Anti Ragging Regulations - Boons and Banes

Anti Ragging! The new agenda before educational institutions and the governing bodies for a noble cause. The issue became so serious after the death of Kachru, a first year student. The same intensity is followed up in Tamil Nadu also.

Anti Ragging act should be passed both in State and Central Government levels to the maximum possible extent so that no more crime happen. It is a boon for innocent junior students, which enables them to lead a peaceful life in college and hostels.

In the mean time there are some possible drawbacks which are to be considered to save the innocents who are being caught convicted for ragging. Like all the other rules in the constitution, this rule should not be like "Whatever the junior says is right and what the senior says is wrong".

Current situation is like that. Recently my friend was convicted for ragging. He works as a part time employee in a BPO, which is termed to be one of the best BPO in the world. The case was like the first year guy was ragged during night. This guy goes to office only during night shifts. But this fellow was blindly convicted.

Gods grace! he got releived as he had all the proof to state that he is not in the accused row. Solutions need to be given to prevent this type of misconceptions. So a clear enquiry may be conducted so that the charges are clear and to conduct identity parade. Based on the victimized first year student's identification, accused may be punished.

This has to be done compulsorily because, most of the senior students wont be familiar among the first year student. They are forced to point out the offenders blindly. Video conference system can be introduced so that the victims can poit out the offenders without revealing their identity.

I will be the happiest person if the real accused is punished in this case. But not even a single innocent should be punished. In tamil there is a proverb,

ஆயிரம் குற்றவாளிகள் தப்பிக்கலாம் ஆனால் ஒரு நிரபராதி தண்டிக்கபடகூடாது.

MTC A/c Bus - Is it the right one?

Metropolitan Transport Corporation introduced A/c buses in 2008. They are running along the length and breadth of Chennai. Cost is high but facility and pleasure is good enough.

MTC A/C Bus

My discussion is whether it is good enough for reaching places in right time? Its certainly not is my opinion. Higher the cost, faster should we need to reach the destination.

These A/c buses are stopping at stop where the "white board" buses stop. For the reason of less number of passenger usage, A/c bus conductors are stopping at these stops.

As they are stopping at all the stops, its inconvenient for the passengers to reach the destination by right time. So the Metropolitan Transport Corporation officials and managing authorities are in need to regulate properly in such a way that these luxury buses stop only at selective stops and reach destination in time.

IBM Developer Works - Leveraging the power of Smart SOA

Hello All,

In this post, I am about to give a brief summary on the event Leveraging the power of Smart SOA - An Initiative of IBM Developer Works. This time it was conducted on March 12th, 2009 and the venue was also different. It was Image Auditorium, MRC Nagar, RA Puram, Chennai - 600028. As Usual I registered for the event and this time I could see only few of the members of the last developer works meet and others are different. As my professor was not able attend, I felt a bit lonely. But Thank God! Hareeshram Chanchali, my friend from TCS (Previous meet attendee and we became friends since then) came and I got a good company.

Unlike last meet this event had lot more give-aways. Sessions were conducted on the themes of Entry Points through Reuse and Connectivity, Web2.0, Cloud Computing, Managing Business Process as Entry Point to SOA, Learn. Share. Connect etc. Speakers included the core assets of IBM like Naren Krishnan, Ram Vignesh, Vignesh VR, Himanshu Goyal etc.

This event was registered by a count of around 800 but witnessed only by a count of 300 plus. I could figure out why this much attendees. Only reason is, its on thursday! Many IT professionals find hard to take Casual Leave. As I was free on that day for my academic project, I was able to come. Hospitality was improved a lot and the receptionists astonished the attendees with good hospitality.

I should not forget to mention about the food and tea provided. A wide variety of food! I had a nice lunch, which challenged me that I will fight with sleep in the afternoon sessions. LOL!

But Afternoon sessions were less technical and enjoyable. JAM was conducted on the theme "What the corporates would have done in this economic recession". Prize was a watch. Unlike last time, we had Unconference, a presentation event where the attendees select their own topic and to present. Laptops were provided to the participants inorder to prepare the powerpoint presentations. Including me, six participants came out with presentations. As a token of appreciation, we were given a Laptop bag. Goodies were given to the participants for their active participation and best interactions. For unconference, Apple i pod was the prize. This time an entrepreuner, Mr.Sridhar of i-link System Solutions won the cake.

This event as per IBM's perspective may be to inculcate and propagate the culture of SOA. But I and other IT professionals found it as a nice time for a gathering and to get in touch with many. I thank Ms. Bharati Muthu, for providing such a nice initiative and appreciate her for organising it in such a way that time was properly managed.

Like last time this event was witnessed by participants of all age groups participated. As usual I was the youngest participant and the seniormost was Dr. H.V. Ramakrishnan, Additional Rector, Dr. MGR University.

Last but not the least, I would like to mention about the IBM Green initiative. Money plants were displayed with the theme of "Nurture yourself with developerWorks". Its really appreciatable initiative of IBM towards Green Computing.

The event came to an end in the evening. An this is not an end for the initiative. Its just a beginning and IBM has to conduct more events like this to propagate the new technologies.

Summer Semester

Start of March - Start of Summer for Chennai. Watermelon vendors, buttermilk shops, juice shops etc etc has indicated the start of summer in Chennai. The worst ever season I have ever seen in Chennai. Usually even semester comes in summer. I had dreams like, I am in final semester, so I can finish my exams soon and escape this soon. But Lok sabha elections destroyed all my plans. I am proud Indian for having 0% attendance in elections. This politicians and election commision should have planned the so called election in June. For the sake of the politicians, things are happening. Students are of no use for Election Commision - I guess.

Longing Universities of US

Today I got to attend a meeting conducted in Hindustan University by the officials of Wayne State University. Two officials came and started their long lecture with a video presentation. After creating an image of their own, they came to the finance slide. Their estimate was like pain on the neck. After their lecture, they called for queries. I asked two questions to that US professor. "Sir, I have two questions. Your president has restricted the issue of H1B Visa to foreigners. On what basis or assurance can I come to your nation and finish the course? Second question is In what ways Indian students are getting teaching assistance and Research assistance". That professor answered me as follows : "I couldn't assure you to get job in US and H1B Visa. Secondly asistance is given only for PhD students and not for PG students". From his answers, I came to a conclusion that, these universities abroad are looking only on the money and not the service. They want to gain foreign exchange from India and to retrieve US from economic slowdown. Its better not to join any of these universities abroad.

CII iTalent 2008 - 09

Recently I was honoured for my project titled "Object Recognition of Image Sets Using Discriminative Canonical Correlations". My project got selected as one among top 30 in South India by CII. The initiative was to identify and showcase the talent of IT students. In this blog post, I am gonna narrate my experiences and exposures. The event was scheduled to be conducted on 27-28 Feb, 2009 at SRM University.

Day 1: Feb 27, 2009

I reached SRM University by 8:30 AM. Registration was over by 9:45 and the innaugural session started. Mr. N. Vittal IAS was the chief guest. After that a general aptitude test was conducted to assess the analytical ability of the candidates. This test was conducted by Merit Trac. Then the project presentation sessions started after the break. Dr. T V Gopal, professor/CSE, Anna University; Mr. Arunkumar Kalyanaraman, General Manager, Covansys; Mr. Ramesh Gopalaswamy, Independent Consultant were the esteemed judges. Dr. T V Gopal was more agressive and attacked the participants with ridiculous and at the same time mind revoking questions. He also gave suggestions to the students on how to improve their project. It was a nice experience to have a challenging judge to face. My presentation was scheduled for the second day. Though I enjoyed the whole day. In between HR PANEL was conducted on the theme "Importance of Ethics to be a Successful Organisation". Mr. Sanmitra Trivedi, Head - Human Resources, Verizon Data Services India Pvt Ltd and Mr. K. Ravi Sankar, General Manager & Regional Business Head, Wipro Infotech were the panelists and they answered various queries from the students. At the end of the day 1, IT QUIZ was conducted by Mr. Sumanth C Raman, Health Advisor, TCS. Mr. Sumanth C Raman is an eminent compere of Doordarshan Kendra, Chennai and he is famous for the tamil version of Extra innings and BSNL sports quiz.

Day 2: Feb 28, 2009

Day 2 was as energetic as Day 1. Project presentations were going on. I presented my projectthat day and got minimal questions and many good suggestions from Dr. T V Gopal. In between two panel discussions were conducted. First came the NEXT PRACTICES. In this session, Mr. R. Panchavarnam, Past Chairman, Panruti Municipality presented on eGovernance and how he computerized the Panruti Municipality office as a Chairman from 1996 to 2006. Then Mr. A Srinivasan, VP, TCS; presented on knowledge management and how it is implemented in TCS. Then came the CEO PANEL on the theme "Challenges in the Times of Economic Slowdown". Mr. Ranjit Pisharoty, Senior VP, Sutherland; Mr. G. Ramasubramaniam, Account Executive, IBM India; Mr. M R Sunderesan, Operations Director, Dell India. They answered very patiently to the queries from the students and also gave tips on how to groom themselves to get into software industry in this economic slow down. Ultimately came the valedictory session. Time to say Good bye! Mr. Ravi J Shah, VP, TCS; Dr. R. Mahadevan, Chairman, Education SC, CII-SR; Dr. Santhosh Babu IAS, MD, ELCOT; Mr. Sethuram, Registrar, SRM University and Mr. G. Kameshwar, Principal Consultant, TCS; were the dignitories on the dias. Prizes were distributed and the session ended with keynotes from chief guests.