Category: General Awareness

The theme for National Teacher’s Day 2022 is शिक्षकः बढ़ते संकट के बीच भविष्य की नई कल्पना (Teachers: leading in crisis, reimagining the future). The theme explains it all yourself. The teachers play a vital role in guiding and preparing the younger generation to be equipped with the knowledge to deal with them. Moreover, teachers need to promote creative things among their students to come up with out-of-the-box solutions.

“Teachers should be the best mind in the country.” – Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan: In 1954, the Government of India honoured him with the Bharat Ratna, the highest honour of the country. In 1963, he also received the Order of Merit and in 1975, the Templeton Prize. Before gaining Independence, he was addressed as Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and post-independence, he came to be known as Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. 

Several times we came across the famous saying “When we think we know, we cease to learn.” These types of words always motivate us to do higher learning in every phase of life, as learning is a life-long process. Inside us, the student will never fail if we have a teacher of par excellence, like Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

On Teachers Day we thank our teachers for all the efforts that they put into us to make a successful people. Teachers play an important role in our lives. Without them, growth as an individual and in a career is not possible. On 5 September, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan is always remembered to mark a tribute to his great contribution to the nation.

Interesting Facts about Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on Teachers Day

1. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born on 5 September, 1888 at Tiruttani in Tamil Nadu. His father and mother were Sarvepalli Veeraswami and Sitamma. His wife was Sivakamu, and he was the father of five daughters and one son.

2. Throughout his academic life, he was awarded scholarships. He joined Voorhees College in Vellore but later moved to the Madras Christian College at the age of 17. In 1906, he had completed his Master’s degree in Philosophy and became a professor.

3. He was knighted in 1931 and since then till the attainment of Independence, he was addressed as Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. But after independence, he came to be known as Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. In 1936, he was named as Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at the University of Oxford. Also, elected as the Fellow of the All Souls College.

4. He was elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1946. He served as ambassador to UNESCO and later to Moscow.

5. In 1952, he became the first Vice President of India and in 1962, he became the second President of independent India.

6. He was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1954 and in 1961 the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. In 1963, he also received the Order of Merit and in 1975, the Templeton prize for promoting the notion of “a universal reality of God that embraced love and wisdom for all people”. And amazing is that he had donated the entire prize money to Oxford University. 

7. To join the University of Calcutta, Dr. Radhakrishnan left Mysore University. The students of Mysore University took him to the station in a carriage that had been decorated with flowers.

8. From 1931-1936, he was the Vice-Chancellor at Andhra University, and from 1939-1948, he was the Vice-Chancellor at Banaras Hindu University. And at Delhi University, he was the Chancellor from 1953-1962.

9. Let us tell you that in the memory of Dr. Radhakrishnan, Oxford University started the Radhakrishnan Chevening Scholarships and the Radhakrishnan Memorial Award.

10. He had founded Helpage India, which is a non-profit organisation for elderly and underprivileged people.

11. Since 1962, Teachers’ Day in India is celebrated on 5 September every year to pay tribute to Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on his birth anniversary.

12. One more thing which we can’t forget about him is that when he became the President of India, he accepted only Rs 2500 out of Rs 10,000 salary and the remaining amount was donated to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund every month.

13. He died on 17 April, 1975.

“It’s the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom.” – Michael Morpurgo

We can’t forget such a humble man who had devoted his entire life to promoting the value of education and also gave Indians a new sense of esteem by gracefully interpreting Indian thought in western terms.

Thousands of scholars under the National Fellowship for Persons with Disabilities (NFPwD), National Fellowship for Scheduled Caste (NFSC) and National Fellowship for Other Backward Classes (NFOBC) had not received their fellowships since April, after the change in rules by the Finance Ministry. The Maulana Azad National Fellowship of the Minorities Affairs Ministry, too, has been held up.

According to sources aware of the development, a meeting was held by the Prime Ministers Office, where Social Justice Ministry officials were present, on August 12 to address the backlog and it was decided that the UGC would continue to disburse the fellowships under the NFOBC, NFSC, NFPwD and MANF till September 30. After that, the respective Ministries would have to come up with their own mechanism to disburse the fellowships.

National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), IIT Madras, has introduced an online portal for GATE exam preparation, called – NPTEL GATE Portal.

With an aim to aid students preparing for the GATE exam, the NPTEL GATE Portal has been made freely accessible to all students, with CSR support from India’s leading travel technology organization, Amadeus Labs Bengaluru. NPTEL is a joint initiative of IITs and IISc, a provider of free online certification courses.

The GATE preparation portal can be accessed through the following link – https://gate.nptel.ac.in.

The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is a national-level entrance exam that enables aspirants to seek admission for Masters or Ph.D. in IITs or IISc and other renowned institutions. Multiple PSUs recruit applicants based on the GATE score. Through the new portal, NPTEL aims to leverage its existing course content on Engineering and Science domains from its 2,400+ courses portfolio, to provide video solutions, practice tests, and online assistance in line with the GATE syllabus.

Congratulating NPTEL for developing this integrated platform during the launch event today (12^th August 2022), Prof. V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “GATE examination tests the knowledge in fundamentals acquired by a candidate during the undergraduate education. Success in GATE enables both higher education and employment options. NPTEL is leveraging its content to guide and help candidates prepare and create a level playing field by providing equal opportunities for people to attempt the GATE exam.”

Highlighting the unique aspects of the GATE Preparation Portal, Dr. Ramkrishna Pasumarthy, NPTEL Coordinator, IIT Madras, said, “In the NPTEL course discussion forums many learners would ask whether  the course content would be enough to clear GATE exam. The learners would request to solve GATE related problems or provide some assistance in preparing for GATE. We then came up with this idea of creating a comprehensive one stop platform, covering everything from concepts to tricks for cracking the GATE exam. We recently launched live mentoring sessions as well, enabling active learning for GATE aspirants.”

As nearly 9 to 10 lakh students take the GATE exams next year, this portal will make the preparation journey easier for the aspirants.

Speaking about the country-wide impact, Mr. Mani Ganeshan, APAC Engineering Head and Centre Head, Amadeus Labs Bengaluru, said, “Enabling the educational and professional development of students across India and worldwide is a cause close to the heart for everyone at Amadeus. The GATE preparation portal is another example of our efforts of supporting and contributing to the growth of our nation’s upcoming leaders who will shape the future of India. At Amadeus, we are committed to our responsibilities towards our community.”

 Further, Mr. Mani Ganeshan said, “Supporting NPTEL’s GATE Portal, which is freely available to all students from all backgrounds of the country is a step forward in our mission to accelerate positive social impact and create equal opportunities to students from underserved and diverse backgrounds. The response from the learners has been very good for the GATE Portal during the pilot phase. We are excited to see this project yielding our envisioned results and we look forward to supporting IIT Madras in building a better-shared future.”

The GATE preparation portal was launched during an event hosted by IITM PALS, a social initiative of pre-eminent alumni of IITs to augment engineering education by providing interventions to students, faculty & management of engineering colleges in India since 2012.

IIT Kanpur is the Organizing Institute for Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2023. The examination will be held on 4th, 5th, 11th, and 12th of February 2023.

The online registration will begin in the first week of September 2022. Details of the examination shall be available on the #GATE2023 website: https://gate.iitk.ac.in

GATE 2023 will be conducted for 29 papers

Abhay Karandikar, Director  IIT Kanpur, said “ GATE2023 will be a computer-based test (CBT). It will be conducted in twenty-nine subject areas with the choice of selecting two papers in some subjects.”

GATE score is helpful for admission and/or financial assistance to (i) Master’s programs and direct Doctoral programs in Engineering / Technology / Architecture and (ii) Doctoral programs in relevant branches of Arts and Science, in the institutions supported by Ministry of Education.

Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is a national examination conducted jointly by Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore and seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) at Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras and Roorkee on behalf of National Coordination Board (NCB)-GATE, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India. GATE examination is a Computer Based Test (CBT).