National Statistics Day celebrations were held in J&K's Vishwa Bharti Women's College Rainwari Srinagar on Wednesday, commemorating the 129th birth anniversary of Professor P.C.Mahalanobis, popularly known as the father of statistics in India. The one-day national conference was organised on "Better Data Better Lives" in collaboration with the Division of Social Sciences, Faculty of Fisheries, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST).
The objective of the programme was to highlight the importance of providing a platform for the researchers to learn about the modern tools of Statistics and emerging techniques used along with the advancement in computing facilities these days. Dr Syed Javed Iqbal Kamili, Principal Vishwa Bharti Women's college & Dr Bilal Ahmad Bhat, Head, Division of Social Science, FoFy, SKUAST-K further briefed that the conference educates students, researchers and faculty members to correctly use the tools of Statistics in validating their research findings.
Prof. Ronika Yousuf, Organizing secretary of the conference, anchored the program, which was attended by many researchers and scholars. Professor Javid Iqbal Kamili, Principal, Vishwa Bharti Women's College, inaugurated the conference and delivered the welcome address. Professor Bilal Ahmad Bhat, Patron of the conference, discussed in brief the life of P.C.Mahalanobis.
Hemant Kumar Lohia, a senior IPS officer, was the chief guest for the day, who discussed in detail about P.C.Mahalanobis's contributions, Big Data and the importance of Statistics in different fields in the modern era.
Technical sessions at the conference
At the conference, 20 scholars even presented their papers in various technical sessions organized during the day. Following the inauguration, two technical sessions were held, in which three lead lectures were held.
Abdul Rashid showed a documentary on climate change and explained the causes and ways to adapt to climate change. The second lecture was by Dr Mudasir M. Kirmani, who talked about the role of computers in different fields. Finally, Dr Bilal Ahmad Bhat talked about the role of sampling in research. Through his own experience of working with Fisheries data, he put forward an example to adopt by the researchers'.
In the second technical session, Dr Parmil Kumar, Head Dept. of Statistics, University of Jammu delivered an enriching lecture on "Better Data Better Lives", enlightening participants about the importance of data. Dr Manish Kumar, Head, Div. of Stats and Comp. Sciences delivered the second lecture, where he talked about the contributions of PC Mahalanobis and the present status of statistics.
Following the technical sessions, the research papers submitted by scholars were judged based on merit. Below are the winners:
Oral presentation
- Mehak Hafeez, Division of AAHM, FoFy, SKUAST-K got first for Bacterial Load of Clostridium Perfringens in the Aquatic Environment of Dal Lake, Kashmir, co-authored, Irfan Ahmad & Bilal Ahmad Bhat
- Prof. Ronika Yousuf, VB Women's College Rainawari for second for a Study on Fish Consumption Among People of Central Kashmir, co-authored, Bilal Ahmad Bhat
- Ms. Keezia Khursheed, Division of AAHM, FoFy, SKUAST-K got third for Development of Primary Cell Culture System from heart of Schizothorax esocinus, co-authored, Feroz A.Shah, Bilal Ahmad Bhat, Adnan Abubakr, Shabir A.Dar, Asifa Wali
Poster presentation
- Prof Mimoona Shah VB Women's College Rainawari got first for Spatial Distribution on Kashmiri Speaking Population and the Attitude of Students of Kashmir Valley Towards their Mother Tongue
- Prof. Sabiha Fatima, VB Women's College Rainawari got second for A Study on Impact of Social Media in the COVID-19 Pandemic, Co-authored, Afreen Niyaz, Ronika Yousuf and Bilal Ahmad Bhat
- Insha Ismail, Women's College, got third for paper co-authored, Bilal Ahmad Bhat, Shazia Naseem, Shazia Manzoor, Rasy Fayaz, Lubna Altaf, Intizar Ahmad
Valedictory function
Following the technical sessions, a valedictory function was held in which Prof. Syed Javid Iqbal Kamili, Principal, Vishwa Bharti Women's College was the Chief guest. He interacted with the participants and assured to conduct such conferences from time to time so that every researcher stays updated and gets benefitted from the presence of peers, mentors and senior scientists in the conference.
