Physics is his passion, Community Service his mission

Team Buzzingg July 14, 2017 Engineering and Technology 940 Views

National Service Scheme (NSS), under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Govt. of India, was launched in Gandhiji’s Birth Centenary Year 1969 with primary focus on the development of personality of students through community service. Today, NSS has more than 3.2 million student volunteers on its roll across India. Meet Niket Shastri, Sr. Assistant Professor of Physics who has been actively spearheading the NSS efforts at Sarvajanik College of Engineering and Technology (SCET), Surat, as a Program Officer. His team of NSS Volunteers have the unique distinction of winning the Best Volunteers award for last three years in a row from Gujarat Technological University (GTU) and also the Best NSS Unit award for 2014-15. Recognizing his outstanding contribution and innovation in social and cultural activities, Niket has been honoured with Pedogogical Innovation Award (2017) and Best NSS Program Officer (2016) by GTU.

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Niket Shastri receiving the Pedogogical Innovation award of GTU in Feb'17 — Niket Shastri receiving the Pedogogical Innovation award of GTU in Feb’17

SCET NSS team awarded as the Best Unit for 2014-2015, Niket Shastri awarded as Best Program Officer for 2015-16

Niket Shastri and SCET NSS felicitated in 2015 for Highest number of Thalassemia screening in GTU, Felicitation by Principal SCET Principal Dr. Vaishali Mungurwadi — (L) Niket Shastri and SCET NSS felicitated in 2015 for Highest number of Thalassemia screening in GTU (R) Felicitation by Dr. Vaishali Mungurwadi, Principal, SCET for oustanding work in social and cultural activities

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Niket has been teaching since over 19 years now. He has completed Master in Applied Physics from M S University Baroda and is currently pursuing research in GPS meteorology for his PhD. He has been associated with various institutions, NGOs and projects working for environment protection and conservation including Kaleidoscope, Surat Nature Club and NSS. His inclination towards social service was right there from his college days. As a volunteer, he realized that NSS is a great tool to get involved in the tasks of national development. When he joined SCET, no wonder, he aspired to have a NSS unit established one day.

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Felicitation of SCET NSS Volunteers by Surat Police Commissioners office for their No Honk - Voice against Noise Campaign — Felicitation of SCET NSS Volunteers by Surat Police Commissioners office for their No Honk – Voice against Noise Campaign

Niket Shastri with SCET students who won trophies for Gujarat at NSS National Integration Camp at Himachal pradesh -2017

NSS Gujarat Team led by Niket Shastri won six trophies at National Integration Camp 2017 at Himachal pradesh

Niket Shastri with NSS team of GTU that won four trophies at state level NSS Day celebration and Cultural Festival at VNSGU in 2016

NSS SCET Activities Collage — NSS SCET Activities

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He started by organizing Thalassemia screening and awareness camp at SCET with student volunteers in 2010. The popularity of camp grew year on year and his team received the Excellence award for highest number of testing of students for Thalassemia in 2012. Their stupendous effort bore fruit and SCET was allotted a NSS Unit of 50 volunteers in 2013. Since then, they have initiated various innovative social campaigns for the betterment of society like No Honk Campaign, Statue Cleaning Drive, Stem Cell Drive, Thalassemia screening and awareness camps, Blood donation camps, Cashless transaction awareness, GST awareness etc. Recently, they have also started an initiative to identify and create awareness on fake messages being circulated on social media.

Achievements of NSS @ SCET

♦ Best NSS Unit for 2014-15 awarded by GTU, Best Program Officer to Niket Sharma for 2015-16
♦ Best Volunteers award for 2014, 2015 and 2016.
♦ Five volunteers represented the NSS–SCET and NSS-GTU at National level.
♦ Volunteer Prince Kasundra represented SCET and GTU at NSS National Adventure camp 2017.
♦ Three Volunteers (Radhika Monpara, Ruchita Kaneriya and Apoorv Parikh) represented SCET and GTU at NIC 2017 at Himachal Pradesh – won six awards
♦ Niket Sharma was selected as Commanding officer of Gujarat team for NIC 2017 at Himachal Pradesh

In future, NSS @ SCET will be undertaking projects with the aim to reduce overall noise pollution of Surat City. We will also start special project on census of trees and their conservation.
Niket Shastri, Sr. Assistant Professor of Physics and Program Officer, NSS, SCET

Niket is also a member of Board of Cultural and Social activities of GTU since 2014. Under Niket’s guidance, SCET hosted four out of the six seasons of zonal level Youth Festival since its inception (2011-14). He is also the co-chairman of Kavi Narmad Library activities Committee of Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SGCCI). He was instrumental in initiating the famous knowledge series Kaleidoscope. A joint initiative by Narmad Library, Surat Municipal Corporation, and SGCCI, Kaleidoscope hosts a series of programs with an aim of catering to the development of Surat citizens. In the past 4 years, there have been 500+ programs like TED Talks, book reviews, children movies, Quiz, Elocution, Management talks, Interactive sessions, Kavya Gosthi, Vichar Gosthi, etc.

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SCET Youth Fest team - Zonal Champions of Youth Fest of GTU 2016 — SCET Youth Fest team – Zonal Champions of Youth Fest of GTU 2016. SCET has won the Overall Champion trophy for five out of six Youth Festivals organized by GTU since 2011.

SCET cultural team wins War of Worlds, Surat, College of the Year trophy

Niket Shastri felicitated by SGCCI for Outstanding contribution in Narmad library activities

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The entire credit goes to my students who have always supported me in each of the initiatives – be it social or cultural.

Niket Shastri, Sr. Assistant Professor of Physics and Program Officer, NSS, SCET

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