Category Archives: Education

Andhra florist’s son tops Karnataka PG medical entrance

Education, Records, All

Bangalore :

Takasi Anush Babu smelt sweet success on Friday. As sweet as the scented flowers that his florist father sells in his tiny shop in the coastal Kakinada city of Andhra Pradesh. For Anush had grabbed the first rank in the Comed-Karnataka PGET, results of which were announced on Friday.

It has been a story of sheer hard work and perseverance for Anush who completed his MBBS from KS Hegde Medical Academy, Mangalore. While he was open to take any course with Biology in it after his Class 12, it was his mom’s dream to see him as a doctor that pushed Anush to write the medical entrance – he had to repeat the entrance exams for two years before he bagged a seat.

“Their dream is to see me set up a hospital or a clinic in my hometown. That is my long-term goal now,” Anush told TOI from AP. “I would either take up radiology or general medicine. I would like to take up radiology as it is does not need further specialization. But my parents would love to see me as a general physician,” he said.

The Andhra hegemony continued with students from the neighbouring state filling the top three medical ranks. The topper in the dental stream too is from Andhra Pradesh. Kothapalli Manasa was speechless when TOI informed her about the results. “I am shocked. I was not expecting first rank. I have been preparing for the entrance exam conducted by AP for PG dental courses too,” she said, adding that she aimed to teach rather than practice dentistry.

Manasa, daughter of Ramakrishna Kothapalli, a businessman, says everyday she had devoted around 12 hours to crack the ComedK test. “If I don’t get a seat to pursue PG in oral and maxillofacial surgery at a government college in AP, than I will pursue the same course in Karnataka,” she added.

None of the top ten ranks were bagged by Karnataka students in both dental and medical streams. For medical PG courses 16,856 candidates had applied for the entrance test. Of these, 83% appeared and 7,587 (55%) became eligible for seat selection process. The percentage of candidates becoming eligible for seat selection process is high for PG dental courses. As many as 4,723 candidates had applied for PG dental courses of which 93% wrote the test and 3,711 (85%) were declared eligible for the seats.

Candidates from Andhra Pradesh outperformed in the medical stream by grabbing six ranks of the top ten ranks. Kerala and Maharashtra secured one rank each while Tamil Nadu bagged two. Girls outclassed boys in the dental stream bagging nine of the top 10 ranks while in medical, the boys secured seven ranks.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Bangalore> Namma Metro / TNN / February 22nd, 2014

BS Southern Region corporate quiz: Hyderabad team comes first

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All

It was after six challenging rounds and after 35-40 questions that the Sai Mitra Constructions team from Hyderabad won the trophy as well as a gift cheque of Rs 25,000 in the Business Standard Quiz : Southern Region Finals.

The quiz was held on Saturday at Vels University in Chennai. The main sponsor was global watch brand Victorinox and Vels University was the associate sponsor with Coca-Cola being the beverage partner. Hair and beauty salon chain Naturals, silk saree manufacturer and retailer RmKV and Cookie Man were the gift sponsors.

The winning team bagged Rs 25,000 and the first and second runners-up, both from Infosys, received Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000, respectively.

Naveen Kumar and Phani Mahesh, the duo from Sai Mitra, said they faced a tough fight from the first runner-up team, comprising Vivek Venkatesan and Senthil Kumar P K from Infosys.

In total, 82 teams from 61 colleges and 21 companies, from the four southern states have participated in the quiz. Each team had two representatives.

The participants included an interesting mix of educational institutes such as the Indian Institutes of Management -(Trichy and its Chennai campus; Kozhikode), Indian Institute of Technology (Chennai), Great Lakes, Bharathidasan Institute of Management, SRM, Veltech, and LIBA, among others, and corporates such as Infosys, TCS, Caterpillar, India Cements, HSBC, ICICI Bank and Indian Overseas Bank.

Quizmaster Gaurav Sri Krishna, who is the leader for Asia-Pacific, India and MEA (Middle East and Africa) region in TCS, was at his best as he challenged the teams with the best of his questions, said one of the participants.

One question that stumped all the finalists was: As an individual contributor, to whom can one submit a BION and what does it mean? While nobody on the stage answered it, one of the participants off-stage came up with the right answer: It is a Believe It Or Not (BION) story sent to Ripley Entertainment Inc. The staff at Ripley’s world headquarters is always searching for new stories of the odd and unusual. Every day, they receive dozens of phone calls, hundreds of posted letters and thousands of emails from people with incredible stories of outlandish feats, amazing works of art, or unexplainable phenomena. It is owned by the Jim Pattison Group, which is Canada’s largest privately-held company.

The first runners-up team from Infosys said it was a googly with a simple answer while they were suspecting it as something associated with the digital currency, bitcoin.

The winning team said that all the questions were impressive and of good quality. “We have been waiting for the Southern Quiz to happen from the time we heard about the BS Quiz which was held in Mumbai,” said Kumar of Sai Mitra.

The quizmaster said the teams were very good and experienced, which could be seen from their performance.

He added the tough question according to him was: This company in the early 1900s undertook every imaginable means of unfair competition, in all probability including physically assaulting competitors’ employees. Its field force consisted of Knockout Salesmen who fanned across the US selling machines that were copies of competitors’ machines, but did not work. Finally in 1913 its top executives were indicted for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act and were sentenced.

However, before he could finish reading the question, which appeared on the screen, the winner team came up with the answer: National Cash Register (NCR). The quizmaster explained that its founder John H Patterson and Thomas J Watson (Sr) who was the sales head were two of two-dozen executives of the company who were indicted and sentenced to a year in jail.

K Sekhar, vice-chancellor of Vels University, said the event has improved in several notches and it was evident from the performance of the teams. “Seeing the corporate participants contesting in the event would also motivate our students to come,” he said. R Mathialagan, registrar of the university, added: “This gives us a good platform to connect with the corporates.”

The second edition of Business Standard quiz is one of the largest quiz competitions held in this part of the country. The first edition was held in Chennai last year in association with Vels University.

In this year’s quiz, 82 teams representing various colleges from all disciplines and corporates from the four southern states participated. Participants travelled from various corners of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Around 300 students from the Vels Institute of Business Administration, Vels University and faculties from other colleges have witnessed the Quiz.

Business Standard also conducts written rounds of BS Quiz in various colleges across all disciplines.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Current Affairs> News> National / by BS Reporter / Chennai – February 17th, 2014

Tribal girl fights her way back to school

Education, Inspiration /Positive News and Features

Nizamabad :

A tribal girl, Danawat Nirmala,12, has finally succeeded in her battle to go to school. Nirmala had threatened her parents that she would commit suicide if she was not allowed to continue her studies.

Nirmala, who hails from Pallebogada thanda under Bollaram gram panchayat limits of Nagireddypet mandal in Nizamabad district studied up to Class IV. She was not allowed by her poor parents to study further and was asked to work in agricultural fields to supplement the family’s income.

However, Nirmala is now back in school with the help of officials of the National Child Labour Project. National Child Labour Project officials who found her working in agricultural fields on Thursday was told by the girl that she was not allowed to go to school. The officials then spoke to the girl’s parents and convinced them about the need to send their child to school.

NLCP project director P Sudhakar Rao said that the girl’s father Devuja initially refused to send Nirmala to school despite being threatened with a jail term under the child rights protection act. Devuja wanted officials to ensure that his son, Mohan passed the SSC examination. Mohan had failed public examination last year.

Nirmala then threatened to commit suicide following which Devuja finally agreed to allow her to study further. Nirmala attended school on Friday for the first time since the academic year began in June last year.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> India / TNN / February 01st, 2014

Global Meet Begins at OU on ‘New Literature’

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, World Opinion

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A three-day international conference on ‘New Literature’ began at the Osmania University Centre for International Programmes (OUCIP) here on Monday. Delegates from Nigeria, Australia, Singapore and some other countries are  attending the conference which is being organised to promote literature of different parts of the world.

Explaining the reason for contemporary literature was selected as the theme for the conference which is organised by OUCIP and Indian Society for Commonwealth Studies (ISCS), OUCIP director Sumita Roy  said “Contemporary literature has a wide range with a lot of perspectives and voices. It reflects contemporary cultures. We are trying to hear the legitimate voices, how they are interpreted and what  their perceptions are because the more the number of perceptions the better is the understanding of human experience.”

She said there would be a session on Irish literature and topics like diaspora, literature written in English and non-English speaking countries will be discussed apart from other topics.

“We promote literature of Commonwealth countries. Seminars and conferences will be attended by scholars from various countries. The idea is to turn the Commonwealth new literature into global literature. 20 years ago no one had known Indian literature but now it has become a part of the mainstream world literature. We are putting in efforts to to promote that further,” said RK Dhawan, ISCS president.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Express News Service – Hyderabad / February 04th, 2014

Find Your Varsity

Business & Economy, Education

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It’s February already and students in their twelfth grade will be going through the trying time of preparing for their finals while also short-listing courses and colleges that they would like to apply for their undergraduation. A very difficult time for many, in a lot of cases, both schools and parents can sometime fall short in guiding the child towards what suits them best. This is where a little extra help could make all the difference. And this is where Univariety hopes to make that difference.

A higher education planner service that was started in the city about two years ago by two former college-mates, Univariety helps students through the process of finding a course, either in India or abroad, and also walks them through the process of admission, scholarships and so on.

Operating in cities like Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai, the consultancy has partnered with over 150 schools and 40 universities across the country and globe, and have so far, guided 15,000 students of class 11 and 12 to befitting courses and careers through scholarship-aided programmes.

‘’These days, we see more boys showing interest in different fields of engineering like bio-medical, animation-based, robotics, aerospace, film making, etc and girls are showing keen interest in mass communication, fashion designing, bio-medical engineering and statistics. These are their preferred career choices,” shares Varun Agarwal, MD of Univariety.

Varun, along with and Jaideep Gupta, has been working towards giving information and supporting children who have aspired for a course that fits them as snug as a glove.

“Both of us wanted to be entrepreneurs. If someone had talked to us or helped us in our school days, we could have become entrepreneurs a decade or more earlier,” explains Varun.

The two friends and budding entrepreneurs, teamed up together after working extensively in the field of education across the globe, to fulfill their dreams of starting a venture. And so, it was the same helping hand they wished they had that they hope to extend to students today.

Despite not being from the city, the duo chose to base their operations in Hyderabad due to the large number of quality schools and a high number of students aspiring to go abroad for higher studies. This includes 12 major schools like Oakridge International, Gitanjali schools, Hyderabad Public School, Chirec International School, Meridian International School, Delhi Public School-Hyderabad, etc.

According to them, though a degree in engineering or business management has been the traditional choice of higher education for most, or a foreign degree in the same field especially for those from the state, there has been a 20 per cent dip in the preference for traditional forms of engineering, changing the scenario of higher education.

However, at the same time, Varun points out that students today make their choices in isolation and with imperfect, and sometime incorrect information, guided by friends, parents and other influencers who themselves are not fully informed. “We wanted to help them, and their need for help is global. We did not want to be counsellors, we wanted to offer solutions and change the way teachers stress on the need for good percentages for a better future.”

Through partner schools, students can create their profiles on the Univariety portal and find guidance based on their preferences for preparation of various tests and choose suitable training institutes. They also helps students shortlist and apply to an ideal list of universities and avail best fit scholarships too. Per school, Univariety charges anywhere between`25,000 and `5 lakh, which would entail students of class 11 and 12 of that school to avail their services. Students can also avail personalised features to help them get individual help through the entire process of college admission. This could cost about `35,000 – `50,000 for each student.

‘’There are usually two types of students — one who is clear about what he wants and one who doesn’t. Our online tools will find them solutions up to 60 per cent. If they are still not happy, we have our counsellors who go to the schools to talk to them. Every reputed college is there on our list and now and we are extending the services to class 9 and 10 students from May; this we have already extended to schools in the Middle East,” he shares.

So, if you’ve been spending the better part of your time biting your nails in frustration instead of studying, here’s one way to sort some of the college-related anxiety. You can log onto www.univariety.com for more information or email them at guideme@univariety.com.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Rahul V Pisharody – Hyderabad / February 04th, 2014

Sreenidhi Students Win Competition

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All, Sports
Students of Sreenidhi Concept School receiving the winner’s trophy, ‘Battle of the Best: Vision 2020’, from ace badminton player Saina Nehwal in Hyderabad on Saturday. | RVK RAO
Students of Sreenidhi Concept School receiving the winner’s trophy, ‘Battle of the Best: Vision 2020’, from ace badminton player Saina Nehwal in Hyderabad on Saturday. | RVK RAO

Badminton star Saina Nehwal gave away prizes to Sreenidhi Concept School and Lohia Little Angels School students who clinched the first and second prizes in a competition titled ‘Battle of the best: vision 2020’ here on Saturday.

The competition was held by the Gray Matters India, a foundation that seeks to assess the quality of education provided by schools across the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Sania Nehwal said it was important for students to have determination to tide over any failure in life to achieve success. ‘’One should always feel that ‘I want to be the best and second to none’. It is this determination helps an individual to reach greater heights in their career,” she added.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Express News Service – Hyderabad / February 02nd, 2014

Don Bosco Navajeevan Hyderabad completes 15 years of Glorious Service

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education

Hyderabad :. 

DON BOSCO NAVAJEEVAN organized Children`s Mela on 22nd January 2014 at Nampally to celebrate 15 years of its service (1999-2014). The theme of the Mela was \\“PROTECT CHILDREN FROM SEXUAL ABUSE\\“. All the children from DBNJ Homes from the Twin Cities took part in the Mela along with local well-wishers and donors. The Mela was organized at DBNJ, Nampally area of GHMC Sports Complex Ground, to create awareness for the public and to present them the services provided by DBNJ homes for the street children and working youth.

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The programme began with a prayer song and Lighting of lamp by the invited guests. The Chief Guest of the function was Mrs. Zahera Begum, Corporator, GHMC. Mohammed Moin, President, MIM Red Hills Division area sabha member GHMC, Jaffer Sub-Inspector of Police, Nampally, and Mr Saritha, Project Coordinator, CFCA were other Guests of Honour.

The Chief Guest while addressing the children appreciated the work of DBNJ in twin-cities for the welfare of the Street children for past 15 years. She encouraged all the boys to be good and responsible students of DBNJ. She thanked for the invitation and assured us help and cooperation for the welfare and well-being of children.

The Guest of Honour Ms. Saritha, Project coordinator, CFCA, Hyderabad, also encouraged boys to set goals for their life to achieve their dreams with confidence and with positive thinking.

During the progamme three of the regular benefactors of DBNJ home, Nampally, namely, Mr. Inna Reddy, Mr. Alex Reddy and Mr. Joy were also honoured. The Director of DBNJ Fr. Sudhakar SDB thanked all the well-wishers, benefactors, donors and friends of DBNJ homes for their support and cooperation. In his speech he enumerated the mile stones that DBNJ homes covered in last 15 years. He called upon everyone to pledge themselves to protect children from all sorts` evils, especially by protecting them sexual abuse.

The colourful programme made up of Dances, Skits, Message Progammes and Mimicry by children from all the three centres was remarkable and thought provoking. A skit performed on the theme `Child Labour` was the highlight of the programme.

Master Madhu, student learning DTP and Printing and also preparing to write Class 10 public exams as private student, shared his experience and affinity with DON BOSCO NAVAJEEVAN and the facilities provided to the students at DBNJ homes. He found the personal follow up received from the management and staff truly praiseworthy. He called upon his friends and companions to be grateful to DBNJ for their constant guidance, encouragement and support.

Vote of thanks was proposed by Fr. Ignatius, In-charge of the Education of the students. He thanked all the guests and donors who blessed the children with their presence.

The Director personally met and thanked each and every staff member for their hard work and dedication for the success of the event.

source: http://www.donboscoindia.com / Don Bosco India / Home> News / by BIS Correspondent / Hyderabad – January 23rd, 2014

ELAN – IIT Hyderabad’s Techno-Cultural Fest

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education

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IIT Hyderabad will be celebrating its fifth annual intercollegiate technical -cum-cultural festival, Elan , on 31st January, 1st and 2nd February this year. Elan, which means energy, style, and enthusiasm, spreads the culture of innovation interlaced with merry-making through events, competitions, workshops and performances.

Over the years, Elan has grown, witnessing international band performances, dance groups and singers, into Andhra Pradesh’s largest technical-cum-cultural festival. The competitions during Elan are spread over technical, cultural, literary and informal domains.

The fest also conducts extra-mural lectures and workshops, and takes up social initiatives. Elan has associated with renowned companies like Microsoft, Vodafone, Hitachi, InfoTech, Bank of India, State Bank of India, L&T Constructions and McDonald’s, etc.

With exhilarating performances of art and culture and an electrifying atmosphere of fun and frolic, the festival is all set to become one memorable event in the lives of all those who attend it.

The epic fest is the brain child of the pioneer students of IITH which reveals the undying fervour to prove themselves as best extensively. Every moment of Elan was and will be celebrated as it is the festival of overwhelming zeal.

Starting as an intra-college fest it is now one of the most awaited youth fest of the city. It is a fete with a promise, a promise to render a plethora of pleasure and opportunities without compromising on the merry-making that comes along.

The logo of the fest shows 4 people intertwined helping each other reach the next level, which represents the main idea of festival. With a passion to celebrate music, arts and technology the fest spreads the culture of innovation entailed with all necessary action and fun. Buckle up for the festival with just 5 days to go and likes of Deathember scheduled to perform at the event!

source: http://www.coolage.in / CoolAge / Home / by Ganesh Mahidar – IIT Hyderabad / January 26th, 2014

A reunion to cherish

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All, Science & Technology
Graduates of Andhra Medical College’s 1959-64 batch recollecting their college days at a reunion in the city on Saturday. / Photo: K. R. Deepak / The Hindu
Graduates of Andhra Medical College’s 1959-64 batch recollecting their college days at a reunion in the city on Saturday. / Photo: K. R. Deepak / The Hindu

The 1959 batch of doctors of AMC has a gala time

They are all in their mid-seventies and have held important positions which earned them fame and name. Now most of them are enjoying their retired life. Some of them are still active, practising their profession and providing consultation when needed.

They belong to the 1959 batch of MBBS of Andhra Medical College and are meeting up with their old buddies at a reunion at a star hotel in the city on Saturday. It brought back memories of golden days of college life. The whole day they laughed and generally enjoyed the get-together. They called each other by first names and recalled the fun and happiness they enjoyed during college days.

Spade work

The reunion was planned and organised by Vyakaranam Atchuta Rama Rao, a retired consultant psychiatrist who has settled in the UK some 40 years ago, Prayaga M.M. Krishna, who settled in the city after working in Norway for 25 years as consultant anaesthetist, a leading medical practitioner of Anakapalle and former governor of Lions Club G. Subhram, and others. There were 120 students in that class and 35 of them had passed away. Among the rest, 60 attended the reunion, 40 of them with spouses. One of them N. Gajananda Rao, has done computer-aided medicine course in AIIMS after doing general medicine, and established the Indian Association for Medical Informatics. “We are all feeling happy to meet again. Actually this is the third reunion. We had the first one in 2000. We are recollecting the mischief we have done during our college days, the boys teasing girls and vice-versa,” said the 75-year-old doctor. “We are thoroughly enjoying the reunion. We are not sure of meeting again,” said former HoD of Microbiology of AMC Leela Kumari. Her classmate K. Kamamma came from Sompeta for the programme. A general physician of the city G.V. Krishna Rao said the reunion was a golden opportunity to meet everyone in the class. The former students felicitated their teachers who were in their nineties or thereabouts, such as neurosurgeon S. Bala Parameswara Rao, Prof. K. Somasundaram (physiology), Prof. A.V.S.S. Rama Rao (biochemistry), Prof. Nirmala Kumari (pharmacology), and Dr. S. Srinivasa Reddy (paediatric surgery).

source: http://www. thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Visakhapatnam / by Special Correspondent / Visakhapatnam – January 19th, 2014

Lecturer develops low-cost defluoridation of drinking water

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology
Andhra Loyola College chemistry senior grade lecturer Y.Hanumantha Rao / The Hindu
Andhra Loyola College chemistry senior grade lecturer Y.Hanumantha Rao / The Hindu

Could this be the answer to the problem of excess fluorine in drinking water? The method developed by Andhra Loyola College (ALC) chemistry senior grade lecturer Y.Hanumantha Rao has worked very effectively at the laboratory-level and is comparatively low cost. But he felt more research should be done to translate the work he has done in the laboratory to the field. He has been teaching at the ALC for over two decades and decided to do some research to help people.

Mr Hanumantha Rao said that he had analysed drinking water from 24 villages in Kandukur mandal of Prakasam district. While the range of fluorine in potable water should be between 0.05 parts per million (ppm) and 1.50 ppm, the level of fluorine in these villages was between 1.50 ppm and 4 ppm.

Using three kinds of “bio-waste” available locally — sorakaya (snake gourd), Tummakaya (prosopis) and Jammu (thick grass) — for developing activated carbon that removes 90 per cent of the fluorine by the process of adsorption, a process that is different from absorption. The fluorine gets physically and chemically bonded to the activated carbon and the water becomes potable.

The bio-waste had to be incinerated in a muffle furnace to 700º centigrade until it was reduced to powder. The powder was then washed with concentrated Nitric Acid to be “activated”. This was comparatively cheaper then the activated alumina that was being used for defluoridation, he said. The activated carbon had to be washed with an alkaline solution to reactivate it from time to time, Mr Hanumantha Rao said.

When he submitted his research work to the Acharya Nagarjuna University for review he was granted a Ph.D., Mr Hanumantha Rao said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Special Correspondent / Vijayawada – January 19th, 2014