Category Archives: Education

PU results: Akshay Kamath tops state in science, Suraj Hegde in commerce

Education, Records, All

Moodbidri/Mangalore : 

K. Akshay Kamath

K Akshay Kamath has made his hometown as well the city of Mangalore swell with pride, by bagging the first rank in the state in the PU results announced on Monday May 6.

Son of Jayashree and Umesh Kamath, Akshay basically hails from Kundapur. He is a student of Canara College in the city.

His mother Jayashree works for Indian Bank and father Umesh is a manager at Canara Bank. They stay in Canara Bank quarters in the city.

Akshay bagged the first rank by scoring a cent percent marks in physics, chemistry, mathematics and electronics, and also in Sanksrit. Over all he scored 99 percent, with a total of 594 out of 600.

In his SSLC too, which he completed in Canara High School he had scored 97 percent.

Speaking to daijiworld, his mother Jayashree, beaming with joy, said that her son had dedicated his entire year to studies. “He revised his lessons daily, putting in several hours everyday after college. During exam times he studied for up to 12 hours a day,” she said.

Akshay is also an ace badminton and table-tennis player, having participated at the taluk level too, but he sacrified all of it for the sake of studies this year, she said.

Asked about his future plans, she said, “My son is waiting for CET results. He plans to take up engineering.”

“His academic talent is a gift from god. We have only supported him fully, but never forced. He is self-motivated and interested in learning,” she said, adding that he also took coaching from Experts Coaching this year.

 
Suraj Hegde – Commerce

Suraj Hegde, a student of Alva’s College, Moodbidir, has added a feather to the coastal region’s brimming cap by topping the state in the commerce stream in PUC.

Son of B Santosh Hegde and Prasanna, Suraj hails from Borukatte in Karkala and travels all the way to his college daily.

While Santosh Hegde works for National Insurance Company, Moodbidri, Prasanna is employeed with the postal department.

Suraj bagged the first rank in the state in commerce by scoring a commendable 98.3 percent, with an unbeatable 100 in all the four core subjects (business maths, statistics, accountacy and business studies). In languages he score 98 in Sankrit and 95 in English, totalling 593.

Speaking to daijiworld, Suraj, expressing happiness at his result, said, “I pleasantly surprised. Honestly, I did not expect it. In my class there were five of us who used to compete for the top spot, and sometimes I have even come fifth or 10th in the class,” he said.

“Moreover, after writing the English exam I was not very confident, so topping the state is a beautiful surprise,” he added.

“As I come from a place that is far from my college, I used to spend a lot of time travelling. On usual days I would get up at around 6 am and sleep by 11 pm. But on exam days I would wake up at 3 am,” he said.

Apart from studies, cricket is also his passion. “I used to play cricket to refresh myself. However, I sacrificed it during exams,” he said, adding that philately is also among his hobbies.

About his future plans, Suraj said that he wants to pursue chartered accountancy, and he is preparing to write CPT exam in June.

“I plan to go to Bangalore and work under a CA, and simultaneously persue my degree at Jain Mahaveer College there,” he added.

He expressed his gratitude to his parents, college and friends, who encouraged him all through. “Among my friends’ circle there was a kind of atmosphere that boosted us to work hard. We used to discuss studies most of the time, which helped me a lot,” he said.

source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Top Stories / by Naveen Menezes / Daijiworld Media Network – Moodbidri, Mangalore / Monday, May 06th, 2013

Granite worker’s son tops PU Arts

Education, Records, All

 Son of a granite worker, Pradeepa Garebala, a student of MVSR Science and Commerce College from Bagalkot district topped II PU in Arts stream, ranking an over all first in the State.

Pradeepa is a resident of Illala village in the Hungund taluka, and is the second son of Bommalingappa, a granite factory worker, and Sharanamma, a housewife.

The family owns two acres of land that is not very productive. Pradeepa studied in a Kannada medium school and scored an aggregate of 574 on 600, scoring 96 in Kannada, 93 in English, 94 in History, 97 in Sociology, 95 in Political Science, and 99 in Education. He had previously topped his district in his SSLC exam with 82.56 percent.

“It was always my dream to top the State. My dream has come true. My entire college and friends in the village are proud of me and are now motivated by my performance,” he told Deccan Herald.

He studied for a minimum of eight hours everyday and solved past question papers.
He wants to pursue his degree in Optional English, History and Political Science. He dreams of a career in IAS or the IPS.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State / Bangalore – DHNS, May 06th, 2013

Bangalore: Christ School gets Centum Results in SSLC

Education, Records, All

Bangalore :

A prominent school run by the Catholic minority community, Christ School, Bangalore, has turned in an exemplary performance registering Centum results in the SSLC examinations.  Of the total of 229 students, who appeared for the SSLC examination, as many as 78 have come out with distinction while 135 got first class and 16 students passed out in the second class.

Fr Shaju Varghese Pellissery, Principal
Fr Shaju Varghese Pellissery, Principal

Tobin Varkey Simson secured the highest marks of 612 out of the total of 625; Suhas K C got 609 followed by Shirisha B. Reddy (606), Apoorva V. Patil and Pavithra D (601). Fr Shaju Varghese, Principal, congratulated all the students and wished them a very bright future.

Christ School, Bangalore, is run by the fathers of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (C.M.I) through a registered body, “Christ Educational Society, Bangalore”, whose president is the Rector of Dharmaram College, Bangalore.

The continuous effort put in by teachers with able guidance of management has helped the school to record centum results in SSLC which is a commendable achievement by the students and the management.

The school currently operates two campus for Kindergarten and ICSE headed by Fr. Shaju Varghese and the other campus for state syllabus headed by Fr. Augustine with total strength of 4400 students which include state and ICSE.

Christ school is quite well-known in Bangalore with good infrastructure, lung space, and affordable.

Fr Varghese has served the Church and society in various capacities like Parish Priest, Superior and Principal across India. Before taking charge as the principal of Christ School, he had served at Chennai for a few years. He is a MA (Christian Studies), MA (English) M.Ed; NET; PGDCA and served as Vice Principal and Administrator, for 4 Years at Chavara Vidya Bhavan Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, as Principal and Teacher, 5 years at Christ Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Poonamallee, Chennai., as teacher for 1 Year at Don Bosco School, Kokrajhar, Guwahati, Assam; and has taught B.Ed candidates at Lisieux College of Education, Coimbatore for one year and later joined as Principal of Christ Schools (both Christ State and ICSE Schools), Bangalore in 2011.

For more details about contact: 41116360, e-mail: shaju.varghese@gmail.com /Address: Christ School Road, Dharmaram College P.O., Bangalore 560 029.

source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent, Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore / May 09th, 2013

Bangalore 1st city outside the US to hold a Stanford programme

Education

Bangalore has beaten Paris and Beijing to be the first city outside of the US to hold programmes by Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The Silicon Valley-based business school will start its Stanford Ignite programme for professionals at the Infosys Campus in the city in August. It means professionals looking for part-time management courses from Stanford can avail of them sitting right here in the city.

Blair R Shane, associate dean, Knight Management Center, Stanford University, says Bangalore was selected mainly for three reasons: “Firstly, it has a critical mass of engineers and people with technical expertise, exactly the kind of candidates we are looking for. There are many entrepreneurs here than other places, something just like in Silicon Valley. And Bangalore, like India, has a growing economy.”

After Bangalore, Stanford will take their programme to Paris in September and Beijing next year.

The programme is mainly for professionals with roughly 5-15 years work experience and who are from backgrounds like engineering, medicine and physics. Even individuals currently enrolled in master’s, PhD, MD or any other postgraduate and non-business programmes can get enrolled.

However, says Shane, the programme is not open to professionals who currently have a background in business or have an MBA.

“Basically for people with an entrepreneurial and innovative bent of mind. For those who want to start out on their own or even those who plan to develop products within their existing corporations are all welcome,” says Bethany Coates, acting assistant dean, global innovation programs, Stanford University.

For their first batch Stanford is looking for about 30-50 candidates. If it attains successful conclusion, we can look at making it an annual programme for Bangalore, says Coates, “and later also take it ahead to other metros in India.”

In the US, Ignite, which has been running for seven years, sees about 140-150 candidates participating annually.

Coates says 30-50 is a reasonable number to start off in Bangalore and could increase going ahead. “Along with getting to learn business from Stanford, candidates can also interact and network with Stanford alumni and professors,” says Shane.

source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home> Bangalore> Report / by DNA  Correspondent / Place:Bangalore, Agency:DNA / Thursday – May 02nd, 2013

Bangalore-bred Chris Pfeiffers steal the show at PES College of Engineering

Education, Sports

In low airfare PES College of Engineering in Mandya organises a stunt biking show titled Wheeled Evolution 2013

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Saravanan Parth, a second PUC student always loved working with motorbikes. But, what can he do with a motorbike? How can his career be lucrative if he studies motorbike?

He found his answers recently when he attended a stunt biking show at PES College of Engineering, Mandya.

To encourage automobile engineering and love for automobiles, the PES College of Engineering in Mandya organised a stunt biking show recently. Titled Wheeled

Evolution 2013, the event had a stunt show by a team called LSI (Legendary Stunts Inc) and Dirt Battles, a dirt biking competition.

“We performed a no-front wheel wheelies freestyle circle, an international stunt performed in X Games,” said Mohammad

Kasheef, member of LSD. The team took about five years to perfect stunt biking, and has performed at various colleges to encourage students to take up automobiles engineering along with stunt biking.

“We work on bikes. We modify them and we rectify them. Since we know our bikes in and out, we know what safety measures we have to take before we start doing stunts on them,” explained Mohammad Zakir, who rides a Pulsar.

“We have a Dio, we have a Pulsar. One is a geared vehicle the other is not. But we perform stunts on both,” said Raza Mehedi Ali, who performs stunts on the Dio.

“We are completely opposed to stunts on the roads. We never practice on freeways or main roads. We have a small place and we practice there with every safety equipment in place. Helmets, arm guards, knee guards, neck protection, shin protection, shoes and if needed harnesses are all used even during practice sessions,” said Kasheef.

source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home> Bangalore> Report / Place: Bangalore, Agency: DNA / Tuesday, April 30th, 2013

Rahul Pereira: Torchbearer of the land of spices

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Education, Records, All, Travel

Rahul Gomes Pereira, a student of the Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development has been selected to represent India in the cooking skills category at the 42nd WorldSkills global competition which will be held in Leipzig, Germany in July 2013. Rahul is the sole Indian representative and he will be the torch-bearer for India’s cooking skills.

Rahul, a kitchen management associate will be accompanied by his trainer and mentor, Chef Parvinder Singh Bali. He will be competing to demonstrate the best of his culinary prowess against chefs from 52 other countries. The preliminary rounds of the competition were held across India. Rahul impressed the jury with his expertise and was selected to represent India at the cooking finals, held on March 30 and 31.

WorldSkills gives young talent between the ages of 17 to 22 the opportunity to demonstrate their excellence in skilled professions. Winners are awarded medals and certificates of achievement recognising their skills and abilities in their respective fields.

On Rahul’s achievement, Mohit Nirula, Dean, The Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development said, “We are  proud that Rahul will be representing  India in the cooking skills competition at the WorldSkillss competition. We wish him success and hope that he will demonstrate the best of his learning and skills.”

About the competition:

WorldSkills is a skills competition, jobs and careers event held in a member country every two years. It is a competition for youth from 17 to 22 years to demonstrate their excellence in skilled professions. The competition is promoted and managed by WorldSkills International, formerly known as the International Vocation Training Organization (IVTO). As of September 2008, WorldSkills International has 50 member countries. The 42nd Worldskills International competition will be held in Leipzig from  July 2 to July 7.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bangalore / by Express News Service – Bangalore / May 02nd, 2013

Cash-Registers for hearts?

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology

Charitable donations of wealthy Indian firms is only 0.6-1% of GDP, compared with 2.2% for American companies

Pic: Business Standard
Pic: Business Standard

Many believe that Indian businessmen have cash registers for hearts. Their philanthropic contributions are believed to be insignificant in comparison to their wealth. According to the 2012 Forbes list, the wealth of the 100 wealthiest Indians is around $250 billion—13.89 per cent of India’s GDP. But, according to the estimates of a 2010 report of Bain Company, the charitable donations of Indians is only 0.6 per cent to 1 per cent of the GDP, when the charitable contribution of Americans is around 2.2 per cent of the GDP.

But, before one jumps to a conclusion, there is the other side of the story as well. On a program aired on the CNN recently, Ratan Tata, former chairman of Tata Sons, said that of 60-65 per cent of the Industrial proceedings of Tata Sons goes  into programmes for education, medical, rural development or eradication of poverty. Only two per cent of the industrial proceedings go to the family.

Tata is the chairman of the Tata Trusts, which is among the largest private sector philanthropic trusts in India.

He is not alone. In February 2013, Azim Premji, the Chairman of Wipro became the first Indian to sign the giving pledge. Premji had also donated $ 2.3 billion to a trust to fund Azim Premji Foundation, an education-oriented non-profit. The giving pledge group was founded by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates in 2010 to urge rich businessmen to donate a significant part of their wealth. With a net worth of $ 16 billion, Azim Premji is the 3rd richest Indian, and the 41st richest person in the world. Premji is also among the world’s top five givers. But, many think of them as an anomaly in a country where businessmen have billion dollar homes.

Gurcharan Das, author and former Procter and Gamble India CEO said philanthropy is a new idea in India when countries like the United States have a culture of philanthropy. “More and more people will donate to charitable causes in the future.” he said.

However, evidence suggests that philanthropy in India is often informal, and far more than  suggested by data. Bibek Debroy, an economist, and a research professor at Centre for Policy Research said though Indians do a lot of philanthropy, much of it is to religious institutions, is informal and does not appear in the official records.

Veena Jha’s recently published work, “India Emerging: The Reality Checks” sheds light on the long philanthropic tradition in India. Charitable donations have increased radically in the post-reform period. Studies of ‘The Society for Participatory Research in Asia’ between 2000 and 2002 shows that 53 per cent of the charity in India operates in rural areas and nearly half of it is unregistered.

Some studies suggest that nearly half of Indian households give charity. In India, non-profit activity, especially private nonprofit activity, is much higher than the global average. According to Bain and India’s annual philanthropy report, the private donation to charity had gone up by 50% from 2006 to 2011.

“A part of the philanthropic donations in India is to institutions abroad, like the universities and think-tanks. This is partly for visibility. But, many of them have studied abroad, and feel indebted to their alma mater.” Bibek Debroy said.

In 2010, Anand Mahindra had donated $ 10 million to the Harvard University, and Ratan Tata’s $ 50 million donation to the Harvard Business School in 2010 was the largest international donation in its history. In December 2012, a Delhi-based entrepreneur Sharik Currimbhoy had pledged $12.12 million to Columbia University, and businessman Siddharth Yog had gifted $11 million to the Harvard Business School.

Some economists have proposed an estate tax and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices to increase the philanthropic contribution in India. While the former was not to the liking of the Finance Ministry, at least in the budget for 2013-14, the latter is there in the Companies Bill, 2012 which is yet to be passed by the Rajya Sabha.

Ajay Shah, a professor at National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), said an estate tax will help inter-generational class mobility and to reduce the concentration of wealth.

“Incentives do matter. But, I do not see this as a black-and-white issue. It is perfectly possible for a man at the bottom to rise to the top, and I admire people who come from a humble background, but in our country, it is very difficult to do so,” he said.

However, he voiced views against CSR. ” But, CSR is a bad idea because it puts managers in control of the purported charitable objectives of shareholders.” Ajay Shah said.

But, doing charity is intrinsically difficult. Steve Jobs had once said that he is not deeply engaged in philanthropy because there is no measurement system—-It is very hard to measure whether you have succeeded or not.

According to the Bain and India philanthropy report, 80 per cent of the individuals and 90 per cent of the NGOs are satisfied with the efficacy of their philanthropic activities. Many economists think that this is because people often donate for the “feel-good” factor, and prefer to believe that their money goes into the right causes.

Many, like Bill Gates had proposed solutions to this problem which is magnified in India, where philanthropy is informal, and the feedback mechanism weaker. Some proposed solutions include measuring the funding for social causes, the teacher absentee rate, and the extent of corruption.

Gurcharan Das opined that this is not severe problem. “The Gates’ foundation is known for their accountability and their work to counter AIDS in many poor countries, including India. Though it is hard for individuals to do philanthropy, they can pick a good NGO to donate their money to. It only takes a Google search to find out the NGOs that are more accountable.” he said.

But, Nitin Pai, the founder of The Takshashila Institution said because it is difficult to measure the outcome in philanthropy, people often measure the outputs. “Across the world, they tend to focus on impressing the donors, which is not always a good thing. Feedback mechanisms, if not properly designed, can skew the outcome. It is important to realize that this is intrinsically difficult.” he said.

And, charity will never be sufficient. Economist Jagdish Bhagwati once said that an outright redistribution of wealth would only increase the food consumption of the poor by one chapatti a day. Some economists have estimated that sharing the total wealth in developing countries would leave its citizens with a few dollars a day. It is clear that charity will not solve the problem of world poverty.

“Poverty is too big a problem to be solved by charity alone, but that does not undermine the case for charity.”, Ajay Shah said.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Companies> Features / by Shanu Athiparambath / New Delhi – April 20th, 2013

Student scientists set for display talent at International Environment and Sustainability Project Olympiad

Education, Science & Technology

Mangalore :

Six class X and one first PUC students  from Puttur, about 50 km from here, will represent India in International Environment and Sustainability Project Olympiad (INESPO), an international science competition, to be held at Middleburg in Netherland from June 2 to 7.

The selected students are: Shivaprasad B, Aditya SN, Dhimanth S, Sreekumar, Ashish K, Sindhura Shankar (Sri Ramakrishna High School) and Abhiram PS, (PUC student of Vivekananda PU college). They will form four teams to showcase their science project. 

INESPO is a Netherland-based international Olympiad which will be held on a yearly basis. The first Olympiad was held in 2009 for students between 13 and 18 years of age with an aim of spreading awareness about environmental problems among students.

Vasanthi K, science teacher of Sri Ramakrishna High School, told TOI that the students worked hard for over two months to complete their projects. “They submitted their project details online to NESPO and got selected,” she added.

Shivaprasad who has teamed up with Aditya is excited to take part in this competition. Shivaprasad said, “I am extremely happy because I and my friends will be visiting a foreign country for the first time.”

Each participant will need Rs 1 lakh each to take part in this science contest. “We will be happy if someone sponsor us,” he added.

Shivaprasad and Aditya will present a project titled Germicidal Dustbin – a novel way of minimizing clinical pathogens. These students have designed a dustbin equipped with ultra violet lamp. Once the dustbin is closed UV rays emitted from the lamp will kill the pathogens in the dustbin.

Shivaprasad said the dustbin can be used in hospitals to prevent diseases that spread through clinical wastes. This duo has done this project under the guidance of Rekha P D, deputy director of Yenepoya Research Centre and Vasanthi K.

Details of students names and their projects:

Dhimanth S and Sreekumar will present “Development of an effective biocide from Acacia Concinna,” done under the guidance of Vasanthi K.

Ashish K and Abhiram PS will present “Extended applications of pollution free Vitex Nigundo.”

Sindura Shankar will present “A novel product to increase crop production by enriching pollination.”

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Mangalore / TNN / April 04th, 2013

Want to be a detective? Study in Mangalore

Education

Those youngsters looking to do something other than the hackneyed engineering and medicine courses now have another option open to them — detective sciences.

DetectiveBF28apr2013

The maiden batch of a modest nine students graduated from the first academic programme of ‘security and detective sciences’ certified by Mangalore University on Tuesday. The graduates are all set to take up jobs as investigators and detectives. “This is indeed a breakthrough. These nine graduates of BA in Security and Detective Sciences have already been lapped up by private investigative agencies,” said course director MG Hegde. The students were sent to crime scenes and prepared their own case sheets. “A couple of them have even helped the police investigators in drawing up a investigation plan,” he added.

“It was an eight year odyssey that the course has taken to arrive at the fruition level. The curriculum has been drawn by the forensic experts, retired police officials, experts in private investigation agencies and peer reviewed by experts in criminology” said Chandralekha Gowda, principal of the institute.

One of the graduates, Devasweelan, who was was chalking out an investigation plan as a part of his course, told DNA: “I had surfed the net for such a course for hours after my Pre-University education but only Mangalore had it. After the three-year course, I am now confident that I can take up independent investigation on several crimes including murder, suicide, cases connected to narcotics.”  The graduates were also given insights into tracking terror elements, corruption and infidelity between couples.

There are more than 300 top investigation and detective companies in India that are constantly on the lookout for academically trained investigators and detectives. “Right now, we have facility only to train small group of graduates, but in the coming days we will expand the facilities and also train more faculty members. We are looking at including more subjects like cyber crimes, financial frauds, various types of terror and anti social crimes,” Hegde said.

source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home> Bangalore> Report / by M. Raghuram / Place:Mangalore, Agency:DNA / Thursday, April 04th, 2013

Star this week : Talented chess player – M. Tulsi

Education, Records, All, Sports

TulsiBF27apr2013

Chess is a mind game and has a very rich tradition in our country. Mysore is the hometown many achievers. One such upcoming chess player is M. Tulsi in the junior girls section in the State. Tulsi recently hogged the limelight when she won the State U-17 girls chess title in the State chess championship held at State Youth Centre, Bangalore last week. She secured 5.5 points from six rounds. She will represent Karnataka in the Nationals. She is our Star This Week.

Tulsi is an 8th standard student of Marimallappa High School. Daughter of K.S. Manoj Kumar and C. Saritha, residents of Postal Colony near Sterling Theatre, she took part in the 3rd MDCA National level rating tournament held in Mysore from Apr. 15 to 19 and fared well. Presently, she has a rating of 1492 and aims to improve on her rating in the days to come.

Tulsi has a creditable record and has won the State U-7 title in 2006, 2007 and won the State U-9 title in 2008 and 2009 in the girls section. In 2011 she won the State U-17 girls title. In the 2011 U-13 State championships she finished second.

Tulsi has represented the State in the Nationals in the U-7, U-9 and U-13 and U-17 sections and her best performance was in 2006 when she finished 9th in the National U-7 championship at Goa.

She has participated in many rating tournaments and her best performance so far is in the Mangalore Open in 2012, when she beat Rajkumar Singha (Rating 1800) in the second round. She secured the 2nd place in the girls U-13 category and from nine rounds secured 5 points.

With encouragement from her parents and school, Tulsi intends to work hard in the days to come and improve her rating in the National and International levels.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports News / April 21st, 2013