Category Archives: Education

From a railway platform to hallowed IAS, his is a tale of grit and perseverance

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

Chennai :

In 2004, M Sivaguru Prabakaran gave up his dream of pursuing an engineering degree as his family couldn’t afford the money to help him attend counselling session in Chennai.

Prabakaran secured 101st rank among the 990 candidates selected iby the UPSC n CSE 2017.
Prabakaran secured 101st rank among the 990 candidates selected iby the UPSC n CSE 2017.

What followed was an extraordinary tale of grit and determination that took the son of an alcoholic from Melaottankadu village in Pattukottai in Thanjavur district to the platforms of the St Thomas Mount Railway Station and the hallways of IIT Madras. In the near future, as an IAS officer, he could possibly move to the hallowed precincts of Fort St George.

On Friday, Prabakaran secured 101st rank among 9.90 candidates selected by the UPSC in the civil services examination 2017. V Keerthi Vasan (29), L Madhubalan (71) and S Balachander (129) were among the other candidates from Tamil Nadu who made the cut.

When TOI contacted Prabakaran on the phone, he was in the middle of getting congratulatory hugs from roommates at the house they shared in Thirumangalam. “I couldn’t continue my education after Class XII because of my family’s financial situation,” said Prabakaran.

An alcoholic father meant that much of the earning burden fell on his mother and sister, who made ends meet weaving coconut fronds. When he couldn’t pursue engineering, he decided to work to support the family. “I worked as a sawmill operator for two years and did a bit of farming. Whatever money I could muster, I spent some towards my family and saved some for my education. I wasn’t prepared to let go of my dreams,” he said.

‘Tamil Nadu govt’s health department secretary inspired me’

In 2008, after having funded his younger brother’s engineering dreams and his elder sister’s wedding, Prabakaran enrolled in the civil engineering stream at the Thanthai Periyar Government Institute of Technology in Vellore. “My English language skill was not good. I studied in Tamil medium,” Prabakaran said.

It was during this time, he reached Chennai in the hopes of cracking the IIT entrance examination. “A friend referred me to a tutor in St Thomas Mount who trained underprivileged students like me,” he said.

Studying under the tutor during the weekend, Prabakaran would take shelter in the platforms of the St Thomas Mount railway station. He would return to Vellore for the week to attend his college and made a small income working his off hours at a mobile recharge outlet.

He went on to crack the IIT-M entrance and finished his M.Tech programme as a top ranked student in 2014. “I had 9.0 GPA,” said Prabakaran. This was Prabakaran’s fourth attempt at clearing the UPSC exams. He identifies J Radhakrishnan, the Tamil Nadu government’s health department secretary, as an inspiration. “The desire to become an IAS officer was lit in me when I saw Radhakrishnan in 2004. He was the Thanjavur district collector at the time of Kumbakonam school fire tragedy. He was the first IAS officer I ever saw,” said Prabakaran.

Prabakaran hopes to inspire more people from his hometown to follow his lead.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Time of India / News> City News> Chennai News> Schools & Colleges / by Pradeep Kumar / TNN / April 28th, 2018

17 bikers, 17 countries, 15,000 km

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Sports, World Opinion
Schoolchildren greet bikers from Finland embarking on a tour, at Sriperumbudur Panchayat Union Primary School, Mettupalayam, on Thursday. | Photo Credit: B. Velankanni Raj
Schoolchildren greet bikers from Finland embarking on a tour, at Sriperumbudur Panchayat Union Primary School, Mettupalayam, on Thursday. | Photo Credit: B. Velankanni Raj

65-day charity tour for girls’ education flagged off

The charity tour for girls’ education in rural India, on motorcycles from Chennai to Finland, commenced from the Sriperumpudur Panchayat Union Primary School, Mettupalayam near Oragadam on Thursday.

The 15,000-km tour aimed at mobilising funds for girls’ education in rural India will pass through 17 countries before reaching Finland, the home of 17 bikers who have embarked on this venture.

The 17-member team will pass through Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh to enter Nepal.

To cross many countries

From there they would pass through China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia and Estonia to reach Finland.

The 65-day tour, organised jointly by the PeterPan Bike, Finland and SFA Motorcycle Rental, Chennai, was flagged off by Tourism Minister Vellamandi Natarajan and Transport Minister M.R. Vijayabaskar.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Kancheepuram – April 20th, 2018

IIT-M students build prototypes

Education, Records, All, Science & Technologies, Sports, World Opinion
The students along with the prototypes they built for participating in international competitions. | Photo Credit: HANDOUT_E_MAIL
The students along with the prototypes they built for participating in international competitions. | Photo Credit: HANDOUT_E_MAIL

A group of students from the Indian Institute of Technology – Madras have built a Formula race car. And, Team Raftar is the only Indian team to qualify for the Formula Student Germany 2018 competition in July.

The single-seater race car, built from scratch with the support of a senior alumnus, cost ₹15 lakh. The students’ team was supported by BOSCH and MRF.

Another group of students, Team Anveshak, has developed a Mars Rover, which has qualified for the finals of the University Rover Challenge to be held in the Utah desert.

The all-terrain rover, with minor modifications to the design could be used in defence operations and terrain exploration purposes.

The third group of students, Team Abhiyaan, one of the two teams that has qualified for the international robotics event to be held in Oakland University, Michigan, US, has built a robot – an autonomous ground vehicle that can navigate using GPS.

The team’s mission is to create efficient and safe transportation solutions.

The students have developed their products at the Centre for Innovation (CFI), a result of funding by three batches of IIT-M alumni.

Institute director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said the CFI had emerged as the model in the country for fostering hands-on innovation among students. Though the institute offered them support when they participated in international competitions the students had to find their own sponsors, he added.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – April 14th, 2018

Anatomy and history of a 200-year-old Ivory skeleton

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All, Science & Technologies, World Opinion
The ivory and rosewood skeletons on display at the AMC’s Anatomy Museum in Visakhapatnam. | Photo Credit: C.V.Subrahmanyam
The ivory and rosewood skeletons on display at the AMC’s Anatomy Museum in Visakhapatnam. | Photo Credit: C.V.Subrahmanyam

A rare masterpiece from Saraswati Mahal of Thanjavur, it’s now the prized possession of the Anatomy Museum of Andhra Medical College

A rare ivory skeleton, the bones of which have been carved to clockwork precision on the lines of the human skeleton, is the cherished treasure at the Anatomy Museum of Andhra Medical College (AMC) here.

The ivory skeleton, 5’6” in height and weighing 231 lbs (104.78 kg), reflects the ingenuity of the sculptor, who had carved it more than two centuries ago. It was procured from the famous Saraswati Mahal of Thanjavur, which was under the patronage of Rajah Serfoji (1798-1832). The skeleton is said to have been made between 1805 and 1810. Dr. R. Krishna Rau, a Professor in the Department of Anatomy between 1929 and 1946, who was instrumental in setting up the museum, had bought the ivory skeleton and a rosewood skeleton for a sum of ₹75. The 18th century skeleton has been drawing appreciation of not only experts in the medical field, but also the general public during exhibitions.

“The British are said to have paid ₹5 lakh to display it during an exhibition in London in 1970. The skeleton was taken in a specially made coffin and returned after about a week,” Dr. Ashalatha, Head of the Department of Anatomy, told The Hindu.

Mortem and taboo

“In those days, there were several taboos in handling human bodies and skeletons, and Dr. Krishna Rau was said to have stayed back in the department for a few days on the arrival of the skeletons. Even today, some anatomy professors do not tell their family members that they handle dead bodies,” says Dr. K. Lakshmi Kumari, an Associate Professor of Anatomy. “The ivory skeleton is a masterpiece and is said to be one among the few in the world. No wonder, it was taken by ship all the way to London for display at an exhibition there. The ivory and rosewood skeletons are displayed at exhibitions, organised on special occasions,” says Dr. P.V. Sudhakar, Principal of AMC.

The museum signifies the efforts and dedication of the illustrious teachers, professors and HODs, particularly of AMC during the early days.

Prof. F.J. Anderson, who as Principal of AMC, gave full freedom to Dr. Krishna Rau in securing the unique collections.

The department was named after Dr. Krishna Rau on January 24, 1984 honouring his efforts.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by B. Madhu Gopal / Visakhapatnam – April 06th, 2018

Start-up chosen for mentorship programme in Singapore

Business & Economy, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, World Opinion

StartupCF04apr2018

Chennai-based non-profit is among four Indian firms selected

IIT-Madras-based education start-up, Involve, and two other start-ups — MANRAM and The Kisan Union — whose founders hail from Tamil Nadu, are among the firms selected for the Young Social Entrepreneurs (YSE) mentorship programme in Singapore this year. The YSE programme is hosted by the Singapore International Foundation.

The programme began with a four-day workshop in March. Start-ups were short-listed for an eight-month mentorship programme from April to October. In October, the teams will pitch their business plans to a panel of judges and six teams will be selected for seed funding of 20,000 Singapore dollars.

For the YSE programme 2018, 47 teams across 12 countries participated in the workshop.

Of these, 16 teams (including four from India) were selected to the next level.

Building student leaders

Involve trains senior school students in skills such as leadership, communication and confidence building. These students, in turn, impart these skills to their juniors.

The firm has worked with ASN Senior Secondary School, Delhi, Fathima CBSE School, Saidapet, and Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT-Chennai Campus. Divanshu Kumar, founder and director of Involve, is pursuing an integrated dual degree programme at IIT-Madras.

MANRAM has three members — Vijaya Kumar, 23, from Chennai, who is a food processing engineer, Vishnu Harikumar, 26, an electronics communication engineer from Kerala and Ajmal Muhammad, 24, a computer science engineer, also from Kerala. They are currently studying at the the Institute of Rural Management Anand, Gujarat.

MANRAM is a millet processing cluster with its own farmer producer organisations, and produces a gluten-free, millet-based snack.

The Kisan Union is developing a solar-powered mobile smart kiosk, which provides information about government policies and health services to rural households.

(This correspondent was recently in Singapore on invitation from the Singapore International Foundation.)

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Sanjay VijayaKumar / Singapore – April 02nd, 2018

Genetic diversity can prevent rapid spread of infectious diseases

Education, Records, All, Science & Technologies
Choice of pandemic: The models are best suited to study airborne diseases such as H1N1, say Nagasuma Chandra (left) and Narmada Sambataru.
Choice of pandemic: The models are best suited to study airborne diseases such as H1N1, say Nagasuma Chandra (left) and Narmada Sambataru.

The team studied how susceptibility sub-populations affect the spread of the disease

An infectious disease can spread at different rates in different countries. This phenomenon has been observed in many cases, for instance in the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. An International group of researchers including those at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, and The Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai, looks at genetics as a way to explain this phenomenon. They find that the greater the genetic diversity in immune response, the stronger is the barrier to the spread of the disease. The results have recently been published in PLOS Computational Biology.

Nagasuma Chandra’s team at IISc chose to study H1N1 as modelling it had some advantages.

“There is a lot of work on H1N1 and a lot of data including clinical and epidemiological. These models are also best suited to study airborne diseases. As H1N1 spreads through air, choosing it made a lot of sense,” says Dr. Chandra.

Pandemic H1N1 virus

The pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza A virus was different from other influenza viruses encountered until then. According to the WHO, this is because it originated from animal influenza viruses and is unrelated to the human seasonal H1N1 viruses that have been in circulation among people formany years In fact, this virus is thought to have arisen from a mixture of two viruses: a North American virus that jumped from birds to swine and humans and a Eurasian swine virus that had circulated in pigs for about a decade before entering humans. Clinically also the virus’s effect was very different from that of other flu viruses in that younger people were more severely affected than older ones.

Narmada Sambataru and Sumanta Mukherjee who were at Dr Chandra’s lab, and Martin Lopez-Garcia from the University of Leeds, UK, spent nearly a year building up the model. Their research led them to establish how an individual’s genetic makeup can influence his or her susceptibility to the infection.

The immune system has both innate and adaptive response types to infections, in general. In the case of H1N1 infection, the adaptive immune system can recognise the presence of a virus within the cell and respond to it only if a molecule called the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) binds to some fragment of the viral protein (epitope) and ‘presents’ it to the environment outside the cell. Dr Chandra’s group has described the details of this aspect of H1N1 in an earlier paper published in the journal Clinical and Translational Immunology.

Immune response

“The main take-away from our work is that understanding how the immune response of different individuals leads to a spread of susceptibilities in a population is vital to figuring out how diseases spread,” says Gautam Menon of The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, a co-author of the paper. “This problem, of how to go from what we know about how individuals can vary in their susceptibility to understanding how epidemics spread across entire populations, has been identified recently as one of the major challenges in the study of epidemics.”

Having worked out how the genetic makeup of an individual can affect their susceptibility to the disease, the individuals can be grouped according to their susceptibility. Using a mathematical model called the SIR (Susceptible-Infected-Recovered) model, the researchers study how the presence of susceptibility sub-populations affect the spread of the disease. “In this model, individuals are initially susceptible but not infected.

“When an infection is introduced, individuals become infected at a rate determined by their estimated susceptibility to the pathogen, estimated using genetic information about the host as well as the pathogen. Infected individuals then proceed to recover,” says Dr Chandra.

Trends

The work captures the qualitative features of well-known trends of influenza spread in various parts of the world. “This work uses publicly available information about HLA class-I genes and their prevalence in populations around the world. Unfortunately, there is a significant shortage of this information for Indian populations,” she says.

The group is planning to propose a detailed study of this for Indian populations. “Once this information becomes available, we can do far more to predict disease spread in India. These predictions can be used to inform public policy and make better decisions. This is the real utility of such modeling methods, that we can explore different situations and ask what responses might be most effective in the context of specific diseases,” says Dr Menon.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Science / by Subashree Desikan / March 31st, 2018

Insect Museum opened at TNAU

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technologies

Under the theme ‘Bugs Are Kings’, the museum displays insects as preserved specimens and models on their behaviour, habits and habitat.

Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami opened an insect museum in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) on Monday. First of its kind established at the Department of Agricultural Entomology of TNAU, the museum houses 20,000 insects from 50 species.

Inaugurating the museum, Mr. Palaniswami said that the research and expertise which helped to realise the facility will be beneficial to farmers, researchers, students and the public.

“Haling from agricultural background, I have seen farmers worrying over insects affecting various crops. The museum will help farmers to gain more knowledge about insects, those helpful and harmful to farming,” said Mr. Palaniswami.

Speaking at the event, Minister for Agriculture R. Doraikkannu pointed that insects were causing about 20 % crop loss in the State and the museum will be beneficial for farmers.

Established at a cost of ₹ 5 crore, the museum displays insects as preserved specimens, live specimens depicting their life cycle, images, videos and models on their behaviour, habits and habitat under the theme ‘Bugs Are Kings’.

Right wall of the exhibit area of 6,691 sqft covers insects under five sections namely insect diversity, insect biology, beneficial insects, insect and plants, and cultural entomology. The left wall of the museum displays curated specimens of 27 insect orders along with their charts. Videos related to insects are played through television on the walls. Three touch screen gadgets with information on insect trivia, insect records and insects around you are also kept at the museum.

Physically challenged persons can access the museum through a ramp. Financed by the Government of Tamil Nadu, the museum has electronic ticketing facility for visitors.

Minister for Forest Dindigul C. Sreenivasan, Minister of Municipal Administration and Rural Development S. P. Velumani, Deputy Speaker Pollachi V. Jayaraman, Agricultural Production Commissioner and Principal Secretary to Government Gagandeep Singh Bedi, District Collector T.N. Hariharan, and TNAU Vice-chancellor K. Ramasamy were present at the inaugration.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States / by Staff Reporter / Coimbatore – March 26th, 2018

The hands that toil, create

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All

KrishnapriyaCF28mar2018

Archiving Labour examines history, society and art through the lens of labour

Between sweltering skies and sea breeze at the tiled-roof veranda of Spaces, a prodigious handcrafted volume titled ‘Create’ is the first exhibit. In it, student artist Kamashewaran has explored the plight of bonded labourers at brick kilns in his village. We turn the pages to find endearing portraits of brick makers, and hand impressions alternating with words such as ‘sengal’ (brick). At the bottom, a brick sits in a deep receptacle, engraved with the word ‘Labour’. This bond between labour and creation is at the core of Archiving Labour curated by CP Krishnapriya, an alumnus of the College of Fine Arts.

Produced by a collective of 33 students from Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai and Kumbakonam, the exhibition, which was part of the Student Biennale, Kochi 2016-17, garnered a national award. Of 15 emerging curators, Krishnapriya won the Tata Trusts International Award, granting her a trip to experience the Venice and documenta Biennales.

Raison d’etre

Her vision for the year-long project was bi-fold — one, leading the students of the two schools to re-examine their artistic practice and two, re-visiting the Madras School to trace its roots to industrial crafts. On their trail, the artists discovered a brick kiln at the Chennai campus where bricks were once manufactured. The evidence, a replica of an old brick with the ‘School of Arts Madras’ insignia sits like an unassuming marker on a pedestal.

With intensive workshops for reading and criticism over four months, Krishnapriya steered the group away from the sacrosanct white cube gallery. The artists took the path less trodden, using low-cost and accessible materials to explore art in a small, meaningful way. The mysterious locked-up school museum became the imaginary site which photos, videos and impressions would bring alive. These innocuous exhibits are magical when you unlock their codes.

Positioned against the grand metaphor of the Triumph of Labour statue (1959) at the Marina by erstwhile sculptor and then Principal DP Roy Chowdhury, the artists queried — how does labour triumph? “Many of the students come from rural backgrounds and their families are engaged in brick making, weaving, metalwork and labour,” says Krishnapriya, whose mentoring opened channels for the students to examine their own origins and communities. Student artist Karthikeyan’s portrait of his father is accompanied by a sign, ‘My father is a signboard artist’, painted by his father. Such paradoxes resonate throughout the show.

The product of labour — be it a beautiful monument or a Kanjivaram saree — belongs to the one who commissions it, while its real makers are never credited. Material becomes message in Sindhuja’s portraits of weavers on silk sarees, documenting her family of weavers. And so, who do we celebrate? Artist Thalamuthu chose Revathy, a cleaner of railway tracks and made her bust, displayed at Chennai Central for several days.

“This was planned as an exhibition where you have to spend time, read the notes and make an effort,” says Krishnapriya. The exercises linked ‘how do you view?’ to ‘how are we viewed?’ using writing, sound recordings, photography and video, relatively inexpensive media. Reviving the context of the old photography department at the College of Arts, a group selected images from the British Library archives to compare anthropological views of Indians from the Colonial era with present day.

The artists posed, mimicking the earlier orchestrated set-ups: a girl with a food processor versus 20th Century women at grinding mills. In another exercise, P Parthik’s photo-collage of the hands of labourers from Kumbakonam show their hardships. Extensive sketchbooks of brick workers, railway cleaners and launderers reveal an empathetic understanding of the gaps in our society. A 10-paisa coin — a paltry sum paid for husking one coconut — is framed and positioned next to calloused hands.

The inquiry to find the artist’s role and the institution’s throws up several questions. Can anyone make art? Who can sculpt? Who can create? Here, the lens turns to people relegated to toil in our society, to ask: ‘Are not bricks, baskets and woven handloom, art?’

The exhibition with evening lectures is on at Spaces, Besant Nagar, till March 30.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society / by Sujatha Shankar Kumar / March 28th, 2018

Doctors of Royapettah Hospital bring out a book on toxicology

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technologies

ToxicologyMPOs26mar2018

Doctors of the Department of Internal Medicine at Government Royapettah Hospital have brought out a book, Manual of Toxicology — An Indian Perspective, which, they say, will fill a lacunae in the knowledge about poisons.

“Most toxicology manuals are silent on many of the Indian posions, as they have been written from a western perspective. This book is based on our experience treating cases involving toxins,” says Dr. A. Shaik Sulaiman Meeran, one of the doctors who spearheaded this book project.

Dr. P. Paranthaman was the editor-in-chief. Dr. Sulaiman, Dr. A. Samuel Dinesh and Dr. D. Venkateswaralu served as associate editors and Dr. P. Raja as co-editor. The book has been brought out by Chess Educational Publishers.

Dr. Sulaiman says that knowing the sources of danger will prevent accidental ingesting of poisons or strikes by venomous reptiles and insects.

Knowing where to seek help will be a crucial factor in recovery.

He says snake bite cases from the southern suburbs, which include Tambaram and surrounding areas, parts of Old Mahabalipuram Road and East Coast Road are common. Anti-venom serum for treatment of bites by cobra, viper and krait is available. Government general hospitals have them.

Residents of semi-urban areas can face the problem of snake bikes, it is available in primary health centres, he says. Here is a word of caution. “Ninety percent of the sea snakes are poisonous and there is no anti-venom serum for them. Only supportive treatment can be given. Sea snakes are sometimes found near fishermen’s settlements. They get entangled in fishermen’s nets and are brought ashore. There is always a high possibility of finding them near fishermen’s hamlets on East Coast Road,” says Dr. Sulaiman.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / March 23rd, 2018

Now, Sing Thyagaraja Kritis in Malayalam

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All

Retired principal translates 101 compositions of the saint-poet

The Telugu compositions of Sri Thyagaraja have reached God’s Own Country and are available to music connoisseurs in “His own language”.

This was made possible by the efforts of Latha Varma, retired Principal of Madurai-based Sri Sadguru Sangeetha Vidyalayam College of Music and Research Centre. Quite surprisingly, Tamil acted as the bridge in translating the Telugu compositions into Malayalam.

Ms. Varma, who belongs to the royal family of Ernakulam, joined the famed college in Madurai when she was 24 and retired a couple of years ago. As Malayalam is her mother tongue and she gained proficiency in Tamil with her prolonged stay in Madurai, she decided to go the extra mile to learn Telugu literature too. And she did master it with élan through a certificate and diploma course from Madurai Kamaraj University.

Though Thyagaraja kritis are sung world over by people of all languages, many are do not know Telugu and as such miss out on its literary beauty. The mellifluous note and rhythm come in for appreciation, but the ‘Bhava’ (substance) more often than not gets lost. It is this void that the musicologist wanted to fill, at least in Malayalam.

She hand-picked 101 most popular compositions of the saint-poet and gave a word-by-word translation (Prathipadartham) and also a gist (Thathparyam) of each verse. As senior Telugu professor T.S. Giriprakash Rao translated the Telugu verses into Tamil, she picked them up for translation into Malayalam.

An academician, performer cum researcher, Ms. Varma spoke to The Hindu on the sidelines of a seminar on “Group kritis of different vaggeyakaras,”organised by Sri Padmavathi Mahila Viswa Vidyalayam’s (SPMVV) Department of Music and Fine Arts, where she was the key-note speaker.

The translation work, which she calls her “pet project”, lasted for two years. “The copies are now available at the Maharaja’s College for Women and Kerala University, both in Thiruvananthapuram, and the Chittur College in Palakkad. I will soon present some [copies] to the Maharaja’s College in Ernakulam,” Ms. Varma said.

Ms. Varma was felicitated by SPMVV Rector V. Uma, Dean (Social sciences) D.B. Krishnakumari, seminar coordinator K. Saraswathi Vasudev and academic Dwaram Lakshmi on the occasion.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by A.D. Rangarajan / Tirupati – March 21st, 2018