Kerala shines in civil services examinations - The Hindu

• 
  Haritha V. Kumar. Photo: S. Gopakumar.
  

  On Friday Kerala was on cloud nine. Three candidates from the State bagged top ranks in this year’s civil services examination.

  While Haritha V. Kumar bagged the first rank, V. Sriram got the second rank and Alby John Varghese the fourth rank. It was in 1991 that a candidate from Kerala —Raju Narayanaswamy — had last emerged the topper in the civil services examination. At least five candidates from Kerala figure in the top 50 ranks; Avinash Menon Rajendran from Thiruvananthapuram got the 30 rank and Gayathri Krishnan Bhavani also from Thiruvananthapuram got rank 37. There are at least eight candidates from Kerala in the top-100 list; S. Vineeth from Thiruvananthapuram was ranked 56, K. Manjulekshmi from Thiruvananthapuram was ranked 63 and Shreya. P. Singh from Thrissur bagged the 86 rank.

  All the above mentioned candidates received training from the Kerala State Civil Services Academy, here. As many as 34 Academy trainees have found a place in the UPSC rank list this time. ADGP Prisons Alexander Jacob, who is a civil services trainer, told The Hindu that around 50 candidates from Kerala appear to have found a place in the rank list.

  Ms. Kumar — an engineer by training and a resident of Thiruvananthapuram — is currently a trainee officer in the Indian Revenue Service. The other two toppers are doctors; Dr. Sriram is doing his PG programme at a hospital in Cuttack, Orissa, and Dr. Varghese works at a public health centre at Kunnukara, near Paravoor.

  “I dedicate my rank to Kerala,” Ms. Kumar told The Hindu over phone from Faridabad where she is undergoing training. “All I wanted was to figure in the first 100 ranks. This was unbelievable,” she added. What made this success sweeter for Kerala was the fact that both Ms. Kumar and Dr.Varghese had Malayalam Literature as an optional subject for the main examinations. Dr. Sriram had medical science and zoology as his optional subjects.

Madurai youth secures 46th rank in UPSC exam - The Hindu

M.P. Mullai Mukilan (26) from Balaji Nagar at Tiruppalai here has secured the 46 rank in the All India Civil Services Examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission.

Mr. Mukilan who quit his job as a software engineer in Chennai in 2010, accomplished his dream of joining the Indian Administrative Services by clearing the civil services examination in his first attempt in 2010 and was undergoing Indian Revenue Services training at Nagpur. He cleared the UPSC examination in his second attempt to join the IAS this time.

He did his schooling at Rotary Lahary Matriculation School and Cathy Matriculation Higher Secondary School. Mukilan’s father A. Muthukiruttinan is a manager at the Dindigul District Agricultural Marketing Committee and his mother V. Pooranam is the superintendent at NCC Head Office in Madurai.

Mukilan said that encouragement by his parents and regular reading of The Hindu since school days had made it possible for him to achieve his long cherished dream.

Funding a U.S. education - The Hindu

• 
  THE HINDU Students at US education fair organised by United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF (file photo) Photo: G. Krishnaswamy 
   
  Hundreds of students and their friends logged onto Facebook on May 15, 2013, to learn more about studying in the United States, how to fund their education, as well as clarifying their doubts on the U.S. Student visa process. Heera Kamboj (Information Officer and Press Attaché, U.S. Consulate General, Chennai), Dr. Srilakshmi Ramakrishnan (Senior Adviser, EducationUSA Advising Services), and Tom Montgomery (Vice Consul, U.S. Consulate General Chennai) answered questions from students all over India. Readers can find answers to additional questions at www.EducationUSA.info or seek one-on-one counseling directly from an EducationUSA Adviser. Here 's the first part of the chat transcript.

  Can you please tell me how to continue education in dentistry in USA after BDS in India? Also about the details of scholarship, loans without a cosigner.

  In order to pursue a DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery) or DMD (Doctor of Dental Medicine), you will need to: 1) Complete Part I of the NBDE (National Board Dental Examination), 2) After completion, you will be eligible to apply for and enter a Dental school in Advanced Standing status for DDS, 3) For a list of dental schools offering Advanced Standing, please visit the American Dental Association’s website:www.ada.org, 4) For financial aid, preference is given to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, 5) Admission to a U.S. dental school is highly competitive. Although anyone is eligible to apply, international students rarely gain admission to a U.S. school of dentistry without having completed at least two years of college or university study at a U.S. institution.

  I have got admission in some good universities without financial aid. Is it a wise decision to go ahead? What are the other sources of financial aid?

  Your question is a popular one! You are ultimately the best judge of whether this would be good for you or not. Most students will not receive financial aid at the time of admission but they might become eligible after the first semester or the first year, depending on their academic performance. Scholarships and funding are very competitive and are dependent on the specific department and university that you apply to. Please visit this page for information about scholarship search engines that allow you to search for funding based on your discipline of study.

  I am a software engineer working for one of the biggies. I wanted to pursue M.S. (In computer science) from USA. How safe is it to spend two years of my life and a big chunk of my savings on doing MS with a recession looming? Which is the best specialisation to pursue (There are already enough software engineers out there) and how do we get a good scholarship?

  The choice of specialisation depends on your individual interests and passion in the field of Computer Science. Since everyone is different and has a unique situation, EducationUSA offers a self-assessment tool to help each student define his/her priorities. For additional information on picking the right school, visit this page. For identifying the schools that offer a Master’s degree specifically in Computer Science, check out: www.petersons.com

  Please list out some good universities for an MIS programme in the U.S. which provide funding/scholarship for scores above 300-310 with two years of industrial experience and decent acadamics of 73 per cent.

  We recommend that you follow the five Steps to US Study as explained in detail on the EducationUSA website: www.educationusa.info. For specific programmes and universities, you can take a look at www.petersons.com or www.gradschools.com where you can use the search box to pull up a list of universities offering degrees in your proposed field of study. Please note that financial aid is specific to each university and individual departments at those universities. Therefore, checking with the Financial Aid or Admissions Office at a given university is key. There are many types of funding that might be available to international students, such as scholarships, tuition waivers (partial or full), assistantships, or fellowships. To understand the differences between each of these types, please visit: http://www.educationusa.info/5_steps_to_study/graduate_step_1_identify_types_and_sources_of_financial_aid.php for more information.

  International students are typically not eligible to apply for most U.S. graduate scholarships unless they are offered specifically for international students departments or universities in which they are enrolled. However, there are some other competitive scholarships that Indian students might be eligible for based on different criteria and for different purposes (example: travel grants for study abroad, funding for female international students). Here are a few options for you, although we do not endorse any of these specifically:

  TOEFL Scholarship Program in India: http://www.ets.org/toefl/scholarships/india;

  AAUW Educational Funding and Awards:http://www.aauw. org/what-we-do/educational-funding-and-awards/international-fellowships/;

  Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Allied Trusts: http://www.tata.in/ourcommitment/articles/inside.aspx?artid=8a2Z9+lt1QQ

  The Aga Khan Foundation: http://www.akdn.org/akf_scholarships.asp.

  You can also check out a scholarship search engine to find one that might match your needs, here: http://www.educationusa.info/5_steps_to_study/graduate_step_1_identify_types_and_sources_of_financial_aid.php

  What are the chances of getting F1 visa after six attempts (lack of guidance made me commit silly mistakes). Please let me know the changes that have to be made after an F1 visa rejection.

  While we can’t give applicants advice about individual cases, we do appreciate the opportunity to explain the refusal process. Each interview is a new chance to get a visa, however, if you have been refused in the past the Consular Officer will likely want to see that you have made substantive changes in your individual circumstances to show progress. For example, if you didn’t have enough funds last time and that is why the Consular Officer refused you, then we encourage you to obtain a scholarship, a loan, or some other form of funding BEFORE coming for your next interview.

  I have completed B.Tech in Chemical Engineering. I have an admit from University of Florida for M.S. in Chemical Engineering without any aid. My bank gives me a loan of only up to Rs. 20 lakh (beyond which it charges more interest), and my tuition fees plus expenses would turn up to 30 lakh. Will I be offered scholarship of some kind by the university or do I have any chance of getting government-funded grants?

  First things first, get accepted into a school that you want to attend. You have already accomplished the first step. Congratulations! Scholarships at all universities are always very competitive, and may not always be available to foreign students at the time of admission. You might still be eligible to receive some funding from the department where you received admission possibly after the first semester or first year. You will not be eligible to apply for U.S. government-funded grants because those are for U.S. citizens or permanent residents. That being said, the financial aid office or the admissions office at each specific university would be best able to tell you what is available to you. For external funding opportunities, check out: http://www.educationusa.info/5_steps_to_study/graduate_step_3_make_your_budget.php

  I am going for this FALL 2013 for M.S. in Computer Engineering in Syracuse University and before booking the VISA date, I’ve a few queries that i would like to get answered here. My I20 amount is 42k $ / year. So how much minimum amount should I be showing and what all are the documents that I can show during my visa interview. I have a loan amount of 20 lakh.

  First of all, congratulations on your acceptance to a U.S. university! Student travellers are required to show proof of funds to cover the first year of studies. In your case, you must show that you have access to $42,000 to fund your first year, and your loan amount almost covers all of that. For your question about funding, check out some of our earlier responses on scholarships, and private funding.

  I came to know that getting a visa to U.S. is not a simple task in these days? Is that right? What about for educational purposes?

  We have some good news for you. The process is relatively straightforward and the majority of students are approved. First, get accepted at a U.S. university. Second, obtain Form I-20 from the university. Third, pay the SEVIS registration fee with the Department of Homeland Security. And fourth, schedule an interview at any of the U.S. consulates in India. There are 1 lakh Indian students in the United States studying right now!

  Please provide resources for US Graduate Scholarships aimed primarily at Indian students.

  International students are typically not eligible to apply for most U.S. Graduate scholarships unless offered specifically by the departments or universities in which they are enrolled. However, there are some other competitive scholarships that Indian students might be eligible for based on different criteria and for different purposes (e.g. travel grants for studies abroad, funding for women international students):

  TOEFL Scholarship Program in India: http://www.ets.org/toefl/scholarships/india

  AAUW Educational Funding and Awards:http://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/educational-funding-and-awards/international-fellowships/

  Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Allied Trusts: http://www.tata.in/ourcommitment/articles/inside.aspx?artid=8a2Z9+lt1QQ

  The Aga Khan Foundation: http://www.akdn.org/akf_cholarships.asp

  Please note that we do not endorse any of the above programmes.

   

20 students selected in recruitment drive - The Hindu

angalore-based Wipro Technologies has selected 20 graduate students for job-cum-study courses in the off campus recruitment drive held in Triveni Mahila Degree College in Vijayawada. The drive was jointly organised by Triveni Degree College and Sreedhar’s College for Competitive Exams on April 27 and 28. Selected students would be given jobs as trainee software engineers and provided opportunity for pursuing MS software engineering course in BITS Pilani and VIT University, said college Principal K. Sreedhar.

UGC’s job portal accords fillip to NET/SET candidates - The Hindu

The academic job portal created recently by the University Grants Commission to help National Eligibility Test (NET), State Eligibility Test (SET) and Ph.D. qualified candidates find suitable jobs could serve as a motivation for postgraduate students to take up the tests, according to professionals associated with training of aspiring candidates.

The new initiative by UGC is meant to bring the profile of the qualified candidates to the attention of universities, colleges and other employers. The portal facilitates candidates to register and create their profile online in order to enable employers to make the right choice for their vacancies.

The employers register and post the job vacancies for candidates to apply.

So far, 16,020 NET-passed candidates, 4,661 with NET-JRF (Junior Research Fellowship), 3,343 with SET, and 7,846 candidates with Ph.D. qualification have registered with the UGC, according to official statistics furnished in its website.

The pass percentage of candidates from Tamil Nadu in NET has been dismal, despite conduct of free coaching for NET/JRF by universities under the ‘Merged Scheme’ funded by the University Grants Scheme during the 11{+t}{+h}plan period.

In fact, the universities are not able to spend the entire fund sanctioned for the purpose by the UGC due to inadequate patronage.

Such a situation had arisen despite the fact that the free coaching was being conducted during week-ends and the candidates were also given with refreshments under the scheme.

Teachers in self-financing colleges who realise the utility of passing in NET and SET only at a later stage usually attend the programme.

Shorn of time for preparation due to family commitments and the work pressure, they find themselves in a disadvantageous situation. Fresh postgraduates turn up only in less numbers, according to the trainers.

Awareness must be increased in colleges among students about the avenue for accelerated academic progress that NET and SET provide.

Students must be motivated in colleges to work hard for passing these examinations, according to S. Iyyampillai, former Coordinator, UGC Merged Scheme.

Last year, the extent of candidates found eligible for JRF was less than one-fifth of the advertised number.

A drastic change in the mindset of students has become necessary.

Colleges need to drive home the reality that meritorious candidates can excel in these examinations, Prof. Iyyampillai said.

Multiple skill enrichment at camp - The Hindu

This years' summer camp that spans two weeks kicks off with 45 students

learn with fun:Students at the summer camp at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan-Tiruchi Kendra on Monday.

Shedding stage fear, speaking better English, sharpening an appetite for quizzing, and getting the nuances of voice modulation right are chalked out as part of the annual summer camp at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, which was inaugurated on Monday.

The camp kicked off with close to 45 students who will participate in the various sessions that span two weeks. Apart from the typical dose of fun and games coupled with arts and crafts, the camp has included personality shaping skills and sessions, according to J.T. Chari, coordinator, who welcomed the batch.

Vedic Maths and enjoyable English promise to simplify English and Mathematics. Sessions on storytelling, ethics, and etiquette are among activities planned. Child specialists will offer inputs on safety and health. T.V.Murali, secretary, spouse Poornima Murali, parenting counsellor Sheela Chelliah, and Nalini Aravindan officially inaugurated this year’s summer camp. Faculty members Surya, Smitha Ananth, and Sundarrajan, were present.

The Hindu Education Plus Career Fair 2013 tomorrow - The Hindu

The 5{+t}{+h}edition of The Hindu Education Plus Career Fair 2013, an educational and career guidance programme, will be held at Ponnusamy Gounder Tirumana Mandapam, near New Bus Stand, here on Wednesday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Aspiring students looking to pursue their career in various branches of medicine, engineering, arts and science and other areas can hear from career consultant and analyst Jayaprakash A. Gandhi while Isaikkavi Ramanan will deliver a motivational talk to the students.

Educational institutions in the districts of Salem, Namakkal, Dharmapuri, and Krishnagiri and from other places will have stalls explaining the various courses offered in their institutions and provide a platform for students to interact with the faculties.

The event is presented by Paavai Institutions, Namakkal, and is powered by Vinayaka Missions University, Salem.

The event is managed by Rise Advertising Private Limited.

For details, contact A. Balaji at 94434-57133.

Skill development must for growth, says Pallam Raju - The Hindu

Demand for skilled manpower outpacing rate of supply

NEED OF THE HOUR:Union Minister for Human Resources Development M. Mangapati Pallam Raju addressing a function at Gandhigram Rural Institute.— PHOTO: G. KARTHIKEYAN.

Skills should be developed along with education to meet global standards and develop rural economy, and higher educational institutions like Gandhigram Rural Institute should strive to achieve that goal, said M. Mangapati Pallam Raju, Union Minister for Human Resources Development.

Inaugurating the Eleventh Plan buildings constructed at a cost of Rs.4 crore at the institute in Gandhigram near here recently, he said even as the world witnessed an economic slowdown, the country had registered 4 per cent growth owing to sustainable agriculture.

But the country, which would become the most populated nation in the world by 2020, had witnessed a substantial decrease in area under cultivation, he added.

Mr.Raju said skill development along with education was essential, as the rate of requirement of skilled manpower was outpacing the rate of supply throughout the world.

To balance demand and supply, higher educational institutions should adopt large-scale vocationalisation, he added.

For example, maintenance of power lines for the agriculture sector was a biggest challenge for the electricity department, he said, and added that shortage of manpower was the biggest problem in providing quick service.

The Minister said the higher educational institutions could create skilled workforce through proper training to maintain these power lines locally.

The district administration could fund the training programmes. Creation of skilled workforce would help extend quick and timely service to the farmers, and unexpected delay in sanctioning of funds and manpower would not affect agriculture, he stated.

Mr.Raju said universities should think out of the box and create talented workforce. They should work for academic excellence, focussing more on the needs of rural people, he said, and added:

Earlier, declaring open new buildings for Kendriya Vidyalaya School at Gandhigram, he said the noon meal scheme introduced by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kamaraj had been implemented throughout the country, benefiting 11 crore children.

All-women bank branch in Salem - The Hindu

State Bank of Hyderabad plans to open an all-women branch in Salem in July-August this year.

Its General Manager (SZ II) B. Ganesh Pai told The Hindu here on Monday that this would be one of the five all women branches that the bank proposed to open on the same day across the country. The branch would offer all products and services of the bank.

Computerised branch

It would be a fully-computerised branch, would have core banking solutions and would be managed fully by women.

This would be the first all women branch of the bank in Tamil Nadu.

“The branch is proposed as it helps connect better with women customers,” he said.

The bank had two regional offices in the State – one in Coimbatore and the other in Chennai.

The Coimbatore region had opened four new branches so far in 2013 and planned to open another four by the end of June.

25 branches

The bank planned to open 25 more branches during 2013-2014.

The zone had 47 branches now.

5.94 lakh students to be enrolled in libraries - The Hindu

Students of ICC Middle School in the city read books given from library on Tuesday. Photo: S.Siva.Saravanan 

A project to enrol over 5.94 lakh school students studying Standards I to VIII in libraries was launched here on Tuesday to commemorate World Book Day.

It is a joint initiative of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the Directorate of Elementary Education.

Students would be encouraged to go to library once a week during school hours, said Coimbatore Additional Chief Education Officer (SSA) R. Thiruvalarselvi. All the students, teachers, block resource teachers, and other teaching staff of the 1,142 Government and aided schools here would be enrolled in a library nearer to respective schools.

The State Government, she said, has opened libraries in all the villages in the district.K.S. Shanmugam, City Assistant Elementary Education Officer, said students of schools located in the city limits would be enrolled in the Government District Central Library at R.S. Puram or its branches at Raja Street, Puliakulam, and Gandhipuram. Students studying Standards VI to VII would be enrolled by April.

Students in other standards would be enrolled by June, he added. Ms. Thiruvalarselvi said age-appropriate books would be given to students undergoing elementary education.

The scheme would cover a total of 3.66 lakh students in primary education (Standards I to V) and 2.27 lakh students in secondary education (Standards VI to VIII). The Coimbatore SSA comprises 22 blocks of which 15 cover Coimbatore district and the rest are from Tirupur.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) celebrates April 23 as World Book Day to promote reading habit.

 

5.94 lakh students to be enrolled in libraries - The Hindu

Students of ICC Middle School in the city read books given from library on Tuesday. Photo: S.Siva.Saravanan 

A project to enrol over 5.94 lakh school students studying Standards I to VIII in libraries was launched here on Tuesday to commemorate World Book Day.

It is a joint initiative of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the Directorate of Elementary Education.

Students would be encouraged to go to library once a week during school hours, said Coimbatore Additional Chief Education Officer (SSA) R. Thiruvalarselvi. All the students, teachers, block resource teachers, and other teaching staff of the 1,142 Government and aided schools here would be enrolled in a library nearer to respective schools.

The State Government, she said, has opened libraries in all the villages in the district.K.S. Shanmugam, City Assistant Elementary Education Officer, said students of schools located in the city limits would be enrolled in the Government District Central Library at R.S. Puram or its branches at Raja Street, Puliakulam, and Gandhipuram. Students studying Standards VI to VII would be enrolled by April.

Students in other standards would be enrolled by June, he added. Ms. Thiruvalarselvi said age-appropriate books would be given to students undergoing elementary education.

The scheme would cover a total of 3.66 lakh students in primary education (Standards I to V) and 2.27 lakh students in secondary education (Standards VI to VIII). The Coimbatore SSA comprises 22 blocks of which 15 cover Coimbatore district and the rest are from Tirupur.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) celebrates April 23 as World Book Day to promote reading habit.

 

Engineering minds - The Hindu

THE HINDU e-yantra 2012: Winning Teams from Bangalore, Alhabad, Trivandrum and Mumbai.

 

Many engineering colleges fail to inculcate problem-solving skills in their students. e – Yantra helps such colleges improve upon their existing facilities.

What happens when you are given a description of an exotic delicacy, its flavour and aroma and even taught the recipe on paper, but neither a sample of the food is given nor are the ingredients provided to cook it? Your appetite is whetted but never satisfied.

This is what many students of robotics and embedded systems are undergoing. They are taught the ‘whys and hows’ but their colleges lack the basic resources and tools to give them a hands-on experience of building their own mechanisms. Recognising this disparity, professors Krithi Ramamritham and Kavi Arya of IIT-Bombay initiated the launch of their pet project e-Yantra Lab Set-up Initiative (eLSI), a Ministry of Human Resource Development-sponsored project under the National Mission for Education in ICT (NMEICT) programme.

The main aim of the initiative is to get students interested and engaged in robotics and embedded systems by helping their colleges set up a fully-functioning lab and training the teachers to take ownership of the course.

Getting hands-on

“The idea is to evolve a system that makes it easier to teach robotics. An engineer should be someone who solves a problem in society. But, going by the current educational system, students only read the books and reproduce the material during the exams. We need to solve this basic problem and give the students confidence to become problem-solvers in society with the knowledge that they have gained in college,” explains Prof. Kavi Arya.

The pilot phase saw 16 colleges in Mumbai participate in the programme. Teams of four teachers from each college underwent workshop training in the theory of micro-controllers and programming of robots. Besides, the e-Yantra Robotics Teacher Competition was organised to put their learning to test and give them an idea of how the subject could help them deal with real-life problems. The participants worked on themes such as Pot-hole filling robot, Cleaning robot, Pick and Place robot and Line Following robot.

In this initiative, the mentors share their know-how, teaching insights, project methodologies and help set up the lab.

In addition to this, colleges are given access to over 100 projects done by the students of IIT-Bombay, including the source code and documentation. For this, each college is expected to invest Rs. five lakh to cover the costs of setting up the lab.

Prof. Arya says that they aim at reaching out to more colleges nationally by zeroing in on nodal centres which are basically colleges that will be trained to act as mentors and reach out to 20 other colleges each. Thus, this year’s target is five nodal centres and 100 colleges.

If your college is interested in participating in eLSI as a nodal centre or otherwise, write in to: manager@e-yantra.org

Hi-tech learning - The Hindu

With the launch of low-end tablets and Android devices, many schools, colleges and coaching institutes are now making their content available on mobile devices

Mobile apps have penetrated all kinds of service sectors, from booking a cab and ordering home delivery of food to even tracking blood donors. The revolution to allow students prepare for exams on the go began a while back with apps being launched for the Common Admission Test, All India Engineering Entrance Exam and the like.

The latest exam to join the league is the Common Entrance Test (CET)-Karnataka. Bangalore-based technology start-up Ipomo launched the CET Room a mobile app for CET aspirants. The app had 600 registered users as of April 20, two days since its launch. This free app can be downloaded by students and used to take 20-minute tests everyday till April 26. “The app follows the ‘room’ concept which allows students to come together, take tests and compare their performance with the rest of the registered users,” said Hari Prakash Shanbhog, director, Ipomo. The team at Ipomo is still in the process of taking feedback from students and is tweaking the app to serve students better. What was first planned to be a Goodnight Test of 20 questions for 20 minutes at 10 p.m. everyday will now be available for students throughout the day. A final test will be conducted on April 28, in which students will have to answer 60 questions in each subject (physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology) in 60 minutes each. Students can also keep track of updates on CET announcements and the Rank-Seat Finder service helps students find the right courses/colleges based on their expected test results and be prepared for the counselling. “Colleges are filtered based on the cut-off ranks of the previous year CET admission,” added Mr. Hari.

Speaking about the increasing trend of preparation for competitive exams being accessible on mobile phones, Ashish Chowdhury, who created an app for CAT (CATapp) in 2011 while he was still a student, said, “The demand for educational apps has increased tremendously. With the launch of low-end tablets and Android devices, many schools, colleges and coaching institutes are now making their content available on mobile devices. The Aakash tablet is one of them. Mobile apps business is forecasted to be $100 billion by 2015 and education has and will be an important part of this. Many big players like Pearson, McGraw Hill, etc. are providing their content and small players are building innovative products. This collaboration works well.”

Multiple companies and publishing houses have turned their content into apps, GMAT app being one of them. But it is better this way, said Mr. Ashish, “Instead of all exam organisers developing their individual apps, they should rather collaborate with technology companies and make their content available on those platforms. This way the technology companies can do what they are best at and content companies (exam organisers) can do what they are best at.”

In an attempt to make the app accessible at 2G speeds, the team has compressed the data so that it takes up less time to load and use. “Students and parents will opt for data packages with apps like this being available to students. And this is the very reason why we did not tie up with any particular service provider. It helps students to access the app through their preferred provider at the best data connection packages available,” said Mr. Hari.

Working around the Internet accessibility issue is a primary concern for app developers, specially in the field of education. “Internet penetration on mobile in India is still at a very nascent stage. Hence with CATapp we pre-loaded the content in the app itself. So Internet connection is only required while downloading the app and then the app can be used without the Net. But for users with unlimited Internet connection, we have developed a Store (in the app itself) wherein people can download papers of various coaching institutes any time they want and on various topics,” explained Mr. Ashish.

In addition to CET, students can also take practice tests for NEET, JEE-Main, CAT as well as GMAT on their mobile phones. The Graduate Management Admission Council in 2012 made the 13th edition Official Guide for GMAT Review available on the Android and Apple mobile platforms. At $4.99 the app offers students questions and allows aspirants to pace themselves with a timer. Students can register to take the GMAT exam directly through the app. It also comes with a six-month subscription to the Integrated Reasoning online tool, and includes review modules, 50 GMAT exam questions, answer explanations and exam preparation resources.

The app for JEE-Main 2013 launched by Minglebox.com gives students the complete JEE syllabus along with lessons prepared by IIT/NIT toppers. It also gives students a question bank and mock tests at no cost.

Shakuntala Devi strove to simplify maths for students - The Hindu

Among her distinctions was her ability to, given a date in the last century, mentally ascertain the day.

The ‘human computer’, ‘mental calculator’, math whiz Shakuntala Devi passed away here early on Sunday aged 80.

Ms. Devi, who was suffering from respiratory problems and later developed heart and kidney complications, had been in a Bangalore hospital for two weeks.

Ms. Devi held a Guinness World Record for her lightning-speed calculations. Among her distinctions was her ability to, given a date in the last century, mentally ascertain the day.

In 1977, she calculated the 23rd root of a 201-digit number in just 50 seconds. In 1980, she multiplied two 13-digit numbers given to her randomly by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London.

“It is sad that her techniques to simplify math were not used by educational institutions,” said D.C. Shivdev, a trustee of the Shakuntala Devi Educational Foundation Public Trust.

“She strove to simplify math for students and help them get over their math phobia. It is a pity that her techniques died with her.”

She authored several books including Fun with Numbers, Puzzles to Puzzle You, and Awaken the Genius in Your Child.

Child prodigy

An indisputable child prodigy, Ms. Devi began to give public demonstrations of her math skills at the age of just six. But it was even earlier, when she was three, that her father — a trapeze artist and lion tamer — first discovered her genius.

Her father, who had rebelled against his orthodox Brahmin family’s wish that he join a circus rather than become a temple priest, noticed his daughter’s uncanny ability to memorise while teaching her a card trick.

Impressed by her gift, he then travelled with Ms. Devi on road shows where she performed her mathematical feats. Ms. Devi, who had no formal education, had once described her ability as a ‘gift’.

Keywords: Shakuntala Devi, mathematical genius, human computer, Shakuntala Devi death

Engineering students locked into Microsoft Office - The Hindu

Come June 30, over 80 lakh college students all over India would have little choice but to use Microsoft Office 365 in their college computers, locked by a government contract that may well be more expensive than the use of an open source equivalent in the long run.

The decision by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) will limit engineering students to a particular product at a time when their exposure should be widened, say experts. It also forces college administrations to adopt one technology instead of giving them the flexibility to install whatever suits their students’ needs best, they said.

Efforts to contact Microsoft were unsuccessful until Sunday night.

In open source, the core of the technology is available without charge as free download. Open source requires no initial investment, with many vendors offering support and maintenance at half the price charged by proprietary software vendors.

The AICTE, which serves more than 11,500 technical colleges and institutes across the country, had awarded Microsoft a contract last year that let the AICTE implement the company’s cloud email and storage offering, which centralizes email storage and provides for a simpler and potentially less expensive solution.

A recent notification by the AICTE states that all institutes must compulsorily install and use Microsoft Office 365, a productivity suite, which has little to do with the functioning of the cloud-storage service.

There is no free, open-source cloud-based offering, and Microsoft’s product, priced at zero initial cost, fulfills that need. Dr. S.S. Mantha, Chairman, AICTE, announced, “Office 365 will enhance our day to day communication, collaboration, and monitoring of the colleges we oversee... This will help us promote and propagate innovation across all 11,500 institutions.”

The AICTE notification that announced the mandate says the project needs to be completed by June 30, 2013.

Open-source software such as Linux has become popular among college students in recent times as its zero-cost approach promotes inclusivity, with former President Abdul Kalam stating “In India, open source software will have to come and stay in a big way, for the benefit of our billion people.”

Addressing what he called a popular misconception about the availability of support for open-source installations, Raghavendra Selvan, an assistant professor at an engineering college in Bangalore, clarified, “Once you have installed such a product, there are companies that will charge you just for maintenance and support.” Red Hat is an example of a large enterprise that caters to just this need.

If the government would consider an open-source alternative, it wouldn’t be the first time. In early 2011, the state government of Kerala deployed an open-source enterprise-resource planning (ERP) package named Fedena to assist over 15,000 schools and 70 lakh students.

Mr. Selvan suggested the government could use the Fedena model, and added, “The office suite is not necessary. Using Office 365 would only limit students to Microsoft's perspective and stand in the way of serious open-source research in rural colleges,” he added

An experiment in creativity - The Hindu

People Prateek Sethi makes learning a much easier task

Walking on water doesn’t necessarily have to be a miracle. All you need to do is chuck a little corn starch in the water. The ensuing fluid turns solid when pressure is exerted — you can even dance across it.

“But if you stop, you will fall in,” laughs Prateek Sethi, who hosts a show titled FAQ on Pogo TV that deconstructs science, making it more appealing for young audience. Prateek has enough experience in working with kids. He has been doing so for a decade now — conducting shows, creating television promos for various channels including Hungama, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, facilitating science-based workshops and now recently, creating videos for school education. “You need people to put the threads together — facilitate easy dissemination of information,” he says. “Science has to be made simple for kids. The first big problem is the jargon and second big problem is that it is always distant for them. We need to defuzz it.”

And in the workshop he proceeded to do exactly that — using easily available objects to exhibit various phenomena. “Any everyday household object can be used to conduct experiments,” he says. “Science is there in everything we do. For instance, an empty soda can and balloon will repel or attract each other due to static electricity. It’s the 3 Idiots philosophy — you need to have not just knowledge but the working knowledge,” he says.

Though he loves his science, this graduate from NID-Ahmadabad, continues nurturing his creative streak and is the co-founder of Trip Creative Services, a design studio for communication related needs. Yet he firmly believes that science and creativity are two sides of the same coin, rather than vastly diverse functions. “Art follows science,” he says. “It is an integral link.”

On future plans, he is now in the process of creating e-learning videos for rural children. “The concept is brilliant because it reaches there. And a better educated society makes better choices,” he says. “We just need to figure out the efficiency of the energy grid involved.”

Ask Prateek what drives him to do what he does and pat comes the reply. “I do what I do for the next generation of our country,” he says. “When I was growing up, I didn’t have half the resources they have today and I want to push up progress further.”

“I am an explorer,” he continues. “The new excites me, the old fascinates me, the present captivates me and the future makes me smile. I provide a vision, direct movement and experiences, but most of all make sure the ideas actually come to life.”

PREETI ZACHARIAH

Speaking Japanese in Coimbatore - The Hindu

From wanting to read the Manga comics in original to being able to talk to clients, Coimbatoreans find many good reasons to learn Japanese

Right approachStudents not only learn Japanese language but also experience Japanese culture at the institute.Photos: S. Siva Saravanan

Aravind, a class XII student loves Japanese animation films and comics. “I want to read the Manga comics in Japanese and watch the animation films without subtitles!” he says. In order to do that, he has enrolled into ABK-ATOS DOSOKAI, a Japanese Language Learning Centre, at R. S. Puram.

It is break time and the students relax after a heavy session on Japanese grammar. Aravind’s friend Praveen is also a student there, and they are discussing animatedly “J-pop” and “ghost animae”. Praveen enjoys Japanese music. “The Japanese pop music scenario is quite active. They are as strong as the Korean pop music now. Like K-pop, they are called the J-pop,” he explains.

They are also huge fans of Japanese ghost animation films. Their teacher and director of the institution, S. Shanmuga Priya, who they call “Sensei”, meaning “teacher” in Japanese, says that the two of them persuade her to watch these films. “I do not like ghost films. Since they have given me the CDs now, I have no other option,” she smiles.

A post-graduate in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) course, from Chennai University, Shanmuga Priya was all set to join a private company. “It was my teacher, Ranganathan, the chairman of ABK-ATOS DOSOKAI in Chennai, who encouraged me to start a centre in Coimbatore.”

Another student, Chithra, in the advanced level, says it is her admiration for Japanese culture that inspired her to come here. “Japanese people are humble and modest,” she says.

P. Monisha, who was selected by the Japanese government for the Kizuna programme to visit the Fukushima site, is in awe of their hospitality. “I was called to a few houses and treated so royally.”

The syllabus at the institute has been designed to familiarise the students with Japanese culture. “When you learn a language, it is important to know its cultural background. We use audio-visual programmes so that the students are exposed to right diction, mannerisms and accent. We teach the students to use chopsticks and wear a kimono”, says Shanmuga Priya.

The Japanese Education Ministry has set the syllabus, and the course material is also provided by them. There are around 30 students, who fall into the basic- and advanced-level batches. Both the courses qualify the students to attempt the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT).

Despite the fact that the language has around 1850 standard scripts, the students say that they find learning it easy. “It is such an interesting language. You soon forget about the difficulties,” says Chithra.

Shanmuga Priya says the students’ knowledge of Tamil is a great help. “For instance, the Tamil expression Poyittu Varen is there in Japanese as well. They say Itte kimasu, which means the same thing . Shanmuga Priya now has plans of starting a library of Japanese books. “However, my first priority is to expand the infrastructure of the institute,” she says.

The students’ knowledge of Tamil is a great help. Tamil has a wide range of sounds and alphabets. Hence, the students grasp the pronunciation of Japanese words fast

S. Shanmuga Priya

Live without thinking - The Hindu

INTERNET According to French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, the wise need to accept both mental and physical limits. Sudhamahi Regunathan

Alain de Botton takes the help of philosopher Michel de Montaigne to help us understand how to overcome a feeling of inadequacy in the fourth video in the series of “Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness”. The talk is titled ‘Montaigne on Self Esteem’.

“Montaigne was a rather lovable kind of philosopher because he seems to understand what makes us feel bad about ourselves and in his book addresses three main areas of inadequacies,” says Botton, “Firstly, bodily inadequacy; that is we are not comfortable with our body, we feel awkward about it. Secondly, the inadequacy we feel when we think others are judging us; our customs and habits are not being approved of. And thirdly, intellectual inadequacy; when we feel we are just not clever enough.”

As usual Botton takes us to the home place of the philosopher, which in this case is a small French town 30 miles east of Bordeaux. Here stands a castle overlooking hay farms where Montaigne was born. Montaigne’s life was enviable, and as Botton says, could spark a feeling of inadequacy in itself: a nobleman, a lawyer, a friend of the king of France, twice Mayor of Bordeaux…and he retired at the age of 38 to sit in his castle and read, reflect and write.

Montaigne wrote about all that was left out in conventional writing…he felt that we were surrounded by wrong role models who do not give space to what we actually are and this can give rise to hatred when we fail to make the grade. And so he wrote about ordinary things so as to make every reader feel “normal”. As Botton says he took the reader into confidence by sharing some very intimate and not so pleasant facts about himself, like even farting and his bowel habits. This way he let the trappings of sophistication and hypocrisy drop.” The most terrible and violent of our reflections is to despise our own beings…”

Montaigne worked at one tower at one end of his castle. As Botton takes us up to his bedroom he tells us Montaigne loved the idea of drifting into sleep and so he would have the church bells ring in the middle of the night, so that he could drift back to sleep!

Up till Montaigne most philosophers had said that it is reason that brings us the best chance for fulfilment. Montaigne differed. He said our mind creates all our problems. The first problem with having a mind is that, “… we are disgusted with our physical selves, we often think we are too fat or too gross or uncouth and develop eating disorders, sexual hang ups and embarrassments,” says Botton. “Montaigne knew many people around him afflicted by physical shame. He knew a man who killed himself because he let off a cacophony of farts at a banquet. A woman who was so embarrassed to eat that she always ate behind a curtain. Another man was obsessed that he should be buried in his underpants…Montaigne urges to accept that we are half animals…he reminds us that kings and philosophers shit and so do ladies...in this regard he felt animals are cleverer than us because we they are more comfortable with their bodies. We should accept our bodies gracefully and with a touch of humour…says Montaigne.”

All around the world, people tend to view with intolerance anyone who does not share their customs. “We are all liable to face prejudice the day we stray from our customs,” said Montaigne. So he pleads that we should not judge more by habit than experience.

As for intellectual confidence Montaigne asserted that we need wisdom and for wisdom all you need is humility, modesty and an acceptance of your intellectual limits. The wise accept mental limits just as they accept physical limits…College education perhaps misses out on lessons in life... it tests learning more than knowledge…and that leads to a wrong sense of the self.

Montaigne thus cautions against intellectual arrogance and says the best way to live is without thinking…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOjDttEtfGI

AICTE norm for SC, ST students upheld - The Hindu

HC bars State from lowering the mark

From the coming academic year, SC/ST students in Tamil Nadu will have to secure a minimum of 40 per cent marks to qualify for joining undergraduate courses in technical education. The Madras High Court has ruled that the State government is barred from fixing a lower eligibility mark than the one prescribed by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

The First Bench, in its order of Wednesday, declined to give a direction to lower the minimum eligibility criteria from 40 per cent as fixed by the AICTE to 35 per cent as prescribed by the State government for SC/ST candidates.

In its judgment on a writ appeal and a writ petition, the Bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice R.K. Agrawal and Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar, made it clear that by an order on August 22 last year, the court had given an interim direction that status quo be maintained. Students belonging to SC/SC(A)/ST who had obtained 35 per cent marks, but less than 40 per cent marks in the 10+2 examinations, got admission to the engineering colleges in the State. They were pursuing their studies at present. “Hence, all such admissions made during the years 2011-12 and 2012-13 in respect of SC/SC(A)/ST candidates shall not be disturbed, and they shall be allowed to pursue their course.”

The Acting Chief Justice observed that so far as the issue that many seats had remained vacant in engineering colleges in the State on account of the prescribed 40 per cent eligibility criteria for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Caste-Arunthathiyar/ Scheduled Tribe was concerned, even before the AICTE had prescribed 40 per cent as the minimum eligibility criterion, seats in the engineering colleges relating to such categories remained vacant. In fact, for 2011-12 when for the first time the AICTE prescribed the eligibility criterion of 40 per cent for the reserved categories, the number of vacant seats in respect of the categories fell to 17,469 from 18,372 seats during the previous year.

Originally, the state government filed the appeal against a single Judge’s order of July last year dismissing a writ petition. The Judge had held that the State had no legal or constitutional authority to challenge the AICTE regulations.

The Government of Tamil Nadu, Department of Technical Education SC/ST Employees Welfare Association filed a writ petition seeking to quash the AICTE’s notification of July 4, 2011, stipulating 40 per cent minimum marks for the reserved categories.

The State government submitted that the requirement of a higher percentage of marks would put the socially backward students belonging to SC/SC (A)/ST to serious disadvantage in getting admission to engineering courses.

The Bench said from Supreme Court decisions, the principles which emerged included that the State could not prescribe minimum eligibility criteria lower than what had been prescribed by AICTE. However, it could prescribe higher eligibility criteria. If the State fixed a higher minimum eligibility criteria than that fixed by the AICTE, admissions to technical courses should be made only on the basis of the State-fixed eligibility criteria, even though seats meant for the reserved category remained unfilled.

Applying the Supreme Court principles to the facts of the present case, the Bench said the State government could not have prescribed a lower eligibility criterion in respect of reserved category candidates, i.e 35 per cent instead of 40 per cent prescribed by AICTE. It could have, at the best, only prescribed equal or a higher than the minimum marks fixed by AICTE, the Bench said and dismissed the writ appeal and the petition.

A bitter battle turns sweet at the end - The Hindu

L. Ponnudurai

Dalit boy completes chemical engineering and lands job, despite all odds

Four years ago, L. Ponnudurai was cleaning tables at a restaurant in Rajapalayam bus depot. In a month from now, he will begin work in a reputed cement company, as a chemical engineer.

The story of this gritty Dalit boy from Gopalapuram village near Rajapalayam in southern Tamil Nadu is an inspiring one. When he was barely five years old, his mother had committed suicide. Soon after this, his father remarried and sent him away to his grandmother’s place.

A relative noted his keenness to learn and put him in a government Adi Dravidar hostel. “My relatives were mill labourers and earned very little. To avoid burdening them, I used to stay in the hostel even during holidays,” said Ponnudurai.

He scored 96 per cent in Class X, and friends suggested a vocational course at a polytechnic institute. But, Ponnudurai said, he was keen on studying further.

Scholarships helped him finish Class XII with 93 per cent. He, however, faced a roadblock when he wanted to pursue his dream of going to college, as he did not have money to buy a form and apply for engineering counselling.

One day, his former physics teacher spotted him working at Vasantha Bhavan in Rajapalayam. “The next day, all my teachers landed up there. They had pooled in money to send me to Chennai and apply for engineering,” said Ponnudurai.

But this was not the end of Ponnudurai’s struggle. He tried to apply for an education loan all on his own, but bank officials wanted his father to be present. “He came only after my school teachers pleaded with him and promised to pay for his travel,” he added.

Ponnudurai came to Chennai with Rs. 2,000 and two pairs of clothes, but these were not his concerns. “Having studied in Tamil, learning in English was very difficult,” he said. Taunts over his complexion or his trousers almost broke his will. “I ran away thrice from campus, vowing never to return, but friends persuaded me to go back. In the hostel, I kept to myself,” he said.

But now, life is looking up. He recently cleared a recruitment interview with Ramco Cements and has got a decent offer. “I cannot ask for more.They let me answer questions in Tamil. I did not want to work in an IT company. I studied chemical engineering and I really like the subject,” he said, smiling. He has other plans too. “In villages, even bright students are unaware of opportunities, admission procedures, and scholarships. I want to convince students there to finish college,” he said

A model college for entrepreneurs - The Hindu

• 
  A view of Model Engineering College campus at Thrikkakara in Kochi. Photo: K.K. Mustafah 
  They chose not just to dream big; but also walked the extra mile to ensure that their dreams turned true.

  When they graduated from Model Engineering College (MEC) under the Institute of Human Resources Development (IHRD) in Thrikkakara here, they had made up their minds they would rather be job providers than job seekers. Life at MEC had emboldened the spirits of a few youngsters to take the road less travelled.

  Leaving the comfort and security offered by a nine-to-five job, they put to the test innovative ideas, risking the chances of failures. And today, they have become part of the expanding ‘start-up’ culture in the country.

  Rs. 500 and an idea

  Midhun V. Sankar, chief executive officer and co-founder of Verbicio Tech, only had Rs. 500 in his bank account and an idea when he met Bibin George Varghese, his junior at MEC.

  “We had little idea about how a company worked. We were also clueless on share allotment or fund procurement necessary to develop an idea. Despite these hiccups, we knew that our idea was worth giving a shot,” said Midhun, who went on to create www.examvoice.com, a free online tutorial site for students.

  Launched on October 9, 2012 as part of the Start-up Village in Kochi, the portal can be accessed on computers and mobile phones linked to the Internet. The site offers tutorials in science and engineering, besides access to previous years’ solved question papers. Verbicio now has 10 employees and is looking forward to expand across the country and abroad.

  Picture perfect

  For Amarnath Vannarath, the face behind Zoomdeck – a web and mobile platform that lets people upload or bookmark photos from anywhere on the web and have great conversations around each of them — success was always about building a brand used by millions around the world. “That’s what we have embarked upon with Zoomdeck, a product that’s going to change the way people interact with and consume photos,” he said.

  Amarnath said MEC helped him interact with people who had quit their jobs to build something they were passionate about.

  “Deepak Prakash, co-founder of Zoomdeck and my batchmate from MEC, was the one who came up with the idea. We had a few seniors who had gone on to become entrepreneurs in life. I could always see the happiness in their eyes when they spoke about things they were doing in life, which one would never get working for a multi-national company,” he said.

  Recipe for success

  Cherian Thomas and Arun Prabhakar of MEC came up with the portal, www.cucumbertown.com, in October last year. “We have on board a few people from MEC. Arun was my junior at college. Cucumbertown was the outcome of my passion for cooking. Today, the initiative involves six people, with offices in Bangalore and California,” said Cherian.

  “Building a company is the biggest emotional roller coaster ride you could ever have. Nothing is predictable and nothing works according to the plan. But at the end of the day, you are changing something in the system,” he said.

  Recalling the role of MEC in their careers, Arun said the college nurtured students of high calibre with tenacity and intelligence to attempt new things.

  Arun Thomas K. B, whom Cherian refers to as the one who inspired him to think differently, left his job in an MNC to start the popular portal www.bikes4sale.in. They also run www.mobiles4sale.in. Remya Sebastian, his wife and former student of MEC, is his partner at Karot Technologies, a registered company that operates both the portals.

  “At Bikes4Sale, we have a huge customer database. About one lakh bikes have been registered on our website till date. I got the idea when I was able to sell easily my brother’s bike in 2007 through the intranet facility in my friend’s company,” said Arun. Ruby Peethambaran and Jikku Jolly, who founded 4 Ambit, an academic and professional networking site along with Shyam B. Menon, recalled that MEC instilled a holistic outlook among its students.

  “We were always encouraged to pursue various interests and the campus enjoyed a rich and egalitarian culture,” Ruby said.

  They served corporate companies for over a decade after getting campus placements until they decided they wanted to create something on their own.

  Attributing the growing entrepreneurial culture among the students to the varied opportunities on the campus, MEC Principal V. P. Devassia said initiatives like E-Cell (entrepreneurship cell), technopreneur, Yi-Net and sociopreneur played a key role in encouraging students. “We also have the advantage of getting the cream of students from across the State every year. They have exceptional drive and attitude and the passion to work on new ideas,” he said.

   

Are you sure? - The Hindu

Skills should play an important role while choosing your career.

Engineering is just not a professional degree; it is an ambitious study for our technological development. I asked my Std XII neighbour, “What do you plan to do after your boards?”

“I want to get a seat in any one of the engineering college,” he replied without batting an eyelid. “Why do you aspire to be become an engineer,” was my next question.

He smiled and said that nowadays most students prefer engineering and his parents would be proud to say that their son is an engineer. “There are more than 500 engineering colleges in Tami Nadu, so there are a lot of chances for getting a seat.” After hearing his answer, I was shocked about his career plan. I explained to him how getting an engineering degree was not enough in life. Engineering involves development of science and technology. It also includes many more theories, formulas, laws, programming codes, circuit diagrams, mathematical derivatives, logical solving problems, algorithms and case studies. And that one must understand all these procedures and make use of them.

These are a few things you must consider before choosing engineering as you career option.

• Does the college have good infrastructure, research and development laboratories?

•Does it have well trained and experienced faculty members?

• Do verify if the college you choose has a tie up with MNCs for placements.

Students should also be clearly told that passing semesters alone won’t suffice, They must implement their innovative ideas, technologies in their projects. They should aspire to become a budding scientist and a technological developer.

R. Dhivya, Final Year ECE, T.J.Institute Of Technology

The Hindu Centre invites applications for annual fellows, public policy scholars - The Hindu

The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy invites applications for the positions of Annual Fellows and Public Policy Scholars.

The Hindu Centre offers two or three annual fellowships to distinguished policy practitioners, scholars and public intellectuals of established reputation to undertake research on issues relating to political institutions, processes and specific aspects of the working of India's parliamentary democracy. The salience and relevance of the topics will be a top priority in the allocation of fellowships.

The Hindu Centre will also host on a rotational basis short-term public policy scholars to work on projects for a period of 12 to 16 weeks that will examine issues of immediacy on the national agenda. Public policy practitioners and bureaucrats would be strong candidates for such scholarships. Research proposals that have greater topicality and salience to the current public discourse will be accorded a higher priority in the selection process.

Details on the application process and application forms are available on the Centre’s website www.thehinducentre.com.

Adobe unveils ‘Creative Cloud’ in India with monthly fee - The Hindu

Umang Bedi, Managing Director-South Asia, Adobe Systems Inc, speaks at a press conference to announce the launch of new ‘Adobe Transformative Creative Cloud’ in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

The Nasdaq-listed company launched the product with a promotional pricing of Rs 2,885 per month

Aiming to leverage cloud and mobility trends to expand revenues, IT firm Adobe Systems on Tuesday launched the ‘Creative Cloud’ in India that offers a membership-based service with access to products and services.

Creative Cloud provides users with unlimited access to download and install all creative suite desktop applications, photoshop lightroom, Adobe muse, Adobe edge and services, game developer tools and integration with touch applications.

The Nasdaq-listed company launched the product targeting teams and small and medium businesses (SMB) with a promotional pricing of Rs 2,885 per month. Once the promotional offer ends on April 30 this year, it will be priced at Rs 4,040 per user per month.

However, the service for teams and business in India is priced on the higher side at Rs 4,040 per month. It is priced at $ 69.99 per user per month (about Rs 3,800) in the US, Australia and South East Asia.

“Creative Cloud is a path-breaking service and globally its paid user base stood at 3.26 lakh by December last year.

That apart, since it was launched in May 2012, the total users crossed 1 million including free subscription users,” Adobe Managing Director (South Asia) Umang Bedi told reporters.

It was first launched in the US, Australia and South Asia, he added.

On the pricing, Mr. Bedi said local taxes, regulations, foreign exchange conversion percentages among others adds to the cost of the product.

In December last year, while presenting the Q4 and fiscal 2012 results, Adobe said Creative Cloud paid subscriptions grew to 326,000 as of the end of the year, with existing annualised recurring revenue of $ 153 million for the creative business.

For Q4 FY 2012, Adobe revenues stood at $1.15 billion and for the full fiscal it was $4.4 billion. The company follows December-November as the fiscal year.

Adobe added about 10,000 Creative Cloud subscriptions per week during the quarter against 8,000 subscriptions per week in the third quarter.

Through Creative Cloud, Adobe is moving away from selling-software-in-a-box to a complete subscription model.

Tiruchi students turn good samaritans and how - The Hindu

Students handing over the mony to Anbalayam Senthil in Tiruchi on Saturday. Photo: R.M. Rajarathinam

A group of students mobilises Rs.57,000 for Anbalayam through a Facebook campaign and door-to-door collections

How often have we heard that today’s youth are not quite broad-minded, bereft of humanness and what not?

But then, exceptions have always been the silver lining, as has been the case with a group of school and college students in Ordnance Factory Estate, Tiruchi, who sprung into action after learning that Anbalayam, a home for wandering mentally ill at nearby Gundur, was in dire need of funds for constructing a permanent building to house the over 70 inmates in relatively better safety and comfort.

The students did all they could, right from initiating a Facebook campaign to carrying out door-to-door collections in the OFT township and neighbouring localities to mobilise Rs.57,000, as their contribution. They felt motivated by the request made by film director Prabu Solomon who himself contributed Rs.50,000 for the project , during the 23 anniversary celebrations of Anbalayam early this year.

On Saturday, when the student group represented by R.M.Cibi, a class X student of Kendriya Vidhyalaya-1, handed over the amount to Anbalayam founder T.K.S.Senthil Kumar, his joy knew no bounds.

“There is something very unique about the contribution made by the students with a desire to enrol themselves as Anbalayam’s volunteers,” said an elated Mr.Senthil Kumar. With the students’ contribution, Anbalayam has so far mobilised close to Rs.10 lakh for the Rs.40 lakh project.

The community in OFT and neighbouring Heavy Alloy Penetrator Factory have all along been very supportive to Anbalayam. They have sponsored food, donated furniture, and provisions, said Mr.Senthil Kumar, adding that a good number of employees have been strengthening their bond with Anbalayam by celebrating anniversary events with the inmates.

For the students, the experience of mobilising the money from the community was a rejuvenating experience.

The donors contributed amounts ranging from Rs.100 to Rs.5,000, and had also evinced interest in sustaining their support to the organisation. According to Cibi, the collective participation of youth in the exercise with the lofty thought of serving the deprived sections of society was significant.

Health, schools to remain focus points - The Hindu

Today’s Corporation budget will include proposals to improve facilities

THE HINDU This year, a number of slum residents are likely to be rehabilitated to other parts of the city. This may lead to a dip in numbers in Chennai Schools — File Photo

The Chennai Corporation is likely to continue its focus on health and education in the 2013-2014 budget session on Monday.

Last year too, a number of schemes on health and education were announced by Mayor Saidai Duraisamy. Proposals to improve infrastructure in schools run by the civic body are likely to be part of the announcements this year too.

Models from European countries that are found suitable for Chennai conditions are likely to be adopted to improve quality of education in Chennai Schools where a majority of children from slums are enrolled.

Announcements pertaining to 30 new English-medium primary and middle schools were made in the 2012-2013 budget. While some schools are functional, work is in progress on the others.

The civic body is likely to undertake special outreach programmes with pamphlets, interactions and advertisements during the admission season.

Announcements to tackle the decline in the number of students in Chennai Schools are likely.

Last year, spoken English classes were announced for classes VI, VII and VIII and refresher courses in spoken English were organised for students of classes IX, X and XII. This year, a number of slum residents are likely to be rehabilitated to other parts of the city. This may lead to a dip in numbers at Chennai Schools in many areas.

The civic body, in the last budget, announced construction of 64 additional buildings on existing school campuses to make space for more classrooms. Career guidance centres and libraries were proposed to be set up in all high and higher secondary schools. Preliminary work is under way.

Health is likely to be another major focus of the civic body’s budget. Optimum use of facilities at the new Communicable Diseases Hospital in Tondiarpet may be stressed upon. However, there is little progress on last year’s announcements pertaining to a hospital in Madambakkam. The announcement was expected to help people in the southern parts of the city.

As many as 27 announcements on public health and family welfare, and 29 on education were made in the previous budget. A similar set of announcements is likely this year too.

Indian schoolgirl in U.K. has IQ higher than Einstein’s - The Hindu

A 12-year-old Indian-origin girl in the U.K. has stunned everyone after she scored an incredible 162 in her IQ test — a score even higher than that of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

Neha Ramu, daughter of an Indian doctor couple, achieved a score of 162 on a Mensa IQ test — the highest score possible for her age.

The score puts the teen in the top 1 per cent of the brightest people in the U.K. and means that she is more intelligent than physicist Hawking, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and scientist Einstein, who are all thought to have an IQ of 160.

“Neha scored 162 on the Cattell IIIB test, putting her within the top 1 per cent of people in the country,” a spokesman for British Mensa said.

Neha’s parents lived in India before moving to Britain when their daughter was seven, The Telegraph reported.

She took the test for Mensa, a society for people with high IQs, and achieved a perfect score of 280/280 — the maximum possible score for someone under the age of 18.

“I am so proud of her. Although she’s been doing well at these kinds of tests for sometime now, this is just marvellous. I can’t express the feeling,” her mother Jayashree said.

“I’m really, really happy because I found the test quite hard and I wasn’t really holding out much hope that I’d be a member of Mensa,” Neha said.

IIT-M develops low-cost nano water purifier

The purifier will be able to provide arsenic-free water at about five paise per litre

Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) are gearing up for the commercial release of an affordable nano technology-based water purifier.

The purifier has been developed to address the problem of arsenic contamination, a threat to drinking water sources and an emerging health hazard in several parts of the country.

The Arsenic Task Force of the government of West Bengal has certified and approved the purifier developed by IIT-M. “The pilot phase is over and we are now preparing to take it to the market,” said T. Pradeep, professor, department of chemistry, who heads the research group working on water purifiers.

The team has incubated a company at IIT-M to commercialise the technology, Dr. Pradeep told The Hindu on the sidelines of the Nano India conference organised by the department of science and technology and the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) in Thiruvananthapuram.

The purifier developed by IIT-M uses iron oxyhydroxide, a nanostructured material, to remove arsenic from drinking water. It functions without electricity or piped water supply.

Dr. Pradeep said it could provide arsenic-free water at an approximate cost of five paise per litre. “Over the next few years, we hope it will benefit at least 10 per cent of people living in arsenic-contaminated areas.”

The IIT-M-incubated company will commercialise the technology with partners who can take up distribution.

The research group has also come up with a nano material-based fluoride water purifier. “It will take some more work for field implementation of this purifier. We expect the technology to be ready in six months.”

Dr. Praveer Asthana, director of the nano mission under the Union department of science and technology said the water purifiers developed by IIT-M highlighted the relevance of industry-institution projects in the nano technology sector to deliver affordable, efficient solutions.

Dr. Pradeep said nano materials could play a key role in low-cost solutions to remove water contaminants. “They interact with the contaminant to remove it within a very small contact time. It is also possible to tune the chemistry of any of these materials so they can attack a wide spectrum of contaminants.”

IIT-M has already developed and commercialised a nano silver-based water purifier that breaks down pesticide residue.

The research team is working on an all-inclusive water purifier to address a wide spectrum of contaminants like pesticides, mercury, cadmium, lead, fluoride and arsenic. The group is collaborating with scientists working on other methods of water purification like reverse osmosis, membranes and solar and thermal technologies.

The Hindu : Cities / Chennai : IIT-M to play major role in solar project

The Hindu The project involves the setting up of a solar thermal power system in Kancheepuram. Photo: Special Arrangement 

The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) will not only coordinate part of the much-awaited national programme, Solar Thermal Project, but will also integrate the efforts of all the other IITs involved in the project.

The three-year Rs. 15 crore project, funded by the Department of Science and Technology, aims to use solar energy to find solutions to the country’s energy problems.

“Two years ago, all IITs were asked to present their proposals on energy generation. Expert committees were set up and feasibility studies conducted on the proposals, after which the project, divided into three parts has been sanctioned to different IITs,” said T. Sundararajan, head, department of mechanical engineering at IIT-M, who is coordinating the project.

The foundation stone of the project was laid at Thirukalukundram on Sunday.

Prof. Sundararajan, along with Srinivasa Reddy, another professor from IIT-M and Prof R. P. Saini from IIT-Roorkee, are involved in the first part of the project, which is the establishment of a pilot solar thermal power generation system.

“The project is on a much larger scale compared to regular academic projects. What we will do, is concentrate solar power using flat mirrors – fresnel reflectors, in an array on tubes carrying water, to create steam at high pressure and temperature,” said Prof. Sundararajan

The unique part of the project, said the professor, is that it can take steam up to 400 degree Celsius, much higher than the temperatures attained in other existing projects. “With high temperature steam, we are looking at better energy conversion. We hope to generate at least 75-100 kilo watts of electric power with the project,” he added.

The power generated on a pilot basis, will look at satisfying the energy needs of Pathashala, a school run by the Krishnamurthy Foundation of India, in Vallipuram, a village in Kancheepuram, about 80 km from Chennai. The project needed an open area for this mode of power generation and so this locality was selected, said the coordinators.

“There are nearly 110 students and many teachers there. We will provide power to this community and any excess power can be sent to neighbouring villages,” said Prof. Sundararajan.

The project, unlike many others that are de-centralised, has a distributed way of transmitting power and will be used to provide electricity to remote villages and mountainous terrains.

Since the energy is derived from steam, it can also be used for cooking and washing purposes, the professor added. The first part of the project will run into two phases of 18 months each. IIT-Bombay will meanwhile look into air-conditioning options through solar power while IIT-Guwahati will look at ways of storing thermal energy to be utilised later.

“Both these projects will be integrated with our solar thermal plant project at Vallipuram,” said Professor Sundararajan.

 

Sixty years of IT in India

PTI The supercomputer "SAGA-220", built by the Satish Dhawan Supercomputing Facility located at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. 

By the 1980s, software development by various companies began in right earnest

I was struck by a recent headline that appeared in the business pages of newspapers, stating that the IT-related exports from India are expected to touch US $ 87 billion in 2014. In these days when colossal figures related to scams hit the headlines, this figure, coming out of hard, honest work, largely by “Generation X” is heartwarming. And to put this figure in historical perspective, software and services exports fetched us US $ 2 billion in 1998 and 50 billion in 2010. IT contributes about 7 per cent of India’s gross domestic product and employs about 2.4 million software professionals.

All this in a matter of less than 60 years! The year 2014 marks the start of the Diamond Jubilee of the entry of computers into India. Professor V. Rajaraman, whom all of us consider as the Bhishma Pitamaha of computer education in India, summarizes the story of IT in his recent monograph “History of computing in India – 1955- 2010”. It traces the milestones of the growth of IT in India from day one, 1955, when the first UK-made digital computer named HEC-2M was set up at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Calcutta by Drs Mohi Mukherjee and Amesh Roy. Rajaraman points out that this machine had but a memory of 1024 (24 bit words) and arrived at the ISI without any manuals. Mukherjee and Roy had to write them and a dozen people used them.

But a truly Indian-made computer was made by Professor R. Narasimhan at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Bombay, when he put together a pilot computer to design logic circuits in 1956. This was later expanded to produce the TIFR automatic calculator or TIFRAC, inaugurated (and christened) by Jawaharlal Nehru. Professor P.V.S. Rao, who was part of the TIFRAC team describes the story in exciting detail in the scholarly book “Homi Bhabha and the Computer Revolution” edited by Professors R. Shyamasundar and M.A. Pai (Oxford, 201; hereafter called the S + P book) dedicated to R. Narasimhan, whom they call the doyen of Indian computer science. Soon after, ISI combined with Jadavpur University and produced another home made, second generation transistor-based computer named ISIJU.

Even as these computers were getting built and used, two important developments occurred in the 1960s. One was the establishment of the IITs, particularly IIT Kanpur, where the American partners brought in what was at that time a state-of-the-art computer IBM 1620, along with a Fortran II compiler. Prof. Rajaraman points out in the S + P book how important this high-level language was at the time — novel, contemporary and easier learnt than others. The second related development was the teaching and training program that IITK embarked on. Rajaraman wrote has first bestseller “Principle of Computer Programming”, which he forced the publishers to price at Rs 15/- so that many students can buy and learn from it; it has run its 50 edition now. The machine, the mentor, the manuscript, and the bright-eyed mentees basking in the new-found mode of American informality in learning (access to all, 24/7); this invigorating cocktail made hundreds of students take to computers and IT.

The decade of the 1970s is equally important. This was the period when the self-reliant growth of the computer industry blossomed, through the Department of Electronics and the Electronics Commission of India. ECIL designed the Trombay Digital Computer TDC-12 and sold this and other versions in the market. In the private sector, Tata Consultancy Limited (TCS) was established and by 1975 TCS, under Dr. F.C. Kohli, installed Burroughs machines and began to export software. National Informatics Centre (NIC) was established, where Dr. Seshagiri set up networks such as NICNET and the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), providing opportunities for data sharing, monitoring and e-mail (my first emails were courtesy NIC). Computer Maintenance Corporation (CMC) was also set up.

By the 1980s, software development by various companies began in right earnest. By 1985 software export by TCS, CMC and others touched US$ 30 million. (Dr. Kohli has a fascinating chapter in the S+P book). Private sector entered the IT field in full measure, intercity connectivity via ERNET became operational and the National Supercomputer Centre was established at IISC Bangalore, where Rajaraman moved. Kanpur’s loss was Bangalore’s gain.

Two interesting examples of the adage “necessity is the mother of invention” came about during the 1980s. One was the need to make voting and vote-counting tamper-proof during elections in the country. The Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) was developed by ECIL and Bharat Electronics, and used. The second is the imposition of computer export ban by the US on India, which led our home-grown experts to design parallel processing machines, called PARAM.

A major milestone in boosting computers and IT in India was in the mid 1980s when the government liberalized computer import and use, with Seshagiri, and Pitroda as advisors (read them recount their experience in the S+P book), through the NIC and Centre for Development of Telematics (CDOT). Further liberalization and globalization of the economy in 1991 made private players such as Infosys, Wipro, Satyam and others become globally recognized. Rajaraman points out how factors such as “night in India, day in America” and correcting the Y2K problem came in handy for Indian IT companies. By the year 2010, IT had given employment to over 2.5 million Indians and brought in US$50 billion.

This fascinating story of the birth and growth of IT in India has some special features so relevant to current times. Interesting how individuals make all the difference – Nehru, Bhabha, Mahalanobis, Sarabhai, Narasimhan, Kohli, Menon, Srikantan, Rajaraman (not to forget Prof. Mahabala and the IITK Director Kelkar), Narayanamurthy, Premji – with their dedication, character, ethical standards, selfless service and commitment. See how even the Satyam aberration was quickly and admirably corrected. O Tempora O Mores! Or should I say: Cometh the moment cometh the man?