The city of  Trivandrum has cemented its status as one of the best centers for higher education in the country when Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh inaugurated the first and only Indian Institute of Space Science here in Valiyamala.

The institute, which will be a deemed university in itself will be the first of its kind in the country and joins an elite group of a handful of famed institutes situated in the developed world. The campus is developed in 64 acres of serene land beside the Liquid Propulsion Systems Center in Valiyamala, half an hour drive from Kowdiar. The campus will have an extension up in the Ponmudi hills where another 20 acres will be utilized for the development of  the observatory and laboratory.

Campus Layout (pic courtesy: Malayala Manorama)

IIST has 286 students and 45 faculty members with a student faculty ratio of about 4:1. IIST has introduced a very effective mentoring system where every faculty member has a batch of 4 students to guide,  support and enhance the student learning process- (IIST website)

Keralaclicks is organizing a three day photography exhibition in Thiruvananthapuram during Onam titled Drisyam@ananthapuri. The Exhibition will be inaugurated by famous malayalam movie director Shaji N Karun in the presence of  eminent personalities like famous sculpture and former chairman of Lalitha Kala Academey Sri Kaanai Kunjiraman,director of center for bio informatics Sri Achuthsankar S nair on 30th morning at Museum Art Gallery, Thiruvananthapuram.

Exhibition Date and Venue

30th August to 1st Septeber 2009
At Museum Art Gallery, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

Online membership campaign was initiated by the newly-formed alumni association of the Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Kerala. The aim is to locate all the former students of the department through the e-route.

The association had created a website www.kudcjalumni.org. All former students can register onto the website and fill up the form on the home page. For any clarifications, contact the secretary for membership. Phone: 9349182939

The library at the Natural History Museum to be digitized!  A technical committee had been formed for this purpose and would take a final call on which books to be digitized. Around 5oo books have been identified for compulsory digitization as per the Museum officials.

The NH Museum contains around 3000 books and many of these are so brittle in condition that they cannot be used for reference. And so the city zoo administration is working on the plan to digitize these books.

Online IT testing centre launched in the city! Pearson VUE, the global leader in online IT testing had tied up with Inter Networkz, Kerala’s first CISCO-authorised training and testing centre. Inter Networkz is a learning associate of CISCO with CISCO-certified trainers and state-of-the-art CISCO lab facility for training and testing of CISCO programs like CCNA, CCNP and CCIE.

Network engineering students who opt for CISCO/Microsoft technologies like CCNA, CCNP, CCIE and MCP, MCSA, MCSE as their career can avail of training and testing facilities here.

Its Onam time and and what better way to show the joyful spirit of Onam by wearing it on your sleeve oops I mean how about a twibbon on your twitter image???

Well follow the think http://twibbon.com/cause/onam/Join and do as shown below

And your avatar on twitter  profile would show as below….

HAPPY ONAM TWEEPLE !!!!

IT special economic zone (SEZ) coming up in the city! It is being developed by the software major Infosys on a 50 acre plot nearby Technopark IT campus. SEZ will be having two separate buildings, one is almost ready while work is still going on the other. Each building has a capacity of 1500 professionals. The first building will be open shortrly, only some last bit of work is remaining.

Infosys was planning to open both the buildings together by 2009-end or early next year after completing all works but the government wants Infosys to open the first building at the earliest. So all freshers out there, here’s your chance to get into the IT world.

The payasamela at Kanakunnu organised by Suhruthakkal was a different experience for the tastebuds..there were 20 different varieties of payasams served at the mela.By taking an entry pass of Rs.50-/ anyone could try all the 20 varieties as much as they want.A parcel counter was also working at the mela from where people were taking home their favourite varieties of payasams for their loved ones.Ada Prathaman,semia payasam and eenthapazha(dates) payasam were the favorite varieties at the mela.

Hi-tech reforms launched in KTDC as a part of modernisation. By introducing e-governance, official decisions and activities have become more efficient and transparent. Solving financial irregularities and the time-bound completion of five years’ backlog in auditing was an achievement in computerization.

With the renovation of the KTDC’s website, details of various hotels were available even in mobile telephones. The new website provided information about 30 hotels of the KTDC and also videos of hotel environment, rent of rooms and facilities like online booking were available.

Two-day workshop on ‘Natural Hazards, Disaster Mitigation and Management’ to be held from August 25. The workshop will be organized by Centre for Earth Science Studies on its campus at Aakkulam. Experts and managers from around the country will be attending the workshop to discuss the Disaster Management Act of 2006 and the recent developments in disaster management. The new Act offers stress on disaster mitigation, scientific warning systems and training masses to face natural disasters. An exhibition will also be organized in connection with the workshop.