Best Practices

There have been several initiatives taken by the college for the benefit of all stakeholders and also to
contribute to society at large. Many of these have been mentioned in preceding sections and the other
criteria covered in this edition of AQAR. However, in order to describe any two best practices, the
college would like to highlight the following two:

1. Environment-friendly Campus
An educational institution can play a vital role in societal and environmental reforms besides its
various academic pursuits. Keeping the growing ecological concerns and a dire need for immediate
action to carry out and promote eco-friendly practices is the need of the hour. The college firmly
believes that, when it comes to environment conservation, awareness must be followed by sustainable
practices. In this endeavour, different departments along with various clubs and committees have
undertaken several initiatives and organized different activities to reduce the carbon footprint and
inculcate greener practices. Mentioned below are the details of many such initiatives undertaken and
strengthened:

  • Environment Audit: Environment audits were carried out on August 16, 2018 and April 04, 2019 in
    the college. Green practices and other environment-friendly initiatives undertaken by the college were
    recognized and appreciated by the visiting teams. Reports of the same are uploaded on college website
    under the IQAC tab.
  • Tree Plantation: Regular plantation drives were organized in the college in collaboration with
    different departments, cells and committees. Teaching and non-teaching staffs members in association
    with the students take active participation in these tree plantation drives. Plantation of Citrus Lemon
    trees, Areca Palm, Terminalia arjuna, Malus pumila (Apple tree), Punicagranatum (Pomegranate
    tree) and Terminalia bellirica etc. were completed in these drives. A “tree census” in the college
    premises was carried out between August 8-10, 2018 by Eco club in association with Department of
    Botany. According to the tree census, there were a total of 400 trees and in terms of diversity, about 50
    different species of trees were found in the campus. College also has been following the practice of
    greeting guests with potted plants for all functions and activities organized in the college for several
    years now. It is also a step in the direction to promote green practices and spread awareness at the
    same time.
  • Paper Recycling Unit: Akin to reduce and reuse, recycling is also one of the effective ways to
    conserve natural resources, save energy, minimize greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the evergrowing load on landfill spaces. Thus, paper recycling is a regular exercise in the college. A “PaperRecycling” workshop was organized in order to sensitize students. Students actively participated in the
    workshop and made various coloured sheets. A drive was also carried to collect waste paper and
    recycle them for different uses in the college. Further, beautiful posters, paintings, greeting cards and
    visiting cards are also made using recycled sheets for various activities conducted in the college.
  • Infrastructural Additions: In a constant endeavour to make the college campus increasingly
    environment-friendly and follow sustainable practices, certain infrastructural additions were carried
    out and further are being worked upon. Ten photovoltaic solar panels have been installed for lighting
    up the drive way of the campus. College has two functional rain water harvesting units and in
    association with Delhi Jal Board are able to conserve rain water. This storage water helps the campus
    in supplying the requirement of water for the sanitary purposes.
    Another step in the pursuit of adopting clean and green practices, college laboratories have been
    equipped with Piped Natural Gas. PNG is one of the cleanest burning fuels, and helps improve the
    quality of air. PNG pipeline laying in the college campus has been commissioned and is now
    functional.
  • Waste Management: College has banned the burning of leaves and branches. Compost pits were
    prepared in the college premises. These compost pits are used for dumping organic waste/green waste
    for future reuse as manures. College uses vermi-compost pits to create compost from bio-degradable
    waste. The compost pits rely on the natural decomposing, accelerated by earthworms and bacteria that
    break down organic matter into manner. College has also implemented a mechanism to dispose solid
    waste in a scientific manner, hence biological and chemical wastes are released only after necessary
    treatment. Some departments have installed e-waste bins to collect electronic waste. Department of
    Chemistry carried out a small survey to gauge public knowledge and create awareness about e-waste
    disposal. Bhaskaracharya Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce (BEST) carried out a small
    awareness program in the adjoining areas to encourage locals to dispose garbage responsibly.
    The second practice included here is also a reflection of the green practices followed by college
    besides its utility and innovation. Digitisation and automation of several academic and administrative
    activities have reduced the usage of papers manifold.

2. Digitisation and Automation of Academic and Administrative Activities:
Digitisation and Automation Committee of the college has recently devised an “Integrated College
Management System” that has been running successfully since its implementation. Introduction of a
few additional features have streamlined many academic and administrative processes along with ease
of operation. Kindly find mentioned below other activities that were included last year in order to
upgrade its various tools:

  • Digital Attendance and Compilation of Internal Assessment: A mechanism has been successfully
    developed to take daily class attendance using ones’ mobile phone. Teachers have dedicated links and
    attendance gets regularly updated on the college website. A feature of name stamp is made available
    for each individual teacher, at the time of submitting attendance to facilitate maintenance of proper
    records as well as identifying errors, if any. This feature also helps maintain easy access and
    transparency. This utility auto-generates 5% of the internal assessment marks (on the basis of
    attendance recorded). This feature was praised by the Vice-Chancellor, University of Delhi and he
    also proposed to adopt the same in each college of the university.
  • Feedback Mechanism: An online mechanism was devised to collect feedback from the stake holders.
    The information is shared with the IQAC members to look into the concerns raised any their possible
    resolutions
  • General Elective (GE) Segregation: The college began the process of choosing General Elective
    paper for both (Semester I & III and subsequently for II & IV) through an online process. A
    mechanism was devised to allot General Elective (GE) preference to students based on their “Merit
    cum Preference”. The system segregation not only helped to ensure complete transparency of the
    process but also brought down the manual effort by generating GE lists automatically.
  • Budget: An online module for budget was designed with an upper limit for each category. Printable
    format is also made available for the concerned Teacher-in-charges/Procuring Officers. The
    mechanism has streamlined the process besides making it extremely convenient.
  • Time-Table: The online module for time-table is designed for single window editing and generate
    different formats as per the requirement. The online module for time-table has been upgraded to
    generate and mail pdfs of different formats as per the requirement. Any kind of mismatch between the
    workload and timetable can be readily checked and modified. Time-table can be easily updated at all
    times and error if any occurs is reported immediately. The module also highlights availability of room
    as well as slots in an easy glance.
  • Mentoring System: Earlier the committee digitised the entire process of record-keeping of the
    interactions under student mentoring system,. Now, an additional feature is made available to the
    convener to manage the allotted mentees by the respective TICs. Each academic year has been divided
    in four quarters, whereby mentors can regularly upload their respective reports on a regular basis.
    These two activities as well as several others carried out in the said period are a reflection of all round
    efforts by all stakeholders. This continuous endeavour to introduce and improve methods of
    excellence, help pave way for spearheading the institute in the right direction.