The Fine Print Issue 4, April 2014 | Page 3

Yes, it exists - http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/university/ ipcd/home. It is called the International Programmes and Collaboration Division and the professor-in-charge is Dr. Dalit Kumar. Vaibhav Singh himself is the International Student student-in-charge and recruitments of juniors has taken Exchange Program place as well. In fact, introductory talks regarding research in physics in universities outside India have already been held. This initiative is on in all four campuses; maybe more publicity is required? MB Redi Billing and Merchandise Changes Extending Services Through ID Card Better late than never. Despite the fact that all the ground work had been done, the institute had problems with undertaking new constructions. So, it was decided instead that the Nescafe stall, whose contract was about to expire, would be converted into a Redi-cum-ANC fixture, which would be open from 10 am - 2 am. Food King is currently taking care of operations. While conducting mess signings, Vaibhav has added the requirement of current cost, expected cost and time of delivery. This enables students to question late deliveries and does not let associations charge more than the expected costs. It doesn't seem such a difficult idea to implement, but to his credit he did successfully put it into practice, including giving us the option to cancel the signings. A lot of the girls, we are sure, have felt that the MB Redi has made life easier and better for them. A job well done and much appreciated. Vaibhav says that he has been able to cancel multiple sweatshirt signings and t-shirt signings, but really, is the entire process thorough enough? I'm sure we all remember that shirt we were forced to sign and were unable to cancel. But then we never stop cribbing, do we? So far, nothing. But Vaibhav feels that there may be hope in the near future. As he had said, the decisive factor for allowing ID card usage in Akshay is that people pay their mess bills on a monthly basis. This, he says, is similar to what the chief warden, Dr. C.B. Das, is trying to implement by introducing the new bill payment system . He says that this will be possible in Food King very soon. Well, we've heard that before. Around a year back, huh? Bus Booking Portal, RTI, Q&A forum, Online Poll and 'Your BITS, Your Voice' - an Appeal System Student-led Technical Mentorship Cell Early days, still. It has the p ot en t ia l t o p rovide wonderful opportunities if implemented properly. However, it might just be difficult to sustain, considering that the initiator may soon be off campus. While its execution may be possible sometime in the future, was enough work put into it? Was it a well thought out manifesto point? Maybe not. None of these things have seen the light of day, Portals, portals everywhere! But no thanks to the absence of an SU portal. He says SU website to host. For the entire that the technical team has been working on it, year. but we've been hearing the same thing for almost a year now. Once again, Vaibhav says the panel was ready and all the ground work had been done. But, he hasn't had enough time on his hands to implement it, with other manifesto points to tend to. He says that he will try to implement it before the next Gen Sec is elected, but how likely is that to happen? Online Repository of Research Projects (primarily for MEites) Why was this point not considered a priority? Was there not enough interest from the public? This plan was not implemented at all. Vaibhav feels that despite all the ground work being done, the ME-ites gave an extremely lukewarm response and this led to it not being implemented. But this just goes to show that the interest shown by these ME-ites should have been researched before putting this point in the manifesto. It is plainly pointless to implement something in which the target audience has very low interest. A recurring theme, this. Going beyond his manifesto, Vaibhav has been able to set up quite a few helpful things. When the institute imposed a blanket ban on poster-sticking on the mess walls, it was Vaibhav's efforts which culminated in new notice boards being put up everywhere. He has also set up quite an efficient end semester cab service, whose ID card based payment system makes it even more effective and appealing to the student populace. A look at Vaibhav's manifesto reveals that he has had a mixed year as the General Secretary, however his work has shown that he has done enough for the students. GEN SEC Review