This ghastly incident took place at Rampally Cross Roads near Ghatkesar when the bike they were traveling on directly hit a DCM van coming in the opposite direction. It was Phani who was riding the bike and it is very sad to acknowledge the fact that Pavan had asked for a lift and joined Phani just 5 minutes before the accident took place. The mishap occurred when Phani tried to overtake a lorry and was speeding at over 80 KMPH but failed to notice another vehicle coming in the opposite direction. It is really painful to notice that A.Santosh, a 4^th year IT student and  brother of Pavan was just behind the spot on another friend’s bike when this incident took place. The DCM driver absconded the scene immediately after the accident had occurred.

The whole student community of SNIST was shocked when the news that Phani had died on the spot and Pavan took his last breath on way to the hospital was confirmed. Many were in tears and some others where in utter dismay of losing their friends. It was really very painful for the close friends of Phani and Pavan to accept that their friends would never greet them again with smiling faces. The college was let off immediately after this news had reached the management and many students gathered at the accident spot. It was very sad to see many of them weeping over the loss of their dearest friends. Many had also opined that Phani would have been saved if only he had worn a helmet while riding the bike.

Phani was the core committee member of the ISTE student chapter of SNIST and was very active in extra-curricular activities. Indeed, he was the most favourite student of many of the lecturers who had taught him during the 3 years he spent at the college. Many lecturers and also students expressed their heart-felt condolences to his parents. Phani had an elder brother who is now in the USA and had gifted a bike and laptop to Phani just recently on the occasion of his marriage.Pavan was also a very active student and was very serious about his career.

Credits:Maniac Monster

After this ghastly incident, pictures of both Phani and Pavan were put up in the Administration block on Monday morning and candles were lit in their memory both in the morning as well as evening and their classmates had also put up posters on the notice boards all over the college with the slogan “Speed thrills but Kills” asking other students to be very careful while driving. A brief silence of 2 minutes was also maintained by all the students on Monday praying for the peace of their souls.

Classmates and close friends of Phani had also visited old age homes, orphanages and donated money, spent time there on Phani’s birthday as he had a habit of doing the same every year instead of wasting money on parties. Classmates of Pavan were also shaken by the incident and many of them could not really accept that their friend is no more with them.

So friends, let us all learn a lesson from this incident and be very careful every time we start our engines because many people need us in their lives. Let us all remember the age old saying – “Speed thrills but kills” and also pledge to wear a helmet before we start speeding on our vehicles.

May your souls rest in peace, Phani and Pavan!!

This is the current state of affairs in almost every campus. The confusion on what to do, when to do and how to do is keeping the grey cells of the students working and working and working hard to settle on a decision, that rarely lasts for a day or two. Same is the case in Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, wherein the campus buzz usually involves a group of  students hanging around the canteen or the lawns discussing about their career related options. Also, the ones who have decided have not yet started their preparation and if they’ve started also, they aren’t sure about how the competition is going to be. To provide a solution to all these problems, the students of Sreenidhi have established the first ever Professional Club in the state, Nidhi – ‘Quiz Club’. The motto of this club is – sharing of knowledge that never reduces unlike money, rather increases tremendously.

The club was established in 2006 by Mr Dilip, Mr. Raghavendra.G.Mutalik and Mr. Nikhil belonging to the IT stream, under the able guidance of Dr. P. R. Naga Srinivasa. “The basic idea behind forming this club is to provide career guidance to students”, says Mr. Raghavendra, who is now the head of the Placement Cell in SNIST. The club is known for its activities, which include conducting sessions to inculcate the students about their career options. There is also a Counseling Center, where a team of experts advise the confused student to trace the correct path. The sessions are conducted every Tuesday. The sessions range from Guest Lectures, where renowned experts from various Institutes or record making graduates come down and deliver excellent speeches, which inspire students to Student Mentoring Program, wherein the experienced seniors train the juniors in the current technologies, like HTML, Web Designing, etc. The club has attained such heights with the motivation given by the Director, Dr. P. Narsimha Reddy, the Principal, Dr. Vasudeva Rao and the DEAN, Academics, Dr. P. G. Sastry. A special mention to the Placement Officer, Mr. Raghavendra G. Mutalik, who is also one of the founders of the club.

Gathering at Spardhaa '09. Credit: Scrivener Winx

Apart from conducting sessions, the club has also come up with an annual magazine, Career Matrix which contains puzzles, career opportunities and many more education and fun related articles. The first copy, Career Matrix 2k8 received good response and the second copy of the magazine, i.e., Career Matrix 2k9 came with a complimentary CD. Nidhi Club also conducted two national level Technical Symposiums – Spardhaa ’08 and Spardhaa ’09.

Spardhaa ‘08 wasn’t such a big hit as expected, but Spardhaa ‘09 exceeded the expectations. Spardhaa ‘09 was declared as the best event in Sreenidhi ever after Adastra ‘07, which was indeed a major achievement for the club committee. The event gathered students from all over India and around 3000 people were seen in the campus on both the days of the event.

“Being a part of such a club has enabled me to enhance my skills as a team worker and I’m indebted to the club”, comments K. K. Moulika, a core committee member of the club. The achievements the club has made in the recent past are noteworthy. Nidhi club has been declared as an official placement club of the college. Here, the members of the club act as coordinators and volunteers during any campus placements. They assist the placement department right from receiving the HR, arranging everything properly, clarifying the candidates’ queries regarding the placements and so on.

Official Website of Nidhi club. Credit: www.nidhiclub.com

“It not only helps us to interact with the HR, but we can also know the way the interviews are conducted. It is really helpful for OUR placements”, quoted Nikitha Reddy, who worked as a placement coordinator for the club during the recent campus placements. Nidhi club has also associated itself with the IEEE students’ chapter of SNIST and has conducted corporate events during their Technical Fest, Adastra. Arts Club is a sister club of Nidhi, which has collaborated with it during Spardhaa’09 and conducted the cultural night, Khalbali for the first time, which turned out to be a huge success.

“I’m in 1st year right now and i don’t have the slightest idea of what am I going to do after 4 years. But after attending Nidhi’s session i got to know about the opportunities I have”, says a first year student. Nidhi club also conducts aptitude tests and Mock exams sponsored by prestigious Institutes like T.I.M.E, Manhattan Review and Career Launcher.

The club has recently launched an official website, www.nidhiclub.com which posts regular updates on the happenings of the club as well as important announcements. May the club proceed in the same manner and reach more students and achieve its motto of sharing knowledge!

Sumeet Kumar Barua, a fourth year student from Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology falls in the clan of those very few, who not only led his team but went beyond fringes of his country to represent his team at the International Congress held in Singapore by IEEE – Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, to mark its 125th anniversary held a congress 2009  held from July 16th to 19th at the National University of Singapore. Aimed at finding a new set of student leaders, who will contribute immensely, both to IEEE and to its stated objective of technological advancements in the years to come, it was also a platform where one could learn from one another and utilize the congress as a platform for exposure to new ideas, practices, discourse and relationships.

(Picture: International IEEE Congress 2009 celebrating it’s 125th anniversary! Credit: Sumeet Kumar)

Almost 150 delegates came from various countries – Korea, India, Pakistan, Australia, China, Japan, Portugal, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and also the Directors of all the 10 regions had come. The  dignitaries in the congress from the IEEE Bench, Lewis Terman – IEEE Fellow and Chairman, Joseph Lillie – former Director of IEEE, Richard Gowen – President of the IEEE Foundation, Yong Jin Park – Director of IEEE Region 10, Mini S. Thomas – R10 SAC (Student Activities Committee) Chair.

SNIST's IEEE student branch activites displayed. Credits: Sumeet Kumar

In any technical symposium, the two things, which usually hold the utmost importance are the ’Project Presentation’ and the ‘Poster Presentation’. All the Project and Poster Presentations were shortlisted after which the most-awaited ‘Leadership Talk’ by Joseph Lillie and a seminar on ’Humanitarian Technology Challenge’ by Amarnath Raja were conducted – Region10 HTC (Humanitarian Technology Challenge) Chair. After all the hard work, the students were taken on a tour to Singapore for some recreation.

The most exciting thing about any conference is it’s activities. On the 3rd day, there was a display by the student branches about their sections and the events that took place. Every student section was given a stall to put up their charts and posters to publicize their student branches and let people know about how active they are.

“All the projects and posters were presented on that day and to be frank, we did our very best”, says Sumeet, the president of IEEE student branch of SNIST. There were two competitions conducted by the IEEE Power & Energy Society. One was the ’Innovative Idea Competition’ and the other was a ’Poster Presentation Competition’ on Rural and Urban Sustainability. There was also a discussion forum on the future of IEEE Student Branches co-ordinated by Marko Delimar and a workshop on Mechatronics, which was followed by a multicultural exhibition.

Sumeet, explaining to President of IEEE, Joseph Lille about Student activities in SNIST. Credits: Sumeet Kumar

The final day of any symposium saw an IEEE@2020 discussion, a Q&A Session by the student panel in the IEEE Dignitaries Forum, a IEEE GINI(Global Integrated Network of IEEE) expansion and the closing ceremony with a gift exchange.

Attending an international congress, organized by IEEE, may be a dream to many but not anymore to Sumeet , who is student IEEE – Chairperson for year 2009 for the IEEE Student branch of SNIST. He, on behalf of his fellow IEEE members, has set a different objective unlike others, who only spoke but never executed any of the plans. Though more than 100 students  from various countries attended the congress, what raises him aloft are the achievements and appreciations he fetched for the IEEE student branch of SNIST. “The happiest moment was when I won SGD100 (100 Singaporean dollars) for my Poster Presentation and SNIST won the Vibrant Student Branch Award. It was like a dream come true”, he says with enthusiasm.

Ask him about how all of it happened and he’s more than eager to share his experiences. Below are few excerpts of the conversation Vidyouth had with Sumeet Kumar Barua.

Sumeet : IEEE-SNIST, though an active student branch, needed some colour. It needed some kind of motivation, a driving force that would inspire all the other members to do their best and get recognized. None of our former Board members had attended an International Congress (not a Conference), that too, a big one like this – a gathering to celebrate 125 years of IEEE. So, being the IEEE – SNIST Chairperson, my idea was to go there and get people to know how active a Student Branch we are. Of course, there’s an added bonus of making a lot of contacts this way!

Sumeet Kumar Barua received Vibrant Student Branch Award at National University of Singapore. Credit: Sumeet Kumar

VY : What was the poster about?
Sumeet : The Poster was about Urban Sustainability–Energy Harvesting–Conserving for the future. It was a simple poster, clearly emphasizing the need for Sustainable Development and offered solutions to all the small, but significant, problems in urban localities. It was designed in Photoshop and I managed to get it printed in Singapore just before the day of presentation. It was a thrilling experience to give a PP (Poster Presentation) on an international level.

VY: How did you manage to win?
Sumeet: It wasn’t a cakewalk. Trying to explain to everyone about all the activities IEEE-SNIST does, especially since I’d lost the 3 charts that I’d prepared back at home to be put up on display at the stall at the Singapore airport. With whatever little I had, I managed to convince the dignitaries about how we function as a student branch, how active we are, how often we conduct our sessions, workshops, tech-fests and the like.

VY: What next?
Sumeet: If things go as planned, which I’m sure they will, we’ll be looking at an IEEE Newsletter, a website www.ieee-snist.org, exclusively for IEEE-SNIST developed and maintained by our own members and a one of its kind Digital Publication. We’re also planning to hold the next IEEE International Student Congress at SNIST, in collaboration with other student branches from Hyderabad, knowing how big the event must be and the amount of hard work that must go into making it grand.

Other students at IEEE congress. Credits: Sumeet Kumar

VY: Whom would you give the credits for all this?
Sumeet: I have a lot of people to thank. My family and my team, who’ve supported me through this and I would also like to thank all those, who had kept extreme faith in me.

What remains a dream to many a student is what Sumeet Kumar Barua has achieved with perseverance, determination and courage, inspite of the odds he faced amid the tour. He definitely deserves kudos from everyone for achieving so much. When one of us has been able to do it, why not the others? So gear up to make a student branch’s presence felt at various international conferences/congresses held by IEEE throughout the year on several occasions.

Once Newspapers and today Internet are some sources that have come to the rescue of layman for information at a price he can afford. So when information reaches the target, it is said to create awareness. Today, we call each day to recall  some notable occasion, to alert some vulnerables or we celebrate an achievement etc.  World’s health day, Worlds Aids day, Worlds Hepatitis day,  Youth (January 12) day, Mothers day, Fathers day, Friendship day, Independence day, Valentines day and what not! Everyday has its own significance. Allocating a day to recall some specific notable thing has become a prevalent practice to us.

Are these aims at bringing awareness in the masses more than issues of global concern? Is there any result to such an attempt of organizations? Can we suppose importance of the day has an obvious impact on people?  Is the purpose to pay respect ? Is the tempo sustained through out? How does a DAY change a society? These are few ques, which always linger in our minds.

A survey of nearly 28 students from SNIST has shown both facets of coin. There are some, who told they do bother about these important days and there are some who say its just another day to them. Nearly 30% saythat there are special days to them and they do put their brains to thinking about these days. More than 50% expressed that it is just another day and there are very few who not only bother about these significant days but  they do participate to bring a change around them.

“This day stands out as one of my  favourites. I had a wonderful experience last year. Myself from Hyderabad along with two other friends from Chennai and Punjab spent time at different restaurants in Hyderabad. We were fortunate to taste different kinds of food. We had a continental breakfast, an Italian lunch and a Chinese dinner”, says P.N.Anuroop.  and guess what? It was ‘World’s Food Day’ (October 16th). He even suggests. ”Every one should definitely spend time to find out a special day as such of their own and at the same time act as per their interests”.

“I have a craze for this ‘World’s Chocolate Day’ (September 4), so I gave different chocolates to all my friends”, recalls Sai Laxmi a firsty from SNIST. “Mothers day is another day that comes to my mind. On that day I spend time with my mom and make kitchen a no entry way to her”, she says. “Forgot to say, I do bother about well being of my society, I even thought, we should try to bring stay order on Retailers who are using Plastic, more than the necessity”.

“Why don’t we have Electronix Day?”, is one surprising question posed by T.Nikhilesh, the founder ofThe Electronix Club at SNIST. “I like my birthday than any other day for everyone’s focus will be on me on that day”, he laughs. “I dont support days like Mothers’ day and Fathers’ day. The reason is, in the west, children usually stay away to their parents and sometimes their relations are very feeble. So they celebrate those days to bring them together atleast once in a while. I don’t see a meaning in celebrating those types of days here in India, because we are always attached to our parents and so we relish every moment with our parents”, argues Dilip, a second year student from SNIST.

“Allocating a day to recall an eccentric issue is always a good practice for it not only creates awareness but also enhance our relations with people and with surroundings. This even makes some people, who start giving due importance to them only when somebody reminds them. This depends on the society and the way it considers and digests these occasions. To some, who feel the urge to apply the importance of these days to their lifestyles and do try to imbibe it in their behaviour and it does really mean a lot”, opines a final year stundent Chaitantya from SNIST.

“Once, when I was browsing news, I came to know that the day was Twins’ day. On that day newspapers had news and clicks of twins from world wide and I really enjoyed looking at them and even tried to know if there will be a match in the mannerisms of twins. I think this is a great practice for example lets take up AIDS patients. There was hardly any awareness in all sections of society, if we look  five to seven years back. But now, this has improved. Definitely on World’s AIDS Day (December 1st), the major part of news in newspaper will be about the victims or sufferers of AIDS. So this will make common man aware of how various people are living even though they suffer from the same disease as oneself and one will even come to know about various organizations and social groups, who are ready to extend aid”, says Divya Vani , a firsty from SNIST.

The above are a few opinions of students, who say that days do bring a change we want. But there are a few, who completely show averse to indulge in knowing things and they even argue that if everyday is important and everyday is allocated to recall some reason then each day our focus changes and each day we will just know and talk a little about other issues and hardly put to practice. But this can’t be a reason for us to preclude the change we desire to bring  in the society and  thinking in those lines can just be called as pessimism, which will help us in no way. “The usual wear of Women in Andhra used to be Saree, but now only women, who are married put on sarees and majority of girls are seen in Punjabi suits. This is a big change. So we people are forgetting the tradition and are not ready to take pride about our cultural practices. So, today we have come to a stage, where we celebrate Traditional Day in our colleges and atleast expect men and women in traditional wear”, says Rani.

Google is one place that changes its logo on the google search page, according to occasion. A click on that picture will really make us know many exciting things. But the problem is how many of us will actually try doing this and try to spend a minute on the issue and come back? SMSing is also playing a good role these days. We propagate aphorisms, we remind our friends about day’s importance. “I basically come to know, what is today i.e. the day’s significance from my friends through SMS. If it’s a Valentine day or a Friendship day, my mobile keeps on beeping with different messages all through the day”, says Ramya.

So whatever is the reason to talk about, ultimately, the constant change in the civilization and way of living is forcing us to demand for more awareness and alacrity. Hence a practice as such will definitely compel those lazy souls, who hardly try knowing whats happening around.

Students in the department of Electronics at Sreenidhi, harness the holidays to ameliorate their skills in their core realms. This is evident from the recent commencement of Workshops from June 8th at SNIST, by the members of The Electronix Club (TEC). The basic purpose of these workshops was to make the second yearites aware of basic electronic topics and give them the required hands on experience on the subjective topics. The workshops are organized by the Board of TEC comprising heads of different departments like Technical, Organizing, Inventory and Documentation. Workshops are not only meant for learning the theory, but they also cater to quench the thirst of students, who are craving for some hands on experience in their spheres of knowledge. The workshop commenced with an inspiring and motivating speech of the faculty advisor of the club Prof. K.S.Verma, a senior faculty in the Department of Electronics and Communication at SNIST. He advised the students to widen the realms of knowledge and to ignite the inquisitiveness in the students.

These workshops are not only theory classes, which will be taken by the student heads of the board of TEC, but  also practical lab sessions, which include designing a circuit using simulation softwares available. A course file,  which comprises of basic electronic concepts, is designed by the Technical head, which will be taught to the  juniors during this time by the seniors.

The Electronix club (TEC) at SNIST, is not as old as many student organizations already existing in the college, but only a three month old, juvenile dream-come-true to the students of Electronics at SNIST. There are many student organizations in SNIST like Vox Populi,  Nidhi club, The Robotics club, Arts club, IEEE Student club and Technical Association and now with the foundation of The Electronix Club, the rainbow is complete with all the platforms now available in the college to bring about a difference, Sreenidhians have been dreaming about.

Prof.K.S.Verma presided over the session Credit: Swarm Swain

TEC, which is an initiative taken by two final year students of SNIST has received a tremendous response, with registrations crossing almost 300. “It was an inevitable situation for us. We had to eliminate a few, as the club in its inchoate stages cannot hold a number as big as that. So we have conducted an Entrance exam TECEAT for the membership of the club”, says one of the founders of the TEC, T Nikilesh. So Now TEC has 149 members to its credit, who qualified in TECEAT (The Electronics Club Entrance and Assessment Test).

‘Learn, Share and Prosper’ is the striking line, that is chanted everywhere here. “We learn the concepts through text and we gather here, we work in a team and we share our ideas to bring emulation in the existing projects and thus we prosper”, quotes D Aditya Vikram Reddy, the Technical head and Co-Founder of The Electronix Club. “In these times of recession, when opportunities are declining day by day, we have to be to ready to face any kind of situation to survive, so a platform at this point of time will be definitely, a welcome relief to those, who want to gain perfection in their core fields”, he  appends.

The Organizing head of the club, K Chaitanya gives a different view of why such a platform evolved. “Our curriculum hardly provides any chances for us to discuss why a certain technology, why not some other technology? So this is a perfect place to have such worthy discussions which will tickle our senses and widen our horizon of thinking. Adding to this one can learn things even sitting at home, but what is difficult is working with people, interacting with people, managing things and so on”, says Chaitanya.

When asked about what is the basic difference between the existing Robotics club and TEC, the members say, “We do core exclusive electronic projects unlike mechanical bots”. “We have our Club Website (www.theelectronixclub.co.nr) , to project ourselves and our activities”, says Ch Nadiya Rani, the head of the Documentation Department. “Feed a man a fish he will eat a day, but teach how to catch and he will live all through his life, So TEC is a place where you not only learn but share the knowledge to widen the horizons of one’s knowledge. Learn, Share and Prosper is the motto of the TEC. All the Projects done in the club will be documented and are handed over to the freshers who will refer them, and emulate those projects with some value addition. The basic idea behind documenting every project done here is to ensure flow of knowledge from generation to generation and bring continuity and raise the inquisitiveness of the students in Research”, she adds.

“The basic reason why some one can be a part of this sort of club is that we give you everything, everything I mean all the components required for your project. You need not waste your time in going and searching for the components of your project. And also this will be very helpful to freshers, who are unaware of the places where these components are available”, informs K Rahul, the head of Inventory Department of TEC.

“I think the idea is great for electronic freaks. We are very thankful to our seniors, who have taken all pains to have something like this”, says K Manikanta, a student from Avionics Department. “We expect we will be learning new technologies and do electronic projects effectively”, says Sruti. Every Project done by the members of the club will be recognized by the club and will be certified when the project is documented and submitted to Documentation department. “We have framed many policies like awarding stars to the students, who are performing exceptionally well. We will even have different communities which will be differentiated based on their field of interest in Electronics, like signals, communication, Internet etc.”, says Nikilesh, who is also the Student Head of TEC.

The students are also very well encouraged and espoused for all such activities with all sort of help from Management. So this kind of initiative, from the students to change the kind of learning, should be appreciated and emulated by all and students should draw an implicit message from the founders of TEC, that we should be opportunity creators rather than hunters.

A survey of nearly 30 students comprising of both juniors and seniors in SNIST reveals quite a good number of facts and nature of ragging in the college. Every 7 out of 10 have reconciled the fact that ‘Ragging’ is a misnomer as of today. Many say it is just for fun and entertainment. But some do reveal that there were serious incidents of derison and grave ridicule.

While some juniors try to evade the situations, but with trend and times pacing, it is very interesting to find some crazy enthusiasts of ragging! Like Naina Singroha who babbles, “I have seen my peers who used to get scared seeing the seniors around them when we have joined, but unlike my friends, I was always eager to spot out my seniors to see what really ragging is and who would really rag! Seniors ragging me!  Or myself ragging the seniors”. But there are a few, who paid obeisance to their seniors, inspite of persistent poking from them. “‘Ya pong oh pong’, ‘washing powder Nirma’, ‘Mummy, I’m a santoor girl’, were only a few of my routine lines till my freshers”, gags Deepthi, a firsty of SNIST.

Juniors be aware - GROUNDS in SNIST. Credit: Swarm Swain

Divya, a fresher feels she is fortunate for she was hardly caught by any senior. “I have seen two boys getting married, under tree with one tying an earphone in other’s neck”, quotes Divya is one of the incidents she has seen in MMS. “I heard Ragging in SNIST is nil compared to other colleges but once during the night time in college some seniors guys have come drunken and were asking the juniors to do mean things”, reaffirms Abhishiek from SNIST, who is unwilling to express them in detail. But he still reassures that the management had always been lending a helping hand if something goes seriously wrong.

Many of the juniors say buses are the serious places for ragging and even recalls of incidents evading the buses, diverting the route, when some seniors were found onboard. “Grounds will be the no-entry, or danger zones to my juniors for some months”, pings a final year student, Karthik from SNIST. He appends saying he too was seriously anxious when he faced ragging and now says, “I gave them good respect they want, which was enough and I don’t find any necessity of involvement of management for it was all the time for jocundity, as I have been just asked to sing a song”. His direct senior Vivek recalls some embarrassing situations, who bids sayonara to SNIST  from this academic year. “I remember a few. The first incident was that, I was asked to remove my shirt in RTC bus in ECIL and yes I did it. And one of the most memorable incident was I was ragged by our super senior girls near the girls loo and was also asked to sing aloud”, chuckles Vivek.

Juniors @ ADASTRA, ofcourse no ragging here. Credit: Swarm Swain

“Yeah there are always a bunch of hyperactive seniors everywhere. Like I said, SNIST is not place for ragging off charts. There are certain times they do go overboard and ask boys to strip and do some sort of pole dance. I was practically the king of pole dancing in my times. Pleasant is way too inappropriate word to be used. I did have to say it is fun and entertainment. Ragging depends on the person who encounters it! Some take it in the right spirit; some take it very emotionally and tend to commit some unforeseen steps. For me yes it did! I got to know the kind of people my seniors were and could pick a few, to guide me in taking wise decision at times in  my career”, says Avinash Sampath from SNIST.

Well, there are seniors who resent that their juniors don’t even care to give them respect because of the fact, that they were never ragged. “I felt my juniors lacked any seriousness or any respect towards us, for we had to be censured by the management for even interacting with them at times, and brought a sea distance between us”, reproaches Tharuni, who is now an alumni to SNIST. These versatile cases convey the status quo of Ragging in colleges as of today. So, can one come to a conclusion that the Ragging today is not as it was once? Is RAGGING, not a misnomer for Interaction between seniors and juniors?  So if called so, can interaction between seniors and a junior not be plausible without such derision or a mocking act?

For instance, there are many student organisations in Sreenidhi, which have a significant number of freshers as members. Seniors welcome their freshers and provide a fantastic platform for learning and sharing the knowledge they have acquired. They even assure them of no RAG in the sessions. Thus Interaction is still made possible even in an amiable ambience. This may sound rather cogent to one who is completely averse to ragging. “ I trained many of my juniors in many of the topics in electronics, when ever they came to me”, says the founder of the electronix club in SNIST. But talk of such an atmosphere, where everything goes normal, where everyone is friendly, where nothing is daunting, where no one bothers. Will someone like to talk about such happenings in life?  Will someone really like to recall such incidents of life? Is life not bereaved of all the fun and jest? Is it not short of few beautiful pages, which would have remained etched?  This definitely leaves the freaks into some thinking! This may outland in a different discourse if someone goes into an incessant or an inordinate amount of thinking into it.

Here are few suggestions from seniors to juniors:

Juniors hide here! This is a separate block for juniors in SNIST. Credit: Swarm Swain

“Lets take ragging in a positive way till it doesn’t cross limits. An unwritten MOU- Memorandum of Understanding, the do’s and don’t kind of stuff between the seniors and the juniors for a better relation”, advises Vivek. While Avinash Sampath reminds of the measures taken by the management to help the juniors in all the possible ways. “On campus board to look over firsties. Some measures were taken like changing the lunch hours of juniors an hour back, which is a way to avert a medium of interaction between both seniors and juniors. Anti Ragging Squad is present in the college buses to ensure, that juniors wont fell as a prey to their seniors. There are separate buses for seniors and juniors for few months in the beginning”, he affirms. It is also found that if one some one found ragging they are fined nearly to a sum 1000 to 5000 bucks. At times there were cases of suspension, if found guilty of the allegations laid on him/her.

So the above facts in a single college may overcast us and may portray Ragging as no big social evil. Yes, it is definitely not a grave thing in many a colleges in the cities but there are several instances of Ragging in the past, which left us numb and which made our government take some serious measures. Sexual abuse, verbal torture, dress code, drug abuse are some serious punishable acts of Ragging. So the supreme court of India has passed an ordinance to all the Educational Institutions of India. This includes Movements against such ragging acts; undertaking to be taken from the students that they will be punished if found guilty, allocation of management personnel to each and every student for interaction, setting up committees, Identifying ragging prone zones and many more. Ultimately, It is the severity or intensity of the acts that decide. So seniors! Just sense the pulse and nerve of juniors and then try having some fun, with some thinking in place, as you are also a victim of such a fun! And do give your juniors the same hale hilarious fun!

A student management interactive session, held on May 23, ‘09 in Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, (Ghatkesar) was a welcome relief to the students, in the wake of the advent of Expert committee, University Grants Commission (UGC), who is likely to confer the Deemed University status to SNIST. Though the  purpose of the meet was to bring out impressions of students, on this notable occasion, it turned out to be an amiable discourse between students and the management on several issues and difficulties of students in the college every now and then. The dignitaries on dais are the Director, Principal and Heads of the departments and few others in the management.

Director, Dr. P. Narasimha Reddy, who started off the meeting, asked the faculty to recognize a student  among the crowd, who was then asked to pose questions to the students about the college. The student who was picked, started shooting questions about various attributes of the college like Faculty, Infrastructure, Lab facilities, Library, Periodicals, Internet, Sports, Transport and Canteen, to which the students have shown their assent or a sign of satisfaction by raising their hands. Then the students were asked to explain their problems individually in the aspects mentioned before. Management has not only gave a chance to every one who was willing to express their problems in the college but also gave them an assurance that they will be solved immediately.

Extension of timings in which student hours can spend in the library during working hours of college, leveling of football and basket ball grounds, lighting facility to ensure a good environment in basket ball ground for playing in the evening, provision of much more quick catering facilities to students in the canteen are some of  the suggestions from the students to the management. While some have expressed their difficulties, there are equally good number of students, who have expressed their gratitude for all the cooperation and encouragement that they have been receiving from the management.

There is one student from  Biotechnology, who has expressed his immense august, for the periodicals available in the college, ”I have been to British Library recently, and I have come across only a single journal from Nature, but I felt extremely happy when I found out that our college provides three best journals from Nature”, says the student from Biotechnology.

“We are very fortunate to have a very friendly management, who have been encouraging the student related activities like the Robotics, Nidhi, Vox Populi, Electronix, IEEE and Arts club”, says Sourabh Sanghi, student secretary of IEEE student branch of SNIST.

There was an occasion, when a student expressed his pride that the institute has provides a world-class seminar halls, which are not even present in some of the best institutions of the country. “Experience can only make anybody appreciate these seminar halls”, says a student.

Sreenidhi, a well conversant appellation in the Engineering colleges of, A.P has been doing well and gained lot of recognition and name for itself, in very short time, since it’s inception. Now, it is ready to cross another milestone in it’s journey, as it fell into the eyes of UGC (Delhi), who is willing to confer an honorable status, called Deemed University status.

SNIST. Credit: Swarm Swain

A university, when declared as deemed university can be “considered as a university” but only next to University. There are many private engineering colleges, which were recognized for deemed university status, like Gitam University of Vizag, NIT Warangal and many others, which are now considered as universities. So an insight into how a deemed status will be a benefactor and foster the students of that university is what is an inevitable question at this point of time.

A deemed university savors many privileges and following are few of them:

• Usually, a college follows the syllabus prescribed by the University to which it is affiliated. So there is hardly any possibility of bringing changes in the curriculum set by the university in the four years of student life at the college. Such a stagnant and adamant system is found to be inefficient as trend keeps on changing every  now and then. So a deemed status may now gives an advantage of having a well established but flexible curriculum, which will bridge the differences or say gaps between skills in demand in the industry and the skills acquired by the students.
• Students can now bliss at the fact, that they will have their own distinct identity.
• Research and development (R & D) is an enduring and non – ephemeral activity that an engineering  college can boast of. So a more profound and wider chances and resources will now be available in the college, as  there is a possibility of additional  funding from University Grants Commission(UGC) and many others. This will not only bring lot of good image to the college but also fosters the innovative skills and sets challenges to the budding engineers.

A deemed university will have recognition not only in the state, but also in the  entire nation and students from all over the country can now come, to pursue their engineering. The management has divulged some of its plans, on this occasion.

• It assured students that college does the survey the about the skills in demand and would come up with a very good revised curriculum.
• It expressed it’s interest of introducing authentic certification policy, which will recognize the efforts of students and also make a foreign language as a part of curriculum, so that this will make the students find opportunities, even in the non English speaking countries in these times of economic downturn and will make them much more eligible.
• It is also trying to adopt practice school concept, in which, as a part of curriculum student can work in  an industry at the end of the semister, there by receiving a good exposure to industry.

Seminal hall in SNIST. Credit: Swarm Swain

“We have affiliations to several World class Institutes all over the world which are already offering 50% fee  exemption to our students and we have project development cell, which can be nurtured and taken to good  heights”, says the director.  What differentiates Sreenidhi from other college in particular is the faculty available and the infrastructure  for all  the courses offered”, he adds.

“There were many cases of students coming to me, and complaining that the textbooks available are not able  cater to the needs and challenges of the students, so we will come up with a well structured material, that will  solve the existing problems of students”, says Y.Satyanaraya, senior faculty of MBA department.

“There are many loopholes in the present education system, like assessing a student’s performance  only through the end examination is not a right way as it fails to examine diligence and caliber of the student  through out the academic curriculum”, says Divya Mani from third year, Mechanical Engineering.

“I have been a part of Robotics club, since my first year and we have done a good number of projects, which are taken from no where, but self innovated ones but the very basics of Robotics are present in  fourth year. So there is a lot of chasm between what ever we are studying and doing. I feel a deemed university  status of  this sort  is  definitely a solution to such problems where the institute can itself bring changes   as per requirement”, she adds.

Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, which has been in the top 30 private colleges for the  past  four consecutive years, of the top 50 colleges in India, declared by the Outlook Magazine is also the only  college in the Telangana region to be blessed with twelve Crore World Bank assistance from Technical  Education Quality Improvement Program (TEQUIP) and to its credit, all the courses offered by it are accredited  by AICTE (All India Coucil for Technical Education). These achievements are only a few of the achievements of  its students and lets hope that the deemed university status will be conferred to Sreenidhi and its students can now hold their merit aloft, and take the pride of being a Sreenidhian!

Graduate Record Examination (GRE), is a qualifying examination for pursuing Master’s Degree from United States, Australia and many other countries. It is basically a computer adaptive test, which aims at testing verbal and quantitative skills of the students who have completed their undergraduation and looking forward to take Masters in their field of interest. Students, who think of taking GRE, believe that Krupa is one of the most reputed institutions in town. “GRE and Krupa go hand in hand”, students say. Many students from IIT’s come here and take coaching in the their break time before they take GRE.

With the kind of reputation it is carrying, students at first, may probably expect Krupa Coaching as one very vast institute, with branches geographically spread across all places and with students and faculty in huge numbers but to our astonishment Krupa Coaching is one single building with a single classroom, at Nallakunta (near vegetable market)with only two student batches going on in a month. Then if you are still skeptic, about what makes the institute so much popular, then the only answer to this question is to meet Prof. Krupa Shanker, the man behind for all the hype.

It is surprising to unravel that he started his career as a Chef and it took 20 solid years, for him to find out his niche, as teaching. He worked as Chef in ITDC under Central Government for 20 years in many places like Delhi, Bangalore, and Kolkata and at many other places, after which he came back to Hyderabad and started exploring ways and means to find out what he is for! Then he laid the foundation for Krupa Coaching and never turned back. It is his teachings and principles that keep the institute busy through out the year.
Krupa Coaching runs all through the year, and one has to pay RS.6000 for verbal and RS.2000 for quants part( The fee may vary and is likely to change according to time of admission).Duration of these courses is 45 days. The timings for both morning and evening batches are 6:30 A.M/P.M TO 8:00 A.M/P.M. After the training , Mr. Krupa welcomes all his students to clarify their doubt any time till they take the exam. He also advises students to answer arguments and Issues section in GRE and submit him so that he can assess their accuracy and guide them well as these are important sections.For more details: Contact Krupa Coaching at PH: 04027665084, Nallakunta(Near vegetable market, HYDERABAD).

When some one takes a first look at the classroom, it is extremely unlikely and impossible to let your eyes flip, even for a minute as the walls inside keeps us very busy and they are all completely filled up with words, adages and arts.

Krupa Coaching , Nallakunta Credit: Krupa Coaching

Here is what Prof. Krupa Shanker told VidYouth:

VY: Hello sir, How did Krupa Coaching happen?
Krupa Shanker (KS): I worked as a Chef for 20 years, but it never satiated me, finally I found that teaching was my niche and now I’m here.

VY: How could you change your profession after such a long span, as it is very adventurous to start your career in a completely different stream after settling in a career for 20 years?
KS: Initially I had to stumble a lot with the caustics I received from both my family and outsiders. Ultimately, I had to set myself on fire to achieve success in what ever I dreamt.

VY: Why should your students pursue M.S in the U.S?
KS: Indian culture is 800 years old and we have acquired great knowledge when west was not even formed but as years passed this prosperity got declined and now our Indian education system is way substandard compared to U.S. Here, incompetent teachers, poor infrastructures are the main hurdles. Good infrastructure and hands on experience in U.S is what is motivating our functionally illiterate students to pursue Masters.

VY: Why is the emphasis on English?
KS: All knowledge is linguistic, that is in words. The more perfection you gain in a language, the more knowledge you have. As English is global language, today the entire world is behind it.

VY: Why only two batches in a month? With the name you have, you can actually…
KS: I don’t belive in killing the goose, just because it lays golden eggs. I believe in perfection, in all respects. I’m not here to make money, if that was my motto Krupa Coaching would have spread geographically, and multiplied its numbers in all respects.

VY: Secret of Success!
KS: You must set yourself on fire, to achieve success! And find out what are you for?

VY: What do you do the rest of the time?
KS: I’m invited to take personality workshops and I play cricket with my students.

Here is what students say about their institute!

“Krupa, the epitome of wisdom and intellect. His perspicacious command over language(s), razor sharp spontaneity, witty remarks, consummate fluency makes class as a perfect place to learn and live with English”, says a student Harshavardhan Reddy who has experienced all by himself through the teachings of Mr. Krupa Shanker.

“He is a very good motivator. I think one must attend his classes though one is looking forward to take GRE or not” says Nanda

“I have not gone to Krupa, but I have listened to his audio recordings and verbal material, and I found them very, very useful”, Says Karthik

“I heard about Krupa from my friends. His teachings are ultimate as he makes us learn words in numerous ways through self composed poetry, jargon, assignments related to various streams like Personality, Intelligence, Politics, Games etc. which makes classes very interesting” says Rani.

“His sessions are inspiring and motivating” , says Lalithya

Now if one still wonders why should one go for it? His classes are very informative and the kind of material students get there is very good, as it not only comprises of all the information related to GRE and TOEFL but also, consists of audio recordings of words and their meanings, made by Krupa himself for the benefit of students, which a tudent can dump into their mobile to listen to them while travelling.

Success of Krupa can only be assessed from the success stories of its students whom Prof. Krupa Shanker calls as Juggernauts — an unstoppable force that annihilates everything in its path.

* KRUPA Coaching was formerly referred to as GRE Krupa in the previous version of the article.

‘ADASTRA’09’, the national level technical symposium held by the IEEE-STUDENT branch of ‘Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology’ is once again back, to take the studs to stars. The 3 day fest had stunning events and platforms that gave ample of  scope to showcase one’s technical and managerial skills. The central theme of the symposium was ‘Information exchange leading to thought enhancement’. The events gave every chance to serve the purpose of the theme and it attracted students from all over the country. ADASTRA takes pride in its establishment as it is truly a concoction of all student branches and student clubs in SNIST.

Day-1 commenced with inauguration. The chief guest ‘Ashish Mohan Roy’, who is the head of IT Infrastructure services in TCS, had taken the opportunity as a right time, to throw light on status quo of the IT job scenario. He brought out the relevance of  departments other than Information Technology, and advised the students to excel in their core subjects, in the process of confronting the fragile economic system. ’Take up the spirit, and be charged’ was the statement of the day from him. Followed by this were the speeches from the dignitaries of the college, like the  director Dr.P.Narasimha Reddy, Principal, Dr.V.Vasudev Rao and the head of the IEEE-STUDENT branch of SNIST,  Dr.K.Sumanth. Then came the student-chairperson Mr.Mehul Mehta, from ECM-4/4, who took the chance to revive the spirits of his team who have put their heart and soul to make ADASTRA’09 , a reality. The ceremony ended with Mr. Sourabh Sanghi, the secretary of IEEE student branch, giving vote of thanks and later he lead the teams as per schedule. The events of the day were PAPER PRESENTATIONS, prelims of YOUNG MANAGER, selections to VIRTUAL JOB FARE,  C PROGRAMMING (prelims) and B- quiz.

Day-2 was the D-day for the events started on the first  day. It was the day for Robophiles, to play and compete with their machines. ‘Electronics World’ was another event that challenged the  students, not only to display their technical caliber but also their managerial skills. The event goes like this…the participant is given  virtual money and is allowed to purchase electronic components, which are readily available with coordinators. The participant should  take these electronic components and build different electronic circuits. These technical geeks should now become marketing managers, in order to sell these electronic circuits to the judges. The winner is the one who can sell the maximum number of circuits. The event  fostered, both the technical and managerial skills of the engineers which was a rare but quite novel an event for a tehcnical symposium.

R.J SIDDARTH hosting JUNTA QUIZ. Credit: Swarm Swain

Day-3 was a day for fun and masti. The events of the day  were Relay Quiz, DARE TO BE CRAZY, DEXTERS LAB, and JUNTA QUIZ.
JUNTA QUIZ had more than 100 participants in it and the great part  of it was  (masti ki paatshaala fame) R.J. Sid from 93.5 SFM hosting the show. The questions in the quiz simply tested our general  knowledge, smartness of the participants and guess what! Nearly 50% of the junta walked out with atleast one goodie. Goodies comprised vouchers, movie passes and even air passes. The event was extraordinary and simply was a place for loads of fun. Then came the event ‘DARE TO BE CRAZY’, which is seriously a place for  those fearless and venturesome souls. The event went on ‘Rhodies’   lines and was an event one should not afford to miss. Then came the most awaited event of the symposium ‘Treasure Hunt’ .It is for  those energetic souls, who can think, hunt and has a parch to unearth the invisible clues. It was great fun to watch people running, chasing and finding clues. In addition to the above events there were workshops on Ethical Hacking from Ankith Fadia certified  hacker and Robotics.

The fest concluded with valedictory funtion and definitely, those were most awaited and nail biting moments for the participants. The Guest of Honour Mr. N.Vinay Reddy who is the managing director of NVR group of companies gave away the prizes to the winners in their respective events. The events went as per schedule, and no chaos arose anywhere. The coordinators have managed to put a decent show. The fest was powered by IGDI Multiservices Limited, Cognizant Technologies; VOIS-Voice  Of Ignited Souls, NVR Group of Companies, Virgin Mobile,  Vidyamitra, Campus Fever and the media partner was 93.5SFM.

Here are few words from the organizers of ADASTRA’09.  “ IEEE Students’ branch, right from its inception in 1999, has molded everyone’s future who has been associated with it including  me and my team”, says Mr.Mehul Mehta, student-chairperson of  IEEE student chapter at SNIST.  “Quality is what you see here, we have got 600 plus entries in  papers, but then we had to select only 100, 20 from each  department.100 entries are selected for posters. Our team has 60 coordinators and almost 100 volunteers and believe me it wasn’t a  cakewalk at all. We are very happy to see the response we have got and we, with the persistent spirit had a vision to enhance the  technical  competence in students  by sharing knowledge with  ADASTRA. Events such as DARE TO BE CRAZY, JUNTA QUIZ, ELECTRONIC WORLD, VIRTUAL JOBFAIR and many more will make  ADASTRA, definitely a different place to check out” says Sourabh Sanghi, the secretary of the IEEE- Student branch.

The response from the students as given to Vidyouth.
“The fest is great. I was little disappointed that my paper didn’t  get selected, but then it is worthwhile attending ADASTRA. The miniprojects were interesting”, says Ramya Sri from CMR College of engineering.  “ We have come here to participate in Robotic events such as AQUA-RAID   and ROBO-GOLF. We stood in fourth and fifth positions. We have learnt a lot and happy that we could make it. The events are interesting. We will definitely come again to bag the first prize in the next ADASTRA. The lunch provided here is awesome and is ought to be mentioned because, this is one of the  few colleges where we have seen, good food facilities”, says Yokeshwaran (from Gitanjali), who has come with his friends Bhanu Teja (Vignan), Srikanth (VITS), Karthik and Ravikanth (MRITS) to participate in Robotics. “ We stood third in ROBO-GOLF.  We have seen all the events. ADASTRA is a great symposium to check out ”, says Kamlesh from  Murthi Institute of Science and Technology.
The response is a true testimony to the success of the ADASTRA –Heading towards the astral skies.