The story of Nikita Hari from Pazhankavu in Vadakara is an inspiration to many. Nikita, born to a small-scale industrialist, aspired big and reached there with hard work and determination. On Thursday, she will fly to London to take up her chosen calling.
Ms. Nikita is the only Indian candidate who has qualified for research in Cambridge University, U.K. this year. An electronics and instrumentation engineer from CUSAT who completed her postgraduation from the SRM University in Chennai, Nikita was working as a lecturer at the National Institute of Technology, Kozhikode, when she applied for research abroad. Her brilliant academic background got her admission into Harvard and Oxford Universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology besides Cambridge. But she chose the latter for the better functioning department of Electronics there along with the chance to work under the Head of the Department. To top it all, the university granted her a scholarship of Rs.50 lakh, which would cover half her fee.
The research topic Nikita had selected was to develop instruments that would reduce transmission loss while connecting non-conventional energy sources to electric grids. She aspires to become a scientist and in future help, inspire, and promote girls who are bright, but economically backward, to take up scientific research.
A big fan of Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs, Nikita is the daughter of Haridas, who own Intec Industries in Vadakara and Geetha. Nikita was accorded a warm send-off and felicitation by the local people of Pazhankavu as well as many organisations recently.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Kerala / by Aabha Anoop / September 19th, 2013
CRMIT Solutions today announced a MoU with Anna University of Technology, a leading educational university for participating in an industrial consortium.
Bangalore :
CRMIT Solutions, a leader in transforming businesses with cloud based Customer Experience (CX) solutions, today announced a Memorandum of Understanding with Anna University of Technology to participate in their initiative for industrial consortium. The consortium is comprised of companies that are engaged with the University in collaborating on various industrial and manufacturing projects and programs. The MoU enables the University to study and understand CRMIT Solutions’ innovative concepts, technological development and expertise in Cloud based solution.
The consortium will primarily focus on Industrial collaboration to support significant joint research programs
Support development of new technology programs, academic courses
Organize thematic seminars & conferences with specific industry focus
Provide well trained faculty members & well equipped laboratories
This industrial consortium is a noble initiative by Anna University of Technology as a means of continuing education for professionals as a part of the human resource development programmers of specific organizations. Programmes for promoting Industry-Institute interactions, regional get-together of industries, government-funding agencies, R&D and Educational institutions, etc., are organised at regular intervals for cross pollination of industrial / academic ideas.
“We are privileged to be a part of this industrial consortium and thankful to Anna University of Technology. Our participation in this consortium is our testimony and commitment to build industrial readiness, professional competencies, and also to improve soft skills with the various programs under the MoU” – said P S Reddy, General Manager , CRMIT Solutions.
source: http://www.free-press-release-center.info / Free Press Release Center -FPRC / September 03rd, 2013
Suganya is seen with a bouquet at a college event held recently. – DC
Chennai:
Twin sisters Suganya and Suriya pursuing BSc Maths in MOP Vaishnav College for women in the city are making their parents proud.
Daughters of flower sellers, these girls string flowers together after college hours and their parents sell them to their regular customers. After knowing the family’s financial position, the college principal Dr K. Nirmala Prasad offered scholarships and also asked them to enroll in bouquet making classes at the college free of cost.
“We learnt bouquet making and now we have plans to start our own business. Thanks to our college lecturers and friends. The college also purchases flowers and bouquets from us for various events,” say Suganya and Suriya.
Though it was not a smooth journey for the twins and their younger brother, Suganya says, “Amma and Appa encourage us to study well. Sometimes we string flowers even till 8 pm and then my mom and dad go on cycles to sell them.
We want to study well and make our parents proud,” says Suganya, who wants to pursue IT and get a job. Suriya wants to develop her family business. “I want to become a florist and also work for deaf and dumb children,” she says.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / January 28th, 2013
Cycling, martial arts, books, designing and entrepreneurship… youngsters’ hobbies range from the conventional to the unconventional. Vanshika Mohta talks to a few youngsters about their avocation.
The word ‘hobby’ originated from the old ‘hobby-horse’, a common name given by the English to their ponies, something the kids, who often played with their wooden toy versions, were fond of, and gradually evolved to mean a favourite pastime.
Hobbies are like the fingerprints of one’s desires and emotions. If you want to keep the zeal on, be it professional or personal, your hobby can supply your mind and self with the indispensible bouts of freshness it needs to keep going. If you have a hobby, realise it, pursue it and live it. It’s the true inner refuge from the cacophony of the outside.
Shyamini Pillai: Reads books with a passion. / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Book worm
She was four when Shyamini Pillai, now a 26-year-old Chartered Accountant with Randstad in Chennai, discovered solace in books. A voracious reader, she is currently taking three books down simultaneously! She prefers anything from murder mysteries to chick-lit to mythology, by Indian or foreign writers in the electronic or paperback form, and picks books based on her mood. “I had crazy work timings during my Articleship days as a CA student, returning around one or two in the morning, and my friends would wonder how I’d still have the energy to stay up to read,” claims Shyamini, who cannot sleep without turning a few pages. She falls short of space here, but “back home, in Kochi, I could take you on a tour from wall to wall filled with rows of books. Don’t be surprised if you find some under the bed too,” she laughs! Inspired by words, she tried her hand at writing poetry and short stories when in her Std X, but doesn’t plan on pursuing that further. A die-hard shopping buff, she calls that her second love. No prizes for guessing which series by Sophie Kinsella she enjoys reading! “I relish spending my free time with family and friends. Otherwise, I’m a sports enthusiast and a gym-freak.”
Harsh Gagrani: Makes time for cycling despite a busy professional life./ by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Two tyre story
He juggles between tutorials, authoring books and being a part-time quizmaster, but forces himself to squeeze in space for his hobbies which include cycling, a lot of reading and watching movies/TV. With his own share of busy and not-so-busy periods,
Harsh Gagrani, 25, founder – LegalEdge Tutorials and author, from Bhopal makes a conscious effort to allot, however limited, time for cycling every day. “My hobby, for me, is much more than just a way to detach myself from my work for a certain amount of time. It acts as an amazing stress buster, it often instigates me to think out of the box and best of all — it often gives me a much -needed break from all the running around I do while I’m working,” he discloses.
He got his first cycle when he was 10 years old and would seize hours to catch a ride with his friends. Not surprisingly, cycles were replaced with other vehicles, but he managed to pick it up again after college and now, one can often find him rejoicing in a ride alone in one of Bhopal’s cycling clubs. Although he doesn’t go on regular expeditions, he grabs the opportunity if he can and declares that, “if my passion and interest for the same continue, and I manage to sneak in some more time from my work for cycling, I might think about going on long cycling trips.”
Rahul Saraf: Part of a peer group club. / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Sporty steal
In a profession which involves travelling for about 15-20 days of a month, Rahul Saraf, 26, Director, Kaizen Cold Formed Steel, manages to steal some time for sports, something which has stayed with him since school days. “I joined the Presidency Club a while back and mostly play badminton, golf and snooker. Cricket happens twice or thrice a week,” he recounts. “It’s been 10 years since I played my first badminton match and I developed a liking for it right away.”
Other than being a field for him to socialise and catch up with friends, it gives him a challenge to face and overcome.
He often participates in Inter-club or Intra-club tournaments when possible, peer groups being one of his primary motivating factors. “Playing gives me a different high altogether. It’s an amazing equalizer for all the ups and downs one faces in a normal day and is a productive way to vent one’s frustration,” he admits. He strives to be in shape and is also trying to get into a regular gym routine.
Roli Maheshwari: Dancing for physical and mental upliftment. / by Special Arrangement / Th e Hindu
Happy feet
Roli Maheshwari joined her first dance class under Shiamak Davar’s when she was five and hasn’t left dancing since. “During family weddings, we never hire a choreographer and I prepare almost all the dance routines for the family functions.”
Operating her own business, this 23-year-old fashion designer from Delhi starts work at nine in the morning and goes on till seven in the evening. Busy seasons see her working into the wee hours of the night, but when she heard of belly dancing classes, she re-organised her schedule.
Having always wanted to learn dance, Roli steals three hours out of her work pattern, twice a week and has been managing comfortably for a year now. “The training is ardous and by the end of it, my stomach muscles ache so much, I have difficulty eating,” she accepts, “but if you can’t find time for your hobby, there’s no point in working hard elsewhere,” she believes. The satisfaction of learning something new keeps her going.
Take a stroll
She was one step away from pursuing an MBA when she decided that she didn’t want to study further and enjoyed something else much more. Having interned under a designer for six to nine months, Hasmeet Chawla, 23, Mumbai, started her own line of accessories – Get Accessorised —and has been working on her own for a year now. “I never concentrated much on classes and would end up sketching something or the other. But once I went to Stds XI and XII, I did not think about it again and got into the usual college procedures. It was only after I finished my graduation that I finally revived this hobby and managed to turn it into a profession,” she narrates.
She finds inspiration from nature, common objects, etc. If I have to take a break, I watch movies, go on my evening walks, or listen to music. Mostly of the times, I work for hours together with music in the background,” she says. Five-day long exhibitions and one in every two months are all part of this pursuit. “I bring out in images what people imagine in words and that gives me an inexplicable joy.”
Sachin Agarwal: Pursuing Articleship and entrepreneurship side by side. / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Sporty sessions
While work is hectic through the week, respite comes on weekends for Sachin Agarwal, 23, doing his Articleship with Deloitte in Mumbai. “I love to meet with my friends, give out creative ideas, and have debates. All of us are from such different backgrounds that there’s a lot to learn. Three months ago, four of us launched a website, an online retail platform, on hearing about its market from of friends,” explains Sachin, who has been taking time out to work on the website for the past six months, and admits that the venture is less work and more fun.
With one-and-a-half hours per day for three days a week, the gym is his other haunt. “It’s a brilliant kick-start to my mornings and helps me overcome lethargy, making me more agile and energetic for the rest of the day. Moreover, the trend among my peers encourages me to keep going back even when I have not been regular,” he reveals. Saturday evenings are earmarked for football, cricket or volleyball and he also takes regular trekking trips with once the monsoon kicks in.
Nishant Shah: Passionate about gaming and martial arts. / by Special Arrangement / Th e Hindu
Gaming guru
“I come across a new challenge and experience a surprise every day. My speed, dexterity, strength have all enhanced,” articulates Nishant Shah, 23, Market Analyst, Chennai. He undergoes one and a half hours of intensive training in mixed martial arts, each day after work for five days a week and has been doing so for the past eight months. “When I was younger and I’d watch Karate kid or see people do cartwheel, I’d say to myself that I could never do all that. Now I’m actually doing much more! There are times when we’re just running, running like maniacs, or learning how to retaliate and roll out of a troubled situation,” he says, exhilarated.
The other two days of the week he returns to his hobby — video games. “Gaming has evolved from just jumping left and right and shooting to so much more.” To him, they are like short narratives, an experience not very different from reading a book or watching a movie, except that the story is in the player’s control. “I’m completely immersed in the characters; they transport me to a parallel universe. If I read about a great game online, I don’t mind staying up a few hours extra to try it out,” he confesses.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Vanshika Mohta / Chennai – July 03rd, 2013
With the Supreme Court raising its concern about adulteration of milk, a research scholar from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) has developed a colour-based sensor (membrane), which changes colour when the milk gets spoilt.
Concerned over how people get fooled by milk traders who sell spoilt milk to people, Anshika Agarwal, a research scholar in the department of biotechnology at IIT-M decided to come up with a solution to help people buy good quality milk.
She started to work a year ago to solve the problem as part of her Ph.D research. “Milk often gets spoilt before the expiry date printed on the sachet. Keeping this in mind, I developed a sensor which is sensitive enough to detect milk spoilage at anearly stage,” said Agarwal, doing research in electrospinning (electrical charge draws very fine fibres from a liquid.).
The membrane (sensor) would be printed on the external wall connected by a small piece of sensor, which would sense the quality of milk and change the membrane’s colour in the sachet. “My sensor is cost-effective and easy to incorporate in packaging system. Prof T.S. Chandra of the Biotechnology department and Prof T.S. Natarajan from the Physics department have helped me a lot in developing this membrane,” she said.
K. Sekar, a milk vendor said,“People keep complaining about the poor quality of milk being supplied to them but now if this membrane is fixed, I am sure we will get to know the quality of milk when its supplied to us.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / by N. Arun Kumar / July 07th, 2013
The Indian siddha medical graduates association (ISMGA) in Tamil Nadu has urged Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha to initiate immediate measures to establish an Indian System of Medicine (ISM) university in Tamil Nadu, which has been pending for quite some time due to the apathetic attitude of the officials in the directorate of Indian medicine.
Alleging that the inordinate delay is due to the apathy of the officers, the ISMGA has recently approached the chief minister and submitted a memorandum, demanding immediate measures to speed up the activities for establishing the university.
The Tamil Nadu government had issued an order on January 23, 2012, directing the Directorate of Indian Medicine for taking preliminary action to establish the university. The order had also wanted the directorate to create a post of special officer along with certain temporary posts for the initial work.
The siddha medical graduates association in its memorandum alleged that the concerned officers in the directorate of ISM have so far not taken any positive step towards implementing the government order. The siddha graduates have also alleged that there is deliberate attempt from some corners to block the establishment of the ISM university in the state, hence they sought the intervention of the state chief minister.
ISMGA general secretary Dr Selvin Innocent Das told Pharmabiz that, on behalf of the association, he sent several letters to the directorate of Indian medicine asking for the progress of the order. But, he said, the officers at the directorate are not responding to his queries in this regard. Even his letter through RTI was also unanswered, he told Pharmabiz.
“It is more than 18 months since the government issued the order directing the authorities of the Indian medicines to take steps to establish the ISM university in the state, which is a long cherished desire and a demand of the siddha community. But the concerned officers are not showing any interest, even not replying to our letters. Still we are not sure whether a Special Officer has been appointed for the purpose as ordered by the government. Finally we wanted to approach the government for its immediate intervention,” he said.
The order of the government says that besides appointing a special officer and other temporary staffs, the directorate can utilize the facility at the Tamil Nadu Medicinal Plant Corporation Ltd (TAMPCOL) office at Annanagar as the office of the university for the time being to start the preliminary work. The government had sanctioned more than Rs. 1 crore for the initial work for the university.
The association complains that if the work is not started before long, it will lead to the lapse of the sanctioned amount. They demand that an experienced siddha physician should be appointed as the special officer rather than appointing any academician.
According to them, there are health universities in Kerala, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and in some other states. Since Tamil Nadu is the hub of Siddha system, it is high time an exclusive university for siddha and other Indian systems is established, they added.
source: http://www.pharmabiz.com / PharmaBiz.com / Home> / Top News> Alternative Medicine / by Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai / Wednesday – September 11th, 2013
Collector Jayashree Muralidharan giving away the books to an engineering student at Rockcity Welfare Association’s 16th book distribution function in Tiruchi on Saturday. / Photo: R. M. Rajarathinam / The Hindu
The book bank scheme being implemented by Rockcity Welfare Association saw an expansion of its services on Saturday with extension of the scheme to the students of engineering colleges.
The scheme introduced in 1998 has been catering to the book needs of under-graduate courses and this is the first time it has spread its roots to professional courses, courtesy allocation of Rs. Three lakh by P. Kumar, MP, from his MP Local Area Development Scheme.
A total of 100 students from five engineering colleges in and around Tiruchi got the books in the first batch today. This apart, the book bank has benefited 18,500 students till now.
Jayashree Muralidharan, District Collector, inaugurated the extended scheme and handed over the sets of books to the engineering college students. She advised the students to develop a positive attitude to emerge successful in their life. They should not be discouraged while facing any failures.
The Collector gave away cash prizes and certificates to the beneficiaries of book bank, who had secured highest marks in their academic performance. She also gave away ‘Sri Brijmohan Choudhari Memorial Rolling Trophy’ to Chidambaram Pillai College for Women. K. Sekar, principal, and Loganathan, secretary of the college, received the same.
Ashok Gandhi, project chairman, explained the objective of the scheme, which benefited students belonging to economically weaker sections. Inder Choushari, president of the association, Inderchand Lall, secretary, Saravanan, public prosecutor, offered felicitations.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchirapalli / by Special Correspondent / Tiruchi – September 15th, 2013
Nano satellite to contribute to research on precursors to seismic activity
The electrical model of IITMSAT, the first satellite of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, is almost ready.
The 15-kg satellite that will attempt to study radiation belts on Earth and help in predicting earthquakes is the largest among all the satellites developed by the IITs till now.
Work on the IIT-Madras Student Satellite Project or IITMSAT started as early as in 2009, recalled the team of 20 undergraduates and a few postgraduates who work after class hours and during weekends on the project.
“The focus was on studying the energy of charged particles in the upper part of the ionosphere, and their behaviour due to lightning storms and earthquakes,” said Akshay Gulati, one of the team’s founding members, who has continued to work with the team as a project officer after graduating from the institute.
“The data collected by the satellite over its mission life of one year will be given to scientists who will be able to verify any correlation with data gathered from seismic and weather monitoring stations,” Akshay added.
The students said data from a few previous missions had been used to study effects on the radiation belts due to seismic activity, but the IITMSAT is being designed to make more sensitive measurements.
Equipped with sophisticated devices, the model of the project is supposed to ready by the end of the year. While the team now works at a laboratory in the Central Electronics Centre on the IIT-M campus, they will soon be provided with a new, private laboratory.
Though many other universities have already launched satellites into space, IITMSAT, said Akshay, had a unique sense for collecting data about radiation belts with a high temporal resolution to understand earthquake precursors better.
“Because it is a large satellite, we need a free slot in a PSLV. We are looking to launch it any time after May 2015,” he said.
To get the technicalities right, the project team has collaborated with ISRO (Bangalore), TIFR (Mumbai) and IGCAR (Kalpakkam). The team members had the opportunity to work in these laboratories through their summer break. Working in such high-end laboratories with expensive and rare equipment specialised for nuclear instrumentation was the highlight of the project, said team members.
“It is not too often that a second-year undergraduate student gets to hold integrated circuits that cost over Rs. 1 lakh or handle radioactive sources,” said Varsha Subramanyan, a third-year undergraduate of the electrical engineering department and a part of the team that went to ISRO to work on the project.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – August 31st, 2013
Children at Top Slip during the ‘Kids for Tiger’ campaign / The Hindu
They did not spot a tiger, but the school children who visited Top Slip learnt important lessons about protection and well being of forests and the environment. The writer learnt a few lessons to0.
A loud scream splits the air, and it is followed immediately by more screams. Every one rushes out, fearing the worst. It is a dark night at Top Slip, and 67 kids have just left the dining room making place for the grown-ups to eat. Earlier that day, they visited the Kolikamuthi elephant camp to watch the animals being fed and tended to by the local tribals. And conversations had mostly revolved around rogue elephants, angry bears, gaur and, of course, tigers. Had the kids been attacked by a wild animal?
Thankfully not. We catch a glimpse of a disappearing snake, but not before it is identified as non-venomous. There is no harm done. What follows, right there under the starry sky is an impromptu lesson by Mohammad Saleem on snakes, and the kids listen, engrossed. Class VII and VIII students of Subbaiah Central School, Tirupur, have come to Top Slip with their teachers on a programme called ‘Kids for Tigers’ initiated by Sanctuary Asia.
The importance of green
Saleem is the co-ordinator for Sanctuary Asia in Coimbatore, and he has organised the outing to sensitise the children on the importance of the environment. “Thousands of children like you are enrolled in the project,” explains Saleem who is also the founder and managing trustee of the Environment Conservation Group. “From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, a movement is on to spread awareness about the tiger. We are doing this for you, it is your world. You should know the importance of forest cover, for the world to survive,” he says.
But, why only the tiger? There are so many other animals too that live in the forest… don’t they deserve to be saved?
“The tiger indicates the health of the forest. Its survival ensures ecological balance. It ensures a healthy prey base and greenery and protects our water source. A healthy tiger population means a healthy environment. Saleem shares some horrifying statistics. In the 1900s there were around a lakh tigers in the world. Now the population has shrunk to a mere 3,000-odd tigers. And, of those, India has 1,706 (according to the 2012 census).
The two-day trip accomplishes a year’s worth of teaching in class, say the school teachers. And, indeed, as the kids take a guided walk into the jungle (cut down to a manageable three km) they pick up a wealth of knowledge from Saleem and his team made up of G. Srinivasan, M. Hasan, A.R. Ameen and M. Natraj. The conservationists tell the children how to observe Nature closely, how a small patch of the jungle teems with life. Even a dead tree trunk is home to thousands of insects and worms. Everything sustains everything else. Everything needs everything else to survive.
Children are taught to identify the birdcalls. Soon they know what a barbet sounds like and how a babbler calls out. They listen to the woodpecker knocking. They encounter spiders in their massive webs and millipedes that curl up when touched. A puddle of water in a rocky clearing yields a baby snake, tadpoles and scores of insects. Then, Saleem picks up what looks like a small piece of jagged wood. “What is this,” he asks. It is part of a deer antler that is source of food for porcupines as it is rich in calcium; porcupines need calcium for their quills… The walk is peppered with information and facts and the kids soak it all in.
At the end of the trek, we compare notes. We spotted the vernal hanging parrot, scarlet minivet, spotted dove, red vented bulbul, peafowls, jungle babblers and the flame back woodpecker. We heard the great pied hornbill and grey jungle fowl. And, in the dense canopy of trees we caught a glimpse of the gaur, Malabar giant squirrel, sambar and spotted deer, besides the Nilgiri langur and the common langur.
We did not see any tigers, but we could feel its presence keeping an eye on the health of the forest!
Facts
The tiger population which was around 1,00,000 in 1900s had dropped now to less than 3,500 in the wild. Before Independence there were around 40,000 tigers in India. Today the number stands at 1,706, which makes India home to more than half of the world’s tiger population.
‘Kids for Tigers’ is a national environmental educational programme aimed at spreading awareness among students on the importance of saving forests. It uses tiger as a metaphor for all of Nature. The programme covers thousands of students from more than 750 schools across 15 cities and towns in India. The programme is implemented by Sanctuary Asia and supported by Aircel.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> S&T> Environment / by Pankaja Srinivasan / Coimbatore – September 01st, 2013
A Rajagopalan, a supervisor with a private firm near Sundarapuram and his wife, Lathika, are overjoyed after speaking to their daughter ReejaKuruvakkat, now at Edge Hill University in the UK on Thursday evening. Though she sounded a bit apprehensive about the food, Reeja, a second year MA History student at Government Arts College here, was full of pride and excitement when she told her parents that she was waiting to get her identity card as international student processed at the university. “We never expected that our daughter would get an opportunity to study abroad,” says LathikaRajagopalan.
Four students from the Government Arts College here have been selected for the all-expenses-paid study abroad programme joinly conducted by Tamil Nadu government and the British Council. Two of them, Reeja and J Sharon Jemima, have already left for the UK while I Nivedhitha and K S Anbarasu are all set to fly out in September for their four-month long academic sessions.
For Rajagopalan, Reeja’s achievement was a welcome relief after a series of personal and professional misfortune. Rajagopalan and Lathika were running a fabrication and lathe workshop in Hosur supplying automobile components which had to be shut down due to the acute power shortage and labour issues coupled with some personal issues. They had to sell the unit and shift base to Coimbatore, where Rajagopalan now works as a manager cum supervisor at a private firm. “I was under severe stress and depression. I am so proud to have Reeja as my daughter,” says Rajagopalan.
The study abroad programme enlists meritorious students with a decent foothold in English language for a semester-long training at Edge Hill, Nottingham, Royal Holloway and Birmingham universities in the UK. Five students from Government Arts College were selected but one of them dropped out at the last moment due to personal reasons.
Anbarasu, a second year MSc Zoology student is the only boy in the 14-member group of students drawn from across the state. He is set to join the student community in Nottingham University. His father, S Sivaraj, is a conductor on a government bus that plies between Pollachi and Tirupur. He is, of course, thrilled that his son is going to study in England and got an opportunity to meet the chief minister when the group met in Chennai on Wednesday. “It is beyond our wildest imagination that such an opportunity would come for my son,” says Sivaraj. The family hails from Kallampatti, a village about 25 km off Pollachi.
For I Nivedhitha, a second year MSc Botany student from the college, applying for a passport and gearing up for the trip was the most strenuous part of the procedure. She plans to pursue a PhD in Molecular Biology. Her father, S Iranimose, works in a private firm near her residence in Udayampalayam in the city. Nivedhitha takes tuitions for school students at her rented residence along with her sister Priyanka, who is a second year student at Government Arts College. “The credits we score in the foreign university will be converted and added to our regular course credits after we return,” Nivedhitha told TOI.
J Sharon Jemima, a second year student of MSc Psychology, is already at Edge Hill University. Her father, S Julius, a mechanic residing in Anna Nagar on Sathy Road, told TOI that Sharon called him on Thursday and assured him of pursuing her academic stint abroad with full dedication.
“It is a matter of great achievement for our institution that four of the children selected for the programme are from our college. Our teachers and also a few of our retired professors pooled in money and handed over them for additional support during their stay there,” said V Jothimani, principal, Government Arts College, Coimbatore.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore / by Binoy Valsan, TNN / August 30th, 2013
