Apoorv Singhal's Blog

Posted on: 12th April, 2o1o

Honorary Doctorate for Chancellor Amma

April 2, 2010
Health Sciences Campus, Kochi

In a special convocation ceremony on May 25, 2010 in New York, the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo will award an honorary doctorate in humane letters to Chancellor Amma, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi.

“Amma is the first Indian to receive this prestigious award,” proudly stated Pro-Chancellor Br. Abhayamrita Chaitanya at a press conference called by Amrita University at the Health Sciences campus in Kochi on April 1.

“As an internationally revered spiritual leader and humanitarian, Amma has inspired and supported a great variety of humanitarian institutions and services, both in India and abroad,” the SUNY Vice-Provost, Dr. Stephen Dunnett told the gathered press and media representatives, speaking from Buffalo, New York.

“These include free food and clothing programs for the needy, charitable hospitals, hospices, disaster relief programs, free homes for the poor, medical camps, orphanages, schools, educational institutions, widows’ pension schemes, free legal advice, and environmental conservation programs, among others.”

When asked why Amma was chosen for the award, Dr. Stephen succinctly replied, “For her humanitarian activities and her contribution to education.”

“Amma is a great champion and advocate for education at all levels. Amrita University and the many primary and secondary schools Amma has established have afforded countless young people unheard of opportunities for self-improvement and advancement,” he pointed out.

He elaborated on SUNY’s collaborations with Amrita University. “Since 2006, there have been a number of collaborative activities including the delivery of dual-master’s degree programs in management and computer science at Amrita’s Bangalore campus,” he mentioned.

“Besides this, we are collaborating on the development of a joint research center and field programs involving Social Work faculty from the two institutions. This opens new avenues for research for both institutions.”

Founded in 1864, the State University of New York has 64 campuses, 464,981 students and 33,455 members of faculty. There are 2,519,307 alumni. Last year, the university’s sponsored research budget touched 800 million dollars.

The University has awarded honorary degrees in the past to the Dalai Lama, Irene Zubaida Khan (Secretary General of Amnesty International), Philip Glass (distinguished American composer) and Jane Goodall (internationally acclaimed primatologist and educator).

“The State University of New York (SUNY) awards honorary degrees to persons of exceptional distinction who have not only made outstanding contributions in their own field but have directly benefited SUNY and its member campuses,” stated Dr. Dunnett.

“Amma’s primary link to the University at Buffalo is in her capacity as the founder and Chancellor of Amrita University, a leading private university in India with five campuses and 15,000 students in three southern Indian states,” he underlined.

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Posted on: 16th March, 2010

Feel free Mr. M.F. Husain! Go, paint Qatari leaders!!

– By Cho Ramaswamy

Now that M.F. Husain has settled in Qatar where there is total freedom, he is free of the shackles imposed by the Indian system on freedom of expression. All those who appreciate his art would now eagerly await his imaginative paintings of the leaders of Qatari society, hopefully not artistically clothed.

His fans would not expect him to confine nudity to Hindu deities alone; it would extend to all the religions. Having already painted his mother, daughter and Muslim kings fully robed, Mr Husain, being the freed citizen that he is now in Qatar, should be prepared to remove those clothes. How can the artist in him be satisfied with seeing Saraswati and Parvati alone in the nude?

Fortunately for art in the nude, the courts here cannot do anything to Mr Husain now that he has run away from the Indian judicial system. All the cases could be now buried amidst the pictures drawn by him. Both would mercifully go to the dustbin.

I am very anxious not to get branded as communal in my thinking. I want to be hailed as a secularist and so I would say with all the force I can command that Mr Husain has the inalienable right to depict the Hindu deities in the most obscene manner while taking care to paint even non-religious Muslims fully clothed.

He can claim that because he hates Hitler he painted him in the nude so he could humiliate him and in the same breath justify his nude pictures of Hindu goddesses as depiction of purity.

And because I am secular, I would also assert that his not returning to India is only to gain freedom from the Indian fascism and not to avoid being apprehended by the law enforcers in this country. Being a liberal-minded artist, he naturally is not able to put up with the protests which do not harm him in any way.

Shunning the Indian system and preferring the Qatar environment is not an act of hypocrisy but one of liberal, secular and free thought. And now that Mr Husain has established himself as such a stout campaigner for free expression, I must believe firmly that he will forcefully plead with his new protectors in Qatar to roll out of a bit of that red carpet to Taslima Nasreen, another hounded victim from the literary world.

– Cho S. Ramaswamy is a well-known political
analyst, actor, dramatist and editor of
Tamil magazine Tughlak

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Posted on: 9th November, 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama’s ‘Take on Bangalore & Beijing’

Obama Wants US Schools To Upgrade To Global Competitive Standards

PRESIDENT Barack Obama on Wednesday invoked Bangalore for the second time in six months when he made a pitch for US schools to develop globally competitive standards to help their students take on “folks in Beijing and Bangalore”. Announcing a $4 billion federal educational aid ‘Race To Top’ programme to encourage US schools to raise their education standards, Mr. Obama said America’s prosperity has long rested on how well its children are educated.

“I’m pleased to report that 48 states are now working to develop internationally competitive standards — because these young people are going to be growing up in a global environment where they’re competing not just against kids in Chicago or Los Angeles for jobs, but they’re competing against folks in Beijing and Bangalore,” Mr. Obama said at a middle school in Madison, Wisconsin.

In May, Mr. Obama had come out with a ‘Say No To Bangalore and Yes To Buffalo’ rhetoric. At a White House event to unveil tax reforms aimed at forcing American multinationals to pay corporate taxes — and keep jobs — at home, Mr. Obama had lashed out at the current US system, saying it encouraged paying “lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York.”

“In the 21st century, when countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow, there is nothing that will determine the quality of our future as a nation and the lives our children will lead more than the kind of education that we provide them. Nothing is more important,” he told students on Wednesday.

Without naming any country, Mr. Obama said the US, which had always led the way in innovation, is now being outpaced in math and science education.

“We used to rank No 1 in the number of college graduates and advanced degrees. That’s not the case anymore,” he said.

Mr. Obama urged states to raise their bar and upgrade their education to meet the international standards. “I also challenge states to align their assessments with high standards — because we should not just raise the bar, we should prepare our kids to meet it. There’s no point in having really high standards but we’re not doing what it takes to meet those standards,” he said.

Emphasising on parent’s role in this great effort, Mr. Obama said lifting up American education is not a task for government alone.

“It will take parents getting more involved in their child’s education. It will take schools doing more to reach out with parents. It will take students accepting more responsibility for their own education,” he said.

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Posted on: 5th October, 2009

Pittsburgh Summit of G-20 – Lessons for India – Too few good men

India stood out at the G-20 meet for its shortage of people

For the Indian government, the Pittsburgh Summit has many lessons. The meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 (G-20) countries ended last week with India realising that it would now have a bigger role to play in the global arena. It would have a say in the manner in which policy prescriptions are to be framed by G-20, now that it has become the premier body for global economic issues.

There is yet another lesson India should have learnt from Pittsburgh: How the Indian government is short of both people and ideas on information dissemination, when it comes to playing an important role in a global body. That it is short of people becomes obvious when one compares the size of the Chinese or even South Korean delegations at the G-20 summit at Pittsburgh with what had been put up by India. There was only one joint secretary-level official from the finance ministry who was shuttling from one room to the other, providing inputs and suggestions to the various meetings that were concurrently going on at the conference centre at Pittsburgh.

Compare this with what the Chinese did. They had assigned several senior officials for different meetings — one set for the G-20 meeting of its sherpas (the special emissaries of the heads of the member governments) and another set for the meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which too were holding their preparatory meetings at Pittsburgh at the same time.

The Chinese have clearly realised that they must invest in building a strong team of officials to make an impact during consultations at these global conferences. So, they created specialised groups of officials who were assigned specific responsibilities in making sure that the Chinese political leadership gets adequate inputs for making themselves heard at the G-20 forum.

In India, the finance ministry’s international co-operation division is preoccupied largely with the affairs of the World Bank and the IMF. The same team that deals with the World Bank and the IMF is now working on India’s interaction with G-20. There is clearly a need for building and expanding a team in the finance ministry that should handle India’s relations with the World Bank, IMF and G-20.

In fact, there is now need for greater co-ordination and co-operation between the ministry of external affairs and the finance ministry. In the early days of economic reforms during the 1990s, there was a proposal to rename the ministry of external affairs as the ministry of economic affairs, in an attempt to underline the importance of economic diplomacy in a country that was growing rapidly and would increasingly play a bigger role in the world economy. The thought then may have been a little premature. But as a member of G-20, the time is now ripe for the Indian government to either expand the international co-operation division in the finance ministry or create a separate division on economic co-operation using officials available in the foreign ministry.

The shortage of ideas was clear from the manner in which the Indian government disseminated information about its interaction with other leaders of G-20 at Pittsburgh. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had gone to Pittsburgh, taking along with him a delegation of media representatives. By his own account, he had a “productive” meeting with other G-20 leaders. But apart from one press conference by the prime minister at the end of the meeting, the Indian government had not organised even one media briefing on how India dealt with the economic issues that came up for discussion at Pittsburgh.

Yes, there was a briefing from the National Security Advisor. Another briefing came from the Special Envoy of the PM on climate change. But was G-20 about security or about climate change? Or was it about global economic issues? The PM’s team had his Sherpa, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla. Did the PM’s team make full use of them and the media delegation present at Pittsburgh? The fact is that none of them came for a briefing. In sharp contrast, all other important member countries were briefing their own media representatives about what their leaders said and how they made significant contributions to the debate at G-20.

India stood out for its shortage of people and ideas on information dissemination.

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Posted on: 26th August, 2009

Chakshuyaan – An Indegenous VTOL Aerial Vehicle developed by the students of Amrita

Amrita’s Chakshuyaan Project Wins Top Prize

August 20, 2009
School of Engineering, Amritapuri

Amrita’s Chakshuyaan, (vehicle-with-eyes), was adjudged the best project at TechTop 2009, a national contest for engineering students organized in Thiruvanthapuram. Over 200 teams participated from all over India; there were 6 entries from the 3 Amrita Schools of Engineering, as well. The 30 teams that were short-listed included teams from colleges in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Finally, Amrita’s team from the Amritapuri Campus won the top prize. The team carried home a cash award of Rs. 1 lakh !!!

“The project has earned back more than the amount that was invested in it,” proudly noted Associate Dean, Dr. Balakrishnan Shankar, who guided the students. The interdisciplinary team was composed of B Tech students from different branches of study and BBM students who helped provide project management expertise. The students had wanted to learn and do something different. “We had wanted to apply the concepts learned in the classroom to real-life applications.” Why Chakshuyaan? “We took it up as a challenge when we saw a prototype that didn’t quite work, developed by IIT students. We thought we would try to make it work.“

It took two years. The students began when they were in the second year of their B Tech studies. Today, the students are in the final year, ready to graduate and go on for higher studies. Today, Chakshuyaan can fly, and equipped with a camera, it can see. This student project can potentially find many applications in surveillance, rescue operations during natural disasters, remote sensing, thermal imaging, GPS mapping and weather monitoring. World-wide there are devices that can perform some of these functions, but this student project is special in that the prototype uses indigenously developed technology that is cheaper. Junior students at Amrita will carry the work forward.

“After we completed the feasibility study in Dec 2007, and the college decided to support the project, we procured servo and brushed DC motors. In June 2008, during our internship at National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore, we learned about brushless DC motors that were much lighter, and were used to power micro-aerial vehicles. We decided to use this motor instead.” The students also decided to build the speed controller for the motor, instead of buying it. Their controller cost only about $20, whereas the commercially-available model was priced at $50. Chakshuyaan is very light. It weighs 6 kg and can carry a payload equal to or even a little greater than its weight.

In August, the students will present a paper at an international conference in Singapore based on their original work in tuning the engine for Chakshuyaan. Their engine uses nitro-methane fuel that is fully-combustible, low on carbon emissions and environmentally-friendly. The students received guidance at every step of the way. “We don’t think that any other college would have supported a student project to this extent. The college funded our efforts and Bala Sir and Josh Sir worked so patiently with us.” Bala Sir is the students’ beloved Associate Dean, Dr. Balakrishnan Shankar. Josh Sir or Joshua Freeman is their equally beloved mentor. He may not have taught any classes that Shreyas Narsipur (Mech), Shibesh Dutta (ECE), Vandana Vikram (ECE), Raghu Menon (EEE), Apoorv Singhal (BBM) and Shashi Sekhar (BBM) attended, nevertheless he was always on hand to patiently answer their many questions and guide them. So were all the other teachers, the students approached. Indeed, their victory is the victory of the entire college !!

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Posted on: 25th July, 2009

Wireless Sensor Network System deployed for Landslide Detection

Amrita University is the youngest Indian University and has been one of the most incontrovertible institution in India. Be it the “education“, “research” or the “INDO-US collaboration“.

AU is the next gen univeristy for the geeks! 🙂

Just, as the duck in the pond seems to be calm on the surface but it is peddling hard to get through, similarly AU has been working very hard to create a niche for itself which can help the nation reverse the brain drain, so that we (India) do not have to depend upon others for its (India’s) own development. This is the dream of Her Holiness Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi and we can very well see it turn to reality.

The WINSOC project is an amalgamation of various hand picked individuals across the university who have put in their best to develop this indegenous masterpiece.

So without much delay please have a look at the article which was published in one of India’s leading daily, The Hindu on 15th July, 2009.

Proud to be a part of this temple of learning!

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Posted on: 22nd May, 2009

“Save Your Culture” – An extraordinary article with simple actions and thoughts written by Stephen Knapp

To whom does Mr. Knapp refer to when he says, “Your” is that “Me” or “You” or the different individuals who are reading this article?? I am not astonished to say this but he is referring to “Us” its “We, The Hindus“

We might have noticed a lot of spam e-mails* in our Inbox titling as “Please forward this to 20 people or you will have a bad luck for 20 years” or “The Original picture of Sai Baba, have a look” or something really crappy. I feel myself disturbed and heart broken when I see these e-mails. The point is we get trapped in this web and forward it just becasue someone has said it to be a bad omen if not sent to a specific number of people??

* atleast I would I call such e-mails as SPAM without a single doubt

I raise a question, Have we lost our 4 and half inches of grey thinking matter in our so called skull or are we merely dumb instruments of this innovation called “click and send”?? You must be thinking who cares, what is the harm. Knock knock, reality check friends, we instill a very subdued matter of communal change in us and start speaking of those whom we never knew or were never connected to in any way.

Did you atleast take an effort to pick up “The Bhagvad Gita” and read atleast minimum of one sloka and understood what it meant? If that would have been the case my dear friend this issue of SAVE YOUR CULTURE would not have cropped up at all.

Without any much delay, please go through.

Thanks

Let’s have a look at this seriously alarming issue.

After touring the area of Northeastern India in late 2002, I can more easily understand the value of the culture of that region, and the need to protect and preserve it. The people of the area are some of the nicest, simplest, and most friendly people I have ever encountered. They show a high degree of respect toward others and for life itself. It would be a real shame if that should ever change.

On the other hand, I come from America, a land rich in facility, technology, wealth, business, global enterprises, and the desire in most everyone to climb the social ladder to increasingly better positions and higher pay. It also has the high crime, the pollution, as well as the selfishness, competition, lack of respect for others, and the impersonal relationships that come with such an environment. Now I ask you, is this real progress? Is this the kind of progress we should be making?

We have to have the foresight to see that opulence without culture and time for introspection leads to a shallow life, even a meaningless life. These days in the West, people look for culture, but since America is so young, we have to look for it from outside our borders. And people in the East may be surprised that Westerners often look toward them for culture. Westerners often look to the East for a deeper understanding of life, of who they are, and to learn what is their connection with the universe and God. There are more Westerners than ever before who practice yoga, study Eastern philosophy, and who are adopting dietary and health disciplines of the East for improving their lives. So the people of India should not think that giving up their own culture or spiritual path to adopt some new technology or Western religion is going to be the answer to their problems. That is not the way it works.

As I have traveled all over India, I have seen that one of the prime reasons for many of the social and environmental problems of the country is not the culture itself, but it is the distancing or even a disconnection from it. Remaining fixed in the true principles of your own indigenous culture, which has gone on for thousands of years, is often the means of keeping social problems to a minimum. But that also means staying educated in what your culture actually teaches and handing that knowledge down to younger generations so that it never becomes lost.

This is something that is important to understand. The Vedic and indigenous cultures of India are the oldest in the world. They have been developed by some of the wisest sages the planet has ever seen. This culture has given some of the most profound knowledge and deepest insights and understanding of life that mankind has ever known. It has existed for thousands of years. So who is to tell me that it is not good enough to last for another several thousand years? Who is to tell me that its philosophy is backward or not up with the times? Do not accept another person coming to tell you that your own culture is not good enough, especially a foreigner who mostly wants you to convert to his Western form of religion, or who tells you that what you do is evil. Since when did it become evil? Who is he to tell you this when his own culture or religion does not have the many years of development as your own?

So don’t think you have to give up your own culture in order to meet someone else’s definition of being “civilized”. Some of these Western religions have been a part of some of the worst wars and most brutal carnage in world history. And so many are divided into numerous sects, like the Catholics and the Baptists, all of which fight among themselves for converts. This should make you ask, how can unity come from such disunity? How can social harmony come from such disharmony? How is this a sign of advanced civilization?

So do not give up your culture or feel that you must convert to some other religion. Do not be tempted to think that your ways are backward. As my own spiritual master, Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami would say, and as Vivekananda has also said, that we only need to combine the Western technology with the Eastern philosophy. This is what helps makes for a progressive society. Develop yourself on all levels, the material and the spiritual. Simply broaden your education. You don’t have to give up your culture or spiritual path to do that. Merely learn and keep up with the modern developments in the world, and use the latest technology when it’s applicable to further enhance your development in your economy, ecology, agriculture, transportation, communication systems, construction of roads, and in your health systems. But there is no need to become so influenced by it that you should feel that you need to give up your own culture, your own values, or your own spiritual practices in the name of progress.

So what should you do??

Here are very strong and possilbe ’Solutions’ which we all know about, but it is just that we are too lazy for our own good. If this is practised for a while it wil become a habit and no one will be able to separate you and your beliefs.  Let’s have a look at it..

SOLUTIONS

1. Practice your own culture and spiritual path. Be proud of what it offers.

2. Learn it deeply. Stay familiar with your traditions, rituals, and holy days, and pass it along to the youth.

3. Make sure the traditions and stories are recorded in books so they can be studied, remembered, practiced, and handed down through the generations.

4. Compile the books of prayers, songs, and stories, and with translations, make them available to everyone.

5. Make the proper and benevolent images to worship where and when it is helpful.

6. Construct centers for prayer, worship, and practice. Such centers are the basis of preserving the culture and offering education in them.

7. Congregate together regularly, and be supportive toward one another.

8. Celebrate and enjoy your festivals, and know and discuss the meaning of them so they are not lost, and be willing to share the beauty and joy of them with all others.

9. In a friendly way, encourage others you know to participate as the basis of a united community.

10. Recognize the need to be pro-active in working to keep your culture. Join or form the organizations that help you preserve and protect your culture.

11. Establish the means or campaign that will assist people to realize the value of their own spiritual heritage.

12. Form political action committees to (A) make sure politicians are aware of your issues, (B) to make sure that they are representing you properly, and (C) to unite voters to bring in a better political representative for the indigenous culture or vote out those who are ineffective.

13. A group should be established in every town and village, if possible, to encourage people in this way.

14. Come together in groups regularly to participate in and discuss your culture, and develop the ways of defending it, especially when it is under attack or threatened by conversion groups who are under a foreign influence.

15. Also recognize the need for true harmony and unity, and know that a true religion or spiritual path does not create disharmony by dividing people into the “sinners” and the “saved” simply because of following different religions or spiritual traditions.

16. There must also be the maturity to balance the old traditions with any new modifications.

17. Unite with other organizations, groups, or village tribes who have similar interests and concerns for cultural preservation, and share information and support with other groups.

18. Start your own schools. Write or compile teacher’s guide books on ways to teach children and others the culture. In this way, the culture will more likely be preserved and passed down through the generations.

19. Work on ways for economic self-sufficiency to be free from the need of support from organizations or religions that actually disdain your own original culture.

20. Followers of Vedic Dharma, Hindus, must be ready and willing to stand up and distribute knowledge to overcome misconceptions, false media reports, the false history of India, and any social or religious injustices that take place toward its people.

21. All foreigners who enter India, especially under a tourist visa, and are seen to be engaged in converting people from their own culture, traditions, and religions, which is illegal in India, must be reported to the government or other groups who will do something about this.

22. Know how to work within the legal system and do not be afraid to take organizations and people to court in order to resolve issues, or delay their activities of denigrating and distorting the truth of your own culture. Bring in lawyers who are willing to help you and who share your concern.

23. Approach the wealthy who will help contribute to do something about these wrongs, and assist in various projects to facilitate the spiritual development of all Sanatana-dharmists and people everywhere.

24. Acharyas must also reach out to the villagers and tribals to show them welcome into the Vedic family, and that they are respected as members of the Global Vedic Community.

25. Encourage all Hindus to participate in politics as a vote bank to oust the politicians who improperly represent the Hindu/Vedic community, and to vote in and support those political leaders who will. This must never be taken for granted. Also, learn how to run for office and get involved in politicis to better defend your culture and bring particular issues to the fore.

26. Report or write to newspapers immediately when errors or unfairness or discrimination appear in their reports. Also, learn to write to the editor on these issues, some of which may get published to offer a different view.

27. When the government or politicians provide laws that favor minorities, or add holidays to the calendar year at the expense of the majority population in India, or refuse to recognize the holidays or traditions of the growing Indian community in countries outside India, then act in ways that will show support for your view and cause in order to make the government realize the importance to change what it is doing, and to provide more support for your own community. Be ready and willing to take such cases to court if necessary.

28. Learn to use and control the media to defend against any misconceptions of Vedic culture. Be ready and learn how to establish radio stations, or radio and television shows and programs to broadcast what is of interest to the community, along with spiritual knowledge that is of interest to everyone. You may be surprised at how many people become regular listeners, or how you become the connection between people and the Vedic tradition. This is a strong way to present correct conceptions and understanding of the Vedic culture, or keep people informed regarding what is actually happening in the district.

29. All Hindus and people of indigenous cultures must become more united in this way, and show their unity. They must also take a stand on important issues together, such as the Rama Sethu issue and others. I have often said, if the Hindus or Sanatana-dharmists could ever really unite, they would be a force that could change the world, and keep India as the homeland of a dynamic and thriving Vedic tradition. Remember, that the Global Vedic Community represents one billion people. That is no small number.

30. Hindus, Sanatana-dharmists, or Vedic devotees must be proud to be what they are. They should not feel afraid or embarrassed to be Hindu, or from India, and must be able to defend their culture and correct misconceptions that other people may have. They must become a collective voice of one billion strong and join in the Global Vedic Community.

31. They can also participate in community activities, and open their temples to the increasing number of Westerners who are curious and interested in the Vedic culture and its traditions. The Vedic community is looking for support and new participants, and the West is the biggest marketplace for their culture than anywhere else right now. So, why not work together to provide enhanced spiritual knowledge for everyone? If we want punya or spiritual credit, there is no way of getting it faster than assisting others in their spiritual development. So, what are you waiting for?

32. Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) must also do their part to preserve, protect, and promote the true understanding of Vedic Dharma, especially in India, and contribute toward the well-being of India’s future. They must also help support those who are working in a similar way, such as writers, lecturers, or Swamis who can help create awareness of current issues and find resolutions for them, and help wake up Hindus of India to become pro-active for the protection of Vedic Dharma. It is not enough simply to work for enlightenment, but NRIs most also help to preserve the freedom so that we can continue to follow the path of enlightenment without obstacles.

If Hindus can work together in this way, this can certainly and quickly change the view and the support the world will have toward Hindus at large.

India’s civilization is the oldest in the world. It has withstood the test of time when others have crumbled. It has weathered the onslaught of many foreign invaders and has still retained its religious and spiritual values, along with its original customs and traditions, which are unique in nature. It is the Eastern culture which has shown itself to be the most respectful and tolerant, allowing all forms of deities and spiritual paths to remain, and permitting the expression of every form of spirituality. It has given liberty of individual thought as the ultimate freedom, which other tyrannical civilizations have denounced, which has also brought about their own demise. Therefore, you have every reason to value what you already have and continue practicing it.

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Amrita University Recieves ‘A’ grade from NAAC

Source: http://www.amrita.edu

January 30, 2009
University HQ, Coimbatore