IIT – Kanpur is playing host to the Inter-IIT Sports Meet in the 50th year of its exsistance. Everything is special about this event as I traveled on the request of the institute to officiate Squash Rackets which is being once again only being played as a demo-sport.

The setting inside the sprawling campus was amazing and may not have been possible without the term break. With additional 1800 students and close to 200 officials – the break just provided the right opportunity for the program to be run.

There is this never ending buzz around everywhere and for all of us senior it is only bringing vealive old memories of times spent in school and colleges at similar events.

The planning and organisation was impecable with four IIT messes catering to the meals for all the visitors. Besides these official dinning areas there were the regular messes in the 10 hostels that usually house close to 5500 students.

To begin with the event was to be played between six teams which had been divided into two sperate pools. However, just on the eve of the commencement of the Squash event another institute, IIT Kharagpur expressing their desire to participate in the event taking the total number to 7 teams. The teams were divided as follows:

Pool – A                                                Pool – B

IIT B0mbay                                     IIT Roorkee

IIT Guwahati                                            IIT Delhi

IIT Madras                                         IIT Kanpur

                                                          IIT  Kharagpur

Day 1 – December 12th, 2009

• IIT Bombay played IIT Guwahati – under dogs Guwahati put up a great show on day one and lost an extremely well contested match 3-0. The final score really no reflection on Guwhati’s performance.
  • Bombay No 1 seed beat Guwhati No. 1 seed 3/11, 11/7. 5/11, 11/8 & 11/9
  • Guwhati’s No. 2 seed despite being 2-0 up failed to keep the pressure and lost to Mumbai No. 2 seed 14/12, 11/8, 2/11, 3/11 & 8/11
  • Bombay No. 3 seed took very little time to defeat his Guwhati counterpart in a best of 3 match 11/2 & 11/3
• IIT Delhi played the second match of the day against IIT Roorkee.  Even though IIT Delhi finally won easy IIT Roorkee No. 1 seed did put up a great fight against his counter part from Delhi. The scores were as under:
  • Roorkee No. 1 seed lost to Delhi No. 1 seed – 12/14, 11/13, 11/7 & 12/10. One match where 3 out of the four games could have gone anyway.  But Delhi prevailed.
  • Delhi No. 2 seed beat Roorkee No. 2 quiet easily in straight three games – 11/3, 11/4 & 11/3
  • Where as Roorkee took consolation when their No 3 seed beat Delhi 14/12 and 11/8.
• In the last match of the day host Kanpur beat IIT Kharakpur. With scores as under;
  • Seed No. 1 from Kanpur beat Seed No. 1 from Kharagpur 12/10, 14/12 & 11/6
  • No. 2 Seed from Kharagpur beat Kanpur No. 2 seed 4/11, 11/9, 6/11, 11/9 & 14/12
  • In the decided though Kanpur No.3 seed beat counterpart from Kharagpur 11/7, 11/6, 9/11 & 12/10

Day 2 – December 13th, 2009

• IIT Bombay took on IIT Madras on day two. For the benefit of all our readers – I mention that IIT Madras has no courts and the players in the team were basically drawn from other sports like Badminton and Lawn Tennis.

• The scores were as under:
  • Bomaby No. 1 seed took on Madras No. 1 seed and beat him comfortably 11/3, 11/1 & 11/4  
  • Bombay No. 2 seed beat the Madras No. 2 seed and 11/3, 11/4, & 11/3
  • Madras No. 3 lost to Bombay No. 3 seed  11/5, 11/5, & 11/1.

• IIT Kanpur started their campaign with a bang their top seed beating his counterpart from Roorkee 3-2. However, the other Kanpur players could not capitalize.

• The scores were;
  • No. 1 Seed from Kanpur beat his Roorkee counterpart in a long five setter. 15/17, 11/9, 6/11, 11/8 & 12/10.
  • No.2 Seed from Kanpur lost to Roorkee counterpart 11/3, 11/3 & 11/2.
  • No. 3 seed from Roorkee beat Kanpur No. 3 seed 11/8, 13/11 & 11/6.

• The final match of the day saw IIT  Delhi play IIT Kharagkpur. It turned out to be a relatively easy win for the Delhi boys who are looking at topping their pool.

•  The scores were as under;
  • Seed No. 1 from Delhi beat Khragpur No. 1 seed 11/2.11/4 & 11/4
  • Seed No. 2 from Kharagpur lost to Delhi No. 2 seed 3/11, 1/11 & 4/11
  • Delhi seed No. 3 beat Kharagpur counterpart 11/1, 11/4 & 11/4

Day 3 – December 14th, 2009

• Guwhati played Madras and Madras’s lack of exposure to the game was very visible. IIT Guwhati easily won with the following scores:

•  
  • Seed No. 1 of Guwhati beat counterpart from Madras 11/5, 11/4 & 11/6
  • Seed No. 2 from Madras lost to No. 2 from Guwhati 5/11, 2/11, & 7/11.
  • Seed No. 3 from Guwahati beat his  Madras counter part 11/2, 11/5 11/3.

• IIT Delhi played IIT Kanpur in the second match of the day and comfortably won 3 - 0.

• The detailed scores are as under;
  • Delhi Seed No. 1 beat Kanpur counterpart 11/4, 11/9 & 11/9
  • Delhi No. 2 seed beat Kanpur No. 2 seed – 11/0, 11/1 and 11/1
  • Delhi No. 3 seed beat Kanpur No. 3 – 11/1, 11/7 & 11/9

• IIT Roorkee and IIT Kharagpur played the last pool match on day three. Roorkee beat Kharagpur comfortably 3-0.

• The details are as below;
  • No. 1 seed Roorkee beat Kharagpur No. 1 – 11/4, 11/2 & 11/1
  • No. 2 seed Roorkee beat Kharagpur No. 2 – 11/6, 8/11, 6/11, 11/2 & 11/6
  • No. 3 seed Roorkee beat kharagpur No. 3 - 11/7, 13/11 & 11/0

Final Point Table for both Pools.

Pool – A

 IIT B                           2 m                             2 w                       0 l                        4 points

IIT G                          2 m                              1 w                       1 l                         2 points

IIT M                         2 m                             0 w                       2 l                         0 points

Pool – B

IIT D                        3 m                                3 w                      0 l                       6 points

IIT R                        3 m                                2 w                      1 l                        4 points

IIT K                        3 m                               1 w                        2 l                       2 points

IIT KGP                  3 m                               0 w                       3 l                       0 points

Semi Final Line – up

• IIT Bombay (Pool A – 1st) to play IIT Roorkee  (Pool B – 2nd)
• IIT Delhi  (Pool B – 1st) to play IIT Guwahati (Pool A – 2nd)
  

For the next three days, YOU can virtually attend a conference on Water Harvesting, Storage, and Conservation (WHSC) by reading and commenting on blog posts and tweets posted in real-time by Praveena Sridhar on the India Water Portal here.

The conference, at the Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, India, will focus on the technology, policy, and implementation of solutions to some of the world’s most pressing water problems. Some topics of discussion will include:

• National policy support for planning by basin.
• Water harvesting for agriculture.
• Storm water management.
• Participatory water management.
• Water conflict and management.
• Groundwater recharge and remediation.

“WHSC-2009 invites delegates and experts working in the area of water harvesting, storage and conservation from global institutes and industries to participate in this event. The conference aims at the synergy between Academics, Researchers, Industrialists, Policy-makers and Implementers.”

Enjoy!

IIT Kanpur Techkriti'10

Techkriti has always been synonymous with excellence. Graced with the presence of “Nobel” minds, inspiring inventors and young mettle competing to dazzle, Techkriti has been the stuff that dreams are made of. This year we go a step further and combine a flavor of business with the festival. We strive to have a fine balance between the world of science and the real world where we live our day-in day-out lives. Techkriti is about ideas that inspire. For those who wish to know of what use is a new idea, Faraday’s answer is most apt – “Of what use is an unborn baby?” Techkriti is about attenuating surly bonds of our mundane existence and going a step further.

for further details regarding –

Software Competitions

Presentation

Workshops

Exhibitions

go visit official website  : http://www.techkriti.org/

IIT Kanpur Techkriti'10

Techkriti has always been synonymous with excellence. Graced with the presence of “Nobel” minds, inspiring inventors and young mettle competing to dazzle, Techkriti has been the stuff that dreams are made of. This year we go a step further and combine a flavor of business with the festival. We strive to have a fine balance between the world of science and the real world where we live our day-in day-out lives. Techkriti is about ideas that inspire. For those who wish to know of what use is a new idea, Faraday’s answer is most apt – “Of what use is an unborn baby?” Techkriti is about attenuating surly bonds of our mundane existence and going a step further.

for further details regarding –

Software Competitions

Presentation

Workshops

Exhibitions

go visit official website  : http://www.techkriti.org/

Synchronicty is three days (from the 22nd to the 25th of October) and over 15 hours of rock that will get your adrenalin flowing, your pulse racing and make your head explode. A Metal-heads’ Mecca, Floydians’ bliss, Ed-heads’ cloud nine; Synchronicity is all that and more. It has been a launchpad for some of India’s top rock acts, and has previously been headlined by bands like Poets of the Fall and Glyder. This year, the festival will be headlined by Irish rock sensation Jaded Sun, who have been heralded as “the new messiahs of rock n’ roll”. If you’re a rock enthusiast, you can’t afford to miss Synchronicity.

Rules:

It was July 14, 2008, “D-Day” I joined Adobe as a Member of Technical Staff. A wonderful experience with lot of learning and full of fun. Faced challenges of professional life (more of a phobia at college, I must say now) and made good friends personally as well.

It was, sometime around in my 5th semester, when I encountered the toughest question: “What to do after IIT Kanpur?” and the options then were:

• Core Job
• Research (MS & PhD)
• Core Study ie MS
• MBA now
• Other Jobs: Finance/Consulting/Analytics

Its such a subjective question, that whomsoever you take advise from, there would be inherent bias of that person involved (so would be mine in this post ). During 5th semester, tried for internship abroad and by Sept/Oct, I joined IMS to prepare for CAT. Since at that moment of time, I wasnt sure of the “tough” answer, it was a safe bet. Lets enroll now, study to remove the rust from the mind and we shall figure out later after the internship programme. The 5th/6th semester went well and so did the internship programme. I thought about this during internship a lot and came with “my” answer.

As is my general tendency, when I face lot of options, I try to eliminate first and then select. I hope, lots of people follow the same. The reasons of my striking of items from the list:

• MS: I just didnt have the CPI to get scholarship in a good university abroad. People might argue on this, but fact would remain a fact. (How simple it was to eliminate the first option, 20% done ).
• MBA now: To me, doing an MBA just after graduation was never a good idea. Computer Science(CS) is, I think, the industry in which what you learn at college, could be applied to 80% in industry. Here you dont have lots of assumptions as like Civil industry, and hence industry application becomes a lot difficult. So my learnings could be applied directly (was, what I thought, then!!!) and removed this option.
• Other jobs: The biggest reason that I didnt opt for them was: Almost same amount of money in CS companies and those high paying other jobs. Had it been a case that, there was a huge difference, I probably might have applied to other jobs as well . Another advantage not becuase of who I was but where I am from!

Research was one thing, I couldnt eliminate but couldnt select either. I had great experience working with Taha Sencar at Polytechnic University, New York but still some unknown reasons stopped me. And that is how I reached my decision of entering the Core Job. Focused hard on it and didnt apply to any other company of a different domain.

Next to follow: A blog on my experience of placement week. “True Phase” at IITK, because that is one phase after JEE when you face a stiff competition (and yeah luck do favours people, as it did during JEE). So stay tuned..

Comments/Criticism as always welcomed!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Download ignou assignments, visit ignou4u.blogspot.com

Antakshari, a traditional Indian song contest, is being offered as a speech applications App Store product by OnMobile Developer Network. OnMobile, which is an Indian white-labeled VAS company, says Antakshari is the first of its kind multi-lingual speech recognition product to be offered on its Speech App Store.

Mobile Antakshari has been developed by Hexolabs, a mobile VAS company, incubated by IIT Kanpur.

“OnMobile Developer Network (ODN)” aims to promote speech-based MVAS solutions. The Network promises to make it easy for developers to build multi-lingual speech applications using a SDK. Applications developed using this SDK run on OnMobile’s platform, Ozone.

The ODN also serves as a “Speech App store.” The launch of Hexolab’s Antakshari across Idea Cellular’s pan-India network is a part of ODN’s market development initiatives.

Antakshari is available in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam languages.

Idea mobile users in India can dial 55855 and access this service.

Kanpur: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur has come in to agreement with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to launch a nano satellite. It will be the country’s lightest and the institute’s first satellite to be launched in the orbit from Sriharikota.

IIT Kanpur had presented the second design review to ISRO which nodded to launch the satellite.

“Though the memorandum of understanding between ISRO and IIT-K for the project was signed in February, regular review sessions are being carried out by ISRO to check the progress of the project,” said Sanjay Govind Dhande, Director, IIT Kanpur.

“On Tuesday, our technical team working on the project apprised ISRO authorities of the release and antenna mechanism,” he said.In April, the first review of Jugnu was carried out by ISRO.

Since last December, a team of 40 students and around 12 professors, led by Professor and Mechanical Engineering Department Head, Nalinaksh S Vyas have been working on the project.

“A similar project in any European country would have cost over Rs 10 crore but we expect the entire project to complete within a budget of Rs 2-3 crore, without compromising on quality. This is a welcome signal for indigenous remote sensing technologies,” said Vyas.

A technical team led by D Madhav Murthy in the ISRO for Small Satellite, has said that the procedures for informing the ISRO officials for launch by a mother satellite has been provided, along with the details of the positioning of the satellite antenna set up in the institute premises.

Jugnu weighs around 3.5 kgs and would be 34 cm long and 10 cm wide. Equipped with the micro imaging and micro electronic system, it will transfer the images to the IIT Kanpur campus. The high resolution pictures obtained will be used for different applications like drought monitoring, wasteland management, urban planning and flood risk management.

“Although the stipulated life time of the satellite is six months, we are optimistic that it will complete at least 12 months in the orbit,” said Dhandhe.

Recently i came across this very enlightening article in SCIENCE CAREERS regarding the importance of undergraduate research and i’ll highly recommend every engineering student or an aspirant to go through it. Despite being recognised worldwide for its rich contributions to science and technology in terms of quality manpower and brainpower, the great Indian education juggernaut still lags way behind when it comes to inculcating a scientific and research temperament in the impressionable minds of young students. Its unfortunate but true that the opportunities of participating in undergraduate research in india is quite limited. And deep down, if one introspects the reasons for indians not getting NOBEL PRIZES, it can probably be pinned down to the lack of undergrad research in india because of which top students are not opting for a research career due to lack of information. Most students hardly give it a thought(except the ones who are really interested). Top students still don’t opt for higher studies and most would be very happy to bag a lucrative corporate job or a comphy PSU placement. And after the upswing in Indian economy(until recently!), bagging a job was hardly an issue.So most of the students never felt the need to build a good CV. Its my strong believe that bright students who are either lost to preying corporates can be retained to build the nation’s intellectual capital if they are given a glimpse of what a  fantastic and rewarding proposition a research career could be.

To this effect, the US education system has to be patted with a sense of jealously as it has proved time and again how every year it successfully retains the best talents in America as well as worldwide by giving them an early insight into what a research life beholds, mostly through highly prestigious and publicised undergrad research programmes. The NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION is one such organisation that has contributed immensely towards this cause
Of late though Indian educators have woken up to this reality and have taken pragmatic steps towards promoting undergrad research in india. And many top tier research organisation and institutions like IITs/IISERs are offering summer research/training programmes.

Following are a few of them i know about.i’ll update this post as i come across more such links. If you find any such link,do post in the comment post.

1. IISc Bangalore  KISHORE VAIGYANIK PROTSAHAN YOJANA

2. INDIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

3. IIT KANPUR-  SURGE PROGRAMME

4. JAWAHARLAL NEHRU CENTRE FOR ADVANCED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH - SRFP

While a lot is being said or shouted, to be more precise, with regards Galaxy and its implications, most of it comes from two extremely polarized perspectives – the winners and the losers. What we actually need is a totally objective view on the state of things in IITK. Let me make an attempt.
Rivalry between certain halls has long gone beyond being competitive and healthy rivalry. People derive more pleasure out of seeing their rivals fail than in succeeding themselves. We have neither learnt to be humble victors nor gracious losers. The fact that we never consider losing in a competition as an outcome of fair play is testimony to this. At the same time, we never are willing to think of our wins as outcomes of poor judging. Before we begin accusing each other of behaving in a certain manner it might do us a whole lot of good to ask ourselves how we would have acted had we been in their place. Is there really a difference between students that is defined by the hostel he/she resides in??
Halls (including Hall 6) other than the two majorly squabbling ones deserve much more respect than they are accorded. Their apparent ‘inferiority’ when it comes to competition is due to factors that surely do not include the lack of talent. All of us need to be sensible enough to recognize the fact that talent is equally divided amongst all hostels simply because students are randomly sorted into these.
Now that Galaxy has been revived and done with, questions are being raised about the point of having a competition that some say only brings out the ‘worst’ in us. When will we realize that the fault is not in Galaxy? The fault lies in us. Deflecting the blame to something which wouldn’t protest is hardly manly. We need to wake up to the fact that if things continue the way they are, we stand to lose a lot. This is the time to introspect instead of trying to find fault with the way things have shaped up because of ‘THEM’.

Chapter 5 “Building human capital” is very insightful. First and foremost, it documents the thinking that started even before Independence – Sir A Dalal’s role in the formation of CSIR in 1946 and Sarkar Committee of 1946 that visualized the setting up of IIT’s similar to MIT). The roles played by IIT Kanpur in general and Professor Rajaraman in Computer Science education are documented well. Also documented are the contributions of other IITs and NCST. The concern of falling standards in the recent days amidst explosive growth in technical education is touched upon.

(My Book Review will be posted over the next 10 days (starting March 28, 2009) – a chapter a day for each of the ten chapters!)

Book Review

Sharma Dinesh, “The Long Revolution”, The birth and growth of India’s IT industry”, Harper Collins (Dec 2008)

The results for GATE 2009 have finally been declared. As expected, there seems to be a lot of traffic to the GATE result website www.gate.iitb.ac.in/gate2k9 and looks like website is bogged down.  So, one has to wait a while before one can see those results.

Here is the brief information about the GATE exam.

Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an all-India examination administered and conducted jointly by the Indian Institute of Science and seven Indian Institutes of Technology on behalf of the National Coordinating Board – GATE, Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India.

The GATE committee, which comprises of representatives from the administering institutes, is the sole authority for regulating the examination and declaring the results.

GATE is conducted through the constitution of eight zones. The zones and the corresponding administrative institutes are:

Zone 1 – Indian Institute of Science Bangalore
Zone 2 – Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Zone 3 – Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Zone 4 – Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
Zone 5 – Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Zone 6 – Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Zone 7 – Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Zone 8 – Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

The overall coordination and responsibility of conducting GATE 2009 lies with Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, designated as the Organizing Institute for GATE 2009.
Admission to postgraduate programmes with MHRD and some other government scholarship/assistantship at engineering colleges/institutes in the country are open to those who qualify through GATE. GATE qualified candidates with Bachelor’s degree in Engineering/ Technology/ Architecture/ Pharmacy or Master’s degree in any branch of Science/Mathematics/Statistics/Computer Applications are eligible for Master/Doctoral programmes in Engineering/Technology/Architecture/Pharmacy as well as for Doctoral programmes in relevant branches of Science. To avail the scholarship, the candidate must secure admission to such a postgraduate programme, as per the prevailing procedure of the admitting institution. GATE qualification, however, is not required for candidates with Master’s degree in Engineering /Technology/Architecture/Pharmacy, who may be seeking scholarship/ assistantship for relevant doctoral programmes.

Some institutions specify GATE as the mandatory qualification even for admission of self-financing students to postgraduate programmes. GATE qualified candidates are also eligible for the award of Junior Research Fellowship in CSIR Laboratories and CSIR sponsored projects. Some government organizations prescribe GATE qualification as a requirement for applying to the post of a Scientist / Engineer.

Kanpur, called as Manchester of Asia, is situated in Uttar Pradesh state and is the fifth largest city in India. It is spread across an area of over 1600 km², on the banks of the river Ganga and is the most populous within the state of Uttar Pradesh. As one of the branches of the Reserve Banks of India was established here, it is referred as the economic capital of Uttar Pradesh.

It is believed that the city derieved its name from Kanhiyapur, the town of Kanhiya (Lord Krishna). However, few others believe that the name is derived from Karnapur and is associated with Karna, one of the heroes of the Mahabharata.

After 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, Kanpur became an important center for leather and textile industries. Apart from leather and textile industry, the fertilizer, chemicals, two wheelers, soaps, Pan Masala, hosiery and engineering industries are also operating in the city.

Kanpur is home to several educational institutions like the famous Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT Kanpur), Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (HBTI), etc.

Places of interest for all tourists include:
Green Park Stadium, Radha-Krishna Mandir or J.K. Mandir, Allen Forest Zoo, Moti Jheel lake, many malls & multiplexes.

Tiruchirapalli: Eco-friendly zero discharge toilets are all set to be introduced in trains across the country.

Some of them have already been installed on an experimental basis in trains in the south.

The toilets jointly developed by IIT Kanpur, Research Designs and Standard Organisation, Lucknow and a private agency in Chennai, ensure that all liquid discharges are converted into ‘pure water’ which can be used as re-cycled water to flush and clean toilets and sanitary fittings.

The solid waste is converted into odour free paste by certain bio-chemicals or additives applied at the departing terminal. This can be stored for 15 days in a tank and can easily be emptied at the destination point through ‘pressurised evacuation,’ V Carmelus, Chief Mechanical Engineer of Southern Railways said.

The odourless solid waste could yield revenue since the paste would an excellent manure after being dried in the sun.

After some more trial runs and studies the scheme would be a permanent feature in Indian Railways, he said.

Presently the system has been installed in trains running between Chennai and Jammu Tawi and Chennai-Lucknow, he said.

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/zero-discharge-toilets-soon-in-railways/423114/

Lucknow, Feb. 24: An IIT Kanpur student lying on the tracks, waiting for a train to run him over, was rescued last evening by railway police.

“We found a man lying on the rail tracks and rushed. We overpowered him and he said he was disgusted with life and wanted to kill himself,” said Sukesh Yadav, a Government Railway Police (GRP) inspector.

Durgesh Vikram, 26, is a PhD student at IIT Kanpur, where he also did his MTech after graduating from IIT Roorkee. His parents are farmers in Muzaffarnagar, IIT sources said.

The police informed the IIT, which sent a team to the spot. “We immediately sent five trained counsellors to bring him back to the institute,” said A.K. Ghosh, director of the counselling centre at IIT Kanpur. Vikram is under medication now and his treatment is being monitored by the counsellors.

“He is no doubt a bright student,” said institute registrar Sanjeev Kashalkar.

Ghosh said Vikram had suffered from a behavioural disorder in 2006, for which he was taking medicines for some time.

“Unfortunately, at the behest of his parents, he stopped taking the medicines. We suspect he relapsed to his old illness after this. We are asking all parents not to take this decision on their own and let us handle the cases or stop medicines after consulting a doctor,” Ghosh said.

The institute set up the counselling centre in 2007 to help students cope with stress after several students committed suicide unable to handle academic pressure or personal problems.

The last suicide was as recently as January 3, when a second-year MTech student took his life after failing to find a job through campus interview. G. Suman came from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh.

In the past four years, seven students have committed suicide at IIT Kanpur and several others have attempted it. “With every new incident, we feel completely shattered. But we tell everyone that we need some more time to put this system into practice and make it more effective. We will win the battle,” Ghosh said.

Vikram, who had been feeling low since Sunday, left his hostel room in the afternoon yesterday and reached near Kanpur Central station around 5pm, sources said. He lay down on the tracks, waiting for a train, but the policemen arrived first.

IIT Kanpur’s counselling centre, which has its own building, 10 trained counsellors and a psychiatrist, have launched an awareness campaign at nearby railway stations and bus stops asking travellers to inform it if any IIT student is found loitering aimlessly or otherwise behaving in an abnormal manner.

Durgesh Vikram, a student of Ph D civil engineering, attempted suicide on Monday (Feb 23) evening. The boy was saved by the railway police. It’s not a one-off case. In past four years, seven students have committed suicide in IIT-K..

More on: IIT-Kanpur’s student attempts suicide

From TOI:

IIT-Kanpur with its nano satellite — `Jugnu’ is ready to set new highs in space research. A team of students, working under the guidance of faculty members of the institute and scientists of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are set to launch India’s first nano satellite.

Dr Sanjay Govind Dhande, director, IIT-K elucidated about `Jungu’ on the inaugural eve of `Techkriti’, on Thursday last. Weighing less than three kg and with most functionalities of a normal satellite on a small platform, the payload of satellite will include an indigenously designed camera for near remote sensing and a GPS receiver. `Jugnu’ will transmit blinking signal, at all times-all over the earth.

Head of mechanical department, Dr NS Vyas said the nano-satellite, `Jugnu’ will be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (also known as SHAR, located in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh by ISRO`s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). “It is extremely cost effective and reliable launch vehicle. After it’s launch, `Jugnu’ will be continuously monitored and controlled by ground station located at the campus”, added Dr Vyas.

Since exactly the same material (including the mis-spelling of the satellites name once in the second para) is reproduced here I guess this is lifted straight out of a press release. The only other hard news comes from Z news:

Scientists have used indigenous technology to develop ‘Jugnu’, whose weight and length are 3kg and 34cm respectively, he said, adding an estimated amount of Rs 2.5 crore has been spent to develop the satellite.

Mr. Narayana Murthy, please note that the amount is exactly 5 X Rs. 50 lakhs.

Students from IIT Kanpur, one of the best educational institutions in India and perhaps in the world is developing a micro satellite in cooperation with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

The work by the students is nearing completion and is expected to be over by November when it will be handed over to the ISRO for testing and launch. The micro satellite is aimed at getting prior information regarding food, drought, disaster management etc.It also sends photographs back to earth and also can be used to link other satellites.

The satellite is made by the students from the mechanical engineering department and is named “Jugnu“.Though very small according to commercial standard, about 3kg in weight and is 34cm in length, it is definitely a great achievement for the budding engineers from IIT-K.

Seems like this is a great period for Indian Space Technology with lots of things happening – The Chandrayaan mission, its successor Chandrayaan II, moon mission etc.

Former President Mr. R Venkataraman passed away on January 27, 2009 at the ripe age of 98.

He will be long remembered as the “gentleman President” for his affable nature, quite rare amongst leaders in the India politics particularly these days.

Not many youngsters knew that in the post Independent India, industrialization started in a big way in Tamil Nadu (and later in many other States) and Mr. Venkataraman was responsible for putting Tamil Nadu in the forefront. The Industrial Training Institutes and the concept of industrial townships / industrial areas are also credited to him. Along with Mr C Subramaniam who changed the agricultural landscape of Tamil Nadu (and later India), Mr Vekataraman has contributed a lot under the able Congress leader Mr K Kamaraj – something the current generation has ben forced to forget by the powers that be.

Mr. Venkataraman had a very distinguished career as Finance Minister and Defence Minister before becoming the Vice President, and later the President of India.

Many of us in IIT Kanpur in 80s and 90s had direct interaction with the former President. His daughter Mrs Vijaya Ramachandran used to live in IIT Kanpur campus (her husband Prof R Ramachandran was our distinguished colleagues in the Physics department); we had the former President as the Convocation Chief Guest once. The President along with the First Lady had visited IIT Kanpur campus more than once.

The grateful Nation will remember him long for his contribution much after he is gone in physical form from this world.