New Principal takes over in MBC

DR Paul Mathew has taken over as the new Principal. He came to the college today and there was an HOD meeting at 10 am. went out fine. lot of ideas.

academic schedule, retaining faculty, providing good extra curricular facilities for students etc are some of the issues facing college and we are hopeful it will be sorted out in the cmonmg days.

exams are starting on july 10, 2007. another two weeks of classes.

george

Save Silent Valley, Trash Pathrakkadavu project..

The 70 MW Pathrakkadavu hydroelectric project on the border of the Silent Vally National Park in the Western Ghats is once again in the news. While being pursued and proposed by some people, it is being vehemently opposed by others. This hotspot which has been preserved by the state despite lot of developmental pressures now stands the risk of being depleted of it's rich flora and fauna. Unless the state takes the necessary steps, it is going to be part of history. The other hotspot, the Amazon forests is also facing such a crisis of development versus preserving natural equilibrium.

Development is a vital concern for the state. The growing demands of a developing society, me included, of electric power is a threatening factor for governments during election time. Imagine a day one has to live without power. Electricity has become a vital part of our life, enabling us to do many big tasks which our forefathers using raw manual power could never even imagine of accomplishing. The state cannot wash hands off both these competing concerns of these two different groups of people, one trying to preserve and the other expending.

The first and foremost step the state can take to meet the growing power needs is to raise the efficiency of the present generation, transmission and distribution system of electrical power. It is said that with regard to the state electricity boards, this wastage combined with pilferage and theft accounts to almost 43 % of the total power generated. It means one half of the people is paying for and subsidising the power needs of the other half. The other half notable includes the rich, mighty and influential in the society, the so called parasites who live off others. What a pitiable state of affairs in the country.

The fact that the Leader K Karunakaran's daughter Padmaja was stealing power in her house in Kochi made headlines some years back. The state acted earnestly to prevent such leaks. That did defame some of the prominent personalities in the state who were living off the state. The same urgency the state needs to show now to streamline efficiently the transmission and distribution of power. Traning programmes for the Engineers and field staff on the need to conserve energy and to improve efficiency of operations is the need of the hour. As in every sphere of life corruption plays a major role in this sector of the economy.

Using standard, certified energy efficient devices, the need for certifying agencies to rate the different electrical devices and to impress on the companies the need to to self regulate themselves regarding such devices for posterity will definitely take the message of conservation lot ahead. As a first step the state could propose to stop the use of filament bulbs in government offices and homes in the state.

Turning back to mother nature and over exploiting (raping ) her every time we fail in our efforts to discipline and educate ourselves, is a crime not only against nature and our society, but also shows our carelessness for the generations to come.

Let us not forget the ancient proverb (anonymous)

We have not inherited the planet Earth from our ancestors, but have borrowed it from our children.

george..

MGOCSM one day conference at MBC, 27 May 07.

Theme - Prepare to meet your God. - Amos 4:12

Date - 27 May 07

Venue - St Marys Chapel, MBC, Kuttikanam, Idukki, Kerala.

Timings - 10.30 AM to 4.30 PM

Inauguration : Rev. Fr Dr. V M Abraham, All India Gen. Secretary, MGOCSM.

Programme

Prayer Song - 10.30 AM - MBC MGOCSM choir

10.35 AM - Icebreakers - Introduction of members

11.00 AM - Welcome Speech - Dr. George Easaw, Professor, Head, Mech Engg Dept.

11.05 AM - MGOCSM Choir

11.15 AM - Bible Reading - Amos Chaper 4

11.20 AM - Leadership session - Leader Fr Dr. V M Abraham

12 noon - Group Discussion - Role of Spiritual movements in moulding student personality.

1 PM to 1.45 Pm Lunch recess

1.45 - 3 PM - Group Activities

3 PM - Presentation of group findings

3.30 PM - Send off to Dr E V Mathew, Principal MBC., Speeches by Fr Tiju Ipe Dean (students), Prof (Rtd.) Dr. George Eapen, Bursar, MGOCSM office bearers and Dr E V Mathew.

4.30 PM - Vote of Thanks - Ms Christina George..


End of Conference

Al students desirous of attending the conference are requested to contact the Conference Secretariat at 0924-931-9335

Achummava ... great job .. !!

Demolition in full steam.. congrats Achummava ..

The past one week has been very momentous in Kerala history. Encroachments of govt land, belonging to the different departments, are being evacuated by the Revenue dept and police officials right through the state. It is very interesting news as this is the first time that any government is taking firm steps in the history of Kerala to take up demolitions and evacuation of encroachments in such a big scale.

Nobody expected the likes of Abad group, BCG group, Varkeys or Shenoys to bite the dust and be ridiculed and booed by the public watching the demolitions. It was an expression of pent up anger, frustration and public disillusionment at encroachment of govt / public land by the rich, powerful and the influential in Kerala society.

Every day the people are reading and watching with great interest and (glee) when the news of the demolitions coming up on TV and the print media.

It is publicly known fact that all these encroachments would not be possible without the active and tacit support of corrupt govt officials and politicians. It is a sad reflection of the erosion in societal values by these parasites of the society. While a faction of the ruling party is hell bent on demolitions, another faction, is trying to protect these wrongdoers by coming out with statements against the special party set out to remove encroachments and coming up with statements against the CM.

SCMS Kochi, near Kalamassery which today boasts of the best management school in the state, is sitting on sixty cents of land unlawfully encroached and reclaimed from the Periyar. The institute which was started as a parallel college in the seventies now boasts of huge infrastructure at two campuses and a third one coming up in Coimbatore. If the govt demolishes that site, it is going to send out the real govt intentions on the demolitions. Rivers of the land have been blocked and being filled up, water logged lands and fields are being filled in different parts of the state. Al this is being done by private parties to satisfy their greed. Many top real estate establishments will bite the dust in the coming days.

It appears the govt operation is on a massive scale with evictions being reported from many parts of the state. This may take several months. Finally the common man will be able to reclaim what is his common property, the land, hillocks, rivers , lakes and the natural beauty of Kerala.

If it is to this scale in Kerala, imagine the rest of India !! Chennai and Bangalore will be stinking and node deep in corruption !!

The traders in Kochi are on a day's strike as they want more time to demolish the constructions they have illegally built !!

What a bunch of jokers !!

george..

Ills of ragging ..

Ragging these days has acquired a demonised image due to the wrong interpretation of the word and the sadist nature of the people engaged in this cruel act. It has acquired an image causing severe emational and physical damage and fear to the victim and his family, leading many a time to suicides, attempted suicides and deserting the institution.

When I was a student, ragging had it's different dimensions but not such a cruel and sadist face. The form of ragging then was the informal introduction with the seniors, - harmless icebreakers, which was enjoyable. I even remember to this day how I was ragged in the College of Engg, Trivandrum by my seniors in 1981. During that time ragging was existing only in Professional colleges. These days we find ragging is very common even in arts and science colleges. Some of the higher classes in some prestigious schools in the country have some form of this inhuman way of introduction.

It is just the right time for the Supereme court of the country to interfere and put the onus on the Institution to take action and file FIR with the nearest police station in case of any incident of ragging in their institution, even if there is no written or oral communication of such an incident from the aggrieved party. The threat of culpable negligence likely to be charged against the Institution authorities against any inaction on their part, fearing maligning institute reputation, makes ragging a very severe offence.

The committee which was formed to suggest recommendations to this inhuman initiation procedure in educational institutions under the chairman ship of R K Raghavan, former head of CBI, makes ragging an offence under the Indian penal code and changing the Indian evidence act by shifting the burden of proof from the victim to the perpetrator , waiting for passage by Parliament, is evidence of the serousness the govt has given to this form of icebreakers between the seniors and the freshers in educational institutions.

Forming anti-ragging squads, anti-raging committees, mentoring cells for senior students in the institutions and monitoring cells at different levels of society is required to cleanse the Indian society of this evil - the harmless ice-breaker between seniors and freshers.

george..

Low-cost Airlines and aviation industry in India..

India has at present four private low cost airlines Air Deccan, Spicejet, Indigo and GoAir and Air India Express, from the Indian stable, which runs low cost flights also out of the coutry. Out of the total 32 million passengers who travelled by air last year, one third, almost 9.4 million travelled by low cost airlines. I do not know what is this proportion in other countries. The pioneers in low cost airlines is the United Airlines of US.

Air Deccan continues to be the leader notching almost 61 percent of this market. Air Deccan and it's founder Capt. Gopinath still seem to keep it's focus hard on catering to the economy class passengers or the middle class of the country and also the first-timers. Eventhough the Railways is giving them a good run for their money by reducing the first class fares in Railways, people seem to prefer air over rail considering the time factor. ( even then the railways is making huge profits with better passenger, freight and infrastructure management. Last year Railways profits of rs. 20,000 crores or US $ 4 billion is a historical first for any public utility in the world bringing laurels to the Indian Railways and it's key man-in-charge Lalu Prasad Yadav. We even had top business universities with their profs and students queueing up outside the Railway Bhavan in New Delhi to have an audience with Lalu)

Eventhough low cost airlines is doing well regarding numbers, it is not so rosy a picture regarding their bottomline. The private low cost airlines together made a loss of Rs. 320 crores last year, while the govt sector Indian made a profit of Rs 20 crores.

A shakeout is imminent in the low cost airlines market, even though new players from the South are waiting to enter the market very soon.

Recently the biggest aeroplane, the 880 passenger capacity A 380 was in New Delhi and Mumbai, courtesy Kingfisher Airlines. The aviation market is still upbeat about the potential of this sector of the economy, considering the pending orders worth hundrds of billions of dollars with Boeing and Airbus.

Rosy picture ahead for this sector..

george..

GD Forum at MBC .. Smart city and Munnar..

The group discussion forum ( GD Forum) at MBC started functioning yesterday, Wednesday in MBC. We had two topics for discussion and eleven students participated.

The first topic Smart City - boon or bane, got the participants all echoing in one voice that the govt needs to interfere and set up some units with govt control so that the future of the park is assured. While some argued that it may not be possibl;e for the govt to enter into the IT area, it should at least exercise good control over the park and see that it does not die a natural death.

The park exists solely on the trust that the IT companies coming there will bring in outsourced jobs / new development projects to the park. In case they do not, the park will just die out.

Orthopaedic surgeons and psychiatrists etc will find good job in kochi given that smart city will stay. The psychological and social impact the software job is to bring to the Kerala society is a grave one and needs to be closely looked at by sociologists.

"Munnar evictions, the conflict of private interests and the state interests", was the other topic of discussion which generated much heat. While the majority were of the view that the buildings are on govt land and should be demolished outright without any questions asked, some were of the view that the buildings have already come up and damage had already been done. Let the govt sieze the buildings and ask KTDC or so to manage them. Else it will be a wasteful exercise, doing good for nobody. It is a fact that the builders have encroached on govt land, they deserve no mercy. In fact while writing this post, the Supreme court has refused to stay the demolition process on govt land.

It is not that the government is totally free of blame. It is govt lethargy, inaction, complicity and corruption which made them close an eye to all such unauthorised constructions earlier. Also the govt never had a concrete plan for Munnar's growth as a tourist destination. The govt has failed miserably in stopping this construction at the first place.

The govt has all along been harping on projecting Kerala as a tourist destination. Without the required infrastructure to stay in Munnar how can the govt plans materialise ? Is it ia sin on the part of the entrepreneurs to spend their own money and start the resorts to woo the tourists ? Most of the land documents have been transferred three or four times. The complicity of the builder in the encroachement process thus cannot be proved, in most of the cases the builder may be innocent...

As the CM has declared, it does not matter whether the cat is white or black as long as it catches mice.. (originally said by Deng Xiao Ping of China), the job is being accomplished neatly by the committee appointed for the purpose and govt land is being reclaimed ..

The claim by the former ruler of Munnar that her forefathers had leased the land to John Munroe around 1870s and was leased to the Kannan Devan group has been accepted by the govt of India and Kerala, adds a new straw to the whole issue.. The land which govt reclaims may actually go to the royal family, thousands of acres.

Let us wait and see.

george..