Category Archives: Education

Trichy tailors against distribution of school uniform orders

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Education, Uncategorized

Trichy:

Women belonging to the Cauvery Women Tailors’ Cooperative Association, Trichy on Monday submitted a petition to district collector Jayashree Muralidharan seeking her intervention to not divert orders for stitching school uniforms to unregistered tailors citing time constraints.

In their petition, the women coming under categories like below poverty line, widows, destitutes and differently-abled persons were given orders from the district social welfare office to stitch school uniforms for government and aided schools in Trichy district. The association has been in existence for the past 29 years and was providing employment to the poor women to run their families.

Earlier, the officials gave enough time for delivering the stitched uniforms. However, last year after the then state government’s decision to provide two sets of school uniforms to the students, the special officer Veeramani sought the tailors to finish the task within a day, failing which he diverted the orders to unregistered tailors in Sivaganga district. Due to this, the tailors had faced a loss of income last year. Unfortunately, the uniforms could not be used as they were declared unfit. This year, the state government has ordered to provide four sets of uniforms to the students. The tailors claimed that the special officer is again trying to give the orders to outsiders.

According to official sources, as many as 1.50 lakh students in the district benefited every year. In the wake of the government order, the number of school uniform sets would go up this year. So, the officials shared the orders to tailors in Sivaganga district to complete it on time. Previously, the tailors were given five months time to complete the orders. But this year, the time is very limited. So this year also, the government gave very limited time to complete the order before June 10.

When contacted K Yasodhai, district social welfare officer, Trichy said that since the petition was submitted to the district collector, she cannot comment on the issue.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Madurai> Collections / TNN / May 29th, 2012

Her aim: to serve society better from a policy-making position

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features

In the conventional sense, she was settled for life. A dental surgeon by profession, she cleared the Civil Services examination in the third attempt in 2009 and was serving in Group ‘A’ in the Indian Postal Service.

But 28-year old V.S. Alagu Varsini from Pollachi was not a content person.

Because, her dream was not just to become an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), but to realise the dreams of many from the position of a policy-maker.

IDENTIFIED

When Ms. Varsini started her dentistry practice after completing her course in Chennai in 2005, she came across many people suffering from oral diseases due to harmful practices. The main cause she identified was tobacco and the illegal vending of it.

Though she wanted to do something about it, she realised it would be best if she did it from a different position and not that of a dentist.

She could not bear the thought of people dying from oral cancer.

She visited Hyderabad and Delhi, started preparing for the Civil Services and made her first attempt in 2007.

She failed in two consecutive attempts.

But she was successful in her third in 2009 when she got the 737 rank. Instead of continuing as a dentist and making the fourth attempt, she joined the Indian Postal Service and started serving in Ghaziabad.

It took her two years to make the next attempt.

But she is not unhappy about the delay because she says she used the two years to analyse her weaknesses and also get ample opportunities to interact with IAS officers of her own batch and seniors that helped her do her interview well.

The necessary motivation also came from her father who himself had written the Civil Services examinations years ago.

And, she has exceeded her expectations in that, Varsini who in her last attempt got the 737 rank, catapulted to the 77 rank that gave her the fourth place in Tamil Nadu.

FIELD EXPERIENCE

“I knew I had done my exams well.

But I was not able to articulate confidently in the interview in the last attempt.

The field experience that I gained in the last two years made me overcome this and I was able to face the interview without inhibitions,” says Ms. Varsini who was not sorry she could not take leave, being an officer trainee, to prepare.

Now that she has entered the IAS cadre, Ms. Varsini hopes that some day she will be in a key policy-making position when she will draft policy notes to put an end to the menace that snatches away many precious lives.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Amutha Kannan  / May 15th, 2012

Two success stories with a message for IAS aspirants

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All

Rank-holders prove medium of instruction and coaching centres don’t matter

It is a tale of two candidates who overcame different odds to emerge successful in the all-important Civil Services examinations, whose results were announced on Friday. While one has proved that poverty is not an impediment to success, the other has shown that there is absolutely no need for coaching centres to clear the country’s top examinations.

Both of them have brought pride to their families. Gopala Sundara Raj of Ramanathapuram secured the 5th place at the all-India level and the first place at the State level and R.V. Karnan of Sri Ram Nagar in Karaikudi in Sivaganga got the 158th rank.

Mr. Raj comes from Mavila Thoppu, a tiny village near Kilakarai. His mother S. Rajammal and father S. Shanmugavel could not study beyond standards III and V respectively.

Though they thought of putting him in English medium school since the early stage, their abject poverty did not allow them to do so.

However, the perceived disadvantages of having studied in the Tamil medium in no way affected his performance in the Civil Services examinations.

“I have no words to describe my happiness. Raj has not studied in a sophisticated atmosphere. He has brought meaning to our life. The hard work, sheer determination, dedication and sincerity have made him so special in our life. My pain is that his father is no more to hear the happiest news in our lifetime,” says S. Rajammal.

Her family owns no land or house and she is residing in a portion of her brother Mariappan’s house, a retired school headmaster.

His moral support and motivation helped Mr. Raj, who is currently an agricultural scientist in Rajasthan, in his endeavour. His sister, Sundara Yoga Lakshmi, is working with Infosys in Chennai.

Mr Karnan (27) was the all-India topper in the Indian Forest Service examinations in 2007.

His father R. Veeraragavan (56) is working as a librarian at Alagappa Arts College and his mother V. Vijayalakshmi is a sub-registrar in Karaikudi.

“My dream has come true. The Civil Services examinations are all about clearly understanding the methods and patterns well. I didn’t join any coaching classes for the preparations,” Mr. Karnan told The Hindu over phone from Maharashtra, where he is working as Assistant Conservator of Forests.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / News> States> TamilNadu / by C. Jaishankar / Ramanathapuram, May 05th, 2012

IIT-M aims at 2,000 Ph.Ds

Education, Science & Technologies

The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) plans to increase the number of Ph.Ds to 2,000 in five years.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, director of the institute, said the institute had always focussed on developing research output, including students and faculty.

“We hade always wanted to increase Ph.D intake in this institute and the committee headed by former atomic energy commission (AEC) chairman Anil Kakodkar too reiterated it” he said.

Kakodkar committee recommended that IITs be rebranded as primary research institutes and increase PhD students from less than 1, 000 students to 10,000 by 2020-25, and the number of IITs from 15 to 20.

Prof. Ramamurthi said last year IIT-M admitted 300 students for the Ph.D programme but this year they had increased the number to 400 to produce 2,000 doctorates in five years.

 

“In the next few years we will increase our annual Ph.D intake to 700 per year provided we recruit more faculty to have 700 faculty on campus,” he added.

When asked about the institute’s plan for physical expansion, the director said last year the institute framed a master plan, according to which the institute could construct additional buildings in the remaining six acres.

“If the government wants us to increase student enrolment by another 50 per cent we need more land. Also for doing bigger projects we need more land,” he added.

source: http://www.AsianAge.com / Home> Metros> Chennai / DC, Chennai / May 02nd, 2012

Of ragas and rhythm

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Nri's / Pio's

Trichy Sankaran, faculty of fine arts, York University, Canada, speaks to Diptiman Dewan about the Indian music studies programme

It was back in 1971 that Trichy Sankaran, faculty of fine arts, and the late Jon Higgins, started the South Indian music programme at the University of York, Canada.

On how it all started, Sankaran says, “Higgins invited me to join him to teach courses in rhythm, performance, theory, and also perform with him in concerts. The Higgins-Sankaran duo continued until 1978 when Higgins left York University and I took over the South Indian music programme as the chief director.”

Over the years, the holistic approach in teaching the programme has made a positive impact on the approach and understanding of rhythm of western performers, says Sankaran. Further, the introduction of adaptation techniques and concepts in the programme enabled western drummers (Jazz drummers in particular) to adapt to their own instruments.

According to Sankaran, the pedagogical style of teaching combines the best of both East and the West to create a holistic blend. His collaborations with Western musicians in performance, particularly with groups like Nexus, World Drums and Gamelan, among others, and contemporary world music ensembles have had far-reaching effects in the deepening of the understanding of Indian culture in Canada as well as in the evolution of the programme.

A course on Solkattu studies (spoken rhythms and patterns of hand-clapping used by classical South Indian dancers and musicians) created by him has influenced students from the undergraduate to graduate level over the years to take up teaching, performance, and research.

Says Sankaran, Indian music in general has attracted westerners for its melodic varieties, use of drone, rhythmic sophistication and improvising qualities while Carnatic music in particular, has been appreciated for its rhythmic character, enchanting melodies, and drum improvisation besides compositional structures.

Courtesy: http://www.Myeducationtimes.com

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> Education> News / by Diptiman Dewan / April 11th, 2012

At B-schools, students opt for internships with political parties

Business & Economy, Education

Mumbai:

Last February, about 50 students from the Bharathidasan Institute of Management (BIM), Trichy, along with some 70 corporate executives sat through a conference in New Delhi on management challenges faced by political parties. Union minister Salman Khurshid, CPI National Secretary D Raja and BJP National Secretary Bhupendra Yadav discussed the deep, internal processes of their respective parties in the session titled ‘Left, Right & Centre’.

This summer, Sandeep Pavan Kumar and Sujoy Biswas, two first-year BIM students signed up for internships with BJP. Sandeep and Sujoy’s choice for internship mirrors the curiosity and enthusiasm among B-school students to explore politics as a classroom to learn management skills. This is hardly a mainstream trend yet, but for a fair sprinkling of students from IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, and Calcutta, political parties are the new cool internship destination.

Many professors are encouraging the choice. “This is a promising possibility. It is in mutual interest. Parties will get an honest feedback from young students, who on the other hand can understand the political system better,” says Anil Gupta, professor, IIM-A.

 

Adds A Nagarajan, director, BIM-Trichy: “Political internship will help students in learning to speak in a language that will have a greater connect with the common man.”

Politicians also seem to fancy the idea. “This will change the traditional culture of Indian politics and streamline and civilise the political culture with involvement of professionals and managers,” says Mukesh Shukla, secretary, New Delhi district, BJP. “Also, it will help students get in touch with ground realities and assist them in future analysis and decision making.”

Sandeep and Sujoy will explore the saffron party’s organisational structure, campaign strategy, parliamentary affairs and party activities, in their 6-8 week internship.

Recognising politics as a source of learning management concepts and processes, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, the country’s top-ranking B-school, had four years ago placed one student for political internship with the CPM. It followed this up with six students in the next batch. They worked with a few members of parliament to look at constituency management.

This year again, a doctoral student conducted a case study on the work of an MP elected seven times from the same constituency in Ahmedabad. Two students of IIM-Calcutta had taken part in the 2011 assembly election campaign of  Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and a few had earlier worked with BJP as interns.

“Winning an election is like competing in a market place and students can apply this learning to their future role as managers,” says Anindya Sen, dean-academic, IIM-C. Professors, students, parties and even companies see this as a winwin partnership.

“Managerial training is about decision making. By interning in political organisations, students learn about society, consensus building, decision making and various other dynamics of organisation management,” says Pankaj Chandra, director, IIM-B. Students from the institute regularly intern with political parties. “As execution ability becomes critical to the functioning of political parties, a market-driven pull will be created leading to more management professionals contributing to politics,” says Abhishek Kumar, assistant professor at BIM-Trichy.

And companies too see value in this. A study conducted by BIM shows that companies encourage students to do their internship in political parties. “Students can learn about various leadership styles, team building, decision making and communication styles from political parties,” says Sasi Kumar, vice-president-HR, Ashok Leyland John Deere Construction Equipment.

“I won’t call it (political internships) a trend. It depends on interest of students and the kind of project they look out for,” says Gupta of IIM-A. “Students interested in public policy are keen on political internship.” Some public-policy students at the institute have been exploring the LAMP Fellowship. The programme places one legislative assistant to work with one MP for a period of 11 months and exposes fellows to the Parliament and legislative process.

“Working in public policy or with MPs is not just about gaining policy-making experience before working in corporations; this (political parties) is a perfectly good career path in its own right,” argues Mathur Navdeep, assistant professor, public systems group, IIM-A. That’s a fair argument, but neither Sandeep nor Sujoy are buying it just yet. A political career is not what they have in mind. They just want to use the learning from the internship with BJP to become better managers.

source: http://www.TimesofIndia.Indiatimes.com / Home> Business> India Business / by Rica Bhattacharyya, ET Bureau /  March 23rd, 2012

EdServ details Rs 40 cr investment plan

Business & Economy, Education

Chennai-based Education Services Company (EdServ) has launched the EdServ Training Institute (EDI), an Instructor-Led-Training (ILT) centre. The company is planning to invest Rs 40 crore in the initiative.

The company plans to use the franchisee network route to offer academic support and vocational training courses, including tuition, coaching, test prep and job-oriented training apart from placement support, according to company’s release.

EdServ already has a range of e-content along with onl-ine test prep engine as part of its flagship Lampsglow.com that shall power these brick-and-mortar learning services in EDI.

EdServ has tied up with A-Team Edutech Ltd, an education management company, for the supply of tablet PCs to the EdServ Training Institute which in turn will offer a tablet PC free with specific preloaded course content.

The instructor-led training courses will comprise of coaching for CA, IITJEE, AIEEE, AIPMT, CAT and all other competitive exams in the national and international arena, including TOEFL and GRE, academic support tuition from KG, right up to PG that include both CBSE and state board subjects as well as engineering semester exam support, Job skills and life skills training such as spoken English, soft-skills and IT skills all under one roof in a brick-mnd-Mortar training centre with tablet PC-based extended learning support to every student.

S Giridharan, chairman and CEO, EdServ, commented that while on the one hand we have ound that a large number of students in tier II and tier owns are still not able to utilise technology gadgets to gain access to online and Internet-based education, on the other, there is no national brand offering a combined brick and mortar, and online academic support services.

“Given our strong presence in the online segment, we believe the present scenario presents EdServ with a great opportunity to tap the brick and mortar model of academic support services as well.”

EdServ is aiming to go pan-India and plans to open 200 franchisee-led EdServ Training Institutes across the country, including about 80 centres in South India within the next six months.

EdServ already has 1000s of distributors, dealers and master franchisees for Lampsglow apart from its skill development centres (MODES) and the company plans to upgrade many of them into partners for the brick and mortar model as well.

The company will initially invest close to Rs 40 crore for the expansion and is targeting revenues of over Rs 20 crore from the EdServ Training Institutes on the first year of operation.

source: http://www.Business-Standard.com / Home> Economy & Policy / by BS Reporter / Chennai, March 13th, 2012

50 years later, students meet Professor

Education, Uncategorized

Chennai:

Not everyone gets an opportunity to meet his or her teacher 50 years after graduating. Surely something like that would be a special moment. On Thursday, as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the School of Architecture and Planning Alumni Association (SAPAA) of the Anna University, students of the first batch (1957-62) met and honoured their teacher of 50 years ago, Professor Kasturi.

‘Students’ who participated included TV Prabhakaran, Anwar Sherif, Prof B Bhaskar Rao, Haji Mohammed Mustafa and A Krishnaswamy.

President of SAPAA, TV Prabhakaran introduced students of his batch (then department of architecture under the Madras University) and their teacher. Travelling down memory lane, he recalled how Professor Kasturi demystified the theory of structure and structural design for the students.

He narrated the memorable learning experience during the days of Prof V S Jayaraman and Prof Desai.

Prabhakaran noted with satisfaction that the first batch students were successful in their respective ventures, be it teaching, the profession of architecture or trade ventures. “When we met the students of the fiftieth batch last month, it was very special,” he noted. Later, Professor Kasturi was honoured with a memento and a shawl.

Suresh Kuppuswamy, Dean, School of Architecture and Planning (SAP), Anna University traced the history of the institution. Set up in 1957 as a department of the University of Madras, it was initially located in the Alagappa college of technology premises offering five year degree in architecture.

Eminent architect C N Raghavendran was the chief guest and P Mannar Jawahar, vice chancellor of Anna University presided.

source: http://www.ibnlive.in.com/ South> TamilNadu> Chennai / The New Indian Express / Express News Service / March 09th, 2012

Need to educate students on sexual health stressed

Education

“There’s a need to educate school and college students about sexual health. In schools we teach Thiruvalluvar’s Arathupal and Porutpal but we never touch Kamathupal.

Some of the kurals (couplets) from the Kamathupal can be included in the lessons so that students can understand sexual problems and correct themselves,” said Dr P. Thangaraj, pro vice-chancellor, SRM University.

Speaking at the inaugural function of the Sixth International Conference on Sexology held at Hotel Green Park, Vadapalani on Saturday, he added, “Doctors counselling on sex are few and negligible. Also people often do not come forward to reveal their problems to doctors.

According to WHO, there are 60-80 million infertile couples worldwide and 10-15 per cent in India are infertile.”

Dr Mohanambal, director, Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Egmore, said, “When I visited a school in a village, I told the teacher that I would give a lecture on sexual health. The teacher was shocked and refused.

But I insisted that the teacher ask students to write their queries on a paper. The next day the teacher said that I could take a lecture.”

Delivering the keynote address, organising chairman of the conference, Dr T. Kamaraj said, “Sex affects our total sense of happiness and it also extends one’s life expectancy.

There is a general reluctance to provide any form of sex education for children, adolescents and even grownups. India is often regarded as the land of the Kamasutra, where people are expected to possess a great deal of awareness of sex and sexuality.

However, studies have shown that large sections of the population are either unaware of or have wrong notions of sex and sexuality,” he added.

Dr Adaikan Ganesan, ex-president, International Society for Sexual Medicine, Prof. Karunanidhi, HOD, department of Psychology, University of Madras and Dr K.S. Jeyarani, director, Aakash Fertility Centre and Hospital, also spoke on the occasion. More than 1,000 doctors are taking part in the conference that will have presentations on various topics on the concluding day, Sunday.

source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> Channels> Cities> Chennai / DC / Chennai / February 12th, 2012

Anna University-BCT Kalam centre to enhance professional skills

Business & Economy, Education, Nri's / Pio's, Science & Technologies, Uncategorized

By A Staff Reporter – MUSCAT:

The Anna University and Bahwan CyberTek Kalam Centre of Excellence set up by Bahwan CyberTek in collaboration with the Ramanujan Computing Centre (RCC), Anna University, was inaugurated by the former President of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam in the university’s Chennai campus yesterday.
Also present at the inauguration were Hind Bahwan, Chairperson, Bahwan CyberTek Group, Durgaprasad, Director and CEO Bahwan CyberTek Group, Mannar Jawahar, Vice-chancellor of Anna University and Rhymend Uthariaraj, Director of RCC.
Bahwan CyberTek has set up the 40-seat state-of-the-art Centre of Excellence (CoE) with Bahwan CyberTek’s Cuecent BPMS Software Suite. Through the COE, Bahwan CyberTek will provide an opportunity to enhance the professional skills of the students and faculty of Anna University in BPM, SOA and emerging technologies. Bahwan CyberTek will also provide project sponsorships, research options and paper publications support to the students and faculty of the University.
Kalam at the launch set the vision for the joint AU-BCT Kalam Centre of Excellence initiative to research the convergence of Bio, Nano, IT and Ecology to build sustainable innovation and leadership in institutions to emerge out of India that will have a global impact.
Hind Suhail Bahwan, Chairperson, Bahwan CyberTek Group said “With innovation being the corporate philosophy, and with our strong commitment to contribute to the society we operate in, we have set up this CoE to serve the students and faculty of this esteemed university and also be a platform for ongoing innovations in IT.”
S Durgaprasad, Director and CEO, Bahwan CyberTek Group said “My association with my alma mater is a special one and I firmly believe that this coming together of the Industry and the Academia marks a true collaboration and commitment to bring about far-reaching technological innovations.”
Prof P Mannar Jawahar, Vice Chancellor – Anna University, said “The CoE that has been established at RCC is a world-class, shared-use educational and R&D facility serving the student and industry community.
“Bahwan CyberTek will conduct certification courses and aid in providing projects and consulting work for the faculty and students of Anna University. This collaboration holds tremendous potential for innovation and offers far-reaching benefits for students. The technologies formed by the partnership of RCC-AU and Bahwan CyberTek not only will enable and enhance further technology development and research, it will positively impact the knowledge of students of Anna University”.
Ramanujan Computing Centre (RCC) located in Anna University (AU), Chennai, is functioning as a technology provider to students, researchers and teaching community to fulfil their computational, technological and Internet requirements. The centre is truly state-of-art with the sophisticated Wi-Fi connectivity, Video Streaming Server to render Video Conference/Video-on-demand facility.
Bahwan CyberTek, established in 1999, is a global IT provider of innovative software products and services.

source: http://www.main.omanobserver. om / Oman Daily Observer / Sunday, January 15th, 2012