President dedicates Srinivasa Ramanujan International
Monument & Srinivasa Ramanujan Centre to the Nation

             r.   A.P.J. Abdul Kalam,   President    of   India,
            dedicated the Srinivasa  Ramanujan  Centre and
            Srinivasa Ramanujan International Monument at
Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu to the Nation on 20th December,   2003.  A 2-
day              international 
conference on  'Number
Theory    for        Secure 
Communications'     was 
also inaugurated  by  the 
President   to  mark  the 
occasion.                 The 
Ramanujan International 
Monument is the   house 
of Srinivasa  Ramanujan, 
internationally renowned 
Indian        mathematical 
genius,    where  he lived 
till    he   left  for England. 
Ramanujan had his school and college education also in Kumbakonam. The Srinivasa Ramanujan Centre, a 6-storeyed building in a campus of 10 acres of land houses a Mega Scanning Centre (one of the five centres in India), Mathematics Research Centre and State Laboratories. Prof. V.S. Ramamurthy, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology; Prof. V.N.Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chairman, University Grants Commission; Dr. M.S. Vijayaraghavan, 

Executive Director, Society for Electronic Transactions Security also spoke on the occasion. Prof. R. Sethuraman, Vice Chancellor, SASTRA Deemed University welcomed the dignitaries. Prof. K.G.
                                        Seshadri,  SASTRA, gave the
                                        vote   of   thanks.  Over   150
                                        participants from different part
                                        of     India    and    about    50
                                         international         participants
                                         took    part    in  the   various
                                         deliberations        of          the
                                         conference. The institution  of
                                         a monument and  a  centre  in
                                         the     name    of    the    great
                                         mathematical              genius,
                                         Srinivasa      Ramanujan    by
                                         SASTRA    was   seen  as an
                                        act of instilling and  promoting
                                        national pride, apart from   the
academic aspects by all the speakers. The life and work of Ramanujan seen through his letters to his parents, colleagues and officials and through the famous "Lost Notebook" should be guiding spirit to academics, planners, universities, governments and society at large in this country. His life and work reflect the true genius of Indian rural youth and the miseries associated with the rural middle class and poor in this country, the President observed.

            he    Prof.      M.V.
            Pylee   Award   for
            the     Distinguished
Academician of India-2003 is being given to Dr. K. Venkatasubramanian, Member, Union Planning Commission, and a noted economist, educationist, educational planner and

visionary. The Award was instituted by the Cochin University of Science and Technology from an endowment created by Prof. M.V. Pylee, former Vice Chancellor of the University. The triennial award consists of a cash prize of Rs. Two lakhs, a memento and a citation. Earlier, noted social scientist Prof. M.N. Srinivas, famous astrophysicist Dr. J.V. Narlikar and renowned medical technologist and educationist Dr. M.S. Valiathan were the recipients of this award.