Category Archives: Education

MCCians cross seas to be together after many years

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Nri's / Pio's
Students enjoy the shade under the trees while sitting on the philosopher 'thrones' at MCC in Tambaram on Saturday.— DC
Students enjoy the shade under the trees while sitting on the philosopher ‘thrones’ at MCC in Tambaram on Saturday. — DC

Chennai: 

MCCians from both hemispheres of the globe crossed several seas and lands to be present at the global alumni meet 2013 in Tambaram on Saturday-Sunday. A Sri Lankan settled in Australia, another in Canada and two Indians in the US did not mind sinking their money in the trip meant solely to be part of the global re-union.

“In those days, we had only one university and only sons of influential people got seats. So, I followed my brother and came to MCC to study,” said M. Karunananthan (74), who hails from Jaffna in Sri Lanka. After graduating with B.Sc. in Botany in 1962 at MCC, Karunananthan went to Brunei and worked as a principal in a school for 30 years.

“Politically things were not good in Sri Lanka and so I chose to settle down in Australia,” said Karunananthan who spent about Rs 1.25 lakh to attend this event. “I used my 30 years’ savings to return to my alma mater. I came because it is a global meet and I wanted to touch base with my friends and classmates,” he said, adding that he and his friends would continue the meeting with a separate party on Sunday night.

Ambi Harsha (66) couldn’t wait for the cricket match to start on Sunday, as the former MCC cricket captain made it to the alumni meet all the way from Santa Barbara, USA.

While the alumni cricketer who passed out with M.Phil in History in 1971 was keen to get back to the field, he was also a little upset because a few of his old friends had passed away. When asked about the absence of some big names like PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, Harsha said all of them were equal till they left college.

“We don’t think about big shots. They made it big only after leaving this campus and so we are happy to meet the old bunch who made all efforts to join the re-union,” he added. For Saravanan Kannan (40) it was MCC that helped him develop in life.

As a sports convener and later college union secretary general, the 1995 M.Sc. Physics student dedicates the rise in his career at IBM Software in New Jersey to the planning and implementation that he learnt fro­m organising sports eve­nts in his college.

Cana­dian T. Siva Yoga­thy, who graduated with B.Com. in 1973, said the re-union was someth­i­ng unique. “We met five ye­ars ago to celebr­ate our B.Co­m. class re-union. Bu­t this global re-union where all batches across departments were invited to one place is simply mind boggling,” he added.

A college visit that evokes nostalgia

Chennai: Where are the classrooms? For a newcomer, Madras Christian College (MCC) would be ideal ground for a treasure hunt, as the 365 acre scrub forest hides most of the buildings.

How much the students in those well concealed classrooms value their green cover became apparent when the cutting down of a few of those very trees occasioned a strike.
Students go on strike for a variety of reasons, including bad hostel food or water shortage, but here they were up in arms against the management for shearing a few of the trees in their midst.

“To reinstate the trees that were to be cut, we planted many new saplings. But, fortunately, the college decided against the planned felling of trees and it made us feel doubly happy,” said K. Chendilnathan, a B.Sc. Zoology alumnus of 1992.

The college has managed to maintain till date the beauty of its natural surroundings, be it the lake or the scrub forest, over a span of the last 76 years. Further, the college has also made sure that the students’ natural talent and interests were not diluted.

“There were no rigid divisions between departments. We used to discuss freely with all our teachers across disciplines,” recalled Dr C. Selvaraj, who passed out with an M.A. in Economics in 1973.

The main grooming ground for the boys were the three ‘Halls’ where the hostel students resided. Day scholars were also attached to one of the Halls. All sports and cultural events were conducted between the three Halls.

An alumnus pointed out that the Halls had their own nicknames, the students of Heber Hall being called ‘barbarians’, Selaiyur Hall students were known as ‘kataans’, and Thomas Hall men were reduced to ‘thaiyer vadais’.

“We used to go for night walks and also ride through the entire circumference of the campus, which extends to 6 km, as part of cross-country events,” recollected Raj Mohanan, who passed out with an M.A. in History in 1997.

One place that always attracted young boys, and now girls, inside the campus were the philosophy ‘thrones’. “We enjoy sitting on these stones under the shade of the trees and discuss things,” said R. Nikitha, a first-year, B.Com student.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / by DC / S.  Sujatha / July 29th, 2013

Did Japanese originate from Tamil?

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All, World Opinion
Katsuma Doi, Director, Japan Foundation, addressing the inaugural of a Japanese language school in Madurai on Friday. / Photo: S. James / The Hindu
Katsuma Doi, Director, Japan Foundation, addressing the inaugural of a Japanese language school in Madurai on Friday. / Photo: S. James / The Hindu

The debate continues three decades after it was raised at the fifth World Tamil Conference held in Madurai in 1981.

It is more than three decades since Japanese linguist Susumu Ohno stirred a controversy at the fifth World Tamil Conference held here in 1981 by raising the possibility that the Japanese language may have originated from classical Tamil. The debate rages to this day.

Vimala Solomon, head of the Madurai-Japan Cultural Foundation and Director of Surya Nihongo Gakko, a Japanese language school here, says:

“I agree with Mr. Ohno because we find many similarities between Tamil and Japanese. We can think in Tamil and speak in Japanese. The syntax is also very similar.” However, she points out that one must learn Japanese first to appreciate the connection.

On the need for more Indians to learn Japanese, Savitri Vishwanathan, former head of the Department of Chinese and Japanese Studies, University of Delhi, says learning Japanese has its advantages as it facilitates interaction with the native speakers and helps in understanding their culture better, especially because Japanese is the only language spoken in all regions of Japan.

Katsuma Doi, director of the Japan Foundation in New Delhi, told The Hindu he is not aware of Mr. Ohno’s theory as the subject is confined to linguistic circles. But he adds that people-to- people contact between Japan and India has been excellent.

Referring to a great wave of interest created by the dubbed version of the Rajinikant film ‘Muthu’ in Japan in 1998 and the consequent interest evinced by Japanese audiences in watching Tamil movies, he says: “Now there is a second wave with the Japanese exhibiting much enthusiasm in watching Bollywood movies such as Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots, Shahrukh Khan’s Om Shanthi Om and Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger.”

He points out that a survey conducted in 2012 has revealed that Japanese is being taught to 3.98 million learners in 136 countries. “India is in the fourteenth position among countries where Japanese is popular. The number of learners in India has increased by 2,000 over the figure of 18,000 recorded in a survey conducted in 2009,” he points out.

He believes that Madurai will make great strides in learning Japanese in the years to come. “I feel that there will be rapid growth in the number of Japanese learners here as Ms. Vimala, a native of Madurai, has the ability not only to teach Japanese but also nurture the next generation of Japanese language teachers here,” he adds. Mr.Doi was in the city on Friday to inaugurate the Japanese language school.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Madurai / by Mohamed Imranullah S / Madurai – July 20th, 2013

A student cabinet to enhance leadership skills

Education
Students at MOP Vaishnav’s fourth student cabinet installation programme.| A Raja Chidambaram/ File
Students at MOP Vaishnav’s fourth student cabinet installation programme.| A Raja Chidambaram/ File

The fourth student cabinet installation programme was held at the MOP Vaishnav College for Women on Wednesday.

MOP is among the first few colleges in the country to have introduced the student cabinet which has a representative body working in a parliamentary set up.

The 26 members of the student cabinet, elected on the basis of voting system, were officially assigned their roles at the installation programme by R Thandavan, Vice-Chancellor of Madras University, who was the chief guest.

The cabinet has nearly 11 ministries and each ministry is assigned a minister and deputy minister.

Sharing her agenda for the year, Aprajita Ghildiyal, the elected student prime minister, said: “It is a huge responsibility to coordinate with all other ministries and execute tasks. But this is a platform to learn and manage. Since we have all the departments involved, the learning is also diverse. We have included a new Ministry for innovation this year, so we can expect a lot of innovations happening in and around the campus. The cabinet helps us to be socially conscious citizens and that will surely reflect in our events this year.”

Principal Nirmala Prasad, who also acts as a president of the student cabinet said, “The ‘Student to Student’ mode of communication has more acceptance than ‘Teacher to Student’. This cabinet helps in uniting the whole student community into one and also helps in inculcating leadership skills in them. The students learn good governance in such a scenario, which, in turn, will help them to get into politics too.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service – Chennai / July 18th, 2013

Book expo at Royapettah

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education
Urdu books on wheels at New College in Royapettah / .Photo: K. V. Srinivasan / The Hindu
Urdu books on wheels at New College in Royapettah / .Photo: K. V. Srinivasan / The Hindu

The Department of Urdu and e-Centre of The New College, Royapettah, in association with National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language, Ministry of Human Resource Development, organised ‘Exhibition of Urdu Books on Wheels,’ recently at the college premises.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Downtown / July 14th, 2013

Founder’s day at Ethiraj college

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education

The Ethiraj College for Women celebrated its Founder’s Day on the birth anniversary of V L Ethiraj.

This was the 65th anniversary of the college. Justice Hariparanthaman of the Madras High Court was the chief guest.

Speaking at the event, the judge said that he had initially been reluctant to take part in the celebrations as he wanted to steer clear of partaking in an event which could prospectively involve litigants whose cases he might one day be called upon to judge. He, however, added that after reading the biography of V L Ethiraj and after understanding the ethos of the college, he could not desist from attending the event. Hariparanthaman spoke of the need for the continued education of women in order to usher in a more egalitarian society. He also spoke highly of the founder of the college, and shared several anecdotes involving V L Ethiraj that he had read and heard about, demonstrating Ethiraj’s integrity, honesty as well as his legal and moral acumen.

A M Swaminathan, the chairman of the board of trustees, Ethiraj College for Women, praised the chief guest for his representation of the poor and the working class when he was a practising lawyer.

The chairman also said that the day was celebrated to ‘plug the gaps in the historical record’. The history of the college titled ‘Soaring High at Sixty Five’ and a booklet on the life of V L Ethiraj were released at the function.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service – Chennai / July 20th, 2013

Medical admissions: 519 first generation learners

Education
10,269 applicants for medical seats are first generation learners | EPS
10,269 applicants for medical seats are first generation learners | EPS

Forget success stories of first generation learners in the top 10 rank lists. At this year’s first round of MBBS counselling, a whopping 519 students who got admitted to government medical colleges are the first in their families to aspire towards a graduate degree. In fact, the number of medical aspirants who hailed from homes where no one had been to high school or college was a staggering 10,629 of the 28,785 applications received. It is inspiring to see that many of them came alone, as their parents are employed as daily wagers in their respective towns, and collected their admit cards at the Kilpauk Medical College, during the MBBS counselling held recently.

A very small proportion of these 519 students hail from the city, with the majority of them hailing from smaller districts like Erode, Salem, Tuticorin and the educationally-reputed Namakkal. “Most often we have found that first generation graduates who manage a high cut off and manage to get MBBS admission are from very small villages or very poor backgrounds. Even economically downtrodden students in the cities – Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai – usually have at least one parent who has finished high school or some sort of degree,” said a member of the Medical Education Selection Committee.

This includes students like Keerthana, the daughter of a lorry terminal worker in Namakkal who had an enviable cut-off of 199.75 and managed to get admitted to Madras Medical College on the very first day. She had said after the counselling that her strength and determination to become a doctor came from the fact that people like her father had no hope of ever getting quality healthcare unless he waited for hours on end in a public hospital. Incidentally, her school has come forward to foot her educational expenses as far as college is concerned.

One advantage for first generation learners is that the tuition fees of Rs 4,000 out of the Rs 12,750 they have to pay every year, will be returned to them by the government.

While this applies only for those admitted to state-run hospitals, those getting admitted to self-financed medical colleges also have a great advantage to help them study – with official fee structures ranging from Rs 2.3- Rs 2.5 lakh a year, the government will bear half the amount and first generation learners need to pay only half their fees.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service – Chennai / July 01st, 2013

Lady Doak College chosen for ‘Spoken Tutorial Project’

Education

As part of its effort to bridge the digital divide, the Rs. 300 crore project, Spoken Tutorial Project (STP), launched by the Indian Institute of Technology, and funded by the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), was inaugurated at the Lady Doak College on Thursday.

Logging on to Skype, senior project manager Shyama Iyer of IIT, Mumbai, inaugurated the resource centre from Mumbai. She interacted with the principal and faculty members of the LDC, which was chosen as the official resource centre of the Spoken Tutorial Project Resource Centre for south Tamil Nadu.

Mohamed Kasim, project assistant, STP, IIT Mumbai, said the project focused on providing social skill competence, and non verbal communication and general academic skill competence.

The target group were students of high school and college, working professionals, software users, developers and trainers, research scholars and the community at large, he added. The advantage of being a resource centre included having the authority to communicate with any institute in the region to promote, teach and learn about open source software.

LDC principal Mercy Pushpalatha, said that the college was going in for open source software as it would enable it not to be dependant on proprietary software where the software and hardware technology generally go hand-in-hand.

Hence, when the company upgrades the hardware, users are forced to upgrade their software and vice versa.

The ‘spoken tutorials’ appeared to be an effective tool to bridge the digital divide, increase internet literacy and was also an easy way to learn. With more spoken tutorials available in all the regional languages it was more open to the public, said Christina Singh, professor of Economics, LDC who was instrumental in bringing the project to LDC.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Tamil Nadu / by Staff Reporter / Madurai – June 29th, 2013

IIT Madras on patenting spree

Business & Economy, Education, Records, All, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

Chennai :

The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, is wasting no time patenting the technologies developed by its faculty members. It plans to leverage the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) of technologies as revenue earners.

The institute also found that filing patents in emerging nations such as Bangladesh and Africa provide more value for the innovation than registering them in advanced countries.

This year, IIT Madras is likely to file nearly 40 patents, a 25 per cent increase over last year. Next year, the target is to reach 50, said Krishnan Balasubramanian, Dean, Centre for Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research.

Last year, revenue from IPRs was about Rs 2 crore. “We are negotiating a large deal this year that will double or triple revenue from IPRs. On an average, we are targeting Rs 3-4 crore annually in the near term,” he told Business Line.

TOP FIELDS

Tield of nanotechnology saw the highest number of patents, as some of the faculty in this domain are “very aggressive.” Other areas include wireless technology, air-conditioning, noise and vibration, said Subramanian, who is also a professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Faculty members also separately apply for patents for technologies they have developed in collaboration with various companies. This could be another 20 every year. Companies file the patents with the faculty’s name in it. There will a revenue sharing agreement on this, he said.

There used to be a perceived conflict between patenting and publishing. This is only a perception, but not true. If a faculty member feels that they have developed something that is patentable and publishable, they can do both, said the institute’s director, Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi. The institute has an Intellectual Property Cell, he said.

Balasubramanian said that the IPR management involves patent process and commercialisation. Through incubation, faculty and students take up some of these technologies for formulating business propositions.

There is also an eco-system – the IIT Madras Research Park – developed over the last few years to foster incubation. The institute also work with companies to take certain scalable IPs rapidly into the market. The patent process takes a long time. “So on the date we apply for patent, its commercialisation starts simultaneously,” he said.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Industry> Education / by T.E. Raja   raja.simhan@thehindu.co.in  / Chennai – June 26th, 2013

Chennai boy tops JEE in Tamil Nadu; girls shine

Education, Records, All
Sooraj Narayan, Aravind Akshan, Ajay Kumar and Kannan celebrate after topping IIT-JEE (advanced) on Friday at Chetput. — DC
Sooraj Narayan, Aravind Akshan, Ajay Kumar and Kannan celebrate after topping IIT-JEE (advanced) on Friday at Chetput. — DC
Chennai:
Hyderabad boy Pallerla Sai Sandeep Reddy topped the Joint Entrance Exam­ination (Advanced) this year with the all-India first rank. Suraj Narayan from Chennai stood first in Ta­mil Nadu with 433 of 2,500 who appeared from the sta­te clearing the ex­am. The­re are 630 girl students who have qualified for co­u­nselling in IIT Ma­dras th­is year, a larger nu­mber th­an last year.
Speaking to DC on Fri­day, Prof R. Sarathi, chairman, IIT-JEE organising committee, Chennai zone, said about 1.2 lakh students from various parts of the country wrote the JEE (Advanced) of which 18,000 qualified to sit for counselling. “There are 9,885 seats available in 16 IITs and Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. Students should select as many courses as possible on the counselling website, which will be kept open from June 23 to 30. A top-ranking student missed his IIT seat last year as he had filled in fewer options,” he said.
Pointing out that 36 students from the IIT Madras zone figure in the top 100 rankers’ list, Prof Sarathi said, “The number of those clearing the exam is certainly higher than last year. As many as 3,652 candidates have qualified to take up counselling for a seat in IIT, Madras. Counselling will take place between July 4 and 8 at individual IITs,” he added.
There are 48 students from the SC and ST categories who have been shortlisted for the one-year preparatory course on the basis of further relaxation of admission criteria. IIT Delhi, the JEE organising institute, decided to release the results on Friday itself (rather than June 23) to give students time to decide on courses.
About1.5 lakh students were short-listed from JEE (Main) for the advanced test. This year, the IITs had devised a new method whereby students needed to be on the top 20 percentile of their board.
AP students top IIT
Two students from Andhra Pradesh have topped IIT’s Joint Entrance Examina­tion (advanced)  and city boy Sooraj Narayan has scored the highest among students in Tamil Nadu.
While Andhra Pradesh students Sai Sandeep Reddy and A. Ravichandra scored  332 and 330 out of 360 marks, Sooraj scored 287.  The results announced on Friday were not a let down for the city as 36 students from the IIT-Madras figure among the top 100 rankers and 18,000 students  have qualified for counselling beginning on July 4, going by Prof  R. Sarathi, chairman, IIT-JEE organising committee, Chennai zone.
As many as 433 candidates from Tamil Nadu have cracked the entrance test this year and 48 SC and ST students have been shortlisted for the preparatory course of one year following further relaxation of the admission criterion.  IIT -Delhi, the JEE organising institute, had  planned to release the results on June 23 but later decided to announce them on Friday for the convenience of students.
IIT toppers share their dreams 
D. Senthil Natarajan|DC
It was a memorable day for city boy Sooraj Narayan, as he stood first among students who took IIT’s joint entrance examination (JEE-advanced) from Tamil Nadu. Sooraj who secured all India 54th rank had scored 287 out of 360 marks in the entrance examination.
“I will pursue mechanical engineering,” said an ecstatic Sooraj, who cleared with a score of 411 out of 450. “I spent four hours daily to prepare for JEE,” Sooraj said, but later clarified that was after reaching home by 6.00 pm.
But it was a different case with Aravind Akshan (AIR- 91) who was from a matriculation school, at Madurai, and shifted to a CBSE school here, in Chennai. “I felt the CBSE education easier than the matriculation pattern,” he said.
Another topper who gave up Facebook for the exams was R. Ajay Kumar (AIR- 420). “I would now prefer electrical or mechanical in IIT,” he said adding that it was tough reaching the top.
“Staying away from distraction was a tough task,” said V. Kannan (AIR- 453) but added “But I had enough of entertainment in my class 9 and 10 and hit the saturation, which helped me study with ease.”
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / by N. Arun Kumar / June 22nd, 2013

Kalam to teach at IIM-Shillong

Education, Leaders

Shillong :  (IANS):

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam will be lecturing students of Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Shillong for three days on ways to make India an economically developed nation, the institute said.

“The students and faculty of IIM-Shillong are elated that Dr Kalam is coming to teach at the institute. I am sure his lectures would benefit not only our students but also faculty members,” IIM-Shillong Director Kaya Sengupta told IANS.

The lecture ‘Economically Developed Nation – How to Realise’ will go on from Sunday to Tuesday.

“The institute has arranged all the materials required for the lecture. He (Kalam) will belecturing second year students on ‘Economically Developed Nation – How to Realise’ from Sunday (June 23) to Tuesday (June 25),” Sengupta said.

While visiting the institute earlier on March 6, the former President had agreed to teach at the B-school.

“I am a teacher. As a professor, wherever knowledge takes me, I go. I like meeting young people and I would like to contribute to their knowledge,” Kalam told IANS. Kalam, who is also a visiting faculty at IIM-Ahmedabad, will guide the students individually as well as in groups.

After the lecture, students will be required to submit project proposals for creating scenarios based on multiple options for specific policy or institutional changes.

The faculty would comment on these proposals, and project teams would be able to consult subject matter specialists through invited lectures and interactions. Thestudents could even visit the experts.

source: http://www.assamtribune.com / The Assam Tribune / Home / by IANS / Shillong – June 23rd, 2013