Indian Community Welfare Organisation (ICWO) and social work students from Mohammed Sathak College, Loyola College, Mar Gregorious College, Madras Christian College, Hindustan College, Asan Business School, Vivekananda College and SDNB Vaishnav College organised New Year Celebration at the Nammathu Illam Shelter for homeless residents, recently.
ICWO works for various developmental initiatives with a specific focus on women and children. ICWO in collaboration with Corporation of Chennai initiated Nammathu in Thattankulam Chennai. It aims to provide shelter to the elderly, orphan women, homeless and people with disabilities.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / Express News Service – Chennai / January 01st, 2014
In order to promote quality of education, educational institutions must be accorded autonomy, opined VIT University chancellor G Viswanathan.
While speaking at a function on Saturday organised by associations, NGOs and institutions to commemorate his 75th birthday celebrations, Viswanathan recalled that had he not met former chief minister of TN Annadurai, he would have ended up as an advocate and not an educationist.
He said the educational institutions across the country were not being given adequate support by the government and wherever these institutions enjoyed freedom and autonomy, they were able to provide quality education. Quality education must be the goal for both the State and Centre, he added.
Viswanathan also stressed on the importance of providing good tree cover to Vellore, which, in the next ten years would change the climate of the city. He also offered to donate `50 lakh to renovate the Sangeetha Sabha building in the old bus stand area. Former union minister S R Balasubramaniam, termed Viswanathan as an open-minded person, who was a friend of all parties. The VIT University, founded by Viswanathan had become an additional landmark of the historical city of Vellore, he added. The organisers of the event conferred the ‘Kalviko’ award on Viswanathan. The diamond jubilee souvenir was released by the former vice-chancellor of Anna University A Kalanidhi, on the occasion.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service – Vellore / December 30th, 2013
The Tamil Nadu Paarambarya Siddha Vaidya Maha Sangam will soon commence six-month diploma course in siddha vaidyam in Vellore.
Vaidyar Arjunan of the sangam said the diploma course would be a good platform to learn and get exposure to the traditional healing system. The a course was already being conducted in Bangalore in association with the Institute of Ayurvedha and Integrated Medicine and Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT).
He said introductory workshops were held for interested youngsters in Bangalore and later at Dindigul. The third one would be held in Vellore shortly. “We are planning to start the course in Vellore in 2014,” he added. He said the sangam had a research and training centre in Vellore where practical training was being imparted to students, who had completed the regular graduate course in Siddha, offered by the government and private colleges. The new diploma course would be practical oriented and a good platform to learn and get exposure to traditional healing system, he added.
Arjunan said the sangam would launch a monthly magazine to popularise traditional healing. It was also planning to document research activities of the siddha vaidyars of the State and their rich experience through the magazine.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by V. NarayanaMurthi – Vellore / December 30th, 2013
This is the first time the World Universities Debating Championship is being held in India. / Photo: R. Ravindran / The Hindu
1,200 students from 60 countries test each others’ skills in debating championship
“50 cents, now that we have adopted the US dollar,” said Austen Harrison, talking about the price of a newspaper in Zimbabwe. “Before that, don’t even ask. The currency’s value kept depreciating. It was utter chaos,” said the student of teacher education at Mutare Teachers’ College in the southern African country.
Austen welcomed the New Year in Chennai, hoping that things continue to be stable when he gets back. On Thursday and Friday though, his entire focus is on arguments and counter-arguments on a variety of issues. He is among the 1,200 participants from 60 countries who are in Chennai at the Rajalakshmi Engineering College for the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) 2014. This is the first time the debating championship is being held in India.
If debating is all about discussing different sides of an issue, the best argument is presented by the person who has thought of all possible angles. “One of the topics had to do with the abolition of gated communities. In Australia, inequality is much less than in developing countries. Many participants could not relate to the topic, but as I grew up in Thailand, I was able to present a cogent argument,” said James Gray, an economics student from Australia.
The topics of discussions ranged from NATO and media issues to global security threats. “Participants from English-speaking countries always seem to be at an advantage. As Asians, it is sometimes difficult to contextualise your examples. The same issues mean very different things to people from different countries,” noted Ritvik Chauhan, from the IIT- Bombay team, the only one from India among the 48 teams that qualified for the next round. His teammate Souradip pointed out that in debating, one was often forced to argue against one’s own views.
“We were supposed to talk about ‘the hook-up culture’. Though we have no problems with it, we had to argue that sometimes, such relationships rob you of the ability to emotionally connect with people,” he said.
It was not all serious debating. Joshua Baxter from New Zealand, a student of law at the University of Auckland, was fascinated with autorickshaws. “For a moment, I thought it was dangerous but I held on. I still cannot understand why drivers here honk so much.”
Lodged at a five-star hotel many of these candidates welcomed the New Year dancing to Indian music. Rosie Unwin, an adjudicator from London, said she was touched to see people on the streets on New Year’s eve, wanting to shake hands with everyone.
Some of them have made friends here too. Liam Brown from Melbourne, Australia said he managed to have a long conversation with the security guards at the college. “They heard Australia and screamed Ricky Ponting. We then analysed how the Indians thrashed us the last time.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Vasudha Venugopal / Chennai – January 03rd, 2013
The students were trained as part of a Music Literacy Project and performed at the TAG Centre on Sunday. / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
This Margazhi festival, it is not only accomplished artistes but also children from less privileged backgrounds who are taking to the stage.
Dressed in crisp pavadais and veshtis, 20 students from a Chennai Corporation school in Mylapore sang songs by V.V. Sadagopan and Bharathiyar among others at the TAG Centre on Sunday.
They were among the children who were trained as part of the Music Literacy Project at 16 Chennai Corporation schools.
Anil Srinivasan, founder of Rhapsody – music through education, a music initiative that runs the Music Literacy Project along with NGO NalandaWay Foundation said that TAG Centre extended an invitation to the students to perform.
Nalina Kumari, headmistress, Chennai High School, VP Koil Street, Mylapore, said the students were extremely excited. “It was a very good platform for them, and music helps greatly in a child’s development,” she said.
R.T. Chari, managing director, TAG Group of Companies, said he had heard the students earlier this year, and decided to invite them to perform in December as part of the South India Heritage Lecture programme.
“We are planning to give a chance to students from one Chennai Corporation school every year to perform during the music season,” he said.
“The mission is to take music to everybody and also indirectly build a rasika base,” said Sudha Raja, principal faculty, Rhapsody
Mr. Srinivasan said that around 100 students from both top schools and poor socio-economic backgrounds will be performing on December 28 at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Mylapore.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Margazhi Melodies / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – December 25th, 2013
A child at the V-Excel Educational Trust during one of the sessions at the centre
For G Balaji, who originally hails from Sivaganga District, shifting to Chennai would have been the last option, if not for his child with autism. Despite having a flourishing retail and wholesale family business, the available intervention programmes in the city made the shift inevitable. He says, “We found out he had ASD when he was two-and-a-half-years old. Initially, we enrolled him at a centre in Tiruchy, but later he needed more specialised help.” Eventually, Balaji and his family moved to Chennai, after much deliberation and now his son, who is 15, is undergoing intervention programme at The Lotus Foundation in Kottivakkam.
Today, his son is well settled in the environment offered by the centre, while Balaji has set up a new business in transportation in Chennai. However, after eight years in the metro, he says he still wishes to get back to his hometown due to the difference in the lifestyle. “My whole family of siblings and other relatives are there back in Sivagangai and ours is a family business. Sometimes, I wish I could just wrap up my business here and head home. But, the fact is that Chennai has been ideal for my son,” he says.
Like Balaji, Esakkiappan a native of Udangudi near Thoothukudi, too, was left with little option to seek treatment for his elder son after the latter was diagnosed with ASD at the age of two. Moving to Tirunelveli that was closer to his hometown, he sought early intervention treatment, but with little avail. After spending almost two years in Palayamkottai, it was time for more comprehensive treatment for his child. Later a shift to Mettur in Salem, too, yielded little benefit and it was in 2009 that Esakkiappan and his family saw a ray of hope when they sought occupational therapy at Vidyasagar in Chennai.
Now, his son, who is 12, is at Sankalp, a learning centre. Shifting his entire family including his parents to Chennai, Esakkiappan says that the shift hasn’t been an easier one for his family and him.
He says, “Chennai was not the first option that we had when we were first looking for an intervention programme. But, it is only here that we have been able to find a complete set of therapies for him.” Nandini Santhanam, founder of The Lotus Foundation, says that in the last five years, she has seen several such migrations, especially by those who hail from the interior villages in the South.
“When you go to the districts the understanding of the skills is not very high though they are very close to the nature. But they feel that city holds a certain promise. I find that more of the migration happens from the interior villages than the middle towns, especially with people from the villages, where absolutely no services are available. In such people, there is a strong will to give their child a better future. They are more adventurous about moving to cities.”
Dr Vasudha Prakash, founder-director of V-Excel Educational Trust that has three centres in the city for children with special needs, says that going by the record of children enrolled at the centre, almost 50 families from various parts of Tamil Nadu and states like Maharashtra and West Bengal have moved to Chennai, in the last decade.
“I have had parents who originally are based in places like Tirunelveli, Madurai, Salem, Tirupur and Palani, even from Solapur in Maharashtra and parts of West Bengal. They would come here for remedial and one on one and they stay back here because things are not better back there,” she says.
To meet the growing requirements in districts today V-Excel has centres in Nasik, Solapur, Erode, Tirunelveli, while another centre is coming up in Tiruchy.
There is another aspect of the migration — one parent shifting to the city, while another stays back in the place of business interest. “We have had children whose parents have chosen to live in different cities,” says Nandini.
She points to examples of single parents who opt for a divorce as they find their spouse’s attitude and approach to ASD to be a hindrance in their child’s progress.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Janani Sampath / December 21st, 2013
Differently abled children at a day care centre in Perambalur district./ by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Autorickshaws employed for bringing kids to day care centres
The district has registered a rare achievement in the care of differently abled, with “zero home-based differently abled child” in the district. All the 467 differently abled children in the age group of 0 to 18 suffering from multiple disabilities have been attached to the 10 day care centres run under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
It was the initiative taken by the district administration with the active participation of the SSA, Pudu Vaazhvu Thittam and the department of differently abled welfare that saw the new horizon in the form of creation of adequate day care centres.
Till a couple of years ago, the district accounted for only four day care centres – one in each block. District Collector Darez Ahamed, a qualified doctor, realising the importance of adequate facilities for the rehabilitation of youth with disabilities, got six more day care centres under the SSA. He allocated Rs. 3.35 lakh for each centre from the Collector’s discretionary funds for improving the infrastructure, besides procuring physiotherapy-related equipment and teaching learning material.
The differently abled children identified at the special screening camps were enrolled and attached to these day care centres and this enabled them get the benefits extended by the government.
In the absence of adequate day care centres, many children with disabilities remained indoors for years and the rehabilitation initiative of the government did not reach them because of the distance involved, absence of adequate trained hands, and so on.
The Collector’s initiative has brought relief to the parents of these hapless children, who undergo special education programme in the centres. Special teachers and physiotherapists had been attached to them. Till recently, one physiotherapist was in charge of two centres, but now each centre accounted for a physiotherapist. The parents could not bring their children to the centres for want of transport facilities. Now, autorickshaws have been hired for bringing these children to the day care centres every day and Rs.12,000 is earmarked for each centre for a month – Rs. 4,300 under SSA and Rs. 7,700 under Pudu Vaazhvu Thittam. The children’s performance is monitored by special teachers and their physical and behavioural patterns are monitored regularly.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchirapalli / by Syed Muthahar Saqaf / Perambalur – December 19th, 2013
The three-day inter-department annual cultural extravaganza of the St Joseph’s College, Trichy began on Thursday. This year, the college is celebrating the silver jubilee year of the cultural competition programme, which is titled INDEP.
Until 1987, the cultural festival, which was conducted as Fantasia with participation from other colleges in the region, became an inter-department affair due to certain student skirmishes, said its principal Fr Andrews.
St Joseph’s dean Selvakumar told TOI that the events were primarily aimed at building the communication skills of the students who had stage fright or inhibitions, a virtue that is largely seen as one of the prime employability skills in the job market.
There were elocution competitions both in Tamil and English and a programme titled, “We will meet” projected an imaginary conversation between two present day politicians at the diametrically opposite political ends.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Trichy> Programme / TNN / December 14th, 2013
A simple technique used in small-scale textile shops paved the way for the librarians of Lady Doak College to classify their huge collection of books with ease.
Inspired by the way shopkeepers mark the prices of products using colourful stickers, the J X Miller Library started a unique method called ‘Rainbow Classification’. In this method, the staff paste colourful stickers on the spine of the books making their task easier when it comes to sorting and arranging the books.
J X Miller library is as old as the college itself which was established in 1948 by Katie Wilcox, an American missionary in Madurai region. There are 12 departmental libraries and 12 special libraries with thousands of books and journals in each. Apart from these, the college is also maintaining an archive on the history of the college and its founder.
S Sangaranachiar, library director said that they used to take a whole day during weekend to complete the laborious task of arranging books, which has now reduced to an hour everyday. “We were looking for some classification methods. The idea struck us in a textiles shop where a salesman told that they use the stickers to mark the prices. We ordered special stickers with single and double colours from a merchant in the city and pasted specific coloured stickers on specific books,” she said. The system is more than a decade old and has yielded good results too, the staff said.
After the system was implemented, the library staff were able to arrange the books in lesser time and could retrieve them quicker. “After introducing this method, we could track the books, which were misplaced by the students intentionally or unintentionally,” Sangaranachiar pointed out. The intentional misplacing is done by the students if they want to hide a book for later retrieval. “At the end of the day, we just give a casual screening of the racks and such hidden books could be spotted because they don’t match the specific colour code of the section. Tracking them with numbers or alpha-numerical would be slightly tougher and time consuming too,” one of the library staff said.
Another novel initiative undertaken by the library for its students is the Library Service Programme. As Part V stream of the collegiate education, the library offers a 120-hour library service course in which 20 hours goes in theory sessions while 100 hours are set aside for fieldworks.
Fieldworks include visiting village libraries and helping out the panchayats in library management. The students also organise story telling sessions for children in the villages and take a children’s library along during their visits. They also visit the district library to learn the nuances of maintaining a library. In addition to these, the library also offers an elective paper called Basics of Library and Information Services. It also organises lectures on plagiarism so that students don’t copy the works of authors for their assignments.
V Aparna and J Ruth Roobella, the final year students from English department, said that their library is more than the collection of books. “Apart from utilising the services of the library, we also get to learn a lot on library science too. The most attractive part is the rainbow system used in the classification of the books,” Aparna said.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai> Books / TNN / December 13th, 2013
More than 700 delegates from various parts of the state are expected to attend the 34th annual conference of the Association of Economist of Tamil Nadu ( AET), to be hosted by Vellore Institute of Technology University’s business school on December 14 and 15.
VIT University chancellor G Viswanathan will inaugurate the conference in the presence of Royal Meridian Hotel and PGP Group of Institutions chairman Palani G Periasamy. The conference will hold technical sessions on education and development, energy crisis in Tamil Nadu and economy of Vellore region.
V Loganathan, emeritus professor University of Madras, K Varatharajan, former scientific officer of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, M Basha from Islamiah College, Vaniyambadi, and C Dhandapani from Thiruvallur University, Vellore, will address the conference in which more than 200 papers will be presented.
R Balasubramaniyan, associate professor of economics at D G Vaishanav College, Chennai, will deliver the 9th M Sebastian Stanislaus (AET founder) memorial lecture on ‘The status of food security in Tamil Nadu.’
The conference includes a panel discussion on southern growth models. Viswanathan will chair the socio-economic conundrum on December 15.
Lifetime achievement awards will be presented to nine professors, including founder director of Vellore Institute of Development Studies P Jegadish Gandhi.
Senior economist and junior economist awards will also be presented during the conference.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai> Tamil Nadu / by Bosco Dominique, TNN / December 13th, 2013
