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Rural based Sembodai RV Engineering College starts a Business Communication Club, after a four day workshop
Monday, July 20, 2015 No comments
Inauguration of Four days business communication course at
Sembodai RV Engineering College
Sembodai RV Engineering College (Nagapattinam Dt) organised four days workshop on 'Business Communication'. Prime Point Srinivasan conducted the workshop (16th to 19th July 2015) with the support of Dr Jagannathan Ramasawmy (Former Vice Chancellor of Middle East Univeristy). Shri Ponraj Vellaichamy (Scientific Advisor to Dr Abdul Kalam) inaugurated the workshop over phone from Delhi and he stressed the need for improvment of communication skills. Susan Koshy (Former General Manager of IDBI and Communication expert) and Narayanan Sundararajan (Senior official in an IT firm) shared their views from Chennai over phone and interacted with students on the strategies for improvement of communicaiton skills.
The Chairman and Founder of Sembodai RV Engg College Shri Varadharajan was personally present during many of the sessions on all four days. The faulty members took lot of initiative to provide support services.
During the validictory function, the Chairman of the College Shri Varadarajan launched a google group for the participants to discuss among themselves various tips and strategies to improve communication skills. This initiative will help around 60 students (participants) to improve their skills.
Nearly 100% of the students studying in this college are from rural areas and from poor and lower middle class families. Even for Management quota students, the college charges only the lower fees. For Scheduled caste and Scheduled Tribe students, they provide free transport service during the entire study period of 4 years.
The course was designed and conducted by Prime Point Srinivasan. Dr R Jagannathan (Former Vice Chancellor of Middle East University, UAE) supported the course.
Dharmapuri MP Dr Anbumani shows the way - Organises Education Loan Awareness programme for bankers and students
Wednesday, June 03, 2015 Education Loan No comments
Dr Anbumani Ramadoss MP (third from left), Prime Point Srinivasan (fourth from left)
Dr Anbumani Ramadoss (Former Union Health Minister and sitting MP of Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu) organised an unique event on 1st June 2015 at Dharmapuri to create awareness about education loan among the students and parents. He had also invited all the local Bank Managers.
Probably this is the first time, a sitting MP is organising such awareness programme anywhere in India for the benefit of people in his constituency. They made a wide publicity through media, banners and pamphlets. More than 300 students and parents participated in this event.
Prime Point Srinivasan, Convenor of Education Loan Task Force (ELTF) was the Chief Guest and he delivered a talk on various aspects of Education Loan guidelines. This event helped to ease the tension between the bankers and the public and to understand each others difficulties.
Two important things observed was that though Reserve Bank of India and Indian Bank Head Office specifically advised all the banks not to follow 'service area concept' for education loans, Lead District Manager of Indian Bank openly admitted in the meeting that they were following service area concept for their convenience. However, ELTF has taken up the issue with Indian Bank Head Office.
Secondly, the local State Bank of India has not been granting any education loans presently citing bad debts. This matter is also being taken up by ELTF with State Bank of India Chairman.
While addressing the gathering, Srinivasan explained the application procedures, eligibility of interest subsidy, grievance redressal mechanism, etc.
While summing up the views, Dr Anbumani MP said that this programme was more a sensitization programme for both bankers and the students. He also assuired to take up with Finance Minister the mess up of interest subsidy matter.
This event was an unique event which can be emulated by other MPs and MLAs in their constituencies. Another important matter which needs 'three cheers' is the total neutrality of the programme. Though Dr Anbumani is the leader of a big political party, his team ensured that no political colour was given to the event.
Some of the photos:
Cyber Society of India bats for Net Neutrality and review of 66A judgement
Saturday, April 25, 2015 cyber law, cyber security No comments
(L to R - Kapaleeswaran, Dr P Vanagamudi, G R Swaminathan and V Rajendran)
Cyber Society of India (CySI) organised a Seminar at Dr MGR Janaki College, Chennai on Saturday the 25th April 2015 on the recent trends in Cyber Laws. Dr P Vanagamudi, Vice Chancellor, Dr Ambedkar Law University, Tamil Nadu inaugurated the Seminar. G R Swaminathan, Asst. Solicitar General, Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) delivered Key note address. Many Senior Lawyers, consumer representatives also shared their views.
The Seminar focussed generally on the recent Supreme Court Judgement on 66A of IT Act and the much debated 'Net neutrality'. Dr Vanagamudi was in support of the Judgement. Other speakers Shri G R Swaminathan, Shivakumar (Advocate, Bangalore High court), Sujatha (Consumer activisit) and V Balu (Adocate, Madras High Court) felt that the Supreme Court Judgement was erroneous. They uniformly felt that this judgement may pose risks to women They wanted the Government to file a review petition before the Supreme Court.
Dr B Muthukumaran, Technical expert explained the various aspects of Net Neutrality and emphasised that there should not be discrimination while providing internet connectivity to the consumers. Even Sujatha also felt that there should be net neutrality and it should not be changed.
The powerpoint presentation made by Dr B Muthukumaran on Net Neutrality.
Photos taken during that occassion.
Retired Police Officers publish ezine to share their investigation experiences
Monday, April 13, 2015 education, ezine No comments
(Mr Anoop Jaiswal IPS, Director General of Police (third from right)
releasing the print edition of the ezine 'Kakkiyin Pakkam')
The retired Police Officers of 1976 (Direct Sub Inspectors) batch in Tamil Nadu have formed an association by name 'Former Police Officers 1976 Chennai (FoPs76Chennai) recently. All the professionals from various organistions, when they retired, they form an association only to keep their contact in tact. These retired Police Officers decided to document their investigation experiences and case studies for the benefit of their juniors and publish every quarter an ezine (emagazine). They also named this ezine as 'Kakkiyin Pakkam' (Pages of Police). They will be sharing this ezine through email with all the Police Officers and Police Stations in Tamil Nadu. In order to make this ezine more meaningful, they have decided to publish in local language Tamil, so that even the constables can avail the advantange.
The print edition of this ezine was launched by Mr Anoop Jaiswal IPS, Director General of Police, USRB, Tamil Nadu in the presence of a galaxy of present and past police officers. While appreciating the efforts of the retired Police Officers, he also appealed to them to write freely all their experiences, so that the juniors could get the benefit of their wisdom. Shri Rajendran, Addl DGP and Dr Vanagamudi, Vice Chancellor of Ambekar Law University also felicitated the new initiative.
Prime Point Srinivasan provided the technical support to their Editorial team to bring out this ezine. He was also honoured by the Director General of Police.
The Associations of retired officers from other organisations like Banks, bureaucracy, etc. can also emulate the example of these Police officers, by documenting their experiences for the benefit of their junior colleagues.
Congratulations FoPs76Chennai Team!
The ezine can be downloaded from the link (11 mb in pdf format)
http://goo.gl/8inXxS
Supreme Court Ruling on 66A of IT Act – Freedom of Expression Gained; Protection to Women Lost
Wednesday, April 01, 2015 cyber crime No comments
In 2011, six young ladies in Coimbatore filed a complaint with the Cyber Cell of the Police Department, alleging that they were receiving menacing calls repeatedly from an unidentified number. Investigations traced the call to a single person making similar calls to various other young ladies repeatedly. Although hundreds of ladies were reportedly victims, only a few came forward to complain to the police. The police arrested the person under Sec 66A of IT Act and got him convicted in 2014 to one year of imprisonment. He is in prison now.
There are hundreds of such complaints under 66A, pending all over India, in many police stations and courts for punishment of cyber stalkers. In all the cases, the victims are young girls. After the recent Supreme Court judgement scrapping Sec 66A from the IT Act, these cyber stalkers will walk free from jail or the pending case, unpunished for their crime. The entire media and even the young ladies celebrated this judgement of "newfound freedom for the society", not knowing that it protects the cyber stalkers from arrest for harassing their victims, especially women. Unfortunately, without realising the implications, the electronic media, politicians and youth, including women, have been hailing this as landmark verdict and as a great victory in the freedom of expression.
Freedom of Expression in the Indian Constitution
Article 19 (1) (a) of the Indian Constitution provides freedom of speech and expression to all citizens. At the same time, Article 19 (2) empowers the State to make any law to impose reasonable restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression, in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence. This article provides sufficient powers to the Government to enact any law to reasonably restrict the freedom.
Referring to this Article in one of the cases, Justice Patanjali of Supreme Court observed on 19th May 1950 that "man as a rational being desires to do many things, but in a civil society, his desires will have to be controlled with the exercise of similar desires by other individuals"
Background of Section 66A
Dr Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister agreed to review the Information Technology Act 2000, after the arrest of the CEO of baazee.com in 2005. In 2008, some clauses of IT Act 2000 were amended to improve its clarity. Section 66A was taken verbatim from Sec 127 of Malicious Communication Act 2003 of United Kingdom. The original IT Act 2000 and the amendments in 2008 were passed without any discussion in the Parliament. "I consider that it is not correct to say that Section 66A was introduced to protect anybody in Congress/UPA as reported in the media. However once the law was available, a senior minister perhaps thought of using it to take control of the social media at different points of time, leading to the last elections. Let's give neither credit nor discredit the politicians for Section 66A" says Mr Naavi, a Bangalore based Cyber law expert and the author of the first Indian book on Cyber Law.
Impact of Removing Sec 66A
Some politicians did abuse and misuse Sec 66A for their benefit. The media hyped the issue, attributing the abuse to the prevalence of this section. A large population of the country, who rely on the electronic media for current updates, started believing that this section was 'draconian'. In reality, there are many other clauses in IT Act 2008 and IPC that are draconian and can be misused by the police and the politicians, and the people.
"Why blame only the police and the politicians for misuse of 66A? When the police wrongly arrested a person, they were anyway produced before a Magistrate. If the Magistrate had felt that the police had abused Sec 66A, he could have reprimanded the police officer and taken suitable action. Instead, in all the cases, the courts remanded the accused persons or granted bail. That shows the lack of awareness about the clause 66A even in the judicial system. I know that thousands of innocent girls were protected because of 66A. Unfortunately, none of the media houses had taken a serious note of this, as the clause protected only ordinary, poor citizens and not VIPs. I know myself, that every year nearly 2000 complaints are received in the cyber cell of the police at Chennai and Coimbatore. Other states may also receive a large number of complaints. Nearly 50 to 60% of them relate to 'cyber stalking' of women. Instead of removing 66A from the IT Act, the Supreme Court should have advised the Government to frame rules on the lines of UK, and train the police and judicial system on the interpretation of the clause. This judgment has now closed the only available route for women to complain against cyber stalkers", says S.N. Ravichandran, a member of the Cyber Society of India at Coimbatore.
Rules Governing Prosecution in UK
When Sec 127 was included in the Malicious Communication Act 2003 in UK, similar arrests occurred in UK. When the matter was taken to the Apex Court, they upheld the clause. In June 2013, the UK Government issued some guidelines on prosecution cases involving messages sent through the social media, and clarified the implication of the Act. The notification can be accessed at
http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/a_to_c/communications_sent_via_social_media/
"Some of the words in the various Acts are defined through usage over a period of time and cannot be defined in the Act itself. They all depend on the circumstances under which an action is done and the intention of the person. The main objection in the 66A was the undefined words like 'grossly offensive', 'menacing', etc. In the judgment of UK's Apex Court, the judges have treated them as ordinary words in English language and wanted the meaning to be verified from the dictionary. Similarly, this section 66A was not intended to curtail the freedom of speech or expression. It was intended for the communication between two persons or group of persons through digital devices, and not those meant for the public domain. The Supreme Court verdict was based on the presumption that Section 66A was applicable to the publishing of content in the public domain. This presumption was wrong. Since the premise itself was wrong, the verdict deserves to be overturned. The Government and the women activists should move the Supreme Court for review immediately', adds Naavi.
Cyber Stalkers vs. Women Victims
The entire Indian media seem to be ignorantly misleading the public that women can get protection from cyber stalkers through the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and also though Sec 67 of the IT Act. "If a cyber stalker transmits obscene or sexually explicit material to a woman, then he can be booked under Sec 67 and also under IPC. But, if the same person transmits an annoying message like 'I love you' persistently or calls up a woman and disconnects the phone several times, the woman could have filed a complaint and got protection under 66A. After the recent judgment, she might not get sufficient protection under IT Act and IPC. The only solution available to her might be to change her SIM card and her mobile number. Post the Supreme Court verdict to scrap Sec 66A from the IT Act 2000, thousands of complaints from women victims, pending with the police or the courts in such cyber stalking cases may not get remedy", says Ravichandran.
This sudden repeal of Sec 66A has increased the threat to innocent women. All the media houses, political parties and women organisations should start a debate on this issue after understanding the real implication of the repeal, to compel the Government to file a review petition before the full bench.
There is an ancient Indian wise saying. "Let us not burn down the house in order to save it from the bugs". Instead of rejoicing over the 'freedom of expression' gained through this verdict, one should ponder over what would happen if their own sisters, mothers became victims of 'cyber stalkers'. Will they leave it as a freedom of expression given to the 'cyber stalker'?
By K Srinivasan, Editor in Chief, PreSense
source: www.prpoint.com/ezine/presense0315.pdf
News7 Tamil TV interviews Prime Point Srinivasan on Image Audit and Sansad Ratna Awards
Wednesday, March 25, 2015 Interview No comments
News7 Tamil, a popular Tamil TV channel interviewed Prime Point Srinivasan during their breakfast show on 24th March 2015. During the interview, Srinivasan spoke about India Vision, Action 2020, Image Audit, communication needs for youth and Sansad Ratna Awards for Parliamentarians. Please watch this interview in Tamil (18 minutes).
Is Freedom of Expression Absolute?
Friday, February 13, 2015 freedom of expression, Social Media No comments
Case Study 1: Charlie Hebdo
On 7th January 2015, the whole world was shaken by the shocking news of the massacre of 17 journalists and cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo, as well as some innocent people, by a group of Islamic terrorists in Paris. The reason was that in 2011, the magazine had carried some objectionable cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed. It is reported that the magazine had published similar cartoons of icons of other religions, as well.
More than three million people including 40 world leaders participated in a march across France to protest against the killings. Journalists and cartoonists debated about "freedom of expression". There were also counter protest marches in several parts of the world against the magazine, Charlie Hebdo for hurting the sentiments of a religious community.
Case Study 2: A Book in South India
Around the same time in South India, another controversy cropped up. Perumal Murugan, a Tamil writer had published a book, 'Mathorubaagan' in 2010. In the novel, the author wrote about the childless married women of a particular community in a particular town in the state of Tamil Nadu in South India. He narrated how they used to have clandestine relationships with other men during the temple festival day and bear children thereafter. (Although the author had named the community and the town in his book, the same is withheld in this article.)
When the English translation of the book was released in 2014, the particular community raised protests and demanded the withdrawal of the book from the market. Writers and activists ganged up in defence of the author, claiming 'freedom of expression'. The entire town showed their solidarity against the author, by pulling down their shutters for a day in January 2015. Although the author was defended in the social media as well as in seminars held in the cities, none of the activists had the courage to defend the author in that particular town.
The Government formed a peace committee to address the crisis. The author later apologised for the contents and admitted that he did not possess any documentary evidence to support his claim. All his books were withdrawn from the market. In spite of these steps to resolve the situation, the topic was debated on various TV channels and other media, in their attempt to defend their freedom of expression.
How Far Does One's Liberty Extend?
These two incidents have brought the issue of the freedom of expression to the forefront. Can there be an absolute freedom of expression for anyone in the world? There is a saying in English, "Your liberty to swing your fist ends just where my nose begins".
Does the media, the writers or anyone have the right to absolute freedom of expression because they express their views in public domain? Is there or should there be a restriction?
Double Standards of the Media
Very unfortunately, in India, the media exhibit double standards on such sensitive issues. One of the leading newspapers published 'I am Charlie' posters, with a photograph of marchers in Paris protesting against the killing. After printing nearly 50 percent of the newspapers, the editorial board realised that such photos might hurt the sentiments of a section of a community in India. The photograph was withdrawn from the remaining issues of the newspaper. An apology was also published to state "Some copies of XXXX (name of the newspaper withheld) dated January 18, 2015, carried an image of people holding copies of the French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, featuring the cover page with the image, which might have offended a section of our readers. The image was removed mid-way through the print-run. XXXX (name of the paper) regrets and apologises for the inadvertent and accidental use of the image - Editor".
Four days prior to this incident, the same newspaper had concluded their editorial stating, "The rights under the Constitution are designed to protect the freedom of expression of writers like Perumal Murugan who may seek to question uncomfortable truths from the past. It is a pity that a range of forces conspired to silence him".
A few years ago, there was a protest in the media against Salman Rushdie, who wrote some portions in his book that hurt religious sentiments. The same media defended M. F. Hussain, the artist who portrayed a Hindu goddess in what many people regarded as distasteful and disrespectful. They justified it as freedom of expression in art.
'Faith' is always a 'Faith'
Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, etc. are called 'faiths'. Billions of people worship their respective gods or their founders. Such allegiance and belief is built and followed only on faith and it is often difficult to rationalise them scientifically. Any writing, picture or speech which portrays these faiths in poor light is likely to hurt the religious sentiments of these billions of followers. In this scenario, nobody can claim any absolute liberty that risks hurting the feelings of a large number of people. Protesting and defending such actions selectively is also unfair and not in good taste.
The same can be said of the cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo. The Islamic people have the right to decry such cartoons and take suitable legal actions against these publications. Unfortunately, the killing of the cartoonists by the terrorists has diverted the focus from the issue. Charlie Hebdo received the sympathy and support they did not deserve. They cannot claim the publishing of such provocative cartoons as their freedom of expression.
The Indian Constitution and IPC
Article 19(1) of the Indian Constitution provides freedom of speech and expression to all citizens of India. Article 19(2) imposes reasonable restrictions on the same, on grounds of security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency and morality, contempt of court, defamation, incitement to an offence, and sovereignty and integrity of India.
Sections 153A, 153B, and 295-298 of the Indian Penal Code contain the restrictions on the freedom of expression. It also includes the punishment for violation.
Freedom of Expression and Misuse of this Right
We often forget the fine line between freedom and misuse of a right. While freedom of speech gives a person the right to express his opinion, he should not forget his responsibility to respect religious sentiments. The media too should address these issues objectively and fairly. They should not defend or protest selectively. The freedom of any one person should not infringe upon the rights of the society in the name of creativity.
By K. Srinivasan, Editor-in-Chief, PreSense
www.prpoint.com/ezine/presense0115.pdf
Making of emagazine (ezine) - Important tips
Thursday, January 29, 2015 ezine No comments
Prime Point Srinivasan addressing NTPC officials
NTPC, India's biggest power company in public sector organised a workshop for their senior officials drawn from Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad on 'E-Magazine'. NTPC produces more than 43000 MW of power (more than one-fourth of India's power requirement). They are publishing internal emagazines for internal circulation. In order to improve the quality and to professionalise the emagzine, they organised a workshop on 29th Jan 2015 at their Chennai office.
Prime Point Srinivasan, Editor in Chief of ezine PreSense was invited to make a presentation on 'Making of ezine'. Mr T N Ashok, Member of the Editorial Team of PreSense and Mr S Balu (Former Addl Supdt. of Police), expert in Cyber law also joined Srinivasan.
Since the internal emagazines are made by technical people, Srinivasan encouraged them by saying that the technical people were used to 'accuracy and precision', they could do better in communication too. He also the quoted the example of Mr Sridharan, a mechanical engineer and Chief PRO of Southern Railway few years ago. Mr Sridharan was awarded by the then Railway Minister for designing the present railway time table.
Srinivasan walked the audience through various aspects of making of emagazine and also gave important tips.
Mr T N Ashok gave suggestions for improving writing skills. Mr S Balu emphasised the need for complying with the cyber laws.
The programme was organised by Mr Elbert, Dy. GM, Corporate Communication of NTPC, Hyderabad. Shri Bhowmick and Shri R M Radhakrishnan, General Managers of NTPC were present during the entire workshop. Ms Usha, Mr Praveen and Mr Narayanan, Senior officials ensured the logistics.
NTPC plans to organise similar workshops on Communication tools at different centres.
The power point presentation used by Srinivasan can be viewed here.
The photographs taken during the occassion.
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▼ Jul 2015 (1)
Rural based Sembodai RV Engineering College starts...
Dharmapuri MP Dr Anbumani shows the way - Organise...
Cyber Society of India bats for Net Neutrality and...
Retired Police Officers publish ezine to share the...
Supreme Court Ruling on 66A of IT Act – Freedom of...
News7 Tamil TV interviews Prime Point Srinivasan o...
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