‘Tamil is no barrier for civil services’

V.P. Jeyaseelan, who has cleared the civil service examinations by writing in Tamil, said regional language was not at all a barrier for the civil service aspirants if they had proficiency in their respective mother tongue.

Participating in a motivational programme for IAS aspirants at the TRACE IAS Academy here on Tuesday, he said it was not a bad idea to choose Tamil for writing the examinations. They were not discriminated for writing in regional languages. The problem was that they would have to really work hard to identify and collect study material in regional languages. However, they could use the translated material from English.

To a question, Mr. Jeyaseelan said they could answer in Tamil in the interview. However, if they answered in English the answers could effectively reach the panel members without interpretation of words by translators.

Stressing the need for self confidence, he said a dedicated preparation just for six months was enough to clear all hurdles in UPSC examinations. But the intense competition might delay them to realise their dreams.

Some may clear in a year, others may need five years to crack the examinations. They should continue to make attempts until they tasted success. They should continuously update themselves on changes in the UPSC syllabus pattern.

While stressing the importance of news paper readings, Mr. Jeyaseelan said no one could attain success in the civil service examinations without following newspapers regularly.

The Hindu was best English daily for the IAS aspirants not only to know the day-to-day news items but also to take down notes from articles on editorial column.

Thanks to : The Hindu | 07.08.2014 | Tiruchirappalli

Learning through video from IIT professors

A team of 20 faculty members are involved in the project.

Students in select engineering colleges in the country are now taking lessons through video from professors of the Indian Institute of Technology and senior company executives under a project.

Funded by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, the Quality Enhancement in Engineering Education (QEEE) programme, launched last year, facilitates students to learn directly from IIT professors and senior company executives from their classrooms.

A team of 20 faculty members each from IIT–Madras, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Bombay and Delhi, are currently involved in the project, which includes 124 colleges, of which 13 are from Tamil Nadu.

Students in the third and fourth year from various engineering disciplines would be given 15 lectures each, covering a third of the portions in the curriculum that are generally about concepts and fundamentals of engineering, said Ashok Jhunjhunwala, QEEE chairman. The programme was initially started in 40 colleges and had now been extended. The idea was to bring more colleges in remote areas under the scheme, he said.

B. Santhanam, former chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry, spoke.