Category Archives: Education

Tripura Foundation rewards children with hope

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, World Opinion
The Hope Hero 2013 awards aims to recognise underprivileged women and children — Photo: K. Pichumani / The Hindu
The Hope Hero 2013 awards aims to recognise underprivileged women and children — Photo: K. Pichumani / The Hindu

Twelve-year-old N. Archana, a native of Edayapatti village in Pudukottai district, wakes up early, cooks rice and curry, goes to school and often returns home to be beaten up by her drunken father.

In between this all this, she finds time to take care of a 100-year-old blind woman who she fondly refers to as ‘Periyandi paati’ who lives in her village. On Wednesday, she emerged as a winner of the Hope Hero 2013 award instituted by Tripura Foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to help underprivileged women and children.

“My grandmother asked me to take care of Periyandi Paati. If I don’t, who else will? Every morning, I help her clean herself, buy her coffee and breakfast with the little money I have and call the 108 ambulance service if she falls ill. Now, I want to use this prize money of Rs. 4,000 to help her,” says Archana, who learnt to be optimistic and service-minded at the HoPE Learning Centre, founded by Tripura Foundation.

A.A. Gowtham, who works with Tripura Foundation, said they adopt the phonemic intelligence technique to teach children. “In this method, we teach them sounds with vowels and consonants that activate specific parts of the brain. It helps in improving their concentration, memory, intelligence and even makes them more compassionate,” he said.

Elaine Kueper, global director of Tripura Foundation, said these sound techniques that were taught by Baskaran Pillai, founder of Tripura Foundation, personally helped her overcome depression in her life. “People who have been benefitted by this technique keep sending donations which enable us to keep these centres functioning,” she said.

R. Maithin Raj, another student of HoPE who also emerged as one of the winners, had persuaded his friend Ajit’s parents who discontinued his education to resume it. “Due to poverty, his parents wanted him to work and forced him to leave school. Then, I had a tough time convincing them and took help from one of the HoPE officials to do it. Finally, it worked and he should be back in school very soon,” he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – January 30th, 2014

School where Ramanujan studied celebrates 150 years

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technologies

Kumba :

Town Higher Secondary School in Kumbakonam, which started as a primary school in 1864, reached a milestone at the start of this year when it completed 150 years.

The school, which moulded stalwarts like mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, former Union finance minister  T T Krishnamachari, HCL chief Shiv Nadar, mridangist Umayalpuram Sivaraman and many famous personalities from different walks of life, celebrated its 150th anniversary at a three-day function, which began on January 26.

The school was started by retired English head constable Martin who was also its headmaster. Later, it was managed by Indians and local philanthropists donated a piece of land where a big building was constructed. The new school building was inaugurated in 1892.

Ramanujan was a student of the school in 1898 and it was here that he came across a book titled ‘Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure Mathematics’ written by G S Carr. Influenced by the book, he began working on mathematics on his own, summing geometric and arithmetic series, says a write up on Ramanujan by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.

Governor K Rosaiah who took part in the celebrations on Wednesday said that the educational institution produced several eminent and great citizens of India.

“Starting with a humbling beginning, when we turn back and see the years passed by, this great institution has been doing remarkably well right from its inception,” Rosaiah said. “I am delighted to see that his renowned temple of learning is seated in the heart of this temple town” he added.

The governor also appealed to the teachers to build students into men and women of sound mind with a good heart coupled with a fine blend of character. The 21st century belongs to the knowledge society and it has opened tremendous opportunities. The schools and educational institutions should take it as their onerous responsibility to build the youth into leaders of tomorrow. “The national’s future progress depends on our ability to innovate,” he said.

Earlier, accompanied by Union shipping minister G K Vasan, the governor paid floral tributes to the statue of Ramanujan.

Speaking to TOI, Umayalpuram Sivaraman said, “Discipline was the hallmark of the Town High School. Headmasters were very particular about students coming to school on time and used to stand at the gate. The very look of the headmaster used to make us run and never turn late in the following days.” He studied in the school from 1944-45 till 50-51.

The teachers of the school were affectionate and took personal care of the students. “The standard of teaching was very high and there was no escape from showing the report card or assessment sheets to parents. The teachers used to counsel students who were poor in some subjects and also inform the parents,” said Sivaraman.

Many of the old students have paid back in kind to the school by donating money towards renovation of buildings, providing computers and other modern equipment for the school. Shiv Nadar has provided computers, an LCD projector and other accessories worth Rs 60 lakh to the school.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Trichy> Primary School / TNN / January 30th, 2014

Global trade, M&A will be vital part of courses: Bala V Balachandran

Business & Economy, Education, World Opinion

Q&A with Founder & Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management.

Bala V Balachandran
Bala V Balachandran

Great Lakes Institute of  Management which began from one campus in Chennai and expanded to Gurgaon is now coming up with its third campus in Mumbai. In an interview with M Saraswathy, Bala V Balachandran , Founder & Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management talks about the new campus and the plans for this year. Excerpts:

You have planned a Mumbai campus? When would it be launched? 

By December 2014, we will identify the location for the institute in Mumbai. We are in talks with philanthropists in this city who can provide us land for the campus. By June 2015, the campus should be ready to welcome students.

How different or similar will this campus be to your other centres? Are looking to set up more campuses in India? 

Each of our campuses have their own personalities. Though there would be visiting faculty, a core faculty will be present in Mumbai. Unlike the Chennai or Gurgaon campus, Great Lakes Mumbai will focus on the banking and financial services sector. Further, international trade and Mergers & Acquisition will be vital part of the curriculum and courses, since this is the country’s financial capital.

At present we are not looking to set up additional campuses. Earlier, we had a plan to set up a campus in Bhubaneshwar. We were toying with this idea for sometime. However, we decided against it since there are not internship opportunities there and the job market there is also slow. Hence, the plan was shelved. But in the future, we would be happy to have a campus in East India.

There were talks of big corporate houses like Godrej and Tatas investing in the institute. Is there any update on this? 

We were looking to sell 51% in the institute and were in talks with companies like Tatas and Godrej for this process. But later we understood that these companies were not very comfortable in investing in the higher education space since it was very crowded. After an internal evaluation, we decided against bringing in external investments. But top executives from these companies are on our Business Advisory Council.

Are there any international tie-ups on the anvil? 

IAE Bordeaux University School Of Management – Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV has announced in association with the Great Lakes, a 6 weeks program in Bordeaux, intended for PGPM students from Great Lakes. We also are associated with Yale University for Yale-Great Lakes Center for Management Research.

Now, we are looking for tie-ups with international finance schools. further, we are planning to have a tie-up with a US institute for promoting entrepreneurship on our campus.

Placement season at business schools has been muted. What has the experience been at Great Lakes? 

Surprisingly, we have had a good placement season till now. About 240 of our 360 students in Post Graduate Programme in Management have already been placed. The average salary was Rs 11.5 lakh and highest has been Rs 42 lakh. We have had 70 new companies coming to the institute this season. By February end, the entire batch will be placed.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Management> Q & A / by M Saraswathy / Mumbai – January 30th, 2014

‘India will dominate the knowledge age’

Education, Science & Technologies
A. Sivathanu Pillai examines an exhibit at Kurukshetra on Wednesday — Photo: V. Ganesan / The Hindu
A. Sivathanu Pillai examines an exhibit at Kurukshetra on Wednesday — Photo: V. Ganesan / The Hindu

Mr. Sivathanu Pillai recollected how a team of students helped develop an indigenous supercomputer

A motivated team of young students from College of Engineering, Guindy and IIT-Madras played a key role in the development of indigenous supercomputer PACE+ for strategic purposes, said A. Sivathanu Pillai, Distinguished Scientist & Chief Controller of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of BrahMos Aerospace.

Speaking at the inauguration of Kurukshetra, the techno management fest of the College of Engineering, Guindy, Mr. Pillai said the indigenous development of intercontinental ballistic missiles such as Agni V was possible because of “innovations made by students.”

The innovation in supercomputing made a few decades ago paved the way for indigenous development of “re-entry technology” for missile development.

“The supercomputer developed by Anna University students was 20 times faster than the Cray supercomputer denied to India by the U.S,” he said.

“Indians have great brains. But the brain needs some triggering,” said Mr. Pillai pointing to the success of the BrahMos supersonic missile. He stressed the need for stimulating more innovative young minds to transform India. “We can be a global leader if scientific minds come together for innovation. We are going to dominate the knowledge age with over 580 million youth below 35 years,” he said.

“Kurukshetra is a stimulating event for students of the current generation,” said M. Rajaram, Vice-Chancellor of Anna University. “Participants at the fest get an opportunity to interact with students from all over the country. It gives us exposure to new technical and management aspects of innovation,” said Nivedita Sairam, student director for projects, Kurukshetra 2014.

A range of events, workshops and lectures on technology and management will be organised from January 29 to February 1. Some of the key attractions include exhibition by National Disaster Response Force, space trek mobile planetarium, 3D floor painting, apache pro performance, 3D printing, robo face and live coding. The Hindu is the media partner for the event.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – January 30th, 2014

National conference on bio-pesticides

Education, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Science & Technologies
Chennai :
Resistance to chemical insecticides among mosquitoes is considered a setback in vector control. Researchers in colleges across the city and the rest of the country are trying to come up with bio-pesticides to fight back.

Studies on bio-pesticides were the highlights of the two-day national conference on ‘Zoology for Future Education and Research’, organised by the zoology department of Queen Mary’s College for Women on Thursday.

A team of researchers from Presidency College presented a study on the larvicidal efficacy of Lantana camara against the larvae of three mosquito species – the Aedes aegypti, Anopheles stephensi and Culex fasciatus. Hemalatha P, Elumalai D and professor Kaleena P K of Presidency College presented their results on how the extracts of the plant showed potent larvicidal efficacy, and how further studies on developing it into a bio-pesticide showed promise.

S Nagalakshmi, a research scholar of Queen Mary’s College, spoke about the efficiency of vermicompost tea along with synthetic pesticides in controlling mealy bugs that attack fruit trees, including guava and mango. Mixing vermicompost tea reduces the concentration of the synthetic pesticides to sub-lethal levels with good results.

P Balakrishna, chairman, National Biodiversity Authority, Chennai, inaugurated the conference, and spoke about the importance of basic sciences like botany and zoology, which formed the basis for studies on which multi-billion dollar industry depend.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai>  Presidency College / by M. Ramya, TNN / January 03rd, 2014

For the love of theatre

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education
Action and words: Theatre director, G. Channakeshava, directs students of PSG CAS at the 10-day theatre workshop / Photo: M. Periasamy / The Hindu
Action and words: Theatre director, G. Channakeshava, directs students of PSG CAS at the 10-day theatre workshop / Photo: M. Periasamy / The Hindu

A theatre workshop in the city gathers steam as it prepares to stage Bertolt Brecht’s The Three Penny Opera

“I want you to express yourself!” The PSG CAS auditorium rings with the resonating voice of theatre director and teacher, G. Channakeshava. Fifty students on stage, rehearse their lines. And Channakeshava gestures to the choir and music team. The drums pound and the singers belt out a song. And The Three Penny Opera, a play by Bertolt Brecht, begins.

More about energy

“I chose this play because it is a musical. The students will have a whale of a time singing and dancing. It suits their spirit and energy better than a dialogue-centred play,” says the Bangalore-based theatre director and designer.

It is rehearsal time at the 10-day workshop, organised by the Drama Club of PSG College of Arts and Science and Coimbatore Book Club Theatre Group. Channakeshava, who is a guest faculty at Ninasam Theatre Institute, Karnataka conducts the workshop, which will end with a production.

They enact a scene where a man breaks into a colony of prostitutes. The girls are supposed to scream when he jumps onto the stage. Channakeshava instructs the boy to make his gestures loud. He urges the girls to improvise and use the space around them. “It is a play with multiple perspectives. There is a story within a story. The students can be spontaneous and creative.”

Says Channakeshava, “I do not want them to just mouth dialogues from the script. I want them to use their body. I have employed different styles, including melodrama. We have used folk music since Brecht himself was influenced by the Eastern culture. We have also tried to add a contemporary twist by featuring mobile phones.”

A theatre director and an artist by profession, Channakeshava says the artist in him makes him pay a lot of importance to stage design. “What matters to me is how the audience views my stage,” he says.

Besides acting, the workshop also introduced the students to props, costume designing and stage setting.

A sense of drama

“Channakeshava has divided us into smaller teams to manage the production. Now we have a better sense of the play and the characters,” says student Sundaragandhi.

Action and words: Theatre director, G. Channakeshava / The Hindu
Action and words: Theatre director, G. Channakeshava / The Hindu

The event manager of the play, Amritha Suryakumar, says it has been an intensive, hands-on-experience. “I realise my strengths and weaknesses as a team leader. Also, being an English literature student, it is amazing to see the texts I learnt within my classroom come alive on stage.”

The PSG Drama Club, founded in 2009, has brought out a production every month. “This is our first production, open to public. We are keeping our fingers crossed,” says another student Radheswar.

Kalpana Karthi, the founder of the club and a professor in the English department, says how the club has developed from a small team to an enthusiastic bunch of 200 theatre aspirants.

“I sensed there was so much unexpressed energy and talent in the students and they needed a space to vent them .” The students manage to squeeze their the rehearsal sessions in between a busy exam schedule. Even Kalpana stays back after her college. “I enjoy it. It is a pleasure to be with them. Their energy makes you younger, every day.”

(The Three Penny Opera will be staged at PSG CAS Auditorium on February 1 at 7 p.m. The passes are available at On The Go, Race Course, That’s Y Food, R.S. Puram and Poojak, R.S. Puram)

Ninasam Theatre institute, Heggodu

Founded in 1949, Ninasam took birth as an amateur cultural troupe that put up theatre productions and debated on social issues, under the initiative of theatre person, K.V. Subbanna. Soon, it developed into a theatre and cultural centre that offered one-year diploma in theatre arts. Ninasam’s seven-day culture camp, started in 2000, invites eminent scholars from all over the world. Ninasam’s itinerant theatre troupe, Tirugata, comes up with an annual production, which tours the villages and cities around the state.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Events / by Parshathy J. Nath / Coimbatore – January 24th, 2014

Training them to sew a new life

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features
Tailoring trainees displaying miniature models of their creations in Tiruchi on Monday. / Photo: R.M. Rajarathinam / The Hindu
Tailoring trainees displaying miniature models of their creations in Tiruchi on Monday. / Photo: R.M. Rajarathinam / The Hindu

A total of 58 women received certificates at the valediction of the training programme organised by ROTECH Institute, a project started by Rotary Club in 1997 for providing tailoring and embroidery training to women of low income groups, at St.Mary’s Middle School, Mannarpuram, here on Monday.

The women had undergone six-month-long free training in embroidery and tailoring under trainer P.Amutha. “The institute aims at making poor women economically self sufficient,” said K.Natarajan, president, Rotary Club of Tiruchi.

“Every year, we target a different area so that we can ensure that a larger number of persons are benefitted form the initiative. Till date, over 2,000 persons have been trained by ROTECH,” he added.

The trainees displayed miniature models of their creations for everyone to witness the various patterns and techniques of design that they had learnt during the course. G.Selvanayagi, district employment officer, distributed certificates to the women and advised them to make best use of the skills acquired through the programme.

Two tailoring machines worth Rs.4,000 were given to two women from very poor families. “I need a livelihood to help me survive and support my two daughters, after the death of my husband two years ago. This training has proved to be very useful and the machine will help me earn a livelihood,” said A.Fathima, one of the recipients of the tailoring machine.

K.Sureshkumar, chairman, ROTECH Institute, Arockia Mary, correspondent, St. Mary’s Middle School, family members of the trainees and members of Rotary club were present.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchirapalli / by Staff Reporter / Tiruchi – January 28th, 2014

College farm saves on water through unique drip-irrigation system

Education, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Nature, Science & Technologies

Madurai :

As alternative methods of farming are tried to boost agricultural output, the state government is keen on promoting kitchen gardens to produce fresh fruits and vegetables. Arul Anandar College at Karumathur, 25 km from Madurai city, has been raising vegetables in sacks and that too with the least of water to counter water shortage in the region.

Though, sack cultivation is not novel, its irrigation method is rarely heard of, at least in the region. Discarded pet bottles of 2 to 3 litres are hung upside down from a pole attached to the sack. Intravenous tubes used to give saline to patients are used to regulate water flow to plants.

The college has been involved in several research work in agriculture under the Rural Development Science (RDS) programme. The RDS department has been testing sack cultivation for the last few years as it is ideal for raising vegetables especially creepers on terrace, said college sources. The practice involves filling discarded plastic sacks with enriched soil and composted coir so that the sack weighs light. After successfully growing creeper vegetables like ash guards, snake guards, bitter guard and pumpkin in this way, the college has started experimenting with intercrops like brinjal and ladies finger of late.

Second-year students of the RDS department water the plants once in two or three days. Guru Eswaran, one of them, said purpose of the saline tubes is to regulate water flow. “We fill bottles once in two or three days. In case of holidays, we can reduce the flow so that the water in the bottle lasts for a week’s time,” he explained. The students also add diluted vermicompost wash (the concentrated run-off water obtained from vermicompost fields) into the bottles as fertiliser.

Ambudoss Arvind, associate agriculture professor, said sack cultivation is ideal for roof-top gardens and kitchen gardens. Using this method, one can save space and water, besides adopt organic methods. It could be used even in dry areas not fit for conventional farming. “We are also trying poly-bags for kitchen gardens. Pesticide spraying is very intense in conventional method of farming. Vegetable crops can be raised organically too. A kitchen garden can serve the needs of an entire street,” he claimed.

Besides research, the college also demonstrates innovative farming practices to farmers. College principal Fr Xavier Vedham said the RDS department sensitises local farmers about its innovative methods.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai> Vegetables / by J. Arockiaraj, TNN / January 19th, 2014

WRI ties up with German university for power source evaluation

Education, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

Trichy :

The Welding Research Institute (WRI) has signed a protocol of intention with Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany for joint working in the area of power source evaluation facility.

The pact was signed at a function held at the WRI of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) on Thursday in the presence of A V Krishnan, executive director, BHEL, Trichy and senior executives.

On behalf of Leibniz University, Prof Dr Ing D Rehfeldt exchanged the signed protocol with R Easwaran, general manager (WRI & Labs), BHEL, Trichy.

Krishnan said that WRI has taken the right initiative to become a world class institute and this research – academia partnership will augment its efforts to develop a centre for welding power source evaluation which would be helpful to the nation in a big way.

He also said that by bridging the technology gap, WRI can evaluate the current generation power sources, which have several advanced features and needed to be evaluated for their dynamic characteristics. Various manufacturing sectors in the country would benefit through the development.

Prof Rehfeldt said that Leibniz University is looking forward for the joint establishment of the power source evaluation facility at WRI.

It is not only the hardware and software of the equipment, but the human mind working on this, that would fully unleash the potential of the technologies, said Rehfeldt.

Easwaran said the modern inverter-based power sources have many added features for improving the depth of penetration of welds, making spatter-free welds, welding thin sheets, etc and understanding the dynamic characteristics of the power sources required a high power data acquisition system in tandem with a high speed visualization system as well as automation even manual welding, to avoid human hand unsteadiness.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Trichy> Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited / TNN / January 18th, 2014

IIT-Madras Joined Hands with 5 Global Universities for Ph. D Research

Education, World Opinion

The Indian Institute of Technology – Madras (IIT-M) has united with 5 universities belonging to different countries of the Globe – France, Canada, China, UK, and Israel to make a group effort in research area by bringing out joint Ph. D Programmes.

It took more than a year for Indian varsity to negotiate with Universite de Technologie de Troyes in France, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, University of Waterloo in Canada, University of Liverpool in UK and National Tsing Hua University in China. Now, they all have joined hands with IIT-Madras to offer joint PhD programmes.

Lih J Chen, president of National Tsing Hua University stated the agreement with IIT-M as a watersShed moment for the Chinese varsity. He added that research of the highest quality need to be carried out and the work can no longer be only an ‘in-house’ affair.

R Nagarajan, IIT-M dean of international & alumni relations, told about their agenda, that a simple 4-stage process will be followed by IIT-M started with faculty collaboration, followed by student exchanges programmes which will lead to co-supervision and ultimately conclude in a joint degree programme.

source: http://www.jagranjosh.com /Jagran Josh / Home> Education News> Education / January 16th, 2014