[COLOR=green][SIZE=4]Ballal takes charge[/SIZE] [/COLOR]
img:31:Ballal (front): institution profile improvement mission Dr. H.S. Ballal is the recently (end 2003) appointed vice chancellor of the highly-rated Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) — a deemed university — which has acquired a transnational reputation for the high quality of medical and allied life sciences education it has delivered to its estimated 20,000 alumni who have distinguished themselves within the medical profession in over 40 countries around the world. Currently MAHE, which established the first self-financing private medical college in the country in Manipal (Karnataka) in 1953, is celebrating its golden jubilee year (ending March 2004). Therefore Ballal has taken charge of the nation’s first private sector university — which comprises 12 colleges of prof-essional education including seven state-of-the art teaching hospitals in India and abroad — at a critical time in its history.
“Though MAHE provides perhaps the best medical education in the country and is well-known within the academic community, it doesn’t have the reputation it deserves within the wider general public. In the latest India Today survey of the best medical colleges in the country we were rated seventh among the top ten. We are renowned for the quality of our infrastructure and faculty; perhaps the downside is that we have a research lag. Our faculty doesn’t publish enough papers and books and we don’t convene a sufficient number of seminars and workshops. These are the areas in which I propose to initiate development programmes right away,†says Ballal, a medical alumnus of Mysore and Bangalore universities who signed up with MAHE’s Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore as a lecturer in radiology way back in 1971.
That Ballal is fully committed to raising the low profile of the trail-blazing Manipal Medical and Education Group (MEMG) and MAHE in particular is also indicated by other quality upgradation and awareness campaigns he has on his drawing board. Among them: full scholarships to study in MAHE for 15-20 medical and engineering students who top all-India common entrance tests; a 35 percent pay hike for the university’s faculty and education loan subsidies for poor but meritorious students admitted into MAHE.
“While these micro-level initiatives are being taken within MAHE to impact the wealth and depth of our 50 years in higher professional education upon the public, we intend to play a greater role in medical education at the macro level as well,†says Ballal. “A major lacuna of India’s commendable socio-economic develop-ment effort is the neglect of healthcare of the majority rural population of the country. Health workers of Kasturba Medical College community medicine department are already propagating preventive healthcare messages focusing on personal hygiene, protection of water supplies, modern sanitation and elementary education to rural communities all over Karnataka and neighbouring states on a war footing. Their efforts will be supplemented by radio broadcasts, press and television campaigns. Ninety percent of the diseases afflicting the rural population are water and hygiene related. By focusing public attention on the prevention rather than cure of disease, we intend to play a larger role in the healthcare revolution which is imminent in India,†vows Ballal.
Quite clearly half a century after it admitted its first batch of 100 students, MAHE’s low-profile era is over.
[B]Dilip Thakore (Bangalore)[/B]
[SIZE=4][COLOR=green]Maths missionary[/COLOR] [/SIZE]
It’s a decade since Ramanujan Museum, the only personalia museum in the world was established in memory of renowned mathematics prodigy and genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan whose 117th birth anniversary was celebrated on December 22, 2003. During this decade the museum’s founder-director-curator P.K. Srinivasan, has spared no efforts to promote public awareness about the brilliance and creativity of Ramanujan and his outstanding work in the field of mathematics.
img:37:r:Srinivasan: life-long dream realised The construction of a Math City in Chennai will be the culmination of Srinivasan’s life-long dream to promote the learning of mathematics. He began his mission of popularising Ramanujan’s work in the sixties when he edited and published a two volume Ramanujan Memorial Number which was released by the late C.R. Rajagopalachari at a public function in 1968.
His next initiative was to find a place to house his growing collection. After a long search he succeeded in procuring the patronage of A.T.B. Bose of the Mahamayee and Thangappa Nadar Trust in 1993, who provided a room adjoining the library in the Avvai Academy Buildings in Royapuram, Chennai.
“My objective is to make the museum a motivating force for mathematical inspiration to the student and teaching communities. Therefore there is a Math Education Centre which serves as an adjunct to the museum,†says Srinivasan, a graduate of Madras University with specialisation in mathematics and a Master’s in education.
A tireless crusader, Srinivasan plans to offer guidelines to build replicas of the Ramanujan museum in all state capitals. Other plans include writing a book titled Innovative Thinking in Mathematics Teaching, which will be his thirteenth book on the subject, conducting courses for teachers and advocating a mindset shift from exam-oriented coaching in maths to inspired learning. “Maths has to be made a club activity for children to develop a mathematical bent of mind and the subject should be given due importance,†says Srinivasan who is quite optimistic that maths is a subject of enduring — “and growing†— appeal.
[B]Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)[/B]
[SIZE=4][COLOR=green]Wonder software pioneer[/COLOR] [/SIZE]
In September last year when Ali Sait, the founder-managing director of the Bangalore-based PACSOFT (Panorama Across Creative Solutions On Futuristic Technologies) Pvt Ltd, launched Lyceum 2.0 — a modular school management software package — little did he realise that within four months he would build a base of 1,800 top-rung CISCE and CBSE affiliated schools across the country as customers. Designed to automate several administrative processes which schools and colleges hitherto performed manually, Lyceum comprises 12 administrative modules each priced at Rs.25,000.
“Our research revealed that teachers spent nearly 25-30 percent of their time in discharging routine administrative tasks such as attendance calculation, totalling marks, generating progress reports, etc. Lyceum was developed with the objective of automating these routine administrative processes to free teachers to do their real jobs — teaching,†says Sait.
img:57:Sait: teacher freedom software According to Sait, Lyceum is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution developed with Microsoft DOT NET (.NET) technology and comprises 12 modules: marks card, information management, admission system, fees module, question paper, payroll system, student monitoring, teacher monitoring, financial accounting, time table, library management and inventory system.
“Each module is designed to automate one or more areas of these processes. Lyceum also functions as a management information system — it helps the principal and the school’s board of directors to make critical decisions,†says Sait, an alumnus of Bangalore’s M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology and among the first batch (1989) of computer science graduates of Bangalore University. Shortly after graduating, Sait promoted Pacsoft along with partner Pavan Kumar with an investment of Rs.10 lakh. Last year (2002-03) Pacsoft chalked up an annual turnover of Rs.17 crore, employing 120 people in six cities across the country offering software and hardware solutions.
“The potential for upgrading Indian education across the board are amazing,†says Sait, outlining the business of a high potential enterprise which is stretching itself to bridge the digital divide between the IT industry and the nation’s hitherto neglected education sector.
[B]Srinidhi Raghavendra (Bangalore) [/B]
[SIZE=4][COLOR=green]Unfazed ambassador[/COLOR] [/SIZE]
When acting us ambassador in India Robert O Blake Jr visited Lucknow University and delivered a lecture on Indo-US relations recently, he was perhaps unprepared for the bouncers bowled at him in the interactive session that followed. But the stand-in ambassador negotiated them with skillful baseball, even if not quite cricket style, winning quite a few admirers, if not friends. Blake had earlier presented a set of 160 books and 14 CDROMs on American society and culture to Lucknow University vice chancellor Prof. S.B. Singh and praised the university as “one of the leading institutions in the field of higher education in the countryâ€.
img:53:r:Blake: baseball style skills That’s where the love fest ended. After that, hostile student queries centred around the US invasion of Iraq. “According to a US survey, the removal of Saddam was supported by 73 percent Iraqis who suffered greatly during his regime. Our aim is to build an independent, democratic and stable Iraq as we have done in Afghanistan,†replied Blake spiritedly.
Blake’s visit to Lucknow University marks a new beginning in Indo-US relations in the field of higher education. The visit is to be followed by a US Education Foundation in India (USEFI) team which will make a presentation on available fellowships and scholarships — a perennial favourite subject of Indian students. “For the second straight year, more students from India are studying in the US than any other country including China. India is only second to Germany in seeking Fulbright grants for higher studies. Moreover Indian Americans are making remarkable and growing contributions to US culture, business, science and technology. There are 50,000 Indian American doctors, a number that represents 5 percent of doctors in the US. Also of the 52,000 hotels in the US, 22,000 are owned and operated by Indian Americans. They are responsible for one third of the startups in Silicon Valley. According to the US-India Political Action Committee, Indian Americans donated $7 billion (Rs.31,500 crore) in the last US Presidential campaign,†said Blake in a generous admission of the usually unacknowledged ‘reverse aid’ from India to the US.
Little wonder ambassador Blake won friends and influenced people beyond all expectations following his stormy lecture at Lucknow University.
[B]Puja Rawat (Lucknow)[/B]