Surender Sharma is a principal correspondent at Chandigarh. He covers Punjab and Haryana high court.
Articles by Surender Sharma
PU left behind by other institutes in QS rankings
Panjab University (PU) may have figured in the list of top 200 institutes in Asia, but domestically its image has taken a beating with the announcement of rankings of Asian universities announced by British publishing house, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).
Updated on May 14, 2014 04:47 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
PU sets up panel to look into research scholars’ issues
Panjab University has constituted a five-member panel to address issues of research scholars. A team of five research scholars, one of each stream, including a convener, will act as a go-between the researchers and the university. The forum will work in close coordination with PU vice-chancellor and dean, research.
Updated on May 13, 2014 09:43 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Answer sheet stolen after PU student caught cheating
Hours after a case of using unfair means (UMC) was registered against a second year student of the department of laws at Panjab University, his answer sheet went missing from the department on Tuesday afternoon. The teachers at the department spent nearly three hours calling up the student.
Updated on May 07, 2014 12:04 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
PU undergraduate results set to be delayed by a week
With Panjab University having to reschedule some undergraduate examinations due to the Lok Sabha polls in Chandigarh, Punjab and neighbouring states, results will be delayed by nearly a week. Nearly three lakh students are appearing for examinations that are being conducted in nearly 188 colleges across Punjab and Chandigarh.
Updated on May 06, 2014 11:47 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Monkey menace plagues PU depts
Departments lying on the fringes of the Panjab University campus have been terrorised by monkeys. With monkeys hanging around the forest cover of the varsity, departments, including University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS), biophysics, biochemistry, centre for systems biology and bioinformatics departments, as well as some departments in the pharmacy and biomedical sciences block, have to deal with a persistent problem.
Updated on May 05, 2014 12:12 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Facing problems, UBS seeks to drop MBA biotech course
University Business School (UBS), Panjab University, has asked the varsity to discontinue Master of Business Administration (MBA) in the biotechnology course offered by institute, stating that it was unviable.
Updated on May 04, 2014 12:25 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Facing problems, UIET seeks to drop integrated engg course
Panjab University’s integrated five-year integrated engineering and management programme appears to run into rough weather with the University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) writing to the PU administration to discontinue the course, citing various reasons.
Updated on Apr 30, 2014 11:26 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Faculty unpaid, PU strips music dept head of powers
In reaction to some teachers in the music department not being paid their salaries on t i me, the Panjab University administration has taken the unusual step of divesting its chairperson, Neelam Paul, of various powers including those relating to financial matters.
Updated on Apr 26, 2014 11:44 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
PU scientists successfully develop plates for Higgs Boson project
Panjab University scientists have succeeded in developing the first resistive plate chamber to be used in the project to upgrade the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator in Geneva, for experiments on the Higgs boson or ‘God Particle’.
Updated on Apr 23, 2014 11:39 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Lack of space at PU leads to scramble for vacant block
Even as scores of newly set up departments at Panjab University continue to function in small rooms allotted within existing ones, a three-storied building at the botany department has remained unutilised for the past four years.
Updated on Apr 22, 2014 10:52 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Good marks, yet no job? PU for soft skills help
Employability and soft skills have for long been a major hindrance to young graduates and postgraduates getting a job. Taking note of this, the Panjab University has decided to intervene and start non-credit (results do not reflect in grades or transcripts) courses from the 2014-15 academic session.
Updated on Apr 21, 2014 10:35 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
UIET drops three subjects from PG entrance test list
The University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) has dropped three subjects from this year’s Combined Entrance Test (CET) list conducted for post graduate courses. The examination is conducted by Panjab University for enrollment to various courses offered by 30-odd institutes in Chandigarh.
Updated on Apr 19, 2014 11:36 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Row between CCA, regulatory body masks deeper problems
There may be more to the wrangling between the Council of Architecture (COA), the regulatory body for all architectural institutes in the country, and the Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA) than meets the eye.
Updated on Apr 16, 2014 10:51 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
PU asks UT admn to increase height of south campus boundary wall
With Panjab University struggling to ensure security at its south campus, the varsity has written to Union Territory (UT) administration to raise the height of wall between Bhaskar colony and the campus.
Updated on Apr 15, 2014 10:03 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Inclusion of NOTA in annual polls splits teachers’ body
While the recently held state assembly elections and the ongoing parliamentary polls may have given voters the right to reject all candidates, NOTA (“none of the above option”) has left the Panjab University Teachers Association ( P U TA ) a divided house.
Updated on Apr 14, 2014 09:12 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
AAP alleges BJP, Cong violated poll code using Twitter, Facebook
The social media war between Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Gul Panag and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Kirron Kher is far from over. Days after Panag and Kher took digs at each other over their age, Panag in an indirect reference to Kirron and other BJP leaders accused them of violating the model code of conduct during polls by putting messages and pictures on Twitter and Facebook.
Updated on Apr 13, 2014 12:36 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Semester system: PU plans to hold senate meet in May
The Panjab University plans to hold a special senate meeting in May to clear the proposal of introducing the semester system in its affiliated colleges for undergraduate courses.
Updated on Apr 13, 2014 12:06 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Some back in wind, others unwind
After nearly monthlong electioneering, the candidates, whose luck was sealed by 4.53 lakh voters of Chandigarh on Thursday, heaved a sigh of relief from their hectic schedule. A day after polling to the 16th Lok Sabha, some candidates spent their entire day at home, while others went out on a shopping spree.
Updated on Apr 12, 2014 10:24 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Chandigarh: 17 in fray, but all eyes on actors vs ex-minister
Chandigarh has 17 candidates in the fray, but all eyes are on three: Congress leader Pawan Kumar Bansal, Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP's) Gul Panag and Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) Kirron Kher.
Updated on Apr 09, 2014 09:44 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Bansal pitted against a starry challenge
Former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was sailing through quite nicely till recently, but the Railgate scandal, in which his nephew was caught taking a bribe from a senior railway official, coupled with anti-incumbency has made the battle harder for him.
Updated on Apr 09, 2014 09:02 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
In starry battle, astrologers see winners on all sides
Who will represent the city in the 16th Lok Sabha? The million dollar question might yet be locked up in the minds of voters, but HT contacts the people who seem to know it all, the astrologers, for a peep into the possible future on May 16, the day the votes are counted.
Updated on Apr 08, 2014 11:43 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Omens, charms don’t seem to matter for our candidates
They would have many superstitions, but the top four contenders who have plunged into the Lok Sabha battle for Chandigarh seat claim to be atheist. Most of them say they offer prayers but do not believe in good or bad omens.
Updated on Apr 08, 2014 11:15 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
AAP fundraiser a good draw, raises an estimated 3.5 lakh
The Aam Aadmi Party’s fund raising dinner at a bar in Sector 26 on Monday evening drew a much bigger crowd than the organisers had ever expected. Sources said the party estimated to earn over 3.5 lakh. Seeing the brisk response, they had to place more orders nearly a hundred people had arrived till about 9.30 pm.
Updated on Apr 08, 2014 11:10 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
'Apolitical' Anil roots for Kirron as ‘right’ candidate
It was only ‘jhakaas’ ( excellent) what actor Anil Kapoor delivered as filmy dialogue while campaigning for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Kirron Kher, but that too many could not hear.Kapoor, who reached the city on Sunday morning from Dubai to campaign for Kirron.
Updated on Apr 07, 2014 09:43 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Ear to the ground here, eye on national scene
From issues affecting their day- to- day life in Chandigarh to the country’s most debated political personalities, they have their views on all. Hindustan Times invited a group of youngsters — most of them first-time voters — to participate in an agenda discussion ‘Young India Votes’ for Chandigarh, on Saturday. Here are some key takeaways.
Updated on Apr 06, 2014 12:20 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma and Jyotsna Jalali, Chandigarh
Volunteer-driven party needs to strengthen roots
Even though the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) got active barely three months ahead of the general elections in the city, it has projected itself as a ‘serious’ contender. The major credit for this should go to the limelight party convener Arvind Kejriwal has hogged at the national level by targeting all voters and by trying to portray the organisation as ‘different’ from the BJP as well as the Congress.
Updated on Apr 05, 2014 11:27 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Jannat Jahan: juggling between 3 kids and poll battle
As Jannat Jahan, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate from Chandigarh, enters a Ford Endeavour at her palatial Sector-35 house to leave for door- to- door campaigning on a breezy Wednesday morning, she stops and calls out to her domestic help, Urmila: “Don’t let her (Jahan’s one-year-old daughter) be alone. Ensure that the gate is closed.”
Updated on Apr 04, 2014 04:13 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
RSS workers to support Kirron’s campaign
The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), traditionally known for staying in the background in elections, is playing a more open and direct role in the Chandigarh Lok Sabha poll. At least 700 RSS workers from the city and neighbouring states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
Updated on Apr 02, 2014 01:45 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
For Congress, it’s a battle for survival
The Congress party, which has been sending Pawan Kumar Bansal to Lok Sabha from the city seat for the past 15 years, is facing a battle of survival in the upcoming elections. The party not only faces challenge of overcoming antiincumbency.
Updated on Apr 02, 2014 10:19 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh
Mayawati uses Godhra to attack Modi
Taking a dig at prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi in her rally maiden rally in Chandigarh in this elections, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati invoked Godhra riots and said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should be stopped from forming a government at the centre.
Updated on Mar 31, 2014 12:14 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Surender Sharma, Chandigarh