SFI-ASA sweeps UoH students’ union election

The Students Federation of India (SFI) and Ambedkar Student’s Association (ASA) bagged all the major posts in the 2010-2011 students’ union election held on Wednesday. It was a convincing victory as the alliance candidates won all the union office – bearer seats by a margin of more than 900 votes against the candidates of Akhil Bharathiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which won the elections last year. The margin of win, SFI – ASA claimed, was a “record” in the history of the University.

Mukesh Kumar was elected president polling 1761 votes, while Nagesh G. was elected as the general secretary polling 1677 votes. Shyam Krishna won as the joint secretary with 1820 votes, the highest any candidate got in this election. The cultural secretary elect is Indira Priyanka who secured 1603 votes and, Uday Kumar G. polled 1748 votes to win as the sports secretary.

Earlier Ramesh Naik was elected unopposed to the post of vice – president, as the opposing candidate’s nomination got rejected during the scrutiny.

Electioneering into the last lap

Amanda Tariang & Shiva Krishna

Campaigning for the 2010 - 11 UoH Students’ Union elections came to a close on Monday, October 11th with the Open Dais (OD) session that was held between the candidates and the students in the DST Auditorium. The programme started at 7pm and went on till 10. The candidates for the posts of President, Vice-President, General Secretary, Joint Secretary, Cultural Secretary and Sports Secretary put forth their agendas before those present.

The programme was chaired by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), P. Dinesh Babu, who read out the rules and regulations that was to be followed. The contestants for the post of the president were allowed seven minutes to present their agendas, whereas, other candidates were given five. Based on the agenda, students were also allowed to raise two main questions and one sub question each.

There was clear political demarcation among the students present in the auditorium. The Students Federation of India and Ambedkar Students’ Association activists, who are fighting this election in an alliance, occupied the seats towards the left of the hall while Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists sat on the right side with the Telangana Students Association members taking the rest of the seats.

Questions raised were mostly accompanied either by applause or booing, depending on the political affiliation of the candidate taking the question and the individual students. At times, the candidates were not audible due to the shouting. There were also moments of tension between the members of different organisations present on the floor.

A notable omission of this year’s OD session was the absence of presidential debate, in which all the presidential candidates debate with each other in front of the students. “The Presidential Debate was not conducted due to time constraints. Some candidates took more than the stipulated time to present their respective agendas and the Q&A session was prolonged,” said CEC P. Dinesh Babu.

The polling will be held on Wednesday, 13^th October, followed by counting the next day.

Political Science student beaten up by outsiders

http://s795.photobucket.com/albums/yy231/midhunrajalpha/?action=view&current=DSC_7023jpg-2.jpg (Photo)

Midhun Raj.U.R

A second year Political Science student, Vishnu Sasidharan, was brutally beaten up near the Campus School on Wednesday at around 8.30 pm allegedly by a gang of outsiders and some students. The injured was admitted to the University Health Centre.

Vishnu was going to campus school with musical instruments to attend the practice session for the ‘Onam’ celebrations from his hostel (MH-H) when the attack took place. “I saw some people, who were participating in the Ganesh immersion procession in front of my hostel, moving into my way. When I passed the Old SN School canteen, they attacked me with some metal weapons like iron rod,” he said.

He told police that he identified some of them including Sai Krishna and Satpal who got suspension in the last semester. "I couldn’t identify few of them because I have never seen them before in the University,” he added.

His classmates and friends said that he is an active worker of Students Federation of India (SFI). SFI leaders alleged that the attackers belong to Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

Vishnu has severe injuries under the left eye and left side of the skull. “The injuries show that the person was attacked with some kind of metallic weapons. He has a contusion on his left part of the head.” Dr. Capt. Ravindra of University Health Centre said UoH Dispatch.

“We will observe the patient for 24 hours and decide about further treatment,” he added.

SFI campus unit president P. Parameswaradu said that they filed a complaint to both Registrar and Circle Inspector of Chandanagar police.

“A Proctorial Committee headed by University Proctor will inquire about the incident.” Chief Warden Prof. Sarraju said.

In response to the accusation on ABVP, M.Venkat, a party spokesperson said, "The allegations are baseless. All of us were in the procession accompanied by more than 15 security guards. If anything happened like they (SFI) are claiming, the security guards would have noticed it."

Educate oneself and those around, says JP

Mohammed Anvar

“Some people may say that your generation have many faults. But don’t go behind this general notion. If their generation was without fault, this nation’s fate would have been different,” said Loksatta Party president Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan in his speech at the freshers' orientation programme organised by Ambedkar Students' Association (ASA) here on Monday.

“Education is the best tool to fight for your rights. It will help you to bring about changes into the society in which you are living. Educational institutions are not just factories that give out degree certificates. From those institutions your minds are stimulated and hearts are inspired,” added the former IAS officer.

In his forty five minute speech, he reminded the students that they have to struggle for their own future. “If you want to bring changes to this country, you have to make sure that each child of this country gets ample opportunity to fulfil his or her potential. Unless you achieve something in this direction, our country will remain the same,” the Kukatpalli MLA spoke to a packed audience in the DST.

He appealed to the privileged student community to use their individual talents for the public good. “Individual growth without overall development of the society will contribute nothing to humanity. That is why people like Dr. Ambedkar dedicated their entire life for public good. They built the nation. After that generation, unfortunately, people are giving up the public domain. Without freedom fighters we would have gained Independence. But we wouldn’t have had a nation” added Dr. Jayaprakash to the new faces.

Prof. Kancha Ilaiah , Dr. Prakash Babu and Dr. K. Suneetha Rani also spoke. Earlier, ASA general secretary Ms. Simi presented the annual report.

Celebrating Independence Day

TAKING A SALUTE: Vice-Chancellor Prof. Seyed E. Hasnain and Registrar C P Mohan Kumar (back) saluting during the national anthem.

CELEBRATION: University school children performing.

Photo: Rahul V. Pisharody

Song of Bansuri Mesmarises UoH

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia playing the bansuri
Photographed by Shiva

Dhanusha Damodaran

Bansuri (bamboo flute) maestro Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia mesmerised UoH with his recital on the Sunday (August 8) evening. His ragas of yamen and praharee accompanied by Vijay Ghate on Tabla and Rukmini Devi on Tambura enthralled the gathering. Maestro’s bansuri cast a magic spell on the audience who couldn’t resist from making rounds of applause.

The maestro was here to inaugurate VIRASAT-2010 organised by the Hyderabad Chapter of the ‘Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst the Youth’ (SPIC MACAY). Kiran Seth, the founder and Chairman of SPIC MACAY, lit the lamp as he was asked to do so by the maestro.

Pandit Hariprasad was honoured by Prof. Seyed E. Hasnain, Vice Chancellor of the UoH. The UoH subchapter of SPIC MACAY was started in 2007 providing a good platform to organise cultural programmes involving many internationally acclaimed artists.

Ms. Kavita Dwibedi, Odissi performer, Mr. C. P. Mohan Kumar, Registrar of UoH, Prof. B. Anantha Krishnan, Faculty Co-ordinator, Rajeev Vellichetti, Cultural Coordinator of the UoH, Vikas Nagrare, Vice-Chairman to SPIC MACAY, Kumar Ashish, Coordinator to Subchapter of SPIC MACAY UoH, were also present.

Ramzan mess to be opened on the Campus

C. Jamsheel

A special mess is all set to be opened in UoH men’s hostel-C mess in accordance with Ramzan schedule.

Certain students of Muslim community of the UoH approached the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Seyed E. Hasnain, requesting him to open a special mess during Ramzan (August 13 to September 12). The Chief Warden, B. S. Sarraju, gave consent to open the Ramzan special mess after the Vice-Chancellor asked him to deal with the representation.

“Students have been demanding for a special mess to suit the Ramzan timings since long. Finally the authorities have given permission for opening the Ramzan special mess. Student Union and wellwishers helped us to make this happen,” said P. Mohammed, a representative of the students.

More than two hundred people, including students, teaching and non-teaching staff would observe fast during Ramzan in the campus. While university will provide mess hall , students have to hire crockery and a cook.

“Students are asked to pay Rs.1000 each in the initial stage. Food will be served both at Ifthar (the time of breaking the fast) and in the wee hours during the holy month. The students will take responsibilities of the day-to-day affairs of the mess,” added P. Mohammed.

The special mess will be opened on August 12 till the end of Ramzan.

Candlelight march against flames in Valley

ARNIMA RAO

A good number of students of University of Hyderabad on Thursday night, held a candlelight peace march against the unabated violence in Kahsmir valley. Under the aegis of the Students Federation of India (SFI), they displayed placards and banners expressing their solidarity to the victims of violence.

The students silently walked in the campus until their final halt at the shopping complex. Addressing the gathering, Zameer, a Mphil. student from Kashmir, of Comparative Literature, observed that Kashmir has been under siege. He found fault with the authorities and blamed the police for not acting effectively. “Because of this inactiveness, the death toll is increasing every passing day,” Zameer said.

A student form Manipur, Suresh, who is currently doing his research on Armed Forces, made parallels between the Kashmir and North Eastern states. “Ongoing killings of civilians during protests and fake encounters have shattered the hearts of the old and young. Unrest is seen in both the places and death has become a common sight,” he maintained.

The students raised slogans such as “awaaz do hum ek hai,” before concluding the programme.

Students showing their solidarity
Photographed By Rahul

Cheer up folks…Our voices to go on Air soon…

Mohammed Anvar & Arnima Rao

The top ranked journalism department in the country has added another feather into its crown! Literally, it is going to give voice to the hitherto voiceless.

Think about a voice that will make your morning worth it and fill you in with information about today’s programmes on the campus. Think about a friend striking the perfect cords on his guitar which the entire campus could listen to. Wait before you think that all these are dreams.

Yes. It is a dream come true situation for the people who worked hard and tirelessly for the past five years to set up a radio station on the University of Hyderabad (UoH) campus. Finally, only a few formalities to be completed and UoH hopes to go on air by the end of the monsoon semester. This will be the first campus community radio in the State.

“But the programmes are not only meant for the student community. It will cater programmes to all the community which comes under the 10-km radius of the radio station,” says the brain behind the project, Prof. Vinod Pavarala, Dean of SN School of Arts and Communication.

Though the duration, genre and anchors of the programmes are not decided yet, there will be about two to three hour air-casting at the initial stage and the idea is to reach out to all kinds of audiences. The programmes will be for the youth after all. People from the nearby community could also come and do a small programme for this radio. “It will reach the Hi-tech city too. If a techie listening to it may also come and do a programme,” the Dean elaborates.

The radio station is going to be run and managed by the students specifically. There will be a Station Manager to monitor things. A small group of people from the university will look into the day-to-day affairs of the station. “At the same time there will be a university level Radio Council comprising of experts from different walks of life and headed by Pro-VC to look into the policy matters,” explains Prof. Pavarala.

“The present radio stations are not using the full potential of the concept. We are going to air cast different kinds of programmes,” says Prof. Pavarala. He aims at involving people from nearby places by sharing their views and experiences to the students. In this way the radio will not only be just for entertainment but also educational, creative and informative. He wants to make them feel that it is their radio as well!

So gear up for the big opportunity as SN School offers that one platform to make people hear our voices and make our presence felt.

Photographed by Midhun Raj U.R.

BBC Hindi Holds Discussion

NIKHIL MG

BBC Hindi Radio conducted a discussion at University of Hyderabad on July 28 on ‘the state of higher education in India today’. The discussion revolved around issues like infrastructure in colleges and universities, absenteeism among lecturers, adherence to examination schedules and India’s bright chances of becoming a global super power.

The discussion was attended by the Vice Chancellor Prof. Seyed E. Hasnain, deans of various departments and students. In his opening remarks, the VC said: “In the past few years, education was not given as much attention as it required in India. The number of colleges and universities in the country are inadequate. We do not have resources to set up enough colleges with appropriate infrastructure.”

Talking about the facilities being provided in UoH, a science student (nano-technology) observed that, “we have all the necessary facilities in the university and the labs are well equipped. In spite of this, I think that there is a need to encourage sciences among students because there seems to be a trend where everyone wants to do an MBA to earn more.”

Prof. Alok Pandey, Head of Department of Hindi, was of the opinion that India can become a super power only if it strives to progress through its national language. This opinion was contested by many students who believed that progress can be achieved by thinking and acting globally. “Striving for progress in one’s national language only means limiting the possibilities of becoming a super power. Working towards the progress of the country’s poorest man will help attain sustainable development,” a student observed.

Talking about absenteeism among lecturers in UoH, a few students complained that they often faced this problem. Majority of the participants, however, thought otherwise. Students also opined that the university strictly adheres to examination schedules regardless of any political disorder in the city.

“The question that one needs to answer now is whether Indian higher education is producing enough people to make it a super power? And I strongly believe it is.” commented Venkat Ramana, Dean of Management.

(This reporter is one among the participants of the BBC Hindi discussion).

Workshop on Molecular Modelling and Drug Design

NIKHIL MG

A week-long workshop on Molecular Modelling and Drug Design is being conducted at the Centre for Modelling, Simulation and Design (CMSD), UoH, from 2^nd to 7^th August 2010. This workshop is sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology.

“The workshop is being attended by approximately 40 speakers and 100 participants from across India. 25% of these participants include faculty members from various academic institutions, 15% comprises of scientists from pharmaceutical and Biotech companies, 40% of the participants are PhD scholars and the remaining 20% are M-tech, B-tech and MSc students from UoH,” observed Dr. R.S. Rathore, Organiser of the workshop, Department of Biotechnology, UoH.

The workshop is designed in such a way that the participants would spend about 50% of time in learning the basic concepts of computational chemistry with emphasis on drug design and discovery. The other 50% of time would be spent in acquiring hands-on experience on useful chemistry tools applied in drug design and drug discovery.

The workshop is successfully bringing together an assortment of drug designing companies in the week to come. Some of these well known companies include Schrodinger Inc., ACD/Labs, Tripos etc.

“It is a one-of-its-kind opportunity for the participants to learn all the major tools in molecular modelling and drug design. I hope that the participants utilize this opportunity to the maximum extent,” said Prof. Reddanna Pallu, Organiser of the workshop, School of Life Sciences, UoH.

Messes to be opened by August 1

University officials addressing the protesters

RAHUL V. PISHARODY

Finally the UoH administration has declared that the messes on the campus would be opened by August 1.

Following a protest from students, the Cheif Warden B.S. Sarraju made an announcement in this regard on July 28. Protesting the administration’s dillydallying in opening the mess, a group of students led by Students’ Federation of India (SFI) gathered at shopping complex and took out a procession till the administration building. The agitating students submitted a representation to the Registrar Mr. Mohan Kumar and the Chief Warden.

“Classes commenced two weeks ago but you didn’t open the messes causing discomfort to the students,” the SFI’s HCU unit secretary Parameshwarudu said.

Mr. Sarraju, however, attributed the delay to the outstanding mess bills. According the official, students have to pay Rs.56, 81,334 to the administration. While girl students have to pay Rs.6, 48, 335, boys owe Rs.50, 32, 999 to the administration.

Students also demanded for more frequent transport services to the South campus. They questioned the rational behind keeping three people per room in the newly built J-hostel in the south campus. They demanded that only two students be put in every room.

Girls brought out the issue of water and sanitation at Ladies Hostel. They said the water they get to drink is saline. They also alleged that the administration is not taking the problems seriously despite receiving complaints several times.

Surprisingly, the mess at H and A hostel was opened on July 29, the day after the students’ protest.

Registrar Mr. Mohan Kumar made it clear that it would be impossible for the university to buy new busses and could only hire some in this case. He further said that a proper re-scheduling of the bus timings is required and will be seriously looked into. Reacting to series of cycle thefts on the campus, he said the students have to act responsibly and be alert.

Hyderabad to host mega Maths event

World's super brains to come together - 'Maths Nobel' to be conferred - UoH is the exclusive academic host

By Ardra Balachandran

The brightest minds from all branches of Mathematics will descend upon Hyderabad come August. The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), the melting pot of ideas and the prestigious platform where the cream de la cream of global mathematics come together once in four years, will happen from August 19-27, 2010, at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC). What’s more, University of Hyderabad is the exclusive academic host for the event!

In recognition of the increasing contributions of Indian Mathematicians in research, our country gets to host the ICM for the first time in history. In fact, this is only the third time that the ICM is coming to Asia (Kyoto 1990, Beijing 2002). The bid made by India had the full backing of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and also the State Government of Andhra Pradesh. The local hosts are the National Board for Higher Mathematics (NBHM), a board constituted by the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, and UoH.

“We competed with several other institutions which wanted to bring the ICM to their place. The International Mathematical Union (IMU) team came to inspect us and I gave them a blank cheque; also showed them the HICC. Our university’s phenomenal work in the field of Mathematics and the world class facilities available in HICC made the case for India,” Vice Chancellor Prof. Seyed. E Hasnain elaborated.

Although the history of the event can be traced back to August 1897, its execution in an organised fashion started in 1924, when IMU, a body of mathematicians formed in 1920-21, took over the reigns.

The ICM is also important because of the prestigious awards that are given away at the event, especially the Fields Medal. Known as the Nobel for Mathematics globally, it is awarded to a young mathematician (under the age of forty) who has done a substantial piece of research in the preceding four years. Besides this biggie, the Nevanlinna Prize (for theoretical computer science) and the Gauss Prize (for mathematics leading to applications) too will be awarded. Also, for the first time ever, the Chern Prize for outstanding lifelong achievement in mathematics will be awarded in Hyderabad.

With 20 plenary talks and more than 170 invited talks (the highest till date) lined up, ICM 2010 is sure to incite a whirlwind of new ideas. Most of all, the event gives what the Indian talent pool across disciplines often misses out on international exposure. And for mathematicians, it does not get bigger than this!

We lead, others follow – VC

Special interview with Prof. Seyed E Hasnain

By Ardra Balachandran and Bipin Sebastian

ICM is coming to Hyderabad. Your thoughts?

This is a great moment for UoH. That India was chosen based on IMU team’s visit to our campus is a great honour.

How do we stand to benefit from the ICM?

The biggest gain will be the revival of Mathematics and its education in the country. The world’s most powerful man Obama said that the world must learn from India and go back to what we are doing to bring back science and mathematics into mainstream. But we feel that we are not doing enough. This meeting is precisely a step in that direction. Of course, the visibility and the recognition the event are the by-products.

There is separate meeting being conducted for women mathematicians on the sidelines of the ICM. Isn’t science a platform to reduce differences?

Oh no, its purpose is not to have parallelism and denigrate women. It could be more to showcase what we have achieved there. Also, whether we like it or not, we are losing out on talented women. After masters, they vanish. This meeting will hopefully address this issue.

It is noticed that our arts departments are lagging behind science.

That is true everywhere, not just here. We do not have comparable benchmarking that we have in science. Most scholars in Humanities and Social Sciences publish their work in journals that are not even indexed on Google. Your work goes unnoticed and you are losing out.

Does this directly reflect on the investment you make as a university authority?

One thing, the very nature of enquiries non science scholars undertake demands less financial inputs. They are not laboratory driven. Even the start up grant that non-science faculty members ask for are meagre amounts. In the beginning, people used to come to me asking for paltry sums to conduct international meetings. I would say, go add two zeroes to your budget and come back.

Shouldn’t fellowship be based on the demands of students’ stream of study? For example, Fine Arts students have to spend a lot on their supplies.

The system does not recognise their needs, not just in our country but globally. If you are doing a PhD in Philosophy and want to attend a meeting in Cambridge, there is no agency in India that will fund your entire trip. But if you are a Physics student, DST will write it off. And that explains why many of our discoveries take so much time in getting integrated to our social system. Unless scientific discovery is transferred to the society through a healthy exchange and dialogue with social scientists, you will have a problem.

We always hear that the science departments in our university feature in the top two in the country. What about others?

The award we received last year was based on publications in scientific journals – number two just below Delhi University. But the NAAC and the Scopus ranking is for all areas of human enquiry. We have received 97% with Scopus. I am waiting to see what rank DU and JNU get. NAAC looks at more than one thousand parameters including wifi connectivity and hostel facilities. We still have been given the highest ranking.

You had mentioned that there is a plan to convert the Department of Economics into a School on the lines of the LSE.

I want it to set a very tough benchmark for us and it should be equal to or better than the LSE. Recently, Jagadish Bhagawati and Aravind Subramaniam were here. Joseph Stiglitz, who won the Nobel will be coming soon. The idea is to learn from these people what makes a good school. We also have an international advisory committee. We have a blueprint ready to make it happen in 2011.

During the inauguration of the tennis courts, you had mentioned introducing a compulsory sports credit course.

Yes, in this academic council, we will take a decision on that.

Considering the stature we have as a university, don’t you think the present sports infrastructure is inadequate?

No, the mindset of students needs to change. How many people make use of the sports complex that is there?

Another academic year is coming up. Is any work underway to solve the accommodation shortage on campus?

We have fulfilled the numbers that were obligated on us regarding the reservations. Every year we used to increase the seats on our own to fulfil a dream of having 10000 students on campus. But you need money to build hostels for all of them. So no more increase in seats from this year.