Category Archives: Education

And this fella pulled it through from a powerless home

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features
This is how Sucheth had to study every night, relying entirely on LED lamps. - Mohan Kumar B N/DNA
This is how Sucheth had to study every night, relying entirely on LED lamps. – Mohan Kumar B N/DNA

To live in a house that has no power can be arduous in itself. But when a boy from this very building studies his way to bag the second rank in both CET and COMED-K exams, the story is probably one of much more than simply resilience, perseverance and grit. But Sucheth S Kunchem of Chandra Layout has done just that.

Sucheth studied under solar lamps and using torches, all because of a civic agency goof-up that left the family groping in the dark. The culprit essentially is a high tension wire that passes through their compound.

When Sucheth’s father Suresh Prabhu started construction of the house, the civic regulation was that the roofs of houses should be at least four metres below such wires.

Yet, by the time the construction could be completed, the new regulation spoke of a five-and-half metre cut-off height. The house was denied power, and the family was told that this would remain so till the first floor of the house was demolished. Since then, the travails have been endless: the family has to fill up the overhead tanks manually, and Prabhu has to charge the cellphone at his office.

Sucheth believes he could have fared better still if his house had a power connection. He could, at the most, study for four hours at night, and thus decided not to appear for the JEE exams. He, needless to say, didn’t have access to a computer at home either.

After his son’s achievement, Prabhu had approached the local MLA, who had assured that he would look into the matter. So far, there has been silence from that end.

source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home> Bangalore> Report / by Allen Reji Varghese, Agency:DNA, Place: Bangalore / Wednesday – June 12th, 2013

MSRIT-Bangalore walks away with Blaze-2013

Business & Economy, Education, Science & Technology

Bangalore :

Schneider Electric India recently concluded the finals of ‘Blaze 2013’ at RVCE College, Bangalore. ‘Blaze’ is an annual energy efficiency contest by Schneider Electric exclusively aimed at students from engineering colleges across India. The contest witnessed nail biting finish when MSRIT-Bangalore was declared winner for Schneider Electric’s Energy Efficiency challenge this year. The winning team was awarded Rs 75,000.

The first runner up team from PESIT-Bangalore and the second runner up team from VIT-Vellore were awarded with Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 25,000 respectively. VIT-Vellore was awarded the “Best Diversity Team” for a healthy mix of team members from different engineering branches and gender balance. RVCE-Bangalore, NIT-Trichy and MSRIT-Bangalore won the “Best White Paper Award” while MSRIT-Bangalore also took the “Best Audit Report Presentation Team Award”.

The contest this year was launched online across 14 engineering colleges from India. Applications were received from more than 80 teams covering more than 500 students across different colleges. Based on the performance in initial rounds of the contest top 14 teams were selected for the mega finals.

The contest comprised of two rounds in which engineering students submitted a white paper on the topic “Energy Efficiency First” in the first round. In the second round, selected students undertook energy audits of their respective university campus. The teams that made through the different rounds then battled it out in the mega finals where they submitted their reports to the jury and the winning team was decided.

The 14 colleges who competed in the final round were Jadavpur University-Kolkatta, IIT-Delhi, NIT- Durgapur, VJTI-Mumbai, COEP-Pune, New Horizon-Bangalore, SJCE-Mysore, IIT-Chennai, MSRIT-Bangalore, MIT-Manipal, RVCE-Bangalore, VIT-Vellore, NIE-Mysore, NIT-Trichy.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Bangalore / TNN / June 02nd, 2013

Viveka tribal students excel in SSLC exam

Education

VivekaTribalBF14jun2013

Mysore :

In the recently held SSLC exams, Viveka Tribal Centre for Learning (VTCL), has secured 100% results. Out of 31 students who appeared, 6 students have secured first class and 8 students secured second class.

Jayapradha, an Yerava girl from Brahmagiri haadi has topped the school securing 76.8%. She is followed by N.S. Shivaraju-72.64% (Jenukuruba-Boradevaramunti haadi); Sangeetha-66.4% (Yerava-Metikuppe); Chandini-65.6% (Jenukuruba-Bheemanahalli haadi); Kavya-65.6% (Yerava-Yashwanthpura) and Raju Oyilmanjil-65.44% (Kadukuruba-Metikuppe).

Viveka Tribal Center for Learning (VTCL) is a Unit of Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement, which is an exclusive residential school for the indigenous forest based tribals. The school which was started in 1988 as a non-formal school in the fringes of the N. Begur range of the Bandipur National Park was recognised by Department of Education, Government of Karnataka, in 1990.

Children belonging to the particularly vulnerable tribe Jenukurubas, other forest tribes namely Bettakuruba (Kaadukuruba), Yerava, Paniya and Bunde Soliga, study from Class 1 to 10 in the school located in Hosahalli Tribal Colony in H.D. Kote taluk in Mysore.

The parents of the tribal children are not only taking interest in the education of their children but are also playing an active role in the functioning of the school by being part of the student admission committee and school management committee.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com  / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / June 08th, 2013

City dentist makes news in Lutton city, England

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Nature, Science & Technology, Travel

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1) Dr. Syeda Shaguffa with former Health Minister of UK, Ann Keen, at the Indian Embassy in Central London. 2) The clipping of news item on Dr. Syeda Shaguffa published in Lutonon / Sunday newspaper on May 19, 2013.
1) Dr. Syeda Shaguffa with former Health Minister of UK, Ann Keen, at the Indian Embassy in Central London. 2) The clipping of news item on Dr. Syeda Shaguffa published in Lutonon / Sunday newspaper on May 19, 2013.

Mysore :

A young dentist from Mysore, Dr. Syeda Shaguffa, has made news in Luton, England, by drawing attention of the authorities towards the litter-strewn area of River Lea in Luton, eliciting a pledge from the officials to clear up the area.

In recognition of this, she was chosen to attend a health conference at the Indian Embassy, by none other than by the former Health Minister of UK, Ann Keen.

It all started when Dr. Shaguffa did a voluntary presentation in public health lecture. The presentation was about a river called Lea which flows across Luton, Bedfordshire and joins River Thames in London.

Dr. Shaguffa told Star of Mysore, “I made a presentation at a public health lecture, for which the former Minister Ann Keen was invited as a guest lecturer. She was very pleased with my effort and straight away contacted the local newspaper journalist who took my interview and the news was published in Luton On Sunday.”

“Then the day came when Ann Keen personally invited me to attend a conference with her at the Indian Embassy in Central London. Many high profile personalities were present at the conference including Kamlesh Sharma, General Secretariat to Common Wealth Nations, his wife Babli Sharma. J. Bhagwati, Indian High Commissioner to the Embassy in UK, his wife Rita Bhagwati, Brigid Mc Convillie, Director of World Ribbon Alliance, the organisers of the conference, Bollywood director Gurindher Chadda who made the iconic film ‘Bend it like Beckham,’ famous MTV singer Susheela Raman, actress Meera Sahay and Ann Keen herself.

“There I got a chance to talk a few words about the social causes of maternal deaths in India, and domestic violence being the major one. Everyone were pleased with me and Ann Keen told me that I made her proud. She praised me for my confidence to stand up and speak in front of such a big audience,” said Dr. Shaguffa.

“She also said, since I have good communication skills she sees a good politician in me and asked me to give a serious thought of being one. But when I said politics is regarded as “bad thing” in India because of the present corruption, she explained of good things in politics and how we can bring a revolution through the same,” she said.

Dr. Syeda Shaguffa, 24, is a resident of N.R. Mohalla in city, who is doing her MBA in Hospital Management and Health Care Services at the University of Bedfordshire, Luton.

Luton On Sunday, a newspaper in Luton city, had published a news item about Dr. Syeda Shaguffa on May 19 last, which is reproduced here.

Dr. Shaguffa, who did her BDS from Farooqia Dental College in city, has been awarded overseas merit scholarship by the Government of Karnataka.

After her return in April 2014, Dr. Shaguffa plans either to start a own hospital or take up an hospital administrative job, said her father Syed Mushtaq Ahmed, a Consultant Geologist. Dr. Shaguffa’s mother, Nikhat Fathima was a bank employee. She is married to Dr. Nawaz Pasha. Her elder brother Ishraq has studied BBM while two younger brothers, twins, Arshaq and Ishaq are studying 2nd PUC at Vidyashram School in city.

“I miss reading Star of Mysore and eating churmuri here,” said Dr. Shaguffa who is keen to get back to her home town as soon as the course is completed and plans to focus on her dental as well as administrative career.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / June 06th, 2013

Mangalore: Nations built on vision of leaders in science – BARC director at SAC

Education, Science & Technology

Mangalore : 

 “Nations are built on the vision, wisdom and intellectual inputs of exceptional leaders in science as well as in other fields. India has today emerged as a strong nation, a resurgent nation as a consequence of a strong foundation in science and technology guided by our great scientists and visionaries,” said Sekar Basu, director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai.

He was addressing the third graduation ceremony of St Aloysius College (autonomous) at Loyala Hall here on Saturday June 1. He conferred graduation certificates to 1,452 postgraduate and undergraduate students from science, arts, commerce, management and other streams.

“Students here have graduated at a time when Indian economy is getting integrated with the global economy through the process of globalization. While we are looking forward to a healthy, fast growing economy, it is equally important that economic growth and industrialization remain sustainable. I come from the department of atomic energy and I may recount here some of the efforts of department of atomic energy in this area. The department of atomic energy has been contributing towards enhancing the energy security, health security, environmental security and food and water security of the nation.

“We have been witnessing an impressive growth in GDP. Our per capita electricity consumption is about 600k Whr/yr, compared to world average of about 2000k Whr/yr. India’s population will rise to 1.5 billion by 2050 and we must plan to have a multifold rise in electricity generation. Indian fossil fuel reserves will be exhausted in the next few decades. Renewable energy sources (hydro, wind, solar) along with nuclear will be the options in the long term for growth and sustainability,” he said.

“Agriculture is the principal means of livelihood for over 60% of India’s population. Nuclear technology has played an important role in facilitating the development of mutants with desirable agronomic traits such as higher yields, better tolerance to disease and stresses like drought, salinity etc. India has a very large population suffering from malnutrition, so BARC has developed as many as 41 new crop varieties in oil seeds and pulses that have been released and Gazette notified by Govt  of India for commercial cultivation in different parts of the country , and are very popular among the farmers including in Karnataka. A large amount of groundnuts, mungand urid you all eat comes from the research efforts of scientists at BARC,” he added.

Speaking on the effects of the nuclear energy and its radiation, Basu said, “Radiation technology and nuclear medicine have found increasing application in human healthcare. These include sterilization of medical products using radiation, Blood irradiators Hydro-gel based wound dressings disease diagnosis and therapy using nuclear medicine. We often feel that radiation can cause cancer  However, the real fact is that today radiation is serving as a powerful tool to cure cancer and has given a second life to large number of patients and enhanced the quality of their life. Nuclear programme offers excellent career opportunities to young science and engineering graduates. There is also tremendous scope for the young minds to explore career opportunities in societal applications of nuclear technology in industry.

“The society of tomorrow is going to be fully knowledge-based and knowledge has to be accumulated, transmitted and utilized. Hence every youth should aim at betterment – not only betterment of self but also betterment of society,” he asserted.

Fr Denzil Lobo, vice-president of MJES and rector said, “You have an obligation to society and to serve community. You have to work for society with values of education which have been taught here.”

Francis Serrao, president, Mangalore Jesuit Educational Society (MJES) and Provincial, Karnataka Jesuit Province who presided over the ceremony said, “The number of years you spent in college don’t matter but it matters how you spent your valuable years in college. This is not just a college but a temple of knowledge, tower of information, house of formation and it is a place of social and personal transformation. Usually, society concentrates on 3 Ps – power, profit and poise – but our aim should be to achieve concern, commitment, and conscience. Subashchandra Bose said do or die, but now we should do before we die.”

Dr A M Narahari, registrar, Fr Swebert D’ Silva, principal and others were present.

source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld. com / Home> Top Stories / Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje / Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (DV) / Saturday, June 04th, 2013

Bishop Cotton School boys on mountaineering expedition to Deo Tibba

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Sports

Shimla :

Continuing with its 14-year-old tradition of mountaineering, a five-member team of students of Bishop Cotton School (BCS) embarked upon an expedition to DeoTibba (6,100 mt) near Manali on Saturday.

Led by Mahim Gupta, the team comprises class XI-XII students Sanjeev Sikri, Madhav, Shubham and Anirudh Depta and staff member Dinesh Kumar. “We expect that the expedition would foster a team spirit in us. The aim of the expedition is not just to conquer the peaks, but also to pay homage to the heights and learn about the nuances of nature from it,” the students said in unison before undertaking the expedition.

Spokesperson of BCS, Praveen Dharma, said, “BCS has a long mountaineering tradition which started with expedition to Leo Parigyal in 1999. The significant aspect of the flag off to Deo Tibba was that it coincided with the 154{+t}{+h} annual speech day celebrated on Saturday and the honours were done by old Cottonian and industrialist D C Anand, who was recently knighted by the French republic for improving diplomatic and business relations between India and France.”

BCS has the distinction of having Pargyal Mountaineering Club which was started by Colonel R L Dhaliwal in 1999 and the boys have scaled as many as eleven major peaks till now, sources said. Cottonians hold the distinction of having scaled many peaks with height of over 21,000 ft, including Mt Phawaranga and Mt Frey in  Sikkim  (in 2005), Mt Menthosa (2008), Mt Leopargyal (1999) besides Stok Kangrhi (in 2003) Bidhan Parvat (in 2003), Jaonli and Mt Bandarpunch (2012).

To commemorate the sesquicentennial celebrations, an expedition of 12 boys, along with two staff members, had scaled upto the base camp of Mt Everest and Kalapathar at 18,195 ft in 2009, they said.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Education / TNN / June 02nd, 2013

Infosys trains uni professors to bridge India’s education gap

Education, Science & Technology

 Faced with the reality that fifty percent of India’s hundreds of thousands of tertiary graduates are unemployable, Infosys is addressing the imbalance by training professors at poorly regarded universities.

Mysore , INDIA:

To address the growing issue of unemployable graduates, Infosys is directly working with lower ranked universities to ensure that new recruits hit the ground running.

Education and research principal S. K. Iyer told ZDNet at the Indian outsourcer’s 340-acre purpose -built campus that the Campus Connect program trains university and college professors how to produce talent attractive to employers.
A recent study by consultancy firm Knowledgefaber found that 50 percent of school-leavers, predominantly from lower-tier 2 and tier 3 colleges, are unemployable .
Infosys, which employs thousands of “freshers” every semester, has increasingly targeted these overlooked institutions to address the imbalance, Iyer said.
“We invite the professors to stay for a month or so, provide them all the training facilities, and show them how to teach from the industry’s perspective,” according to Iyer, who teaches several subjects at the Mysore campus.
“The tiers today may not be so relevant. I do get very bright students from tier 3 colleges and they shouldn’t be ignored or left without the opportunities, or prestige, that are afforded to tier 1 and 2 students,” said Iyer who previously taught at an Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIT) institute, part of the country’s top group of universities.
If a particular college alumnus has performed well in training, retention, and as an overall contributor, Infosys will return to the institution and professor to recruit more students.
The main focus is on practical experience rather than theoretical knowledge, and when it comes to identifying talent Infosys has one rule: consistency and performance.
Students must demonstrate steady marks–minimum 75 percent–throughout middle school, high school, and senior college. This is because the outsourcer trains “generalists, not specialists.”
“We don’t want a situation where we have someone trained in a particular skill but there’s no job for them. We need to use our resources effectively,” Iyer said.
source: http://www.zdnet.com / ZD Net / Home> IT  Employment / by Mahesh Sharma / May 31st, 2013

Bangalore girl is medical topper

Education, Records, All
Subha Ashok
Subha Ashok

Bangalore girl Subha Ashok topped the test for the medical stream in the Postgraduate Entrance Test (PGET) held by the Consortium of Medical Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK), the results of which were announced here on Monday.

COMEDK released the rank list for the test held on February 3 following the Supreme Court order allowing for examination authorities to do so.

comedk30may2013

Ms. Ashok, who was travelling, said that the result was a pleasant surprise.

“COMEDK PGET was the easiest. I will wait for the results of State PGET (conducted by Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Science). Persistent preparation is the key and I concentrated only on entrance tests,” she said.

The daughter of Kalyani Ashok, a special educator, and A.C. Ashok, principal and dean of M.S. Ramaiah Medical College, Ms. Ashok said that she would like to pursue surgery or radiology, preferably at the Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubli, from where she graduated in 2012.

Harish C
Harish C

Bangalore got another rank with Harish C., a graduate of M.S. Ramaiah Medical College, coming third in the medical stream. His NEET-G rank was 40. He said that he was also hoping for a government quota seat as a COMEDK seat was expensive.

Aiming to pursue orthopaedics in KEM Hospital, Mumbai, he said that he spent six to eight hours everyday studying. “It is better to be consistent than going to coaching centres,” he said.

Santosh Narayanan
Santosh Narayanan

Santosh Narayanan, who stood second, graduated from A.J. Institute of Medical Sciences, Mangalore, with 17 gold medals — the highest given to an individual — in the recent RGUHS convocation. He is a native of Kerala.

Dental exams

Meanwhile, only one student from the State managed to make it to the top 10 in dental. Soumya P.V., a graduate of the 2010 batch of KVG Dental College and Hospital, Sullia, came fifth. A native of Kerala, she has now settled down in Bangalore with her endodontist husband. She is also awaiting the State PGET results. Top ranker Jeswin James is from Kerala, while the second and third ranks went to Vikas Sandilya from Udupi and Srirengalakshmi M. from Madurai, Tamil Nadu.

Breakup

Of the 13,681 candidates who wrote the PGET for medical, 9417 became eligible for seat selection. Of these, 2534 candidates are from Karnataka and 6,883 are from other States. As many as 5,032 wrote the dental PGET; 3,963 have become eligible for participating in the counselling process. Of these, 518 are from the State and 3,445 are from outside.

Counselling will begin on May 27. Details are available on www.comedk.org

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bangalore / by Staff Reporter / Bangalore – May 21st, 2013

Puttur girl wins gold at International Environment Olympiad

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Mangalore :

Rashmiparvathi K ,17, has made her remote village Nekkila near Bannur in Puttur taluk, 60 km from the city, proud.

She has won the gold  for her science project in the International Sustainable World Energy Engineering Environment Project Olympiad (I-SWEEP) 2013 held in Houston, Texas, USA from May 8 to 12.

Her project titled, ‘Salt from coconut palm petiole & its anti-microbial activity’ was among the four projects selected to represent India at I-SWEEEP, an international science fair that focuses on energy, engineering, and environmental projects. The team won one gold, two silvers and one bronze medal.

Rashmiparvathi, who returned home on Wednesday, told TOI that it was a wonderful experience to be a part of an international event. “I could present my project and I shared the happiness with other students. I want to be a scientist in future,” said Rashmiparvathi, who is the daughter of Ravishankar K, an agriculturist and Durgarathna, head of the department of Hindi, Vivekananda Degree College, Puttur.

Rashmiparvathi, who has secured 93% in the PUC exams, is keen on studying basic science at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

“Her dedication and hard work helped her bag international laurels. She was guided by a progressive farmer Shankar Bhat Badanaje in her research,” said her father Ravishankar.

Rashmiparvathi is a student of Vivekananda PU College, Puttur.

Her study has found that the bio-waste of coconut petiole can be used as a substitute for increasing the plant soil nutrients and as anti-microbial agent against certain fungi that cause skin diseases.

Ayush Panara from Rajkot, Nambirajan Konar, Kushal Suvarna, Dhanyeshwari Manoj Kumar from Mumbai are the other students from India bagged medals at the I-SWEEP. The students were qualified to participate in the I-SWEEEP fair through the Indian Science and Engineering Fair (INSEF) organized by Science Society of India (SSI).

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Mangalore / by Vinobha KT,  TNN / May 18th, 2013

Manvitha scales personal, school peak with 621/625

Education, Records, All

Mangalore :

Manvitha MK has made undivided Dakshina Kannada district proud by becoming the second topper in the SSLC examination, results of which were announced on Monday. Manvitha, student of Vishwa Mangala High School, situated 20 km from Mangalore, scored 621 out of 625 marks.

She scored maximum marks in three subjects – first language (English), mathematics, and social studies; dropped a mark each in second language (Kannada) and third language (Hindi) scoring 99, and in science ended up with 98 marks.

Manvitha has not only bought laurels to the coastal region, but also to her school. She is the first student from the school to emerge an SSCL topper in the state ever since the school was started in 1983.

Manvitha told TOI that she will take up pre-university course in science stream. “My dream is to become a doctor to help poor patients.” She said “Apart from mathematics and science subjects, I did not go to tuitions for other subjects. Every day I studied for three hours.”

She said her aim was just to score good marks. “I never dreamt of becoming a topper,” she added.

Apart from performing well in academics, Manvitha is also good at drawing and painting. She has secured more than 200 prizes in painting competitions and recently she has won the third prize in “Prathibhakaranji,” a state-level drawing and painting competition.

Manvitha’s father Mohandas AN, a businessman, said he never thought his daughter would emerge as the second topper in the state. “Efforts of her teachers and her mother helped Manvitha excel in the examination. We will encourage her to pursue a course of her choice,” he added.

Her mother Shobha M, a BCom graduate, is a homemaker.

This year, Vishwa Mangala High School has scored cent per cent results and it has scored cent per cent result for 16 times in the past 19 years.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Mangalore / by Pavan  M V, TNN / May 07th, 2013