energy Storage Applications", being organised by SMVDU, Katra from 21st -25th September 2020, and was inaugurated today on 21st September 2020.

The keynote address was delivered by Prof E Natarajan, Dean, College of Engineering Guiding, Anna University, Chennai, on the theme of "Power Plants Marching Towards Renewables for Sustainable Future", and highlighted the importance of renewables in existing power plants for clean energy conversion technologies.

Total of 15 core sessions being planned to discuss the issues and techniques on the domain by the subject experts from IIT Jammu, NIT Jalandar, NIT Kurushetra, SAINTGITS Kerala, NISE Delhi and Anna University, Chennai.

About 235 participants across 24 Indian states, expressed their interest, and 215 participants were selected to attend the programme based on their topics of interest, however the preference was given to young faculty members and research scholars.

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, is one of the institutions organising online ATAL FDP in Jammu and Kashmir, among IIT Jammu and Central University Jammu.

Prof. Eswaramoorthy Muthusamy and Dr. Yathesh Ananad, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, SMVDU, coordinated the programme.

The Coordinators expressed their sincere thanks to Prof (Padmashri) R K Sinha, HVC, SMVDU, for the encouragement, and to Prof R K Mishra, Head, School of Mechanical Engineering, for the support and coordination.