Bhagidari

Any institution is made up of the people and students, being primary stakeholders in the University system, have major role to play in various ways. I thought it a good idea to get comprehensive information on the working of the Students’ Union. If the facilities in the University are in poor condition even with presence of an elected Students' body and we are not being provided what we are entitled to as students, we have a right to know “why”….

Hence, this RTI application- a small step towards Governance and Participation…. :)

RTI Application can be accessed from here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_egOJutqRlLNWpaOXhVeDVJT3c/edit?usp=sharing

Bhagidari :)

Natural Rocks formation at the UoH Campus

University of Hyderabad (UoH), is one of the premier institutions of higher learning in India. Based upon various parameters many agencies have been ranking the UoH among top ten institutions in the country in recent years. Like many others, I too love this place very much because of my long association with this place and most importantly, the excellent platform I got here to explore my inner strengths, to do a lot of experiments with real life situations, to learn new things and to unlearn many other things. I’ve got wonderful lifetime friends and mentors during my stay at the UoH and feel very happy about this. One can’t say enough about the green coverage, the water bodies, the natural rocks and the biodiversity at the UoH that enriches the students’ stay here and everyone falls in love with this unique feature of the campus in no time; this aspect can’t be explained adequately in words, it needs to be experienced! :)

Well! With this background, when I look at state of affairs around, I do find a mismatch between desired level and actual situation in terms of governance, provision and management of utility services and stakeholders’ participation in decision making. Let’s get a glimpse of few most visible issues:

My RTI Success Story

The University Grants Commission (UGC) conducts the National Eligibility Test (NET) for award of lectureship eligibility and Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) where lakhs of candidates appear every time. I had appeared for the UGC NET in June 2012. The examination was objective type and the OMR response sheets were attached with carbon copies that candidates were allowed to take with them after the test for their reference. UGC NET June 2012 result was notified in September 2012 and my roll number didn’t appear in the list of successful candidates. However, when I tallied my responses from the carbon copy of the OMR sheets with the updated answer keys provided on the UGC NET website, I discovered that although my score was more than the qualifying criteria, I was not declared qualified. Immediately, I brought this to the notice of concerned officials at the UGC and I was advised to check my marks on the website after some days. Once candidates’ marks were updated on the website, I checked it again and found that my marks were underreported and it was below the qualifying marks.

Underreported Marks Sheet at the UGC NET website
Click on image for larger view

Centrality of Meaningful Public dialogue in Democracy

Prof. Amartya Sen receives honoris causa and also delivers the first Hyderabad Lecture at UoH

The University of Hyderabad (UoH) conferred the honoris causa to Prof. Amartya Sen, the renowned Economist and Bharat Ratna awardee on 19 December 2013 at a glittering function organized on the University campus. Prof. C H Hanumantha Rao, Chancellor, UoH presented the doctorate degree to Prof. Sen at the packed DST auditorium consisting of guests from the city, UoH community.

After the investiture ceremony, Prof. Ramakrishna Ramaswamy, Vice-Chancellor, UoH gave an introduction to the Hyderabad Lecture Series. The Hyderabad Lecture Series has been initiated with support from an endowment instituted at University of Hyderabad by Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA). The Lecture Series hopes to be an important series of lecture to contribute to the intellectual capacity of the Hyderabad city on issues of contemporary interest.

The Lectures will be organized at various public institutions in the twin cities. The Vice-Chancellor expressed his sincere thanks to IRDA for this kind gesture. He also expressed his gratitude to Prof. Sen to accept the invitation to deliver the first Hyderabad Lecture.

Prof. G. Nancharaiah, Dean, School of Economics presented a glimpse of important contributions of Prof. Sen especially in the area of economics.

In his lecture, Prof. Amartya Sen emphasized the importance of dialogue as a solution to deal with day-to-day issues in public and social life. He gave the example of Coffee House set up where people get a chance to share their mind on issues and subjects that can’t be discussed in formal settings like classrooms. These kind of informal settings are extremely important to discuss about neglected issues and to bring about the change through democratic means of discussion, voting etc.  Students have obvious reasons to discuss about many things and these informal discussion set-ups are necessary to facilitate this very important activity, he added.

Cubic Mile of Oil: Realities and Options for Averting the Global Energy Crisis

Dr. Ripudaman Malhotra at the UoH

Dr. Ripudaman Malhotra, Associate Director, Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, SRI International, San Francisco Bay Area, USA delivered a Guest Lecture titled “A Cubic Mile of Oil: Realities and Options for Averting the Global Energy Crisis” at Sir C. V. Raman Auditorium, University of Hyderabad on Nov. 05, 2013.

The talk aimed at exploring issues concerning energy and sustainability. The debate about energy supply has often been portrayed as a tension between the moral imperative of protecting the environment or preserving the economic interests of the energy industry. This simplistic view misses the larger challenge that we face in balancing the tension between protecting the environment and the moral imperative of improving the lives of people around the earth.

We had energy crisis in past such as the one in 1917 in US. Crisis brings with it precious opportunity to learn useful things but, unfortunately the humankind has wasted many such avenues that could have resulted in addressing some of the key energy questions effectively.

Account of My First Phase Stay (2006-11) at the University of Hyderabad

Receiving Achievers Award from Dr. Y. V. Reddy, the Former RBI Governor in presence of Prof. Seyed E. Hasnain, Former VC, UoH and Prof. V. Kannan, Former Pro-VC, UoH

I’m from Rosera town in Bihar. My stay at the University of Hyderabad while pursuing my Integrated Masters Programme has been a journey to discover myself. By the time my name was shortlisted for admission interview for the Integrated Masters Programme at the UoH, I was already admitted to an engineering college at Kolkata in IT stream and my visit to Hyderabad was more to see the city than to attend my interview.

But, when I interacted with the interview board at the UoH, I got highly impressed by the infrastructure, teachers, and the course plan itself. Everyone falls in love with the natural beauty of the campus and I was no exception too. When I finally got admission in Integrated Masters Programme in Mathematical Sciences here, many people didn’t find it rational on my part to leave an engineering course in IT and join the first batch of 5-year Integrated Masters Programme in Basic Sciences at the UoH. Although, I was also not completely sure in the beginning if it was a wise decision but, very soon I was able to substantiate and justify my decision.

In initial first two years, we had courses from various streams of basic sciences, humanities and social sciences with good level of flexibility to choose courses of choice with excellent supporting infrastructure and faculty support. The course has the flexibility to completely shift to other discipline after 2 years, subject to fulfilment of curtain criteria and it’s very unique in the country. I did some courses in Economics and discovered my high interest in that discipline. After 2 years, I was allowed to shift from Mathematical Sciences to Economics; I got my final masters degree in Economics.

The Constitutional Vision of Education vs Neo-liberal Assault on India

Prof. Anil Sadgopal with Prof. Ramakrishna Ramaswamy (VC, UoH)

Prof. Anil Sadgopal delivered the Alladi Memorial Lecture at the University of Hyderabad on October 11, 2013. Prof. Sadgopal is a member of the All India Forum for Right to Education and Former Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Delhi. The topic of his talk was “The Constitutional Vision of Education vs Neo-liberal Assault on India”. The Alladi Memorial Lecture is organized in collaboration with the Alladi Memorial Trust and the Centre for Human Rights, University of Hyderabad.

Prof. G. Hargopal introduced the speaker as a very important personality in taking forward the movement to ensure quality education for all and described him as a person with very rare combination of philosophical disposition and conviction for great social change.

Prof. Sadgopal started his lecture with presenting his experience in his last engagement with the Govt. on preparing the Right to Education Bill. He submitted that the Govt. had not been willing to discuss about private schools on the ground that they don’t get any grants from the Govt. He rejects this proposition and argues that the Govt. does monitor liquor shops, taxi and auto-rikshaws and other many such entities even though they are not funded by the Govt as that is concerned with citizen’s welfare. He maintained that in his 10 months engagement during this period, the Govt. didn’t take any of his points. According to him, Right to Education (RTE) act in its current form doesn’t stand for enabling people to claim their constitutional entitlements but it is more to satisfy neo-liberal attacks on the country.

Mesmerising Hindustani Vocal concert by Su. Ranjani Ramachandran

Su. Ranjani Ramachandran at the UoH

The University of Hyderabad (UoH) witnessed a mesmerising Hindustani Vocal concert by Ranjani Ramachandran. The concert was organised on 23rd September 2013 under the aegis of the UoH Campus Concert Series in collaboration with the city based organisation “Riwaayat”.

Dr. D. Balasubramanian, Padma Shree awardee and Founder Trustee, Riwaayat gave a brief introduction of the objectives behind promoting Classical Music Traditions of India with the aim to create increased awareness and foster a generation of classical music aficionados and to nurture and nourish young musical talents.

Ranjani started the concert with Raga Shree (Vilambit Khayal in Jhoomra), Wari Jaun Re (Drut Khayal in Teentala), Chalo Re Mai Ramsiya (Drut Khayal in Ektala). This was followed by Raga Bihagada, Kabir Das Jee’s Bhajan (Ramaiya ki Dulhan) and Miya Malhar (Drut Khayal in Teentala) Gahar Aayo Re Badarva. She was accompanied by Shri Javed on Tabla and Shri Surendra Bharati on the Harmonium.