Thursday, December 6, 2012

Dr Abdul Kalam meets Vasantham children

Dr Abdul Kalam with Vasantham children
To day (6th December 2012), Dr Abdul Kalam met the mentally challenged special children of Vasantham and interacted with them at Raj Bhavan, Chennai during his short visit to Chennai.  

On seeing Dr Kalam sitting in the sofa, one of the children cried in excitement, "hey.  Kalam uncle, whom we used to see in photo is sitting here".  These children got really excited to interact with Dr Kalam and they presented to him a written invitation (signed by all the children of Vasantham) inviting him to Vasantham during his next visit.  Dr Kalam also promised to visit Vasantham to interact with other children.  

They also presented to him some of the special products made by them personally as a token of their love and affection. 

Vasantham, one of the Chennai based NGOs (started in 1989)  is taking care of nearly 150 mentally challenged children.  Out of this, nearly 50 children are staying in the hostel.  These children are highly creative and highly capable.  

Vasantham can be reached through their website www.vasantham.org or through their email id  vasantham89@gmail.com 

Some of the photos taken during the occassion.

Friday, November 2, 2012

“I want one line in history” – Munna Kumar Arya

Munna Kumar Arya

Munna Kumar Arya (27), hailing from a poor family of East Champaran District of Bihar lost his father when he was 3 years old.  His elder brother could not proceed beyond 7th standard due to poverty.  His elder sister was killed by her own mother-in-law for not bringing in dowry.  Munna Kumar’s family could not even take up this murder with police, due to their poverty.

Inspiration drawn from the books of Dr Kalam

Being a brilliant student, Munna Kumar continued his school education but with great financial difficulty. He earned money by taking up small jobs.  When he was studying the 10th standard in 2001, he had the opportunity of reading Hindi version of ‘Ignited Minds’ and ‘Wings of Fire’ books written by Dr Abdul Kalam.  “These books changed my mind.  I got motivated to get ‘one line in the history’ for my contribution to the society”, says Munna Kumar recalling his past days.

He struggled financially to complete his graduation in MS College (Motihari) and MCA with Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi.  Besides getting education loan from a bank, he took up tuitions to earn money to complete his studies.  Although he got a lucrative job in a company called CTS, he decided to quit the job and start working towards nation building. Presently, he works as a lecturer in LND College, Motihari.  “Teaching profession will help me achieve the goal”, he says. 

Activities

He started ‘Khwab Foundation’, to achieve the Vision 2020.  With the support of the local people, he started two schools in the nearby villages, Motihari and Betia. 300 children currently study in these schools.  He also started small libraries ‘Satyadarshan Library’ in 5 villages and plans to extend to many more villages in the district.  Every library has around 500 good books and every day, around 25 to 30 youngsters use the library.  Interestingly, these young users themselves manage the library in every village. He wants to start many more such libraries. 
Abdul Kalam Science Club

He has started ‘Abdul Kalam Science Club’ to create science awareness among the rural students.  Senior college students teach these school students. (Photo)

He has also brought together the local journalists to involve them in spreading positive messages through media.  Munna Kumar brings out an e-magazine in Hindi titled ‘Junoon’ to spread the positive messages among educated youth. “Vision 2020” hostel (photo) started by him accommodates like-minded college students.  

He has organised 250 ‘Motivational Workshops’ till date, covering more than 3000 students, to prepare them for Vision 2020. 

They celebrate national days like Republic Day, Independence day and Dr Kalam’s birth day with great fervour. 

Converting mockery into admiration

In 2005, when he started his social activities, many of his friends used to mock at him.  Braving all the mockeries, he went ahead with his mission.  Now, the same people have address him as “Mr Fantastic”, “Junior Kalam”, etc. 

“Since I had suffered a lot during my young age to get good education, I want to dedicate my life to the society to bring a change by providing proper education and patriotism, to achieve the Vision 2020. Like my role models, Vivekananda and Abdul Kalam, I want to remain as Brahmachari to serve the society”, Munna Kumar says proudly.

Only desire is to meet Dr Abdul Kalam some day

His desire is to invite Dr Abdul Kalam to his area and motivate thousands of youngsters.  If it is not possible, he wants to meet him either at Ranchi or at Delhi with his team to show the projects and to  take his blessings.  


He can be reached at munna2020.info@gmail.com  +91 9973364776, +91 9031681623

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Aum Murugan sets apart 25% of his salary to society

When M. Murugan (51) starts from his house in the morning, his wife Umaa Murugan gives him two packets of food every day. For the past 24 years, before taking his lunch for the day, Murugan ensures that one poor person is also fed. Murugan, popularly known as Aum Murugan, is presently working in Southern Railway and spends one-fourth of his salary for the social cause, with the full support of his family members.  

Through 7 centres of Aum Education Seva Trust, he provides vocational training to nearly 3000 poor people annually free of cost in the neighbouring districts of Chennai.  Besides, every year he conducts 100 eye camps and health camps with the help of Sankara Nethrayala covering 40 villages and 10,000 beneficiaries annually.  Since 2004, he has done more than 700 such camps, which benefitted more than 50,000 poor people.  Besides his personal contribution of his salary, he also gets the support from friends and well wishers. 

In the past four years, he has also distributed 40,000 CDs/DVDs free of cost to various Government Schools, to enable the secondary and senior secondary children  to learn the subjects on visual and animation techniques.

Born in a very poor family in Kanyakumari District, he lost his father before his first birthday. His mother Amaravathy struggled hard to bring up her two sons and one daughter, by undertaking various household jobs.    Murugan, being the youngest, came to Chennai at the age of 13 along with his mother.  His elder brother Sivathanu helped him to complete his degree.  “My mother and my brother are the sources of my inspiration.  Poverty in my early age and the support given by my mother and my brother made me realise my duty to pay back to the society.  In the first month of my joining Indian Railways in 1982, I decided to set apart 25% of my salary every month for the society”, says Aum Murugan with tears rolling in his cheek.  

Though  he had to go for employment after his first degree at the age of 18 to look after his family, his thirst for higher education did not stop.  He completed M Phil, 5 PG degrees, and 5 PG Diplomas from the traditional Universities through correspondence course. Currently, he is pursuing MA in Social Work, from Tamilnadu Government’s TNOU.  

He married Umaa in 1988 and she added value to his service to the society.  She looks after the vocational training to the poor people and health camps, when Aum Murugan is in office.  Their 2 children also support them in all the activities.

“In the next three years, God willing, through Seva Centres, we want to  provide vocational training to 5000 poor people free of cost and make them employable.”, Umaa Murugan added.

Aum Murugan can be contacted at 9444815958 or aumest@gmail.com.  Their website www.aumeducation.org 

Source: Sep 2012 isssue of National ezine PreSense

Elango turns Kuthambakkam village as a model village


Mahatma Gandhi said that India lived in villages.  He wanted the villages to be developed.  While everybody talks on every platform, nobody takes the serious initiative.   Here is the story of R Elango, a Dalit leader turning his village into a Model village in India.

R Elango, born and brought up in Kuthambakkam village, in the adjoining district of Chennai City was involved in the social work right from his childhood.  After completing his B.Tech in Anna University, he joined Oil India and shifted to CSIR as a Scientist.  His village Kuthambakkam with 7 hamlets and with more than 50% of Dalit population was always facing caste clashes. Due to illicit liquor trade, the poor villagers were losing money, health and family relations.  

He was inspired by the idea of the then PM Rajiv Gandhi, who promoted the idea of ‘Panchayat Raj’ to give full freedom to village Panchayat. Later in 1992, Narasimha Rao Government passed the 73rd Amendment in the Parliament to implement Panchayat Raj in the entire country.  The first elections were held in 1996 for Panchayats, based on the new Act. 

Since nobody was willing to contest election to become the President of the Kuthambakkam village, he resigned his Government job to contest the elections.  

In the 1996 Panchayat election, he was elected by the villagers with a three-fourth majority to become the first President of the village under the new Act.  Panchayat Raj Act gave powers to the villagers for self governance.  He started implementing word by word the guidelines given in  the Act.
He visited many model villages across the country and developed a model for his village.  He brought peace between the warring casts.  The illicit liquor was totally eradicated through persuasion.  He brought transparency in the village administration.  The first Gram Sabha was constituted as per the Act with full powers.  

Since he brought transparency in the administration, many of the contractors and the Government officials did not like his way of functioning.  On some flimsy grounds, he was suspended in 1998 by the then Collector.  As the  Collector read out the charges before the Gram Sabha, the entire village stood by Mr Elango, rejected the charges completely.  he was reinstated by the Government as the President.  After this incident, the Government realised his potential.

In 2000, for the first time in India, he built 50 twin houses in a single colony called ‘Samathuvapuram’ (Place for equality).  In every twin house, one dalit and one non dalit  lived.  This scheme was later adopted by the Tamilnadu Government and extended to the entire State. 

During the first five years, he made a lot of transformation in the village, including creating  opportunities for employment generation and education.  In  2001 Panchayat election, he was elected unopposed by the villagers. During his second term, he completed all the unfinished works and placed his village in the Indian map as a Model village.

He made the systems to work well and improved the economy of his village.  Now in 2006 and 2011 elections, he encouraged others to become the President.  Till date, his system continues.

Elango feels that though India has around 2.70 lakh Panchayats covering around 6 lakh villages, there are only 100 to 200 model villages like Kuthambakkam.  In order to train the Panchayat leaders to function properly, he started a ‘Panchayat Academy’.  Through this Academy, he has networked over 700 Panchayat Presidents.  By 2016, he wants to help 200 villages to become model villages and to train 1000 aspiring Panchayat leaders.  

Though people in and around his village respect him, he is not interested to join any political party and to contest for Assembly or Parliament elections.  “I will move only horizontally to develop villages”, says Elango proudly. 

Mr Elango can be reached at panchayat@yahoo.com

Source: August 2012 issue of National ezine PreSense

‘Mugavari’ Ramesh supports 150 students


After passing the graduation with a Gold Medal, Ramesh hailing from a poor family of Arathi Agraharam village of Salem District joined the articleship for Chartered Accountancy.  In 2002, when he admitted his elder sister for some serious illness at Chennai General Hospital, the indifferent and arrogant attitude of the doctors led to the death of his sister.  That incident sparked in his mind to get a few doctors from his village to serve the poor people with humaneness. 
When he returned to his village, one poor girl Kasthuri with high marks had secured admission in a medical college. As she did not have  enough money, she could not pursue her medical course.  Ramesh and his family members started collecting money from various sponsors and helped her to join and  complete the course.  After practising for two years, Kasthuri is now studying MS.

On hearing the news that Ramesh helped Kasturi, many other poor students with high marks started approaching him for support.  He got sponsorship from various donors.  In the process, he was under confusion whether to pursue his Chartered Accountancy or to help the poor students.  At the advice of another poor student Vetrivel, he chose to help the poor students for higher studies, sacrificing his Chartered Accountancy studies. Incidentally, Vetrivel is now an IAS aspirant.

The journey was tough.  He wanted to ensure all the poor students from his village got  higher education.  The financial support from Mr Saidai Duraiswamy (presently the Mayor of Chennai Corporation) and an industrialist Mr R Krishnamurthy (MD of Suryan Pharma) helped many poor students to pursue higher education in various institutions. Later many other sponsors also supported this initiative. 

Nearly 150 students are pursuing degree and post graduate courses in various professional and technical institutions.  A few of them are pursuing PhD also.  33 students are now preparing for IAS and other Civil Services.   Ramesh has arranged sponsorship for preparation of Civil Service Examinations too.  A month ago, one of the students, Bhoopathy Raja was  selected for Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and he will be joining  duty soon.

Ramesh  started Mugavari Foundation with some of his village friends as Trustees to take care of this activity. ‘Mugavari’ in Tamil means ‘address’.  Through this Foundation, Ramesh wants to give an identity to all poor students with higher Qualification.  Out of 150 students, 60 are from his small village.  The others are from the neighbouring villages.  

More than 30 male students are living under a single roof, the accommodation provided by Mayor Mr Saidai Duraiswamy.  All the beneficiary students have pledged to support poor students in the same way, after they get into employment.  “My aim is to make nearly 100 IAS and allied civil service officers, to serve the nation with commitment”, says Mr ‘Mugavari’ Ramesh with beaming confidence.  

and they can be reached through mail mugavariramesh@gmail.com 

Source: May 2012 issue of National Ezine PreSense

Dr Chandra Gupta has completed 600 plus free dental camps


Dr Chandra Gupta (35), when he was studying in a Dental College, Bangalore went to a tribal village for training.  As a student, he was pained to see how the poor people did not care for their dental hygiene.  That prompted him to spend the weekends with the school children promoting the dental hygiene, even after his setting up private practice.  He has also motivated some of his like minded doctors to do this service free of cost.

So far, he has conducted around 625 dental camps free of cost in various schools and colleges.  On an average, he conducts around 7 to 8 camps every month.  Till date, nearly 2 lakh people have been screened by him.  During the dental camps, he conducts a thorough dental screening, demonstrates correct brushing techniques, gives tips on dental hygiene.  If there are any sponsors, he also provides ‘dental health pack’. In these days, when many of the doctors want to spend every minute of their time for making money, Dr Gupta wants to spend his leisure time with the children.  While many NGOs and medical universities organise general health camps, dental camps are very rare.  

Dr Gupta can be reached at                     drguptadentalcare@yahoo.com 


J Prabhakar brought 700 plus small NGOs together


Mr J Prabhakar (58), an artist by profession started his social service by campaigning against the evils of ‘liquor’ in 1985.  He used to visit villages around Chennai then and campaign for values and ethics.  He even brought Anna Hazare in 1989 to some of the villages towards his mission.  At that time Anna Hazare was not popular in the nation and he was doing great service in the Ralegan Siddhi village at Maharashtra.     
One day in 2005, he got an idea of bringing together various unsung NGOs who were doing great service in various parts of Tamilnadu  under a single banner.  

On 2nd October 2005, he brought nearly 100 such small NGOs together under the banner ‘Ennangalin Sangamam’, meaning ‘Fusion of thoughts’. He also convenes a meeting of all the NGOs, every year on the first Sunday of  January.  Every year, he has been adding nearly 100 small NGOs in this movement.  So far, he has brought together more than 700 NGOs.

These NGOs are working in different areas like health, rural development, education, anti-liquor campaign, etc.  These NGOs are able to meet in small groups and get the support of each other.  Prabhakar also suggests suitable NGOs, if a particular donor wants to utilize his money for a specific cause. J Prabhakar can be reached at jp.sangamam@gmail.com 

source: www.prpoint.com/ezine/presense0612.pdf

Jagadeeswaran gave vision to 1000 blind persons

In 1985, While waiting in a saloon on a Sunday morning, Mr S B Jagadeeswaran of Coimbatore (now aged 58) was scanning the newspapers.  He was reading about  some of the Guinness  record achievers.  In the same page, he also read the story on the plight of blind people.  That triggered a spark in his mind and he realised the purpose of his life.   At He decided to help the blind people restore the vision and contribute  something for the benefit of the society.  From that day onwards, he started campaigning for ‘eye donation’.

Whenever he gets the information about the death of any person within  60 KM radius of Coimbatore, he rushes to the place immediately.  He talks to the important people in the family about the importance of ‘eye donation’.  In most of the cases, he convinces them and takes the permission to remove the eyes of the deceased person.

Immediately, he alerts the eye bank at Coimbatore and they remove the eyes of the deceased within six hours of the death.  Again, he visits the house on the 7th or 9th day as per their custom and hands over the certificate duly framed,  

Till date, he has managed to get 523 pairs of eyes from the deceased persons.  Because of this, 1046 blind persons have got the vision free of cost.  

It is not that every time, he gets the support of the family members of the deceased person.   He was also beaten up by some of the villagers and had to be hospitalized.  

On an average, he gets around 3 pairs of eyes every month.  He works as an ‘agent’ for a transport company.  With his meagre income, he also spends around Rs.750/- to Rs.1000/- every time, he visits the places whenever he hears about the death of any person.   Though all the service clubs honour  him, nobody supports him financially.  

Besides campaigning for eye donation, he also campaigns for ‘blood donation’.  So far, he has secured nearly 5000 units of blood.  He himself has donated blood 67 times.  His wife has also donated 30 times.  He loves the great leaders of India.  He has named one of his sons  ‘Subash Chandra Bose’ and next son  ‘Vivekananda’.

He can be reached at 9443263868 or through email anandh_vvv@yahoo.in 


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Deepali converted the challenges into opportunities to become Asian beauty queen

Deepali Phadnis, Mrs Asia International 2012
While everybody is holding a view that only slim girls can become ‘Beauty Queens’, Pune based Deepali Phadnis has proved otherwise.  A tall slim girl Deepali, right from school days, was nurturing the dream of becoming ‘Miss India’.   Being a girl from a middle class, she could not contest due to her priorities of education. 

To add to her woes, she met with an accident in 2006 resulting in ligament injury with four major fractures.  She was bed ridden for six months, which resulted in increase of 25 Kg to her weight.

She did not lose hope.  Her family members and her lover Devadatta Mahapatra encouraged her to reduce her weight to compete as a beauty queen.  It took nearly 4 years for her to shed this additional weight.  Meanwhile in 2009 she got married to Devadatta Mahapatra, who encouraged her to contest Mrs India title. 

In 2011, she won the Mrs India International - Chennai title and in 2012 she became Mrs Asia International.  Recently, in July 2012, she contested for Mrs International title, held at Chicago (US) which she lost marginally.  However she is hopeful of bagging Mrs International in 2013.

In an exclusive interview to PreSense, she said that beauty was not in glamour, but dependent on many aspects, including health, family values, etc. 
As Mrs Asia International title holder, she wants to campaign to create awareness about ‘Diabetes’, which is one of the dangerous diseases in India.  She says that she lost her father due to diabetes and her grand father’s legs were amputated because of this.  Though, she is required to campaign only for one year, she wants to continue for ever sincerely. 

Anna Hazare and Kiran Bedi have inspired her.  Sushmita Sen is her role model for beauty pageants.  She is working as a Software Engineer in a Multinational Company.  She is also a popular Oddisi dancer. 

“I want myself to be validated at International level.  I will brave all challenges to achieve”, concluded Mrs Deepali with beaming confidence.

She can be reached at sendyouremail2me@gmail.com  .

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Spare 2 hours a week for India 2020


Present trend

In our earlier mails to India Vision Group, we have been  writing about the large scale negative vibrations in  like cynicism, skepticism spreading among youth due to various factors. We also see many arm-chair suggestions and cynical comments through social media.  Such phenomenon  will set a dangerous trend and our youth may  lose confidence on the system itself.  They may also lose self-confidence and self-esteem. There are many good things happen around us silently.   But only bad things are highlighted as if it is the  way of life.  

Cynical and negative attitude spoils the health of the people.  All positive approach and positive vibrations make everybody happy and healthy. 

Wikipedia story

As you know wikipedia is a website that can be edited by anybody in the world.   Every one can edit/alter  the data or information in the articles.  But no vandalism happens. All of us look at Wikipedia for our reference with more credibility.  

A couple of years back, I met Mr Jimmy Wales, the Founder of Wikipedia.  I asked him one question.  "Now wikipedia  can be edited by anybody in the world, how is that the people do not vandalise the wikipedia to provide wrong information".  Immediately, he replied to me saying, "The world is full of good people. If somebody vandalises in one part of the world, another person in another part puts it right.   Wikipedia is the example of existence of good people".  That reply made me to think a lot.

Same way, lot of people do good job in India.  They do not make a noise. They do not get highlighted.  They keep the wheels of our nation moving.  They are the real UnSung Heroes.  

Success story of Dream India

After reading the book 'Wings of Fire' by Dr Abdul Kalam, Mr Natarajan, an engineering student few years back  thought, if people can spare 2 hours a week (even if they are employed), they can make a great change.  He immediately formed a group with his friends and named this group as 'Dream India' on this basis.    Now around 600    professionals are part  of this group from across the nation.  They spare few hours during the week ends in various social activities physically.  They make a large difference.  Dream India is one of the partner organisations of Action 2020 and they are also members of this group. 

Concept of 'spare 2 hours a week'

Taking cue from the experience of Dream India, we thought, why not we gather the information of the people who are willing to offer 2 hours per week for the society.  That means 2 hours out of 168 hours in a week.  In other words nearly 100 quality hours in a year, out of 8760 hours.  Please imagine, how much of quality hours, we would have spent to make our nation great.  

This 2 hours can be spent in an useful manner as decided by the concerned volunteer or his own team.  There is no compulsion.   We want to publish such success stories in the India vision group and also in the ezine in future. 

What members can do?

Those members, who are willing to 'spare 2 hours a week', may kindly share their details with us through the following link. Some people may be doing on their own either singly or jointly with others.  We request them also to share their details.


Ms Bhanu Gomes, one of the active members of Action 2020 has kindly volunteered to be the coordinator for this movement.  Mr Aum Murugan, Convenor of Action 2020 will  guide her.  It is a joint movement.  There is n
o hierarchy.  Like minded people can be of support to each other. 

There is no age limit for joining  this movement.  Every one of us are capable of contributing something to this nation in our own humble way.  Full time NGOs and full time social workers need not give the details.  

This is meant only for the employed people, students, house wives, retired people, who are willing to spare two hours a week.  

Imagine a situation, if 1000 people spare two hours a week individually, what an amount of constructive work that we will be doing for the growth of our nation.  Please also imagine, how much of productive hours, we waste in different ways.  We can carve out two hours from the wasted hours and spend more usefully. 

Interested persons, who willing to be part of this movement, may kindly share their details before 20th May 2012.  The coordinators will get in touch with you directly.  

Pl go to the link for registering your willingness.   You can also give your ideas to improve further through this form itself.  


Please also share this link with like minded people.  

Monday, April 16, 2012

Four MPs honoured with 'Sansad Ratna Award 2012'

Prime Point Foundation, Chennai every year honours the top performing Parliamentarians during April / May for their performance till the end of Part I of Budget Session of that year.  

3rd Annual Awards function was held at Indian Institute of Technology-Madras on Saturday the 14th April 2012, to honour the following four MPs with 'Sansad Ratna Award'. Details of the individual performance is given in our earlier posting.

1.  Mr Anandrao Vithoba Adsul, Shiv Sena MP from Amravati, Maharashtra 

2. Mr Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, BJP MP from Chandrapur, Maharastra

3. Mr S S Ramasubbu, Cong MP from Tirunelveli, Tamilnadu


Mr Gopalkrishna Gandhi presents the award to Mr S S Ramasubbu MP. K. Srinivasan (left), Mr Era Sezhiyan (centre) and Dr Bhaskar Ramamurthy (right) looking on
4.  Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal, BJP MP from Bikaner, Rajasthan


Mr Gopalkrishna Gandhi presents the award to Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal MP. K. Srinivasan (left), Mr Era Sezhiyan (centre) and Dr Bhaskar Ramamurthy (right) looking on
The Sansad Ratna Awards-2012 were presented by Mr Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Former Governor of West Bengal (grand son of Mahatma Gandhi), in the presence of Mr Era Sezhiyan, veteran Parliamentarian and Dr Bhaskar Ramamurthy, Director of IIT-M.


Mr Anandrao Adsul and Mr Hansraj Gangaram Ahir could not be physically be present to receive the Awards.  However they interacted with the audience through 'mobile' from their place.


Dr APJ Abdul Kalam had given an exclusive message for this function, which was recorded on 10th April 2012.  This video was screened for the benefit of the audience.  In his message, Dr Abdul Kalam suggested the politicians to become 'role models' by undertaking 'inspiring action'.  He said, that would further inspire the youth to take up politics and governance.  His message is separately published in the next posting.

After presenting the Awards, Mr Gopalkrishna Gandhi , in his inspiring and poetic speech, appealed to every one not to slander the Parliament.  He said, it would amount to slandering ourselves.  He also quoted that there were various acts enacted by the Parliament to prevent dowry, untouchability, etc.  Still, the society violated such acts and followed their own practises.   His inspiring speech and the full text is published separately.  

A National Seminar on 'Youth in Politics and Governance - Challenges and Opportunities' was held earlier with Mr S S Ramasubbu MP, Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal MP and Mr R Bhagwan Singh, Executive Editor of Deccan Chronicle as panelists.  This panel discussed encouraged the educated and service minded youth to enter into politics to take forward the wheels of the nation.  

There was another panel discussion in the evening to discuss the 'Role of Civil Society'. Ms Jothimani (Cong), Ms Vanati Srinivasan (BJP), Ms Revathy (CPM), Ms Ajitha Karthikeyan (Political journalist) and Ms Bhavana Upadyaya (Social activist) as panelists.  This panel discussed the various issues that are preventing the youth to enter into politics.

The purpose of this seminar is to discourage the 'cynical' attitude of the society against 'politics as an institution' and to  applaud good politicians, who are running the country.   

Please see the photo stream.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Dr Y S Rajan honoured with Padma Sri Award

Dr Y S Rajan receiving Padma Sri Award
Dr Y S Rajan, co-author of the book 'India 2020' along with Dr Abdul Kalam was honoured by Indian President Her Excellency Pratibha Patil on 4th April 2012 at Rashtrapathi Bhavan with Padmasri Award.  

Dr Rajan has authored several books.  He is now the Honorary Distinguished Professor at ISRO, Bangalore.  He is one of the well known scientists, who has closely worked with Dr Abdul Kalam.

The Citation of the Award is given below:


YAGNASWAMI  SUNDARA  RAJAN

Yagnaswami Sundara Rajan is currently Honorary Distinguished Professor in Department of Space (DOS), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He has made major contributions to various aspects of management of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) over the past four decades.  

2. His contribution in areas like STI administration, institution building, diplomacy, strategic studies, environmental technologies and natural resources management has been widely recognized. Y.S.Rajan is a powerful communicator, both oratorical and written. He interacts with students and youth all over India to help them orient towards the new processes of an STI based economy. He has authored several books of prose and poetry. He  has equal felicity in English and Tamil.

3. Born on April 10, 1943, Y.S. Rajan received his Masters degree in Physics from the University of Bombay in 1964.  He joined the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad as a Research Scholar to work with Dr. Vikram Sarabhai’s team.    Beginning as a developmental engineer, he went on to hold several important positions in ISRO/DOS, Scientific Secretary, ISRO being one of them.   His strategic inputs to Prof. Satish Dhawan, the then Chairman, ISRO, integrating different perspectives from the internal and external systems that ISRO had to deal with, were strategic to the overall management and in giving direction to the nascent space programme of the seventies and eighties.  He was thus, a key figure who played a very important role in the emergence of ISRO as a major space power.  His work at ISRO was recognised internationally and he was elected as Member of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) (1986), among the first few Indians then.  Recently as Chief Mentor ISRO Strategy Group, he was instrumental in bringing out a unique report (2011) for taking ISRO into the future. 

4. At the peak of his career in ISRO, Y.S. Rajan made a shift in his career and began addressing various national issues and problems.    He was the first Executive Director (ED) of newly created Technology Information and Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), since (1988-2002).    Rajan not only transferred best practices and knowledge from the space system but also pioneered new approaches to deal with the even more complex problems facing India for which  technology could offer solutions.  His role at TIFAC in the production of the Vision 2020 documents set a new trend in the country.  These and a number of other  initiatives taken by him at TIFAC in areas such as Intellectual Property Rights, Home Grown Technologies, Technology Missions and support for Indian entrepreneurships, represented new ways to deal with the many problems Indian society faced.  TIFAC became world renown.  

5. The popular and path breaking book, India Vision 2020 by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam with Y.S.Rajan is the outcome of his work at TIFAC.  His work at TIFAC and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) created technology consciousness in Indian Industry and to bring technology to their forefront of priorities as well as to show them how to pursue technology for business success.  His footprints in multidisciplinary applications of science and engineering can be seen in many parts of India, be it Mobile Diagnostic Clinic at Uttarakhand, TIFAC-Centers of Relevance and Excellence (CORE’s) at hitherto left out institutions, with farmers in Bihar, the early work for the Nalanda University, earth quake shelters in Gujarat, animal husbandry, composites materials or sugar technology, to name a few among the many.

6. As a Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Technical University (PTU) and Scientific Adviser, to Punjab Chief Minister, a position equivalent in rank to a Minister of State (2002-2004), he initiated a number of new institutional innovations which have now borne fruit.   The awards and distinctions he has received include Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (1998);  Fellow of World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS) (2010); Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) from Jain Vishva Bharati University, Ladnun, Rajasthan (2005) in appreciation of his belief in and hope for human life, values and potential and his own creative contribution towards its evolution. 



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