Kudos, 2 Mumbai colleges named best in India

Two institutes from Mumbai have bagged the award for the best industry-linked institutes in India given by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in New Delhi on Thursday. The AICTE-CII Award was bestowed on Institute of Chemical Technology in the chemical engineering category and the Bombay College of Pharmacy in the pharmacy category.

The awards were given by Union minister Kapil Sibal, at the two-day CII Global University-Industry Congress and 5th Higher Education Summit, organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and AICTE.

A total of 1,050 AICTE-approved institutes from engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture fields participated.

The Institute of Chemical Technology is a chemical engineering research institute in Matunga which was established in 1933. The Bombay College of Pharmacy, Kalina, has been a pioneer institute in pharmaceutical education in India. The institute was started in 1957.

Indicating that there is a long way to go, SS Mantha, chairman of the AICTE, said, “The distribution of scores across various colleges, although only indicative and a reflection of only the industry linkages of institutes, shows that majority (63 per cent) of colleges fall in the medium category.

This is an encouraging sign and shows that though we are on the right path.”

“It is the freedom that we get as a deemed university that lets us deal with the real problems. We help the industry find solutions and this is what makes us different from other institutes,” said GD Yadav, vice-chancellor, Institute of Chemical Technology.

Other winners from the state include the College of Engineering, Pune, in the mechanical engineering category and Walchand Institute of Technology, Solapur, in the civil engineering category.

1 principal best chemistry teacher
Suhas Pednekar, principal, Ruia College, Matunga, was among the five chemistry teachers from the country who received the Tata Chemicals Best Chemistry Teachers Awards (BCTA),  appreciating their exemplary work as teachers.

“It is a privilege to be given this honour. It adds responsibility to create awareness among the youth, who must be motivated,” said Pednekar. 

Pednekar has been working towards promoting the use of micro-skill technique, which helps reduce pollution in science laboratories. She has also been carrying out research on green chemistry.