Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

New facilities at Madras varsity's Taramani campus

Staff Reporter

They include a postgraduate women's hostel building and a conference hall

CHECKING OUT: V. N. Rajasekaran Pillai, Vice-Chairman, UGC, tries his hand at a computer at a library opened at the Madras University's Taramani Campus on Tuesday. Behind him is Madras University Vice-Chancellor, S.P. Thyagarajan, Taramani campus dir ector, A. Michael Aruldhas, and deputy librarian, Ms. Ambuja. — Photo: Vino John

CHENNAI: The University of Madras on Tuesday added new facilities at its basic sciences campus in Taramani. They included a postgraduate women's hostel building, four modern classrooms, a conference hall and LAN facility for the Central Library.

The facilities were set up at the Dr. A.L. Mudaliar Post-Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences under the University Grant's Commission's "University with Potential for Excellence Programme." The university was one of the five institutions to be chosen for the programme, which involved UGC aid to the tune of Rs. 30 crore.

The Taramani campus will also feature A Genetic and Microbiology block (Rs. 2 crore), a Technology Business Incubator (Rs. 5 crore) and a Central Instrumentation Facility (Rs. 1 crore).

Vital component

Formally launching the new facilities, V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice-Chairman, UGC, said modern infrastructure was a vital component of the efforts to improve higher education, especially science and technology. Alongside state-of-the-art facilities, it was also important for young researchers to be internationally competitive.

One of the thrust areas for the UGC is strengthening undergraduate education not only in science but also in subjects such as social sciences, humanities, language and literature, he said.

G. Padmanabhan, former director, Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, pointed to the dismal contribution of universities to research.

Barely 10 per cent of research publications could be sourced to universities with the rest contributed by institutions such as CSIR and ICMR.

Universities should step up their research contributions, he said.

Gunashekharan, UGC joint secretary, said the Madurai Kamaraj University had been selected for the second phase of institutions to be promoted under the UGC programme.

S.P. Thyagarajan, Vice-Chancellor, University of Madras, said the coming projects at the Taramani campus were scheduled to be completed this year.

Anne Mary Fernandez, registrar, and M. Michael Aruldhas, director, Dr. A.L. Mudaliar Post-Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, spoke.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

School curriculum not challenging: IIT professor
From MGR to Vijaykant, the film-politics nexus continues
New facilities at Madras varsity's Taramani campus
Rising incidence of cutting trees alarms green activists
BJP-JD(U) alliance suffers a jolt
`Dispose of silt immediately'
For Barnala, painting is a hobby for charity
Sangam works now in Hindi
Students conduct socio-economic survey at Kannanthangal
"God save North Chennai" campaign launched
Private airline to introduce e-check-in facility
CPI(M) candidates call on Karunanidhi
Celebrating sense of belonging
Italy awaits Indian students
Bus donated to transport patients
Lorry knocks down two on bicycle
From Russia, information
Eye and dental camp organised
Around the City
In Chennai Today

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu