Text of the address by G. Suresh during the Public Function on 31st October 2007 at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore Chennai held as part of 132nd Birthday Celebration of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. www.siv-g.org conducted a nationwide online essay contest for the college and school (CBSE) students on the theme "Integrity and good governance".
Respected dignitaries on the dais, off the dais, my dear students, ladies and gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure in providing a brief account on the online essay contest conducted by www.siv-g.org in association with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Trust, Chennai and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai Kendra. It is indeed a great honour to www.siv-g.org.
In fact, the request for conducting an online essay contest came from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Trust, immediately after the Online Essay Contest conducted by www.siv-g.org in association with the Mylapore Academy, as part of 60th Independence Day. It was told that the contest is going to be a part of the 132nd birthday celebration of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel; it hardly required any time to accept to the proposal. Conducting a contest of Sardar Patel, a legendary known for ‘integrity in public life’ at www.siv-g.org is in fact a great honour and strengthens SIV-G and its cause. ‘Integrity in public life’ is one of the important factors which lead to good governance. The present sad state of affair is absolutely due to lack of integrity.
Keeping this in view, the theme of the Contest has been chosen as “Integrity and Good Governance” which perfectly goes with the cause for which SIV-G is thriving. I hope SIV-G must now be familiar to you which stand for Self Imposed Vigilance for Good Governance.
The contest this time was conducted nationwide for the College and School (CBSE) students. The topics given to the College students were (i) are we living up to the expectation of Sardar Patel? OR (ii) Importance of ‘Integrity in public life’ in achieving good governance. Similarly for the School students the topics given were (i) Sardar Patel – a symbol of integrity OR (ii) What does ‘integrity in public life’ mean to me?
Again, the topics were chosen in such a way that the students tend to think about a legendary leader like Sardar Patel and also on ‘integrity in public life’, its relevance and importance today. Not so surprisingly, somebody raised an eye brow and cynically commented “do still people remember a word called integrity?” Nevertheless, there has been 51 Registrations received for this contest. The last date for submission of entries was 20th October, 2007 (11.59 p.m. IST).
The Juries from different corners of the globe have been extremely supportive and I am grateful to them for their commitment. The panel of Jury included:
1. Dr. Som Karamchetty, M.Tech (1961) – IIT, Kharagpur, Ph.D. (1965), a Colombia based Consultant on Education, Research, Management and Concept Development,
2. Mr. Charukesi Viswanathan - A freelance journalist / writer for about 30 years in Chennai.
3. Ms. Anita Kandukuri, Tech Lead and Executive Manager, Commonwealth Government, Australia,
4. Ramakrishnan Ramaswamy - General Manager (Facilities Management), WIPRO Technologies & WIPRO BPO, Bangalore,
5. Mr. V. Sivakumar, M. Tech (Chemical Engineer) from IIT (1978) Director, PCRA, Chennai.
6. Dr. Amit Wanchoo, Social activist & President, Rotary Club of Kashmir, “World Yale Fellow 2007”, Srinagar.
The technical help for this contest was provided by Mr. Varun. S of Google who is in California, USA and Mr. Anand Kumar, my colleague in Chennai.
Interestingly, the contest seems to have made an excellent impact of the Judges who evaluated the essays as well. Ms. Anita Kandukuri one of the Judges, who lives in Australia says, “Thanks once again for giving me the opportunity to learn from this contest. The topic about Sardar's was interesting what I learnt in my school is long forgotten and this is an eye opener”. Another Judge Mr. Ramakrishnan of WIPRO, Bangalore expressed, “It was my pleasure to be associated with this contest. In the process I learnt few things also”.
However, there is a word of caution from Dr. Som, from Colombia, USA for the students when he observed “Some of the essays read very well but unfortunately, I found that the writers have heavily borrowed material from other publications without attribution. This is a serious problem. I suggest that you make an announcement on your web site suggesting that this is a dangerous practice”. I wish the students take a serious note of this observation.
Well, the results after evaluation by the jury were published on 25th October, 2007. Mr. Jagdish Mohan of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore bagged the first prize in College category and S. Srividya of Kola Saraswathi Vaishnav Sr Secondary School, Chennai bagged the first prize under School category. It is encouraging that a student of IIM took part on a theme “Integrity in public life and governance” and also won the first prize. It really shows the concern this generation has for the country. Similarly a student of Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, New Delhi also took part and got third prize. I am sure these are the positive things happening and would definitely is a silver lining. Interestingly, most of the participants are girls.
However, I must confess that the overall response has not been very encouraging, for a nation wide contest. It makes one to think that the present generation, perhaps, is slowly forgetting Sardar Patel and sadly, his contribution to the Nation as well. Sadly, there is not a single entry even from the home state of Sardar Patel!
In any case, it is the interest and enthusiasm shown by the students is remarkable and highly appreciable. I am sure with their continued involvement and support, the spirit of SIV-G and the purpose behind this contest would be spread and realized by many more youngsters in the days ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity.
G. Suresh
Founder, SIV-G
www.siv-g.org
