JNU receives President awards for Excellence`

Jawaharlal Nehru University has been named the winner of two of the three Visitor’s Awards President Pranab Mukherjee instituted last year.
•    The university took the prize in the “Innovation” and “Research” categories, while Assam’s Tezpur University was adjudged the “Best University”, according to an announcement by Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday.
•    While Tezpur University got the award for academic excellence and overall performance in 2015, Rakesh Bhatnagar, a JNU professor, and the Delhi institute’s Molecular Parasitology Group made the cut for innovation and research.
•    Bhatnagar developed a vaccine and therapeutic antibody against anthrax, and a team of scientists led by Professor Alok Bhattacharya worked on malaria, amoeba and kala-azar parasites. The sources said there were about ten entries in each category and were assessed by a panel of experts.
•    The recognitions for JNU come at a time the institution is at the centre of a sedition row following a campus event last month on executed Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. A BJP MP, Maheish Girri, even described JNU as a “hub of treason”.
•    The crackdown that followed led to the arrest of students’ union president Kanhayia Kumar, who got bail last week.
•    Several ex-servicemen have been critical, too, and even suggested taking a tank inside the campus to create “nationalistic sentiments” among students.
•    Bhatnagar, who heads a panel that was set up to probe the February 9 campus event, didn’t want to comment about his work. Bhattacharya said several institutions were engaged in research on malaria, kala-azar or amoeba, but JNU was the only place for a comprehensive research on all three.
•    Tezpur University vice-chancellor Mihir K. Chaudhuri said the university had produced excellent research while catering to the needs of 3,600 students in a place whose location was a disadvantage.
•    The awards, which Mukherjee – the Visitor for all central universities – had instituted last year, will be given away next Monday.
•    Last year, Hyderabad University was adjudged the “Best University” for its performance in 2014. 
•    A Delhi University professor, Vijaya Chaudhary, and his team got the award for “Innovation”. The Centre of Theoretical Physics, from Jamia Millia Islamia, won the “Research” prize.