Category Career Query

How to become an air quality specialist?

We often come across news articles describing the air quality in certain parts of the world as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. The quality of air refers to the amount of pollutants present in the atmosphere. And it is the job of the air quality specialists to monitor air pollution and report it. Air quality specialists work for government and private agencies. They analyse the air we breathe to check if the air is safe and free of pollutants. Vigorous monitoring helps in altering people and initiating actions in case of extreme pollution. So if you want to help build sustainable, livable cities and contribute towards a low-carbon economy, then air quality assessment could be the right career option for you.

How it works

Air quality specialists test air samples from various environments and determine whether it meets the set standards. Monitoring air quality is also significant as policy makers can frame policies to curb air pollution and for the environment experts to understand the impact of policy changes. Real-time monitoring plays a key role in calculating air quality index (AQI) to issue health advisories as well as from action plans to meet standards.

Required skills

  • Analytical skills
  • Problem-solving skills
  • Good communication skills to simplify technical documents
  • Awareness of occupational safety and health issues
  • Interest in preserving the environment

Scope

In India, air quality specialists work with the Central Pollution Control Board, State pollution control boards, pollution control committees, and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute in cities. Air quality specialists are also needed by non-government agencies and action groups working to reduce air pollution.

What to study?

If you are interested in pursuing a career as an air quality specialist, a degree in environmental engineering – Bachelors of Technology (B.Tech) is a must. A Bachelors (B.Sc) and a Masters (M.Sc) in Environmental Science will also be helpful.

Where:

  • Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. B.Tech in Environmental Engineering.
  • Ch BP Government Engineering College, New Delhi: B.Tech in Environmental Engineering.
  • Banaras Hindu University: M.Sc in Environmental Science (Environmental Technology)
  • Garware Institute of Development University of Mumbai: M.Sc in Sustainable Development and Environment Management.
  • Savitribai Phule University, Pune: M.Sc in Environmental Sciences.
  • Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi: M.Sc in Environmental Sciences.

 

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Who is the Celluloid Man?

Paramesh Krishnan Nair, known popularly as P.K. Nair, was an Indian film scholar and archivist. Nair was the founder-director of the NFAI who dedicated his life to archiving films for posterity. He started his journey with the NFAI in 1965 as an assistant curator. He travelled all across India to collect film reels, and created a vibrant collection over the many decades he worked with the NFAI.

Some of his important finds are reels from Dadasaheb Phalke’s Kalia Mardan, and Ardeshir Irani’s Alam Ara, the first Indian talking film.

Nair became the first director of the NFAI in 1982 and developed the framework for its functioning.

Though he got some practical training in branches of film making from film makers of Bombay, particularly Mehboob Khan, Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee, he realised that he did not have the ideal qualities to become a filmmaker himself. His interest lay more in the field of academics.

As advised by Jean Bhownagary of Films Division of India, he appeared for an interview at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), was selected and joined the institute in March 1961 in the position of research assistant. While at FTII, he assisted Marie Seton and Professor Satish Bahadur in initiating and conducting the film appreciation classes of FTII. He also conducted early work to establish the film archive set up as a separate wing of FTII. He corresponded with the curators and directors of established film archives in the UK, USA, France, Italy, Poland, Soviet Union and other countries. All of them advised an independent autonomous entity for NFAI and not as a wing of FTII.

Destructive fire and current state of preservation

A huge fire which broke out on January 8, 2003 in the Film and Television Institute of India caused massive destruction in a vault of the NFAI housed on the campus. Nearly, 1,700 nitrate film base prints perished, and 607 films in 5,097 reels were lost in the fire. Among the greatest losses for the Archive were the reels of Dadasaheb Phalke’s films Raja Harishchandra (1913), Lanka Dahan (1917), and Kaliya Mardan (1919).

In March 2019, a report submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India stated that nearly 31,000 reels at the NFAI were reported lost or destroyed.

Recently, the Jayakar Bungalow on the NFAI campus was inaugurated by Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The bungalow will house a digital film library where researchers can access the NFAI’s database.

 

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What is The National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM)?

To preserve, conserve, digitize and restore films and ancillary material, the NFHM was setup by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. As of June 2019, the NFHM has completed assessment of the condition of nearly 1.32 lakh film reels and conservation work of the same is underway. These reels will soon be digitized.

The objectives of NFHM include assessing  the film conditions and to ascertain the left over life of films, preventive conservation of 1,32,000 film reels, 2k/4k picture and sound restoration of 1086 landmark feature films and 1152 short films; recording of new picture and sound inter-negatives of each film, digitization of 1160 feature film and 1660 short films, construction of Archival and Preservation facilities with global standards, Training and Capacity building programmes in the field of preservation facilities with global standards, training and capacity building programmes in the field of preservation and film archiving in co-ordination with international agencies. 

The Mission also aims at IT solution for effective implementation of NFHM by creation of comprehensive Web-based end to end IT management solution that will keep track of all aspects of the functioning of the mission.

 

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What are the different sections of the NFAI?

Preservation of films

The NFAI has 19 film preservation facilities /vaults as per international standards and specifications. The 19 vaults together can store close to two lakhs film reels.

Initially, the film collection was stored on the premises of the Film and Television Institute of India, but was later moved to the NFAI’s new building, which is also Pune, in 1994.

Research and documentation

This section of the NFAI is in charge of tracing, collecting and preserving the heritage of Indian cinema. It contains nearly 1,50,000 still photographs relating to almost every period of Indian cinema. It also contains over 24,000 film posters in various sizes, 14,000 song booklets, 1,00,000 press clippings and old disc records.

The Library

The NFAI library has over 29,000 books on cinema from around the world. It has close to 100 periodicals on cinema published in various languages and nearly 31,000 film scripts received from the Central Board of Film Certification, India.

Most of the old books, periodicals and scripts are digitized. The library is open to the public for research purposes.

 

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What are the workings of the National Film Archive of India?

For long, films have been a medium of enter. There are so many films made every year that people are left with endless options. Apart from entertaining people, films form an important part of a country’s heritage, throwing light on its culture and progress. To preserve this rich heritage, the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) was set up in 1964 as a media unit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.

About the NFAI

The NFAI was created with the objective of preserving films as art and historical documents.

A member of the International Federation of Film Archives, the NFAI’s three principal objectives are – to trace, acquire and preserve for posterity the heritage of Indian cinema; to classify, document data and undertake research relating to films; and to act as a centre for the dissemination of film culture.

The NFAI has a stock of film reels, video cassettes, DVDs, books, posters, stills, clippings and audio CDs of Indian cinema since the 1910s. With its headquarters in Pune, Maharashtra, it has regional offices in Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Thiruvananthapuram.

The NFAI has several facilities and sections. It has a huge library and organises film screenings periodically for the people at its various centres. In association with the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, it also conducts courses on film appreciation.

 

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I want to do my UG degree in U.S.A.

I am studying in Std IX. I want to do my UG degree in U.S.A. What exams should I do for this and from when should I start coaching for it?

For an UG course in USA, you’re required to takes SAT I (Scholastic Assessment Test) and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). In addition to these, some universities also have ACT (American College Testing) and SAT II Subject Tests. Every university has its own minimum requirements and scores with respect to standardized tests.

 SAT-I is a three-hour reasoning test, primarily multiple-choice test that measures verbal and mathematical reasoning abilities that develop over time. Mastering vocabulary is a really easy way to increase your SAT score, you should pay particular attention to developing language and writing abilities. Maths questions are of Std X level, but application-oriented. So get your concepts clear now.

SAT-II consists of subject tests. These one-hour tests measure your knowledge of particular subjects and your ability to apply the knowledge. You may take the coaching while studying in Std XI.

 

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