VSE directors
Vishnu Patel and Subhash Dalal have been elected directors of the Vadodara Stock Exchange. In Saturday's election, Patel secured 107 votes while Dalal won 81 votes. Out of the 240 broker voters, 161 cast their votes. The election was held as per the SEBI guidelines. Among the losers were Ashok Patel and former VSE president Harish Gupta.

Move rapped
Sanskar Bharati, a cultural organisation, has criticised the move of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu representatives to oppose Saraswati vandana at the recent education ministers' conference in New Delhi. In a statement, the organisation's state secretary Sadanand Apte described it as a condemnable step. Apte said the representatives should have known that many non-Hindu artists began their performances with Saraswati vandana.

Open exam
An open book examination based on `Jain Tatvagyan Pravesika' authored by Jain Acharya Kalapurna Syuriji will be held on November 15 at Jeevan Sadhana School. The book and examination forms are available from Jain temples at Nizampura.

Conference
The 72nd annual conference of World Association of Detectives Inc (WAD), an international body of private security and detective agencies, concluded at Goa recently. According to Vadodara-based Security and Crime Investigating International director S C Shukla, whose agency was one of the sponsors of the meet, 70 senior personalities from USA, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany and various Asian countries attended the conference. The conference covered a wide-range of subjects, including crime investigation, security, forensic science, ballistics, computer security, industrial fires, safety management, while collar crime, drugs and terrorism and bomb threats, Shukla said.

SC/ST contest
The Siddharth Seva Trust and the All India Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Employers' Welfare Association will organise an elocution competition for SC/ST school and college students on November 7. The participants will speak on `Is reservation necessary?', `Provisions for SC/ST people in the Constitution' and `Works of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar'. Participants will be divided into three categories: classes V to VII, classes VIII to X and classes XI to college. The last date for sending entries to Gopal Parmar, Amrutkunj, Gajrawadi, is October 31.