Good gesture  Blood donation is a noble gesture as it can save someone’s life. One healthy person can safely donate 350 ml of blood (one unit) every three months. Earlier, it was believed that donating blood is harmful to the donor. But new finidings show that donation of blood actually streagthens the immune system as it helps in generation of new blood cells. The tragedy is that even now some people are averse to the idea of donating blood so essential to save precious lives in times of crises. In a bid to create awareness among the masses about the benefits of blood donation to self and the society, the Old Boys’ Association of Sainik School Goalpara organized a blood donation camp at the B Barooah Cancer Institute, Guwahati on the aupicious occasion of Independence Day on August 15. It was heartening to meet the alumni converging at the venue braving incessant rains and donating blood. However, the weather also played slight nuisance as it must have induced some sense of indifference among some, for, of the around 50 donors expected some 30 odd turned out for the purpose. As the old pals gathered they discussed about the good works that were done and some future plans too. Last year the Sainik School oldies donated blood at Army Base Hospital, Basistha on the Independence Day drawing applause. And recently on July 11, the alumni body organized a medical camp at Ulubari Bapuji LP School which benefited 173 people with free medicines and check-up as five medicos — Dulan Deka, Pinaki Chakravarty, Raj Jyoti Das, Dilip Saloi and Waliul Islam — took time off their hectic schedule for the good cause. The alumni forum has similar plans to serve the society and let’s hope their efforts continue alongside their day-to-day routine and bring cheers to the society in these hard times. This would surely enthuse other such groups to organize such socially beneficial events.

Pure professional  The recent global economic recession has taken its toll on the Indian economy too, like others. The aviation and hospitality sector in the country has been among the worst affected in terms of growth rate. However, the industry will continue to grow gradually in the near future and keep recruiting manpower. In such a scenario, Jettwings, a leading institute has been living up to its reputation of readying the best professionals for the industry, thanks to its simple philosophy: The global industry needs a lot of well-trained professionals and Jettwings is educating and developing them. A unit of Infovalley Educational and Research (P) Ltd, Jettwings with four campuses in Guwahati, Siliguri, Shillong and Itanagar has set new benchmarks during 2008-09 by hitting an all-time high of 90 per cent placements so far. Even at a time like this, the institute has been successful to train and place its students in leading giants in the sector like Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways, Go Air, Indigo, The Taj, Oberoi, Westin, Le Royal Meridian, ITC Group, Ginger Hotels, Nokia, IBM, Wipro, Cox & Kings, etc. “This is an unprecedented global scenario but the industry is resilient enough to deal with the challenges. The government has already unveiled a Rs 300,000 crore package to pump prime the economy with specific measures for various sectors,” saysAnkur Hatibaruah, CEO of Jettwings. “In fact, there is a huge requirement of talent in the field of hospitality, aviation, IT services, retail and financial services, to name a few. We believe India will have to significantly gear up its educational infrastructure to meet this demand,” he adds. Besides offering various courses in the aviation and hospitality training sector, Jettwings this year also launched its business school with a vision of becoming the best business school of the Northeast. The programmes at Jettwings Business School (JBS) have been carefully crafted to help students develop a capacity to succeed in life.

Simanta / Mridumoloy